Adelaide United Head Coach Airton Andrioli says the Reds will take a “one game at a time” mindset into Saturday’s clash with league leaders Newcastle Jets, backing his side’s belief and recent consistency as the season enters its decisive stretch.
Andrioli confirmed the squad is healthy and expects to keep selection stable again, while stressing Adelaide’s focus remains on translating confidence into performance against “the best team in the league at the moment.”
Andrioli on consistency in selection…
“We have everybody healthy, so it’s just us making decisions for us a little bit easier in the last few weeks. So we want to keep it like that, keep it consistent, because I think it’s good for the whole playing group.”
Andrioli on embracing the challenge of the league leaders…
“For us, difficult games, I think we played our best football against the so-called bigger teams and the most challenging games and that’s a credit to the playing group. We were gelling well together. We’re growing together in good timing. And for us, it’s taking one game at a time. It’s getting close to the end now. The next game against Newcastle, obviously the top team in the league, the best team in the league at the moment. So we’re going there. They’re full of confidence. If we do play our football, we can get the result.”
Andrioli on using confidence the right way…
“Confidence is a word that many people use, but you need to make sure that you use it in the right direction, because also, confidence can bring a little bit of a sense of complacency sometimes. We ought to take the confidence in the right direction, making sure that that confidence builds us with more belief and the desire to do things in the right way.”
Andrioli on pressure and keeping the message consistent…
“The message is always the same. The most difficult game is your next game, and that’s the game tomorrow night against Newcastle. So we’re only preparing for that. You can only focus on that. Once we go over that hurdle, then we think about the next obstacle that’s going to be in front of us, but nothing changes. We want to play the way we’ve been playing. We want to use the belief and the confidence to get another three points tomorrow.”
Andrioli on the tactical focus…
“We always look at past scenarios and also the way things are changing, because even though you play them a couple of times, depending how far the game is, depending momentum and the time in the league, it could be different. So you always got to be prepared. The main thing is that we know what we want to do, how we want to play with and without the ball, and that’s going to be our main focus for tomorrow.”
Andrioli on young players earning their opportunities…
“I believe in doing the job, doing the talking on the football pitch, and some of those boys have been doing that. I’m extremely proud of the way those boys have raised to the moment, embraced the things we want to do, and full credit to them.”
