Carl Veart says Adelaide United must regroup quickly and show greater fight after a disappointing 4-1 loss to Perth Glory on Saturday night.
The result stretches United’s winless run to eight games and leaves their Finals hopes hanging in the balance with three games remaining.
Veart on the disappointing performance…
“It’s a hard one to explain our performance tonight. It was well below our level. Yes, at times we looked okay with the ball, but our effort and intent when we turned the ball over was fairly non-existent for most of the night.”
Veart on conceding goals in transition…
“You just have to look at the four goals we conceded. All were in transition. We gave the ball away and didn’t defend well enough as a unit. It’s sort of been our Achilles heel this year — we control games and then switch off and concede soft goals.”
Veart on the message to the players after a tough week…
“These things happen in football. We want to make Finals and have some success — and to do that, you have to win games. Tonight we weren’t ourselves, and that’s something I have to fix. We’ve worked extremely hard to get into this position, and we have to keep fighting together.”
Veart on bouncing back at Coopers Stadium…
“Our fans will get behind us at Coopers — they always do. We need that next week. We’ve got three games left, and we want to finish how we started. We can’t afford another performance like tonight.”
Veart on whether the team’s approach will change…
“We always go out to try and win. That won’t change. But we have to be much better in transition and without the ball. Tonight we were so slow to react. Our pressure was non-existent at times, and you can’t win football games unless you work hard when you don’t have the ball.”
Veart on the emotional weight of the situation…
“This is my Club. I’ve always wanted success for Adelaide United, and that won’t change. I’ll push the players hard for these last three games. Tonight we let our fans down, and we have to respond.”
