Adelaide United head coach Carl Veart has lamented lapses of concentration, poor decision making and a lack of finishing in attack after his side’s two-nil loss to Brisbane on Sunday afternoon.
The Reds fell to a second-straight Isuzu UTE A-League defeat, and a second in-a-row at Coopers Stadium as the Roar pounced with second half goals to Jay O’Shea and Jez Lofthouse.
The match was further soured with substitute attacker Musa Toure limping off with a quad injury.
Speaking after his side’s second loss in a week, Veart implored his side to keep working hard and keep things simple ahead of another trip to New South Wales to face Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night.
Carl Veart on his initial reaction to the disappointing result:
“Look for the first half the boys did exceptionally well. We stopped them pretty much from playing and we just didn’t reward ourselves with a goal. We came out in the second half and with a couple of lapses of concentration and a couple of wrong decisions at critical parts in the game cost us in the end.”
Carl Veart on the absence of Nick Ansell and Alexandar Popović from the heart of defence:
“Nick Ansell had been out of the game for a long time and he’s played the last five or six games and so his body needed a rest. He always planned to have a rest for this week and you know, Popa, he pulled up from training on Friday a little bit sore in the quad so we’re not too sure how serious it is and we’ll assess that tomorrow.”
Carl Veart on what his side needs to do after consecutive losses:
“It’s just important that we just keep working hard. We’ve shown over the early stages of the season so far when we work hard and keep things simple, we’re a good side and tonight I think we especially in the first half did those things well but we just didn’t reward ourselves with a goal and that’s this competition – the A-League – when you’re on top you’ve got to make the most of it because the other team will always come back and ask questions of you. And tonight, when Brisbane asked a questions of us, we just didn’t make the right decisions to stop ourselves from conceding goals.”
Carl Veart on why he substituted off experienced players Isaías and Ryan Kitto:
“For Isa, we just needed some more legs in the middle of the park to push. I think we needed to try and get a goal and that’s all it was and Kitts hasn’t had the best of games the last few weeks and he’s putting a lot of pressure on himself. He was up against a tough player tonight that caused us a few issues of getting in behind us and so I think he just ran out of legs a little bit towards the end of the game.”
Carl Veart on Joe Gauci’s performance in goals:
“He’s had a solid season so far. He made some a couple of good saves again tonight. He is getting better as the season goes along and that’s what he needs to do, keep getting better because he’s a young goalkeeper and it’s good to see that he’s still developing and getting better each week.”
Carl Veart on why Nestory Irankunda looked dejected on the bench after coming off in the second half:
“Nestor’s just disappointed with his performance. He’s just disappointed that we lost and that’s all it is. He expects more from himself. He’s still a young player that has got a long way to go and a lot to learn. Tonight he wasn’t at his best and it’s about us helping him to find the tools to get better and have an influence in the game when it’s needed.”
