Brisbane Roar midfielder Massimo Murdocca has said he’s been overwhelmed with the positive energy amongst the playing group at the moment despite their recent run of results but admits the real challenge is transferring that same feeling into their performances on game day.
Brisbane Roar midfielder Massimo Murdocca has said he-s has been overwhelmed with the positive energy amongst the playing group at the moment despite their recent run of results but admits the real challenge is transferring that same feeling into their performances on game day.
Ahead of Monday-s highly-anticipated Boxing Day clash with local rivals Gold Coast United, Brisbane have failed to take points from any of their past four outings and will be out to avoid setting a new club record of five straight losses.
The last time these two teams met the Roar prevailed 3-0 at Suncorp Stadium but Brisbane are yet to taste victory in the annual Boxing Day fixture having lost 5-1 in the inaugural post-Christmas match-up and sharing the spoils with a 2-2 draw last season.
Local rivalry aside, Murdocca claimed his side needs to maintain the positivity if they want any chance of snapping out of their recent dip in form that has seen them lose their grip on first place on the Hyundai A-League ladder.
“It-s a strange feeling – it-s been a tough couple of weeks but the boys are all still so positive,” he said.
“It-s amazing really, it just shows the character we-ve got in the group.
“But, we-ve got to translate that onto the ground.
“It-s not happening at the moment on the field so if we can transfer this positive energy onto the game on the weekend, I-m sure we can come out with a positive result.”
While the rest of the world is busy preparing for Christmas, the pint-sized midfielder was quick to squash claims that the festive season would pose a distraction to the squad in their preparations for Monday-s clash with Miron Bleiberg-s men at Skilled Park.
The Roar players have training sessions locked in for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and Murdocca said he had no complaints about the schedule.
“We wouldn-t want to have the day off anyway, as players,” he said.
“So we-ll come in, go through a light session with some tactics and we-ll be ready for Boxing Day.
“There-s always temptation with football, whether it-s Christmas or New Year-s Eve or going out on a weekly basis with friends.
“There-s always temptation to do those things but our ultimate goal is football, that-s what we want to do, that-s our life and Christmas Day won-t affect that at all.”
With Head Coach Ange Postecoglou coming under fire for the club-s recent string of defeats for failure to devise a ‘Plan B- to his fixed football approach, Murdocca spoke on behalf of the squad when throwing his support behind his mentor.
“Ange has instilled this philosophy into us and we are totally behind him,” he said.
“We will never jump ship and at the end of the day, we-ve got the power on the pitch to change it if we want to but we-d never do that because we respect him and we respect each other.
“We stick together and stick by our philosophy and that-s the way we-re going to be.”
