A-League: John Aloisi quiet on Brisbane Roar striker for Adelaide

Roar coach John Aloisi is keeping his cards close to his chest as to who will replace Jamie Maclaren up front.

John Aloisi is keeping his selections tight.

Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi is keeping his cards close to his chest as to who will replace Jamie Maclaren in tonight’s match against Adelaide United.

Striker Maclaren has scored in his last two Roar games but is in Thailand on Socceroos duty and will miss the clash at Coopers Stadium. Any one of half a dozen or so players could conceivably deputise for him up front, including Brett Holman, Spanish import Arana, winger Brandon Borrello, utility Dimitri Petratos, and young forwards Joey Katebian and Nick D’Agostino.

Aloisi has made his decision but was in no mood to give the opposition any hints as the Roar seek a fourth consecutive win.

“We worked on it yesterday, it seemed to work well, what we’re trying to do. Hopefully it will work really well,” Aloisi said yesterday. “At the moment, I’m not going to say who we’re thinking of starting with because I’m sure Adelaide United will be guessing.”

Maclaren missed only a handful of games last season and on those occasions was replaced by either D’Agostino, Henrique or Jean Carlos Solorzano. The latter two have since left Brisbane while D’Agostino is yet to play this campaign.

Arana and Petratos, meanwhile, featured for the first time this season last week, coming off the bench in the 1-0 win over Melbourne City.

Aloisi said it was a difficult decision as no other players in the squad share Maclaren’s attributes.

“Macca’s a different sort of player to most strikers in this league,” he said. “He plays on shoulders and makes forward runs, so we’ll have someone there who will (do that), whether it’s a No 9 who does it or a midfielder who comes from deep or a winger, because it’s important we have someone to stretch the team.”

Roar shocked some observers last week by beating City with a counter-attacking game, which could again be effective against an Adelaide side that looks to dominate possession at home.

Aloisi said just because they were adapting their game to suit specific opponents doesn’t mean they’re abandoning their own brand of football.

“One thing you’re going to get from Brisbane Roar, we’ll try and play an attacking brand of football to win football games,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you have to have more possession than the opposition, it means when you do go and attack, you attack with a purpose.”

Reds coach Guillermo Amor says there’s no guarantee Adelaide United will pull off a repeat of last year’s title-winning season and revive their campaign after another slow start. The Reds are desperate to open their account and move off the bottom of the ladder after four defeats in a row. There’s no sense of panic just yet — last season they were winless for the first eight weeks. But Amor has warned it won’t be so easy this time around, particularly with a much more youthful and inexperienced squad at his disposal.

“In football, (anything) is possible. But it’s difficult to repeat the same situation,” Amor said yesterday. “I think now we need to win the next game. If we lose five, six, seven or eight ... to repeat the situation of last year is very difficult.

“The difference with last year, the group was two, three, four years (together). This team is new — we have a lot of young players.

“We are last on the table with one point and we need a lot of things. But we don’t think about this. We think about to win tomorrow — it’s the most important now.” Amor will at least regain some experience with James Holland and Marcelo Carrusca set to return to Adelaide’s starting line-up against Brisbane.

Holland has missed the past two games with a hamstring strain. Argentine Carrusca overcame a foot injury to make his first appearance of the season off the bench in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Central Coast.

Amor would only say “it’s possible” the pair will start but it’s expected they will be rushed straight back into the team given United’s precarious position.

AAP