Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau is either unbelievably honest or he’s having us on.
All season, Gombau maintains the A-League title isn’t his main aim. Now, he’s saying the Reds can’t get any better this season.
On the eve of Friday night’s crucial fixture against Sydney FC, Gombau was asked how much more can the Reds improve this season: “Nothing,” he replied.
“We stopped all the process of learning, new knowledge,” the Spaniard told reporters in Adelaide.
“We will keep with what we’re doing. And this will be until the end because these last games … (the aim) is to be competitive more than to learn more.”
But Gombau still believed the Reds were ready for a finals campaign – if they can beat Sydney FC at Adelaide’s Coopers Stadium.
“If we want to be in the finals, we need to win these two games that we play at home and try and get something away,” he said.
Sixth-placed Adelaide are just one point shy of the fifth-placed Sky Blues on the ladder, with four games remaining before the finals.
Adelaide’s dynamic winger Fabio Ferreira has been declared fit to play, despite suffering concussion in last weekend’s scoreless draw with Western Sydney, and zippy Michael Zullo will return to the starting line-up after coming from the bench last week.
Sydney trump card Alessandro Del Piero, sidelined by a hamstring strain for last week’s 1-1 draw with pacesetters Brisbane, will travel to Adelaide with a decision on if he plays made on Friday.
Sydney coach Frank Farina believed his side were better prepared to meet Adelaide because of last week’s match against the similarly-styled Brisbane.
“It’s probably an advantage, having played arguably the best side in the comp and now coming up against a team who tries to play similar,” Farina told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
“They’re similar to Brisbane. They’re very mobile in the midfield and up front they’ve got pace with some genuine goal scorers, so it’s a similar threat.”
Sydney defender Sasa Ognenovski was also wary of an Adelaide attack which boasts three players in the league’s top 10 scorers for the season – Jeronimo, Sergio and Ferreira – and the sublime skills of Marcelo Carrusca.
“Containing their front four is the biggest challenge,” Ognenovski told reporters in Sydney.
“They’re mobility can drag you out of possession but we’ve just got to maintain our shape.
“That’s the main thing with Adelaide. Once you start getting pulled out of position, they’ll start to try and find the gaps.”
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Jeronimo. That's the position Adelaide have the greatest cover.
MattQ
Guest
Isais from that list I'm affraid
Franko
Guest
I'd be against reducing the quota, it is a good system where you can have 5 but only 4 for ACL. Forces clubs to really assess the need to have 5 but doesn't force their hand. If AU had to drop one of Jeronimo, Isais, Cirio, Ferreira or Carrusca it would be a big problem. These are probably the 5 best players at the club.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
ACL sides are limited to 4 overseas players, with a limited of 3 players from outside of the AFC member federations (3+1 rule). When we play in the ACL most A-League clubs are forced to leave one or two of their 5 overseas players out of their squads.
Berash
Guest
Good employees and businessmen will always keep good records of agreements. It is because that once the personnel has change then it is hard to trace back. As for this cutting back of overseas players, the Roar's owner has already raised objection, saying that it was agreed to maintain the overseas players level when the owner bought the club. Probably, the change of CEO has made some confusions. Apart from the agreement, the rationale is to be right too. Despite Frank Farina questioned the availability of good enough players during the expansion of the a league from 8 clubs to 10, Roars seemingly could keep bring up young players early in this season. Is it really that the Roar, or the A-league can keeping producing some very potential talents who can be polished to make the A-league better? It is difficult to say. On the other hand, if the involvement in the ACL is very important, then the number of overseas player should not be reduced. Take a look on the very elegant and rich teams in China, Korea, Japan and Middle East. They spend much more. With the current overseas quota, Australian clubs seldom could make an impact on the ACL, AU's short shines. Talking about the ambition to make an impact on the ACL, it is better to raise the number of overseas players than lower. However, there is a way to keep the current number at 5 while increasing the power of the squad. This is to change from 1 overseas marquee player system to 2. That is to say among the 5 overseas players, 2 are not regulated by the salary cap.
Franko
Guest
Ah Josep, what a guy. Since he has started going for results over 'the project' we've struggled for points!!!! Should be a cracking game tonight, hopefully 15k at Hindmarsh.