Brisbane Roar Head Coach Warren Moon says captain Tom Aldred and new signing Ryo Wada are making positive progress towards their first appearances of the Isuzu UTE A-League season as Friday’s home clash with Melbourne Victory looms large.
Aldred played 45 minutes for the Brisbane Roar Youth side in an NPL pe-season win over Peninsula Power on Saturday night while Japanese attacker Wada completed an hour.
Their potential availability will be determined as the week progresses as the Roar look ahead to a tussle with Tony Popovic’s team.
“I feel we need our captain back. We need a fresh injection of some quality just to give us a boost,” Moon said after Sunday’s game against Perth Glory.
“We hope Tom isn’t far away. Ryo Wada got through 60 minutes back in Brisbane. The positive about bringing Luke [Ivanović] in was he got through 30 minutes, which is good.
“But we need our key players fit and on the park for significant minutes.
“We’ve unfortunately lost Nikola Mileusnić for a couple of weeks now and Alex Parsons is sidelined through injury. Connor Chapman might be a couple of weeks yet.”
Lapses at both ends of the pitch proved costly over the weekend as Perth striker Bruno Fornaroli proved the difference with a decisive double.
Moon says Brisbane must raise their level across the board and not reduce last week’s away losses to simple travel issues.
“This problem isn’t about home and away,” the Head Coach said.
“This problem is about us as a group, and how we need to improve moving forward and cut out the silly mistakes that have pretty much been there from Round 1.
“In no way, shape or form was that good enough. We have to be better as a collective.
“Right now we’re struggling to find that consistency.
“We’re in games, we’re finding good spells of football, passages of dominance, but we can’t put it together for 90 minutes, and we deserve to be where we are on the table because of that.”
NEXT GAME
Isuzu UTE A-League
Brisbane Roar v Melbourne Victory
Friday, 25 February 2022
Moreton Daily Stadium
KO: 6:55pm
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