Adelaide United Head Coach, Carl Veart, has expressed his dismay at his side’s inability to convert chances, following Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Macarthur FC.
Goals either side of half-time saw the Bulls gallop away with victory against a Reds side that was missing both Zach Clough (niggle) and Alexandar Popović (illness) — both of whom were late omissions.
Veart, though, was able to welcome Hiroshi Ibusuki back into his XI after serving his one-game suspension, as well as Captain, Craig Goodwin, who made his first start of 2022/23 — including pre-season.
United were able to put the ball into the back of the net on three occasions, however each were deemed to be illegal with two flagged for offside and one for a foul.
Assessing the performance:
“We created a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t take them.
“At the end of the day, we weren’t at our best.
“We weren’t ruthless enough and didn’t make the most of our opportunities.
“We were far too slow today (and) second to too much.
“Yes, we had a lot of possession, but it wasn’t the type of football that we wanted to play.
“It was too slow.
“You just couldn’t get any tempo into the same because there were a lot of free-kicks, a lot of slowing down of the game.
“It’s disappointing, we weren’t great, and, yes, we created some opportunities, but it wasn’t good.”
The game’s ‘physicality’:
“If you come and watch an A-League team train, there’s never a foul given.
“Players don’t fall down because they know if they fall down in training they’re not going to get a free-kick.
“But, in (competitive) games, they know if they fall down they’ll get a free-kick.
“I think it’s something that we need to stop if we want to attract more fans to the games.
“It takes away from the spectacle and takes away from the supporters as well.
“We all want to see attacking football.
“We all want to see the ball in-play as much as we can, but today it was very difficult.”
Goodwin’s hit-out:
“It’s going to take time (with Goodwin).
“It’s only his second run in this pre-season, but he showed glimpses of his quality.
“He put some good balls in the box that we should have scored from.
“He’s still quite rusty, but getting 60 minutes into him is (beneficial) and he’ll be better next week.”
