Reds searching for solutions as season threatens to slip away
Mired in a six-game winless run and in danger of falling out of the playoff places after their 5-3 loss to Victory, Adelaide boss Carl Veart knows things need to change fast to save the Reds season.
Shipping 20 goals across a six-game losing run and coming dangerously close to falling out of the A-League Men’s playoff places, Adelaide United’s once promising campaign increasingly feels like it’s sinking at an alarming rate. And with just five games remaining of the regular season, coach Carl Veart says any attempt to right the ship needs to start with the side’s veteran contingent leading an effort to rekindle the belief that lit their 13-game unbeaten start to the season, while the coaching staff urgently look to patch their defensive holes.
Making the trek to AAMI Park for the latest iteration of the Original Rivalry with bitter foes Melbourne Victory, the Reds twice threw away leads on Saturday evening as they fell to a 5-3 defeat, substitute Nikos Vergos scoring in the 88th and 90th minute to secure Victory a famous win that moved them back into fourth on the table and within striking distance of the top six.
For Veart’s side, however, it was just the latest in a string of results in which their inability to prevent their opponents from scoring in bunches has come back to haunt them. Their last win coming against Melbourne City on February 7, Adelaide has shipped five goals to Macarthur, four goals to Auckland, and three goals to Western United in addition to the five-spot secured by Victory across their dispiriting drop in form.
Once sitting atop the league table, with a perfect record away from home and just one loss in their first 13 games, they now find themselves in sixth, only kept in the playoff places by the maddening inconsistency of those sides on the outside looking in. Their expected goals against is 31.8, decidedly mid-table, but their actual goals conceded is 45, second worst in the league.
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“We have to be more resilient defensively,” Veart said. “Because conceding the goals that we were conceding -- it's just not good enough. Maybe, myself and the coaching staff have to change the way we defend because it's obviously not working. Yes, we want to be proactive and play football, but we have to find a way to win.”
United will host seventh-placed Sydney FC next week in a bonafide six-pointer, the Sky Blues three points back of the Reds but possessing a vastly better goal difference coming into the contest. Three games against the competition's lowest-ranked sides in Perth Glory, Wellington, and Brisbane will then follow, before their campaign ends on the road against a Melbourne City side they've traditionally had the wood over. There’s a pathway back to form there – if the Reds can figure out a way to walk it.
“It's about their belief,” said the coach. “They have to believe in themselves. You can't go the first 13 games undefeated and then to a team now where we sort of lack that belief in ourselves. We have to stay positive with the playing group and show them, when they do things well, how good they are.
“At times tonight, we just lacked that belief in ourselves and didn't play forward passes when we could have, we played backwards. That's something some of the senior players need to help those younger players within those moments, because we do have a few young ones out there.
“Confidence plays a big part. Tonight, if we'd got something that then gives us the confidence to push on. Next week, we've got another tough game at home to Sydney and we'll just have to find a way to win. Once you can do that, you can sort of turn the dial a little bit the other way.
“At the moment, it's pointed to too much against us, and we have to change that momentum.”
Admittedly, it shouldn’t be ignored that Saturday evening’s game swung on a controversial decision to award Daniel Arzani a VAR-adjudicated penalty when was brought down Panagiotis Kikianis with 20 minutes to go, one he promptly converted to make it 3-3. It didn’t suddenly force Adelaide to lose track of Vergos as delivered the final one-two punch nor did it hamper them in their efforts to prevent Nishan Velupillay from running rampant but it did swing momentum.
Victory boss Arthur Diles was matter of fact with his assessment, declaring “There's contact in the box and it's a penalty; it's pretty simple for me.” Arzani, never one to be a shrinking violet, told Paramount Plus "I thought it was absurd that he didn't give it straight away, to be honest. He's just absolutely taken my legs out, he's maybe got a tiny snick on the ball but the ball's still in play for me to take and continue my run on.”
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But Veart took issue with referee Shaun Evans’ official explanation that Kikianis hadn’t made contact when he slid in on Arzani, flagging that Adelaide would pursue further explanation from Football Australia.
"It changed the momentum of the game," he said. "I don't know what the messaging was between the VAR and the referee, but your decision was that Pana touched the ball and it was a corner, that's what he gave.
"You can clearly see on the video, on the TV, even live that he got a touch on the ball, and then he comes over, looks at it and then says the reason for the penalty is he didn't touch the ball.
"So he wins the ball, goes out, doesn't matter about the contact, he's won the ball, so it's no penalty. If he didn't touch the ball, then yes, I agree it's a penalty - but he touches the ball. You can clearly see it in the video.
"So I just don't understand why one, he's called over to have a look at it to change his decision when there's clear contact on the ball.
"I'd like an explanation because it doesn't matter after that. Why?
"There's too many times this year you want the players or the pitch to make the decisions to influence games, not the officials, and that's what's happened tonight. Changed the whole momentum of the game."
Header Image: Paramount+