Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou has said his side’s defensive duties will be just as important as their well-documented attacking prowess when facing up against Adelaide United tomorrow night at Suncorp Stadium.
Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou has said his side-s defensive duties will be just as important as their well-documented attacking prowess when facing up against Adelaide United tomorrow night at Suncorp Stadium.
Adelaide have netted just twice in their opening three fixtures with just three points to show for their efforts but their strike power should not be underestimated with their starting eleven featuring the likes of former Roar attacking weapons Sergio van Dijk and Dario Vidosic.
While Brisbane are the only team in the competition yet to concede a goal this season, Postecoglou believed his players- hard work protecting their goal was often overlooked.
“Both are equally as good but I think often our attacking play gets highlighted and our defensive work doesn-t,” he said.
“We work really hard as a team defensively to deny the opposition and it-s not just denying goals but last year, I think we had the least amount of shots on target against us in the league.
“Some of that came from our dominance in an attacking sense but it also comes down to the fact we work really hard defensively.
“We don-t carry any passengers in the team and we also have I think the best goalkeeper in the country.”
Postecoglou did, however, predict a strong battle from United having lost 3-0 to Rini Coolen-s men in a pre-season fixture in September.
“I think everyone had them as favourites at the start of the season,” the former South Melbourne man said.
“They-re a good side … but they-re finding their feet with a lot of new players.
“It-s a pretty tight comp, even though they-ve had a couple of losses, it could-ve gone the other way.
“Especially early on in the year, when there is a fight for points, you can find yourself behind the eight ball pretty quickly but you can also make up that ground pretty quickly so we-re expecting a tough one tomorrow night.”
The Roar camp welcomed back Michael Theoklitos, Matt Smith, Ivan Franjic, Erik Paartalu, Luke Brattan and Mitch Nichols to training this morning after the six players spent a two day stint in Sydney earlier this week as part of a Qantas Socceroos training camp.
Despite only training once with the squad before tomorrow night-s round four fixture, Postecoglou didn-t see it as a interruption to his training program.
“I think if anything, the players come back feeling a little bit better about themselves,” he said.
“I-m sure they all want to push for national team selection at some point.
“It was early in the week so it didn-t really disrupt our preparation for the game.”
Brisbane Roar squad: 1. Michael Theoklitos (gk), 2. Matt Smith (C), 3. Shane Stefanutto, 4. Matt Jurman, 5. Ivan Franjic, 6. Erik Paaratlu, 7. Besart Berisha, 8. Massimo Murdocca, 9. Kofi Danning, 10. Henrique, 11. Issey Nakajima-Farran, 16. Mohamed Adnan, 17. Mitch Nichols, 19. Jack Hingert, 20. Andrew Redmayne (gk), 21. James Meyer, 22. Thomas Broich
*Two To Be Omitted*
In: James Meyer (Promoted), Jack Hingert (Promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: 12. Matt Mundy (Knee Injury – 1 Weeks), 14. Rocky Visconte (Hamstring Strain – 1 Weeks)
Adelaide United squad: 1.Eugene Galekovic (Gk), 2.Osama Malik, 3.Nigel Boogaard, 4.Jon Mckain, 5.Daniel Mullen, 6.Cassio, 7.Zenon Caravella, 8.Evgeniy Levchenko, 9.Sergio Van Dijk, 10.Dario Vidosic, 14.Cameron Watson, 16.Spase Dilevski, 17.Iain Ramsay, 20.Mark Birighitti (Gk), 21.Francisco Usucar, 22.Milan Susak, 23.Andy Slory
*two to be omitted*
In: Evgeniy Levchenko (Returns From Injury), Nigel Boogaard (Returns From Injury)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Bruce Djite (Groin – 1-2 Weeks)
