Moments after turning off the recorders and cameras on Friday, Aurelio Vidmar said the new thing he’d been working on to try and find that elusive winning formula was actually nothing.
There wasn’t really a new approach to try and “change the culture, change mentality, change the whole thinking behind our club,” it was just a bit of a media wind up he said.
Maybe it was, because on the evidence of last night’s bore draw in Canberra, there was really nothing new or different about United’s performance.
Yes there was a clean sheet, the first in five matches, but in terms of chances created, there was much less than there has been in other games this season, and two of the four shots on target happened in second half injury time.
Incredibly after 13 rounds of the seasons, Adelaide sits just one point shy of fourth position, but that says more about the inconsistency of the league than the Reds doing anything particularly well.
Once again, their transition from defence was too slow, and despite the need for three points, Vidmar didn’t go to the bench until the 72nd minute.
Why leave it so late?
Also, why was Fabian Barbiero not included from the start?
Sure he was suspended against Melbourne, but given the performance was largely a poor one, then why not try and change things around?
In some ways it was a double punishment for Barbiero and it’s hard to imagine him not being disappointed by this.
Including a player that can so obviously tick a number of boxes in an attacking sense makes sense, but instead the team labored for 71 minutes before he got a chance, and in truth probably had Eugene Galekovic to thank for earning them a point.
As we have seen with Adelaide, they just don’t come from behind, (the last time was more than a year ago) and had Matt Simon and Adam Kwasnik not tried to be too clever in the 74th minute, then that’s exactly what United would have had to do.
United couldn’t even capitalise on Matthew Crowell’s unfortunate second yellow which gave them ten minutes to try and nab the three points.
The frustrating thing is that in patches Adelaide can play good football, but for whatever reason it’s not happening this season.
Vidmar has talked about a need for leadership but he has born leaders on the field.
So if he’s in the mood to try and shake things up, why not hand the captain’s armband to one of them and see what happens?
As long as things are explained to the players beforehand, then surely they are big enough to accept it and put the team first.
I’ve seen the manager at my club in England, Leeds, hand the captaincy to a player signed on-loan because of his leadership skills.
Results improved dramatically.
No disrespect to Travis Dodd, you won’t meet a nicer bloke, but maybe he’ll benefit from not having the responsibility of captaincy and instead can focus on developing some consistency and real potency in his own game.
Aurelio Vidmar has always struck me as straight-shooter, but when you consider the situation last week when in the absence of Dodd, Galekovic was handed the armband instead of Pantelis, maybe he just can’t make this particular decision with the captaincy.
Galekovic may well be a good option as captain, but it’s believed the team weren’t told about it beforehand, and if that’s the case then it’s understandable why some may have been disappointed by this and the on-field performance reflected that.
Either way, Brisbane is now the focus on Friday at Hindmarsh, a MUST win game, maybe not in terms of league position but simply for confidence and momentum.
Adelaide has four of its next six matches at home, with a faltering Gold Coast and the inconsistent Jets separated by a trip to Townsville, before the Phoenix fly-in on December 18.
Twelve points from those matches is entirely feasible, but unless Vidmar can get Reid fit and work out his best 11, then it’s hard to imagine things going that smoothly.
Adelaide does have a deep squad but I often wonder what Vidmar thinks his best 11 is?
Could it possibly be: Galekovic, Mullen, Rudan, Fyfe, Jamieson, Reid, Cassio, Dodd, Barbiero, Cristiano, Owusu?
Bench: Birighitti, Cornthwaite, Leckie, Alemao.
Tags: a-league, adelaide united, Central Coast, Fabian Barbiero, football, john thompson-mills, Mariners, soccer