Adelaide United Head Coach, Adrian Stenta, gives his thoughts ahead of the Reds’ New Year’s Eve match against Newcastle Jets.
With United’s last match coming in Wellington against the Phoenix on Saturday, 17 December, Stenta’s squad is fresh and ready to take on the Jets.
Time between games:
“It has been a bit different and a little bit challenging at times because we had the bye and then the postpone game (against Wellington Phoenix).
“But what it has done is provide us with an opportunity to work on a few things and put some plans in place for our upcoming schedule of games, which starts with Newcastle tomorrow.
“Any time that you get a larger amount of time between games, it just gives you that chance to freshen up.
“The mood is really good and we’re really excited to get going again because when you are starved of games, it really makes the next game that’s coming up all that more important and all that much more exciting and enticing.
“So we’re really looking forward to traveling over to Newcastle and hopefully it’s a happy new year for us.”
Newcastle’s threats:
“Newcastle have the ability to play really attractive, attacking football.
“They’ve got some dangerous players, especially in their attack that can hurt opposition and we’ve seen them be able to put some score scoreboard pressure on and score goals.
“But we do feel like there are some opportunities for us as there are every week.
“We’ll go there with a set game plan in mind and then it’s up to the players to execute, but, as I’ve said all year, we feel like if we are able to execute then we can beat anyone we come up against on any day.”
Reflecting on 2022:
“It is challenging because it’s so protracted and spread out between seasons it seems like a huge amount of time.
“But I think the club is moving in the right direction and 2022 is an example of that.
“We know that we’ve got some bigger hurdles to climb and we’re looking forward to what 2023 will bring because we feel like there’s something special in this group and we’re looking forward to doing what we can to unleash that.”
