Not my fault, says coach as United winger Ben Halloran joins the Reds’ casualty ward
Adelaide United boss Gertjan Verbeek says the Reds injury crisis isn’t because of a heavy workload as they prepare to face arch rivals Melbourne Victory without several key players.
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Adelaide United coach Gertjan Verbeek is refusing to blame heavy training schedules for the Reds soft tissue injury crisis which has now sidelined the club’s key attacking outlet Ben Halloran.
Adelaide United coach Gertjan Verbeek is refusing to blame heavy training schedules for the Reds soft tissue injury crisis which has now sidelined the club’s key attacking outlet Ben Halloran.
The off contract winger has featured in 16 of Adelaide’s 18 matches, scored a personal best seven goals with three assists.
He has been ruled out of the vital away clash to Melbourne Victory on Saturday with a hamstring injury after the Reds trained hard for most of the week following its 5-2 drubbing to Western Sydney.
Nathan Konstandopoulos (knee, impact injury) is out for the season, Stefan Mauk (quadricep) is out indefinitely after playing twice since his move from Brisbane Roar, Pacifique Niyongabire (adductor) is also out for an extended period alongside Ryan Strain (hamstring).
Al Hassan Toure (foot) is also missing long term but the Reds will be bolstered by the return of attacking midfielder James Troisi (quadricep) after he missed four consecutive matches.
“If you go over every injury, it’s a little bit different,’’ Verbeek said.
“Strainy (Strain) was a little bit stupid himself, James (Troisi) didn’t have a normal pre-season because he didn’t have a club.
“Now Ben (Halloran) is all the time been very fit, important for us and now he’s got a small injury it sometimes happens, it’s a contact sport so I don’t blame that in the workload we do.
“And Mauk for instance, he changed club at Brisbane, it’s quite different training to what I do.
“He (Mauk) was communicating his injury earlier that he had a little problem with his muscles.
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“I thought he wouldn’t get injured but he wanted to play for his new club, so he took some risks and if the players are not honest and communicate well, those things can happen.”
“I think we have good medical staff and I think we try as good as possible to perform.
The Dutchman also stood by his attacking philosophy despite the Wanderers shellacking.
He said “search for another coach” if critics demand a defensive game.
“I don’t change my mind because we lost 5-2 in the last game,’’ Verbeek said.
“We are not going to play defensive football because we like to attack, we want to play active football, we want to press in a high position and that’s a process the players have to learn.
“It’s easy to fall back and say to your striker come behind the centre circle, make a small pitch and no space behind the last line.
“Of course you will have less goals again but you’ll also score less goals.
“So I also want to play and look to my team and to be proud and enjoy.
Sometimes they have to defend to be stronger and if not, we have to be creative and you can only be creative when you’re offensive.
“In defence you’re not creative and you can still get a lot of points but that’s football, I don’t like it … search for another coach.”
MELBOURNE VICTORY V ADELAIDE UNITED
AAMI Park
Kick off: Saturday, 7pm
Referee: Chris Beath
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones
TV: Fox Sports, KAYO
Possible teams
Victory
Formation: 3-4-3
Thomas
Gallifuoco
Donachie
Hoogland
Nabbout
Basha
Poulsen
Traore
Kamsoba
Toivonen
Rojas
Adelaide
Formation: 4-3-3
Izzo
Marrone
Elsey
Jakobsen
Maria
D’Arrigo
McGree
Troisi
Mileusnic
Opseth
Blackwood