Adelaide United coach Gertjan Verbeek says teenage striker Al-Hassan Toure has all the makings of a first class striker
Adelaide United boss Gertjan Verbeek said star teenage striker Al-Hassan Toure will take a two-week break after scoring three goals in two FFA Cup matches.
Adelaide United boss Gertjan Verbeek revealed Al-Hassan Toure — the Reds new teenage sensation — was never talked about as a possible A-League player until the Dutchman set his eye upon him.
Now Toure needs a holiday.
Toure, 19, scored two goals in the 3-2 FFA Cup win over Brisbane’s Olympic at Perry Park on Wednesday after scoring on his official debut in the 5-2 knockout win over Melbourne Knights away earlier this month.
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“He is surprising, he is always, he is also a surprise when I came here, nobody mentioned him,’’ Verbeek said.
“The same for Kusini Yengi (Reds youth team player), they talked about Carlo Armiento, they talked about (Louis) D’Arrigo, they talked about Lachlan (Brook) and these players (Toure and Yengi) weren’t mentioned.
“When I saw these players when I first stayed here because the youth team was playing he (Toure) made a fantastic goal in one of those games and then I said ‘OK let him train with the first team, Kusini also’.
“Talent, they have potential and they’re growing so fast I didn’t expect it.”
Toure was discovered by Croydon Kings, making his NPL debut under former boss Mark Brazzale in 2017.
The striker impressed his new Dutch boss during his time playing for Adelaide’s NPL team this season.
“He (Toure) is strong, physically strong and fast, a good dribbler and has good technical skills and he wants to go to the goals, he wants to go forward and that’s what I like,’’ Verbeek said.
“He’s not afraid and he’s also mentally a strong person.
“I will see how far he is going.”
Verbeek said Toure would now have a break before the Reds face Adelaide City’s NPL side in a friendly at Taperoo on Tuesday night in a friendly.
“Maybe I’ll play two times 45 minutes with two teams, we’ll have to see who can play and who isn’t there because Toure is getting two weeks off because he had no holiday at all (this year),’’ Verbeek said.
“And all the other guys will get five days off and I want to see Kristian (Opseth) and George (Blackwood as strikers against Adelaide City), they’ll both play 45 minutes.”
Verbeek said he was pleased with about an hour of Adelaide’s performance in Brisbane claiming his side played much better than in the 5-2 win over Knights.
However he said the side also needed to adapt to game situations after Olympic clawed its way back via tactical switches.
“To recognise when things are changing you also have to change some things,’’ Verbeek said.
“We had a tactic because we did know it’s (Olympic) a good team that was playing combination football and we wanted to avoid that.
“They played with four attackers almost and we didn’t recognise that and read the game wrong.
“Lucky for us the last 15 minutes, the physical condition, we were a little bit better and the last 10 minutes was enough for a good result.”