Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar is optimistic his team’s improving defensive work against set pieces will stand up against Perth Glory’s experienced line-up at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night.
The Reds conceded two goals from corners in their final warm-up game against Melbourne Victory in Launceston late last month and since then have been trying to tighten up their structure down back.
Vidmar said the Victory game had highlighted some obvious areas to work on and added defending against the Glory would be just as tough.
“I’m happy that it happened on July 26 and not August 7. We changed up our structure in the set pieces and we copped two goals from that. We’ve fixed that up and we are going to go back to what we normally do,” he said.
“Everyone has a role to play and a job to do when there are corners against us.”
“That’s probably going to be one of their (Perth’s) strengths as well with both Coynes and Todd, Sikora, Dadi if he plays, it’s certainly a massive strength for them.”
Vidmar said Perth’s new-look team would be hard to beat across the park and would have a point to prove after a few disappointing seasons.
“It’s certainly going to be a challenge. They’ve certainly strengthened their squad,” he said.
“We’ve always had it tough against Perth whether it’s here or over there, we know what their strengths are going to be but going into the first round you are going into a little bit of the unknown.”
“They’ve been in a position where they haven’t been too successful over four years, they really needed to make a move and I certainly feel with the squad that they’ve got they are certainly capable of getting into the top three or four without question.”
But while Perth is set to be the big improver this year, Adelaide is keen to maintain its standing as a frontrunner in the Hyundai A-League.
Vidmar said the side had added a different bow to its attacking game.
“I think we’ve been working quite hard over the course of the preseason to have this really dynamic game in terms of when we win the ball we can breakaway quickly and we are not there yet but certainly that’s going to be a strength this year,” he said.
