In a conscious bid to push all his players to the same level of fitness, Brisbane Roar Head Coach Rado Vidosic has opted for two separate squad groups for their upcoming pre-season matches, starting with Ipswich Invitational on Sunday afternoon.
In a conscious bid to push all his players to the same level of fitness, Brisbane Roar Head Coach Rado Vidosic has opted for two separate squad groups for their upcoming pre-season matches, starting with Ipswich Invitational on Sunday afternoon.
Vidosic, alongside conditioning coach Ken Stead and assistant coach Jeff Hopkins, has carefully devised the plan to ensure all of his players are capable of handling a full-length game at this stage in the pre-season.
Each player endured a 45-minute stint against Brisbane Olympic in the first pre-season game and in last Sunday-s intra-club match, they played two 30-minute halves as part of their build-up.
“The reason we are doing this is because we want to give each of our players 90 minutes and if we played one big group, we wouldn-t be able to do that,” Vidosic said.
“The ones that aren-t playing on Sunday will train on Sunday morning and will play on Thursday.
“The ones that are playing on Sunday, they-ll train on Thursday.
“We-ll do this for our next four games so that we can have our players having full 90 minute games.”
Vidosic admitted making the decisions on which players fell in which group was difficult, with a number of different factors considered in the process.
With his squad numbers sitting at just 20, each group will contain a number of the club-s National Youth League players as well.
“When deciding on these two groups, we had to look at a number of things,” he said.
“We had to look at who could play and for how long and considered that those who will play on Thursday will have a couple more training sessions under their belt before then.
“It wasn-t entirely easy, there was a lot of preparation that went into the decision-making and even just before, we were scratching out names and adding new ones in!”
But from a tactical perspective, both groups will be concentrating on the same thing, according to Vidosic.
With a plethora of talented midfielders in his squad, the Roar coach will place emphasis on their roles in Sunday-s match in Ipswich and next Thursday game against Peninsula.
“From a tactical point of view, we are now looking at the middle third,” Vidosic said.
“We are looking at how to bring the ball into the midfield and how we can distribute the ball from the midfield into the final third.
“That will be our focus for the next two games.”
Injured players Mitch Nichols, James Meyer, Thomas Broich and Do Dong-Hyun will not be risked while Ben Halloran will play but will be closely watched after sustaining a minor injury last Sunday.
Match details
Brisbane Roar vs Ipswich Invitational
North Ipswich Reserve, The Terrace, North Ipswich
3pm kick-off, gates open at 12 noon
Player signing session from 12.45-1.45pm
Admission: $5 adults, children under 16 free
For the kids: Roary, Rosie and Pauls Rapid Fire Fields from 12.15pm
