The Roar
The Roar

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New Roar striker embraces responsibility

24th March, 2015
18

A huge weight of responsibility has just fallen onto the shoulders of Brisbane striker Andrija Kaluderovic – but you wouldn’t know it.

The Serbian striker is yet to fully settle into life as an A-League player, but he will be tasked with leading a youthful attacking line-up for the Roar in their critical clash with Western Sydney on Wednesday night at Suncorp Stadium.

In the indefinite absence of star men, Thomas Broich (ankle) and Henrique (knee), the Roar need Kaluderovic to begin hitting the back of the net with regularity or risk seeing their A-League top six and AFC Champions League round-of-16 dreams slip further and further away.

Whatever pressure that is, Kaluderovic isn’t feeling it.

“It’s not a problem for me,” a non-plussed Kaluderovic said on Tuesday.

“In my career always, I score goals.

“You see on Sunday, the first game I start at home I score, and I hope I will score more in the future.

“I lead the attack at every club I play – that’s nothing new for me.”

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With a career goalscoring record approaching one goal every two games, there’s plenty of reason to believe he can get the job done against the wooden spooners-elect.

But Kaluderovic, who has scored three goals in eight Roar appearances, admitted it had been tough adapting to the rough and tumble of the A-League after his mid-season injection into the squad.

“It’s not easy,” he said.

“You come into a new country with new players and I’m here now only two months.

“I need to see how my teammates play; they need to see how I play – it takes time to be excellent.”

The Roar and the Wanderers are likely to field unrecognisable line-ups on Wednesday, with a whopping 19 players from both sides unavailable due to injury or international duty.

On top of Broich and Henrique, Brisbane will be missing Michael Theo (groin), Jade North (groin), and Corey Brown, Matt McKay, James Donachie and Luke DeVere (all international duty).

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But they won’t get any sympathy from Western Sydney coach Tony Popovic, who has no choice but to again turn to youth players after fielding one of the youngest sides in A-League history on the weekend.

“They’ve got a difficult period now in terms of the games they’re playing. They’re feeling now what we’ve felt all year,” Popovic said.

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