Adelaide United Captain, Michael Jakobsen, has urged fans to come out in huge numbers and support the team against Melbourne Victory on Friday night.
The Reds have struggled of late, losing four matches in a row – something the Danish centre-back says must improve.
But despite the disappointing streak, Jakobsen hoped fans will continue to stick by them and stressed that having a packed Coopers Stadium genuinely does have a positive influence, serving to be an additional motivating factor.
“It’s always more enjoyable when you have lots of people out there supporting you,” the 34-year-old told said at a press conference.
“So we need them to support us all the way through. Even if we go behind, we know we can hurt them back and they know we are really good at comebacks.
“So it doesn’t matter how the game evolves, we just need the support no matter what all the way through.
“And they should know that it is a lot more enjoyable for us when they support us all the way through.
“It’s an amazing stadium to be at when they’re at their best.”
Adelaide’s latest setback was a 3-0 defeat to Perth Glory last weekend.
Jakobsen said that while they made a promising start they were unable to sustain the pressure and were once again not effective enough at both ends of the pitch.
“We started well as we did against Sydney,” he said.
“And we didn’t take advantage of that and conceded stupid goals again. We need to be more clinical and be better in defending to be honest as a whole team.
“It’s not one player only, it’s us as a team, we have to do better.”
The experienced defender said getting the fundamentals right should get the team back on track.
“We have high expectations of ourselves and I think we need to address those issues,” he added.
“It starts from the back, it’s back to basics leading into a very important game for the Club, for us, for our fans.
“We need to perform a lot better otherwise we are not going to get anything out of it either.”
With the exception of the FFA Cup Final triumph, Adelaide’s best game of the season was their 3-1 win over Victory in November.
Jakobsen said if they could replicate that performance it would go a long way to securing the three points.
“I think we can look back on the first game we had against them here, where we did a lot of things right and made it very tough for them,” he said.
“If we can pull off a performance like that again, I’m pretty sure that we are going to win.
“So I think leading into this game it couldn’t have come at a better time because there’s always something special about it when it’s against your rivals.
“It’s a one-off and we need to take it one game at a time now and there’s three points on the line, and we need to grab them now and there’s no other team we’d rather do it against.”
Adelaide United host Melbourne Victory in Round 15 of the Hyundai A-League 2019/20 season on Friday, 17 January at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.00pm ACDT. Gates open at 5.30pm. Live and Exclusive on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and the My Football Live App.
