Coach Miron Bleiberg will wield the axe while his assistant Paul Okon attacked poor attitudes as an “embarrassed” Gold Coast assessed the wreckage from their record A-League defeat.
The competition’s self-confessed glamour club and one-time high-flyers must pick up the pieces after crashing to earth with a disastrous 6-0 thumping in Wellington.
After convincingly winning their first three matches to back up billionaire owner Clive Palmer’s boast United would be crowned undefeated premiers in their inaugural season, the Coast are facing a major test of their character.
The Phoenix exposed a lack of spirit after the outplayed visitors conceded their second goal just after halftime when reserve goalkeeper Scott Higgins replaced the injured Jess Vanstrattan.
It was followed by three more in the next 10 minutes.
“They gave us a lesson in attitude yesterday, that if we don’t turn up with the right spirit or the right frame of mind similar results will happen,” former Socceroos captain Okon said.
Bleiberg called off a “torturous” video review session to prevent sapping an already low confidence, but did warn he needed to mete out some punishment.
“We have to make changes,” he said. “We have to make changes first of all because we were not good enough, second because they were forced by injury and, three, you have to show people that you lost 6-0 and it’s not just `life goes on and you turn up for the next game’.
“You have to shake the system a bit. It doesn’t mean the changes will be forever. I still believe we have a good team and we will challenge for everything available.
“But when it’s unacceptable we have to get punished.
“We have to lift our game.”
Both Vanstrattan (back) and Kristian Rees (hamstring) are unlikely to be fit to take on North Queensland at Skilled Park on Saturday night.
An angry Bleiberg told his players to look at themselves first and foremost after the whitewash.
“It’s not the end of the world,” he said. “We lost three points. If we had lost six times 1-0 it would be worse.
“I told them not to blame anybody, to look in the mirror first: Just shut up and keep quiet and be embarrassed, that’s all, and just think about the next game.
“Watch the video at home and erase this game from the memory.”
Central defender Bas van den Brink has been a shining light in United’s outfit this season but was among those who had a game they would rather forget.
The Dutchman didn’t see the heavy defeat coming and called for Bleiberg to show faith in the starting XI and give them a chance to atone.
“It was a horrible loss,” Van den Brink said. “We weren’t underestimating Phoenix but this can’t be happening in our team.
“We made a lot of mistakes and they did a great job and worked hard.
“They deserved it and we didn’t deserve it. Six-nil, it hurts.
“It was one of these game where everything went wrong.
“We just have to be positive and make the best of it and not let our heads hang down. We have to stand up, work hard and that’s the only way. I’m confident.”
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
They are also doing pretty well considering two of their first choice back 4 are injured for the remainder of the season and another is out injured too. It's just the way the salary cap works in that it means you end up with a few cheap players to make up the numbers and some of them come good and some of them don't There is a lot to like about the Fury. Their small now but you feel theya re going in the right direction and if they survive the first few years cash flow wise then they should be a solid club. Gold Coast.... hard to tell wether they will be gone in 20 weeks or still here in 20 years.
Anthony Begbie
Roar Rookie
The fury have actually built one of the better squads in the league. Which is surprising given they looked to be shockers before the season started. Players such as Tadross and Griffiths have turned out to be very good aquisitions. Whilst Williams, Fowler, Daal and Mcbreen is a very good strike quartet. What the the fury have which Gold Coast United dont, is team unity and a whole lot of heart. Gold Coast looked to build a club which all the football outside of their own territory would love to hate. The main problem has been even their own public dont seem to like them either.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
I think Ifil from Wellington was quoted as saying something approximate to "players on the same team ranging from confrence class to priemership class" Fury are a pretty good example fo that. There is a big difference between their best player Fowler and their worst player.
Anthony Begbie
Guest
The Gold Coast are a very interesting team. In terms of the squad they have undoubtly some of the best talent in the league (Van Stratten, Culina, Porter, Smeltz). But they also have a number of players playing regularily who would give opposing teams confidence (Rees, Higgins, Pantelidis, Osman & Thwaite). One thing evident of Bleiberg's past coaching in the A-league is that his teams have been inconsistent and have the abiltiy to self destruct. There are teams in this league who rely on brilliance and spark (Gold Coast, Melbourne) and there are teams who rely on structure and organisation (Sydney & Central Coast). As a Melbourne supporter i'm glad with how things are proceeding and would always fancy our chances against a Bleiberg coached team. A Gold Coast squad with Lavicka style organisation would be a very hard team to beat.