Rini Coolen insists that no one or two players were to blame for the Reds’ mammoth defeat to Brisbane Roar last Friday night.
Head Coach Rini Coolen insists that no one or two players were to blame for the Reds- mammoth defeat to Brisbane Roar last Friday night, but rather that the onus was on each and every individual for the poor performance and that starts with himself as the Head Coach.
Coolen refused to publicly single out and point the finger at any of his charges individually following the defeat that extended the Roar-s unbeaten run to 32 Hyundai A-League matches.
While he did speak in detail about certain incidents that led to Brisbane-s first two goals and identified captain Jon Mckain and dynamic winger Andy Slory for two ‘individual mistakes-, Coolen is adamant he would never put the blame game solely on any of his players for a bad result.
Coolen-s willingness to openly dissect and admit where the Reds went wrong is a bold and brave trait in itself and it gives Adelaide United supporters an insight and a rundown of how the events unfolded from the coach-s perspective.
In an extract from his media conference on Monday, Coolen gave his thoughts on how the first 35 minutes of madness took place at Suncorp that saw Brisbane take a 5-1 lead at half time.
“We had a game plan against Brisbane. Everybody understands you have to play against the best team in the league and work out which game plan to have to hurt them and also how to defend against them,” Coolen said.
“We didn-t have any problems with that in the first part. We scored the first goal, a very good goal in transition and after that goal we also had two chances to hurt them again, so at that stage we were very happy with the decision we took.”
“After we scored that goal I think we felt a little bit excited, so the strikers pushed a bit further forward, the defensive line dropped a little bit, so that meant the gaps were going to get bigger, so in that moment they gave us some problems on the left side.
“Jonny (Mckain) put his hand up in the last couple of days admitting that he made a big mistake giving a penalty away like that, it wasn-t good, it was an individual mistake that definitely wasn-t necessary but it also shows he-s prepared to take responsibility for that and that-s good to see in a Captain.”
“I was disappointed after that goal because you felt that the team was thinking about two different ways and I don-t think that was necessary for those 20 minutes. You can concede a goal because of an individual mistake but then you-ve got to move on and again the second goal for me was a killing moment because at that stage everybody has to do their individual job.
“It makes it easier for the defenders when there is no crossing so the team at that moment was not doing the right things, so we conceded the second goal and then everybody saw the game and the gaps were getting bigger and bigger, we were losing our shape and we lost the game in 10 minutes because they scored four goals from individual mistakes and poor defending in the box, so that-s how I saw the game.”
Coolen also praised Brisbane for coming back strongly after conceding an early goal. “We also have to give credit to Brisbane who came back strongly into the game with a very high level of football.”
Coolen also reiterated that the team including himself is responsible for the performance on the field. “We can talk all we like about the individual moments in a game but the reality is that we win as team and we lose as a team and ultimately as the Head Coach I am responsible for the performance and I accept that. The next game gives us an opportunity to rectify the performance we put up last week. We really need our supporters more than ever now to be there in full voice as they usually are and help us get the result we need and knowing the Adelaide United supporters I am sure that they will be there to get behind us.”
Friday night at home against Melbourne Heart provides no better time for the Reds to start putting their season back on the right path.
