Carl Veart says Adelaide United must rectify their slow starts and believed they gave Brisbane Roar too much time and space in the first-half.
Adelaide went down 3-1 at Dolphin Stadium with Nathan Konstandopoulos scoring a late consolation for the Reds.
Veart said they were prepared for the Roar to utilise three centre-backs but just conceded an excessive amount of space and lacked ruthlessness in attack.
“We knew they were going to play with a back three,” he told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“We set up for it. But we just gave them far too much time and too much space in that first-half.
“(Jay) O’Shea was running the show, he had so much freedom in the middle of the park.”
Veart said the loss of Tomi Juric or Javi López going into the match did not affect his preparation, knowing the pair would be unavailable after the clash with Melbourne Victory.
However, he later admitted he expected the pair to be fit for United’s Friday night match against Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium.
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Veart acknowledged he must quickly find solutions with the Reds starting sluggishly away from home for the second time this season.
“The team that started tonight we worked all week with,” he said.
“It’s something that we need to have a look at, it’s two away games where we haven’t put in a very good performance.
“It’s something we need to have a look at. I know we’ve got a lot of younger players but we need to fix those problems because we can’t turn up and play that first-half like we did tonight.”
Yared Abetew made his first start of the season while Kusini Yengi was given his starting debut for the Club.
Veart felt the pair acquitted themselves well and will only improve the more they play.
“Yared (Abetew) was good considering he’s not a right-back,” he continued.
“He’s more of a central defender, he got caught out of position a few times but overall I thought he had a good performance.
“I thought Kusini (Yengi) was strong, he caused a few issues up front and he’ll just get better after that performance tonight.”
Next match details:
Game date: Friday, 5 February vs Perth Glory
A-League 2020/21 – Matchweek 07
Kick-off 6.35pm ACDT
Gates open 5.35pm ACDT
Venue: Coopers Stadium
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Stream: Kayo Sports, MyFootball Live App
