Central Coast coach Graham Arnold will ride out the odd setback and continue to invest in youth after the Mariners’ ‘kids’ helped pushed the club up into third spot on the A-League table over the weekend.
Central Coast’s 5-0 rout of Perth Glory at the SFS on Saturday night – the biggest in the club’s history – was orchestrated by a bunch of players still packing their Clearasil alongside the shinpads.
Michael McGlinchey (23), Matthew Lewis (20), Mustafa Amini (17), Royston Griffiths (22) and Oliver Bozanic (21) were simply outstanding against a clueless Glory side.
With a bunch of hard heads supporting ‘Arnie’s Adolescents’, the Mariners have a real premiership look about them 12 rounds into the competition.
“The young boys are doing great around the experienced guys,” Arnold enthused.
“I am not afraid to throw young kids in.”
“Give the kids a go. How do we know what the kids can do until we give them a go?”
“They are not going to get it right everytime but they are growing in confidence with each game.”
The youngsters’ inclination to attack suits the European style Arnold has been trying to implement in his first season in charge.
Criticised for being dour over the opening rounds, the Mariners boss pointed out a change in footballing philosophy takes time to bed down.
“That’s a perception of the fans and media,” Arnold said in response to criticism his side is boring to watch.
“We knew there would be some inconsistent performances with the ball because we were changing the style.”
“There’s a long way to go but we’re getting there.”
“I think we sent out a statement a while ago.”
“We played very against Melbourne Heart at Bluetongue… Melbourne Victory we played very well, North Queensland (we played well).”
“They (the players) just want to work; they just want to play football.”
“The confidence is growing.”
Skipper Alex Wilkinson, a cool-headed presence at the back for the Mariners, has no doubt the record win over Glory will hold his side in good stead heading into a frenetic period of matches.
“I think it’s probably one of the most complete performances we’ve had,” he said.
“We’ve played well in patches this year but we’ve lacked consistency to play for 90 minutes and we did that.”
“That’s going to give us a lot of confidence going forward.”
