Michael Marrone is confident Adelaide United can consolidate their momentum against Melbourne City on Friday night, in preparation for next week’s crucial AFC Champions League clash.
The Reds’ recorded a 1-1 draw with Perth Glory on Friday night as Dylan McGowan opened the scoring, before the Glory levelled proceedings from the penalty spot in controversial circumstances.
The result extended Adelaide’s unbeaten streak to five matches in all competitions.
Marrone stated it was important to find form in the Hyundai A-League to carry momentum into the remaining AFC Champions League group matches.
“I think as a whole the last three or four games we’ve looked a lot better the way we’ve been playing,” he said.
“We spoke about that again that we needed to play well in the A-League to get some momentum for the Champions League.
“And I think that’s started to happen we just need to continue on that way.”
The consistent defender said he is hopeful United can capitalise on an exposed City defence.
Michael Valkanis’ men have recently leaked goals – conceding six in its past two matches.
“We touched on it a few weeks’ ago that we didn’t want to finish bottom,” Marrone said.
“We’re not bottom at the moment but we have to keep going to make sure we stay off there.
“But the good thing now is, because we can’t make the (top) six, there’s going to be teams that look at us as points.
“Maybe they’ll go a little bit harder and they’re a bit more exposed at the back and we can get some goals.”
United’s meeting with Melbourne is also set to be the inaugural top-tier domestic league in the world to implement the Video Assistant Referee system (VAR).
Marrone insisted the new technology will not be a distraction.
“It should be fine we’ve already had our briefing on it,” he said.
“They’ve already told us not to worry about it.
“They only make the big decisions so it will only affect: red card decisions, if a player gets the wrong card or a penalty decision.”
Following Adelaide’s clash with City, the Reds fly out to South Korea outfit Jeju United before returning home to host Western Sydney Wanderers.
Marrone welcomed the selection headaches, Head Coach, Guillermo Amor will have to deal with ahead of the Club’s upcoming busy fixture list.
“It’s good we’ve got form players and almost a full squad … so it’s good competition (for places),” he continued.
“The coach has got some big decisions to make now because we’ve had players miss out like Marcelo (Carrusca) through suspension and then Jesse (Makarounas) came in an did an excellent job against Central Coast.
“We’ve got players coming in in good form so it’s going to be difficult with the selections.”
Adelaide United will face Melbourne City in Round 26 of the Hyundai A-League 2016/17 season on Friday, 7 April at AAMI Park. Kick-off is at 7.20pm ACST.
