Posts Tagged ‘aurelio’

Where to from here then?

Friday, December 18th, 2009

So after watching Adelaide United fail yet again to win at home, are their chances of play-off action finally over?

Mathematically with such a small spread of points between the bottom six sides of course not, but looking at the draw then you’d have to say it’s unlikely.

Two away games are next on the calendar, against Sydney & Gold Coast, then it’s consecutive home games against Central Coast and Perth.

Melbourne and Wellington follow in two (at this point in time) impossible looking away trips, before the final home game against the Roar and a season ending trip to Newcastle.

Ignoring the fact that United has the worst away record in the league, they have only once won in Sydney, are yet to play on the Gold Coast, have no idea how to beat the Victory, but generally do well in New Zealand where the Reds are yet to lose to the Phoenix.

Adelaide does have a decent record at home to the Mariners and Perth, and despite two home defeats to Brisbane, generally gets results against the Roar.

That leaves a trip to Newcastle where United has had mixed results, but has not won there since season one of the A-League.

So based on those stats, United could quite possibly:

Lose to Sydney, lose to the Gold Coast, beat the Mariners and Perth, lose to Melbourne, draw with the ‘Nix, defeat Brisbane and draw with the Jets.

Tally up the points from those eight games and the total reaches 11, and add that to what the Reds have now and the magic number is 32.

Melbourne has already surpassed that and Sydney needs another point, with Gold Coast five points shy.

The club currently in 6th is Perth with 23 from 18 games played and aside from the game in Adelaide the Glory’s run home reads:

Gold Coast (a),  Jets (h) , Sydney (h), Victory (a), then Adelaide,  Wellington (h), Mariners (h), Sydney (a) and Brisbane (h).

It’s not an easy draw but wins at home to the Jets, Wellington and Brisbane are definitely good bets, and that would give them 32 points.

The Mariners 5th (24 points) should also rack up another eight points against:

Bris (h),  Sydney (a),  Wellington (h), North Queensland (h), Adel  (a), Gold Coast (h), Perth (a) and Jets (h).

And just to be sure, the Jets (4th, 25 points) have these remaining nine games to contemplate.

Fury (h),  Perth (a), Victory (h), Gold Coast (a), Bris (a), Sydney (h), Fury (a), Mariners (a), Adelaide (h), Wellington (a).

To be sure this is a tough run, so the game against Adelaide looks key, but with two matches against the Fury confidence must be high that the Jets can also surpass 32 points.

Of course, Adelaide could go on a massive run and rack up more than 11 points in their remaining eight games, but after the draw against the ‘Nix, it’s hard to see it happening.

There was, as per usual, plenty of endeavour but no real end product, and if Matthew Leckie’s dicky knee really flares up then it that might just be the end of the road for the Reds.

Aurelio Vidmar looks like he has some major work to do before the ACL starts in February.

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It is a big hole

Friday, December 4th, 2009

 

“It’s a big hole…can we get out of it from here, I think we can.

“There’s some soul searching, there’s some questions that need to be asked.

“Some honest answers need to be forthcoming if we are to get out of it.

So what are the questions Phil Stubbins was referring to at the press conference after another dismal Adelaide United performance?

Well given how many times Adelaide has been in this situation this season, presumably a lot of questions have already been asked.

Either way, Stubbins response was that there’s a lot of them, a  lot of cutting questions, but he couldn’t provide any more light into what the questions are

Stubbins also refused to get too negative about player’s performances believing negativity regarding individual performances will only result in more negativity.

Travis Dodd suggested one question everyone should ask themselves is whether they wanted to be at Adelaide, because if they do its imperative to stick together and not start blaming each other for the shocking series of results.

And while the coaches and players continue to insist that the mood remains positive, it certainly doesn’t look like that on the pitch after a fourth 0-2 home loss this season.

Sure, players are down on confidence and couldn’t/didn’t take the opportunities they had in the first half.

And then they succumbed to a sucker punch with a goal in first half stoppage time, which Stubbins said they never really recovered from.

The crowd isn’t receovering too with just 8500 rolling up and many left as soon as Song put his 79th minute penalty into the net.

So where to now?

Well it’s Brisbane next where another team close to United will have a chance to put some daylight between themselves and Adelaide.

There was a suggestion to try and do something a bit different in the build-up, something out of left-field to try and break the routine, but after so much talking and no real change in results, what left is there to try?

Perhaps a stop at a pharmacy might be in order for a few shots of passion and commitment because judging by how some player’s played tonight, that’s what’s needed.

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The new line in the sand

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

There have been a lot of things said by Aurelio Vidmar and his team about Adelaide United’s worrying form slump.

In hindsight most of it has sounded fairly empty and shallow simply because the results have continued to deteriorate.

But maybe this week things have changed, because finally, perhaps, the penny has dropped.

Twelve months ago Adelaide United was top of the A-League, and about to play in the Club World Cup.

Now as anyone can see, the Reds are bottom, a massive 13 points behind league leaders and arch rivals Melbourne Victory.

Reds supporters can only hope this is the jolt the club needs to resurrect a campaign that while disappointing and frustrating, certainly isn’t beyond salvaging.

And without doubt the signs are encouraging….well the verbal signs are that is.

Following the shocking performance in Townsville, Mark Rudan became the first player to speak out in really angry terms about United’s historically low position.

An “embarrassed” Aurelio Vidmar apologised for the team’s form and accepted full responsibility for the fall to the bottom of the table, admitting;

“I’ve made some mistakes.

What I’ve done has been in the best interests of the club and the team and sometimes I get things right and sometimes I don’t.

“Fortunately I still have to make decisions and sometimes they one way and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

“That’s how it is at the moment.

And the hugely popular Cassio, shared his pain but pleaded for the fans to keep the faith, and gave a 100% guarantee the team would turn the season around.

“Everyone knows we have not been good enough.

“We have to keep playing, keep training well like we did this week, and if we do that I tell you 100%, the results will come.

“I ask the fans to keep trusting us because we can turn the season around.

“I give you my word, we have good quality players here.

“What’s happened has happened.

“The season starts now for us against Newcastle.

So how are they going to change things around?

Well for one there will be changes in personnel.

 If the Blue bibs at training today are any guide then Hughes, Leckie, Pantelis and Alemao will not be starting against the Jets, but Reid, Barbiero, Jamieson and Cristiano will be.

Vidmar also hinted at positional changes.

So perhaps Cassio will revert to midfield, well he actually admitted it at the press conference, and Cristiano will lead the line.

 Assuming Leckie doesn’t play that will surely be in partnership with Dodd, even if the captain is better suited to midfield.

It’s hard to imagine Vidmar will revert to his preferred one up front formation when the team so desperately needs to score goals.

And then it’s down simply down to attitude, to not lose a single contest in any part of the pitch.

It’s about staying positive and as Vidmar said “not fracturing.”

Here at least Vidmar wants to lead from the front, suggesting he is not worried about his job security, only the job at hand.

And it would seem, quitting is not on his agenda either.

“When you sign on the dotted line it comes with the territory all these sort of things.

“Every coach and player will go through some tough times and some great times and this is just part of it.

“Mentally it’s hard but as a player I never threw in the towel, and I’m not going to give up.

“I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me, and I know the players still got a lot of fight left in them.

“We’re gonna fight, fight and fight until we get out of this.

As Vidmar also said, this is a like cup final for Adelaide, and as expectations have been raised with the success the team has enjoyed over the past five years, it’s now about how everyone “handles the situation.

Most importantly though, playing the Jets is about one thing, three points.

 And while it’s been encouraging to hear a little more anger and desperation this week, it will mean nothing if Adelaide fails to win.

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It was the same old story

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

 

You can’t argue with the numbers.

Nineteen shots on goal to four, six shots on target to two, 40 (yes 40) penalty box entries to 20 and 12 corners to five.

Throw in 62% possession in the first half which included 68% in the opposition half, and playing for an hour against 10 men and you could be forgiven thinking that one team thrashed another in a game of football.

But think that and you’d be wrong because it was the same old story for Adelaide United.

So much possession, so many shots, so little reward.

A point was better than nothing and there’s no way Adelaide deserved to lose, but they also could not afford to not win.

Two more points dropped and despite changing the team around, you have to ask is Aurelio Vidmar any closer to knowing what his best 11 is?

Leckie and Dodd aided by the recalled Cassio, Pantelis and Sarkies caused massive problems for Gold Coast in the high intensity first half.

But by their own admission United knew they couldn’t play like that for the entire 90 minutes and so there must have been some disappointment that the first half was scoreless especially with the Coast down to ten men from the 34th minute.

More about that later.

Predictably Adelaide lost its way a little after half time and sure enough conceded a  goal.

Credit to them that they didn’t give up, but for how long can they rely on a 19 year old to save them?

For how long can Lloyd Owusu be kept in the Youth League?

And for how long can Vidmar say he is satisfied with a performance  when once again his team has not put a score on the score-board that the statistics suggest they should have done?

No pressure, Vimdar says, insisting it goes with the turf when results are not going their way.

And it’s clear, the rub of the green does not favour Adelaide at the moment.

Those lose balls you see pinging around in the penalty area are not falling kindly for Adelaide, and opposition players are not being sent off when they could easily be seeing red.

You could argue that the Kristian Rees was unlucky to be sent off as he did get a foot on the ball, but if that offence warranted a red card then how come debutant Zac Anderson didn’t follow him down the tunnel?
You could day referee Chris Beath got it wrong on both counts.

Either way Adelaide couldn’t capitalise and needed an injury time goal to rescue a point.

And disturbingly you could see times when the players did not know where to run or how to play in their position.

Why?

Because each time Vidmar changes the line-up and formation in his search for a winning combination, the player’s understanding of what to do during a game can suffer.

Seeing Alemao bawl out Matthew Leckie late in the second half as the youngster tried to find his place Adelaide switched to a 3-4-3 formation showed that the player’s are not all on the same wavelength.

Based on that, how can Adelaide progress this season when trying to work out what it’s best 11 is and what formation is best to play?

Vidmar remains convinced that eventually the luck will change as long as the effort is there.

He may be right but the fact is the games are beginning to run out.

Something has to give.

Let’s hope for the sake of Vidmar’s head that on-field fortunes are the first to change for the better.

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The same old story?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

 

Aurelio Vidmar says he’s not feeling the pressure, and neither for that matter are his players.

He also says the only way to silence the fast growing number of critics is to start winning games.

And with just six home games left, that means starting on Friday night against the Gold Coast.

But how many times have we said that, that Adelaide has start wining games now?

Probably about as many times as Aurelio Vidmar has said something like, the team has had a great week on the track; it’s just about taking it into a game.

This was what he said today:

“The last couple of weeks we’ve changed it up a little bit and got them a bit more refreshed and we’ve worked quite hard on finishing and making sure we’re doing that under pressure and it has worked quite well. Now it’s about making sure we translate what we’ve done at training onto the pitch.”

It’s a familiar comment from the embattled Reds coach but one that sounds less convincing every time he says it.

Vidmar didn’t sound too convincing either when asked whether he and the team are under pressure.

It was a one word answer, “No,” but the half giggle which accompanied it suggests there must be some doubts in Vidmar’s head.

 And if that unconvincing response doesn’t suggest he’s feeling the pressure, then his latest verbal gaffe might do

After all, it’s not the first time.

From the “pissant town”rant , to rather publicly bollocking certain players, (Sarkies & Bajic to name just two), Vidmar today when questioned whether he was too soft on players, responded with a suggestion that maybe instead he should chop off their heads “like they do in Saudi Arabia.”

 Vidmar later apologised for his latest case of foot in mouth disease, but  with the AFC Champions League draw just around the corner, he will be hoping that United doesn’t end up facing a team from there.

Of course that could only happen if United got through the group stages, which on current form is not looking likely.

But apology or not this gaffe, and the way the exchange with the journalist was handled suggested Vidmar is feeling the pressure.

And why shouldn’t he be?

John Kosmina has put his oar in this week saying that the punters are getting restless on the terraces and the team is “lacking direction”.

Direction of course comes from the top

In response Vidmar says everyone is entitled to their opinion, and rightly so, but it’s not like he is a 20 year veteran of coaching.

It has to hurt a little.

And what will hurt more is knowing that all the good performances in the world won’t change anything unless the goals start going in.

And that will be difficult if as it appears the player’s are not doing it for him on the park.

 As Vidmar has said, he can’t score the goals, so what can he do?

But that’s not the question, the question is, why aren’t the players doing it for him?

Are some of them not motivated to do so?

Or are they just bereft of confidence?

Talk to a few people and they will tell you the players will play when they want to play.

They motivate themselves, and seemingly don’t go out into a game inspired by what the coach has told them.

There’s even talk that if new owners come in then Vidmar will be gone.

Of course it will be some time before new owners come in and by then Vidmar may have turned the team around.

So it’s just one step at a time, starting with the Gold Coast.

It won’t be easy, but the first step never is.

Either way in 24 hours we’ll know whether it was the same old story.

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