Brisbane Roar Head Coach, Ben Cahn fronted the media to preview Sunday’s Unite Round clash against Newcastle Jets at Allianz Stadium.
Cahn, will take charge of his second match as the Roar look to return to winning ways and surge up the Isuzu UTE A-League ladder.
Eleven rounds into the 2023/24 campaign Roar sit ninth, just three points shy of the top six and a point ahead of the tenth placed Jets.
Cahn discussed Sunday’s clash with Newcastle, last week’s game against Sydney FC, the impact of some key contributors in that contest and the progress of several of the club’s injured players.
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On Sunday’s match against Newcastle
“We’re going to Sydney to come back with three points, we’re very hungry, the players are hungry we’ve made no secret amongst ourselves in the group that we want to go there and come back with three points.
We’re in touching distance with the teams at the top, if we can start to put a run together now, we’re confident we’ll be right up there.
It’s been a difficult month to six weeks for the players, these weeks are about progress.
Yes, it’s a game we want to win and we believe we can win and there’s a real urgency in the group to win it, but it’s not a catastrophe and disaster if we don’t.
There’s still plenty of time for us to build what we want to do and bring in some reinforcements and make sure we’re strong to go finish the season.”
On Tom Waddingham
“Tommy’s making good progress, he’ll be a chance for this weekend, he’s done a pretty good week of training with us and he’s really impressed me.
So all things being equal in the next few days he’ll be a chance for this weekend.”
On progress of injured players
“Corey Brown and Anthony Burke-Gilroy have both had a good week of training, both on separate journeys and Burkey might be a chance for the Macarthur game next Thursday.
Corey’s one’s a tricky one, given the time he’s had out, we want to get his recovery and his introduction back into the team right because he’s had a difficult few years so we want to get his body right so when he comes back he’s there for the for the long term.”
On last week’s match against Sydney FC
“The start was a tough one for us and potentially a hangover from the week before.
I think what was important after that week and after the early goal we conceded was that we came out and we showed fight and we made some progress and showed signs of intent and we did that and we were close to getting a point out of the game.
We probably didn’t create enough in the front third but we’ve given ourselves a really good platform to build on.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect because we came in with such a short turnaround and we had such small preparation time.
I think just before we scored the goal, we started to look more comfortable and we started to see some of the progress we made in training and then second half there was a lot of positives to take.
As I said before the front third, we didn’t create enough and that’s something we’ve tried to address this week but there were definitely good signs in how we controlled the build up and how we reduced Sydney’s threat as well.”
On impact of Florin Berenguer and Nikola Mileusnic
“They’re crucial, Florin had a difficult period out with injury and he came back in for his first start against Sydney. He did really well, lasted 60 minutes, so still another few levels of conditioning that he can go up but he’s been really good in training, he was great in that game.
You saw with Nikola that his work ethic was so important for us and then he came up with the goal that got us back into the game, he’s essential for us to do well.”
MATCH DETAILS
Isuzu UTE A-League Men 2023/24 – Unite Round: Brisbane Roar v Newcastle Jets
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Sunday, 14 January (6:45pm AEST KO)
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