Adelaide United Head Coach, Adrian Stenta, has spoken to AUFC Media ahead of his side’s clash with Western United on Sunday.
With the Reds the only squad yet to concede in its opening two matches of the Liberty A-League season to date, Stenta praised his side’s defensive efforts so far.
Reflecting on Perth win:
“I was really happy with the first 60-to-65 minutes of that Perth game.
“We started positively and created a number of chances in the first half and even a couple in the second and, on another day, we could have put a few more away.
“I was reasonably happy with the performance overall, especially away from home on a difficult trip to Western Australia.
“Then, in the last 25 minutes, we lost a little bit of composure and allowed Perth to put us under pressure by giving the ball back a little bit too easy.
“But I’m proud of the resilience we showed and the grit and determination to hold out and keep another clean sheet.”
Chance creation, but only two goals so far:
“There’s no concern from me that we’ve scored two goals so far this season because we’re creating good chances.
“I’d be concerned if we weren’t creating those chances to begin with and it’s still very early in the season.
“It’s a good sign that we’ve been able to get into good positions to score and I feel we like we will become more clinical in the final third as the season goes on.
“The same goes for both our passing and crossing too because of the way our team is set up.
“We have a lot of good attacking options who can rotate throughout our positions and I’m confident that we will continue to create chances and put them away as the season goes on.”
Defensive resoluteness:
“We defend as a whole team, not just the backline and everyone’s got a role and everyone’s got a job to play.
“We’re quite structured in the way that we defend and I’ve been really happy with our team’s defensive actions.
“It also helps when we’ve got players, like Annalee Grove for example, in really good form as well.
“If we can continue to be a hard team to score against that will please me very much as a coach and gives us a platform to spring from.”
Western United test:
“Western United is a team that’s in good form and they’re playing for each other.
“They look like they’re enjoying themselves and their time in this competition as well.
“We have to look out for their offensive pressure because they’ve been quite clinical on the counter attack and have some some dangerous attacking options.”
