The first goal scorer in last night’s match against Western Sydney Wanderers, Bruce Djite, said that Adelaide United got the win because every player in the team played their role.
It took a last minute winner from Sergio Cirio to secure the three points, but Djite felt that it was a win that his team deserved.
“The coach told the starting eleven before the match to not leave anything out there – he assured us that we have a fantastic bench and as soon as any player is tired he’ll make the required change and that a quality player will take your place,” he said.
“We know we’ve got a pretty good squad and a lot of good players and everyone involved played their role.”
However, Djite conceded that his team was tactically outplayed in the first half, but a shift in personnel completely opened up the game for the Reds.
“They had us figured out at the start, they were blocking off all the spaces that we normally exploit and they overran us,” he said.
“We changed that in the second half and they didn’t know what to do – we made different runs and different movements and they failed to adjust.
“With the way that we want to play we always give ourselves the chance of winning, and having a Plan B like we did last night will really help us coming into the last 9 matches of the season.”
The Reds had 17 shots throughout the match and finished with 58% of the possession.
While commending the Wanderers for their performance as well, Djite noted that the game was played at a high intensity and it was only a matter of time before United would go on and win the game.
The strong forward also spoke about his sixth goal for the Reds this Hyundai A-League season, making him the club’s equal top goal scorer with Cirio.
“Carrusca played a great through ball and I initially thought that Goodwin was going to get on the end of it but it slowed down a bit and I thought I could get to it.
“In my peripheral vision I saw someone in green come charging at me and I thought it could only be the keeper so that’s when I realised I had the whole goal to aim at.
“My decision was to put it through his legs as it’s always hard for a keeper to get down that low and luckily it went in.”
While Djite was relieved that the Reds took maximum points away from last night’s match, he is adamant that the team will turn it’s focus to the last nine games of the regular season.
“We’ve let a lot of points slip this season but we’re still in a position to finish top of the league if we can win our remaining games.
“This will be our focus and we have full belief in each player that comes into the side.”
