Brisbane coach Ange Postecoglou says now’s not the time to thumb his nose at critics who questioned his competence upon taking over the A-League club last year.
After 12 months to the day in the job, the Roar are sailing along in second spot on the ladder behind Adelaide ahead of their home meeting with Newcastle on Saturday night, giving Postecoglou every reason to feel vindicated.
The coach took over mid-season from the sacked Frank Farina whose departure was followed by that of former Socceroos skipper and club captain Craig Moore and other senior players Liam Reddy, Danny Tiatto and Charlie Miller.
Postecoglou said people were entitled to their opinions about initial poor results that had them finishing second last.
“It’s not about I told you so,” he said on Friday.
“People had every right to have criticised me last year because the results on the park didn’t reflect the decisions we were making, we had a poor year.
“I didn’t expect everyone to say, he’s doing a great job when the evidence wasn’t there.
“We’re slowing turning things around and hopefully people will see as the year pans out that those decisions were the right ones.”
Despite their flawless record at Suncorp Stadium this season and Newcastle’s lowly ladder position, Postecoglou is wary of the Jets, who have been recently buoyed by the cash injection of new owner Nathan Tinkler and the contract extension of coach Branko Culina.
Newcastle also boast an impressive record in Brisbane, winning six of the eight matches played between the sides there.
“They’ve obviously had an interesting start to their year but they’ve really consolidated their position off the field and that will help their players be a bit more comfortable on the field,” Postecoglou said.
“We’re expecting a tough one.”
The match is the start of three-game run over eight days, the Roar also hosting Central Coast on Wednesday night followed by Melbourne Victory on Saturday week.
But Postecoglou said he wouldn’t consider rotating players.
“If we start looking at it as a three-game project, it might take the focus away from the fact that the most important game is the next one coming,” he said.
“We’ll go as hard as we can (against the Jets), and then we’ll reassess after that.”
Trailing Adelaide by six points and with a game in hand, it is an opportunity to close the gap on the league leaders.
“It’s definitely a great opportunity for us, we’ve got all three at home which means we don’t travel … but we’re going to meet three pretty fresh sides.
“It will test our depth but that’s something we’ve been working on since day one, the quality of the squad, and we’re confident we can handle it.”
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