With the vast majority of the Adelaide United squad now fit and ready for first team football, Tarek Elrich says it will make for a difficult selection process for the Reds’ coaches ahead of their Round 12 match on Saturday.
Now that a large portion of the United first team has returned to full training, Guillermo Amor and the Reds’ coaches are faced with the difficult task of selecting the best squad possible to face the Wellington Phoenix on Saturday afternoon.
Yet defender, Tarek Elrich, says this challenge is the best one for the coaches to have, whilst the players relish the competition it creates throughout the team, helping them to perform better overall.
“One thing for the coaches is their selection week in, week out,” Elrich said. “It’s a hard job, especially when you have a fully fit squad.
“To make those choices and decision when it comes to the starting XI is difficult. But when it comes to us as players, we just make sure we do the best we can so we don’t give the coaches a chance not to select us.
“At the end of the day, this type of competition in the team is exactly what we want because it’s healthy for us and pushes us.”
Speaking on their Boxing Day match, Elrich ruled out any possibility of overindulgence during Christmas Day by the United players, with each of them solely focused on doing their job against the Phoenix.
“When you sacrifice on the food and hold back on the celebrations, then get the results that you need, it makes it all worth it,” he explained.
“The boys are sensible when it comes to this time of year and the way we need to prepare for our games.
“Wellington are a great team and you just don’t know what you’re going to get from them sometimes.
“For ourselves it’s a massive game, especially considering where we are on the ladder, so we’ll make sure we do everything we need to do to give us the best chance to claim the three points at the end of the match.”
Not wanting to give away too much detail on the Reds’ plan for the Phoenix, Elrich simply stated: “Recently we’ve worked on things defensively as an entire unit, pressing a lot higher and winning the ball back sooner, which makes things much easier for us.
“Now we want to flip it the other way and create more goals for the team because we deserve it.”
Adelaide United will face Wellington Phoenix in Round 12 of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season on Saturday, 26 December 2015 at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 4.45pm ACDT.
