Daniel Adlung says Adelaide United are refreshed and raring to go ahead of Friday night’s crucial clash against Melbourne City at Coopers Stadium.
The Reds are without a win in three matches and have dropped to sixth spot on the Hyundai A-league table, but do have a game in hand.
Adlung said the split round, which saw United play two weeks’ ago, has allowed the squad to recuperate and get players back from injury.
“I think it’s always good to get a little break because the schedule in December for example was very packed,” Adlung said.
“So it’s always good to have a couple of days off and also to focus on the basics and work on them.
“And the last games weren’t that good and what we expect so we can refresh everything now and concentrate for the game on Friday.”
Adelaide have lost both of their meetings against City this campaign, most recently falling 5-0 in January.
Adlung said the Reds are keen to make up for that result and stressed possessing high concentration levels will be the key to success.
“We’ve lost two times against them this season, so we want to show that we are ready for them,” he said.
“The last game we made a lot of mistakes starting from the first second until the end so we also have to learn from this game.
“I think if we train like the last two days we’ll be ready and prepared and we need a higher focus than the last game against City.”
Adlung attributed the Reds’ inconsistency to sometimes a lack of experience on the pitch with several senior players suffering injuries at various stages of the season.
“I think we have played a very good season so far, we have a very young squad and we missed a lot of experienced players for a long time because they were injured,” he said.
“I think we have a young team so you can’t expect to perform every week at the highest level so sometimes you go up and down.
“That’s maybe one of the reasons but now everyone is back.”
The German went on to reiterate when the Reds are at full strength they can beat any team in the competition.
“We see it against Sydney in the FFA Cup and in the league – we played with a very, very young team and drew 0-0,” he insisted.
“So you can see on a good day if we play at our highest level we can beat any team in this league.
“But we have to adapt our level to play more consistently to beat every team especially at home with our crowd we can beat City on Friday.”
Adelaide United host Melbourne City in Round 23 of the Hyundai A-League 2017/18 season on Friday, 16 March at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.20pm ACDT.
