The Adelaide United Youth Team are set to face MetroStars in Round 15 of the 2016 National Premier League at TK Shutter Reserve on Saturday.
This week, the Young Reds will look to outshine MetroStars and claim three points after their meeting in Round 4 produced a 2-2 draw.
The Young Reds will not only have to step up to get the victory, but recapture their desire to chase it after falling to their third successive defeat last weekend against South Adelaide.
In order to do so, United’s Head Coach, Mark Jones, believes that taking a sterner approach in both attacking and defensively is what it will take to get his side over the line.
“We had a video session after one of our trainings this week where we looked at the things that went wrong in the game against South Adelaide and we’ll work on correcting those issues,” Jones said.
“We did have a lot of possession and good field position, we were just disappointing defensively and didn’t take our opportunities where we had many early in the game that could have given us a different result.
“We can’t be disappointed with the fact we are creating chances, we just have to be more clinical and being a bit more ruthless for goals.
“That also applies to our defensive approach as well, and stop being “too nice” when we are in a perfect position to tackle, but not going in for it.
“We have to be ruthless on both ends of the field. In defence, to win challenges and come out with the ball; in attack, to take our opportunities to punish teams and boost our motivation and confidence.”
In facing MetroStars this weekend, Jones commented on putting this approach into play, and igniting a fire within the Young Reds squad to be the team wanting the win more.
“MetroStars are definitely going to be another challenge, and they will be desperate for a win, but we just have to want it more,” Jones continued.
“We’ll also have to limit their time with the ball, but we do have a tendency to have much of the possession in games, it’s in the times where we drop off it can prove to be dangerous.
“We will have to be more aggressive defensively to make sure we don’t concede and to stay on top of Metro, also keeping the ball to where we can produce attack and score goals to win.”
