Ahead of Saturday’s Round Two clash against Champions Central Coast, Carl Veart faced the media after taking his last session before our Reds take the field for the first time this season.
Confident in Adelaide United’s readiness, despite a few injuries, Carl highlighted the importance of young talent and consistency. Veart also emphasised improving transition defense and game sense, while praising the squad’s strong leadership.
Carl on the bye round and facing Central Coast Mariners…
“Yeah, it’s something different, something we haven’t experienced before. Central Coast have had to put in a lot of work this preseason. They’ve lost some key players, but seem to have replaced them well. Their preseason, with all those Champions League games in Asia, has been good for them. I watched their game in China the other night, and I thought they were very good.”
Carl on aspirations of finishing in the top 4…
“Look, I’ve got a lot of confidence in the squad, but injuries can quickly put us in a position where we rely heavily on our younger players, which we saw in the Australia Cup when we had a few out. Like most teams, our first 11 is strong, and we count on the younger players to step up when needed. There’s always public expectation, but I’ve dealt with that my entire time at the club. I’m happy to take that pressure and keep providing opportunities to young Australian players. I’ve made it clear to the club that the players we bring in need to be high quality, and sometimes we haven’t quite nailed that. We’ll see how this year goes.”
Carl on being questioned where goals will come from…
“People said the same thing last year after we lost Craig and didn’t replace him, but we ended up as the leading goal scorers in the league. Now they’re saying it again because we’ve lost Hiro and Nestor and haven’t really replaced them. But we have confidence in our style of play, and we believe we’ll score goals again this season.”
Carl on the new leadership group…
“It’s important for the senior players to help the younger ones, and we’ve always had that, especially when Craig was here. It’s great for the younger players to have experienced players to lean on. But at the end of the day, I expect every player to show some leadership when they’re on the pitch.”
Carl on a new system…
“We still want to attack and score goals—that’s our main threat. But we won’t be as open in transition moments, because the A-League is a high-transition league. It’s vital we get our shape and principles right to stop those transitions. Last year, we were often too open, and a lot of games were end-to-end. This season, we want to limit those chances for the opposition to counter against us.”
