Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano is ready to resume “business as usual” when Macarthur FC visit Sky Stadium on Saturday evening.
A derby defeat to Auckland FC last weekend has not changed anything in the Phoenix camp.
“Morale is fine, the boys are fine,” Italiano told media on Friday morning. “We’ve had a good week of training, the boys are refocused, and looking forward to the Macarthur Bulls.
“I was proud of the playing group, they did what I asked. I think that in small parts, execution-wise, we could have been a little bit better.
“We were a little bit sloppy with the ball, we had some really big moments that we failed to capitalise on.
“I said in the post-match conference that a lot of teams would have given up at 2-0. We were still on the front foot, we were still trying to break them down.”
While Macarthur are the top scorers in the A-League with fourteen goals, they have conceded eleven and currently sit in eighth place.
The Phoenix also match up well against Macarthur, having beaten them three times last season.
“I think it’s that stylistically they’re a little bit more open as a team. They’re a bit more expansive, which can punish teams. But I feel that it suits our style.
“They’re still probably finding their feet. They’ve got some new players in, like Luke Brattan and Marin Jakolis.
“It’ll probably take time, like all these teams that have new players in. I’m pretty sure they’ll find their feet and they’ll be thereabouts at the end of the season.”
Lukas Kelly-Heald has made the matchday squad for the first time this season after recovering from a quad injury.
Meanwhile, Marco Rojas is pushing towards a starting berth after some lively cameos off the bench.
“Potentially this weekend Marco might be starting, we’ll see how training goes today.
“Obviously every week we’re moving closer towards him making a bigger impact for the team.”
Italiano’s in-game adjustments have been a key part of his tactical setup, and they have often come up trumps for the Nix.
“I always change things and go with the feel of the game, same as with Auckland, the one against Melbourne Victory, and the Mariners when I changed it three or four times.
“It’s more of a feel thing. Sometimes you have a game plan, the players try to execute what you were trying to do and it doesn’t work.
“Changing the formation fixes a lot of those problems. I’ll do no different there, it just depends on what Macarthur do and how our players play.”
The players have also become comfortable shifting between setups within a game.
“Of course every move is information based, but we’re a principle based team.
“Whether you play a 4-3-3, or a 3-4-3, things don’t change in terms of intention, just ideas of where the vulnerability is, where to attack, where the space is and so on.
“Is there more information? I don’t think there is really. They’ll play what’s in front of them, and a lot of the game is based on instinct. Our job is to make sure that they can see that.”
Even the starting formation depends on the matchup.
“It really depends on the opposition, what they give us. We plan accordingly.
“My preference is always to have four at the back when we have our strongest team, but sometimes a five might nullify a team that loves loading the line.
“We did that at the beginning part of the year, and thought it was a good solution.
“If you want to be a little bit more expansive, and on the front foot, a back four means that you can put one extra player up top, whether it be a midfielder or an attacker.
“If I had everyone available, I wanted to be on the front foot from the start and had the players who could come off the bench and finish the game plan, a four would be ideal.”
The eighth round Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Macarthur FC is scheduled to kick-off at Sky Stadium in Wellington at 5pm Saturday and will be broadcast free-to-air on Sky Open and LIVE on Sky Sport 2 in New Zealand, and LIVE on Paramount+ and 10 Bold in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 27 April 2024 – Wellington Phoenix 3 Macarthur FC 0
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 7W, Macarthur 2W & 2D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON (c), 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI, 12. Mo AL-TAAY, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 21. Marco ROJAS, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER.
Unavailable: 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE (injured).
Macarthur FC squad (two to be omitted): 5. Matthew JURMAN, 6. Tomislav USKOK, 7. Daniel DE SILVA, 8. Jake HOLLMAN, 11. Jed DREW, 12. Filip KURTO (gk), 13. Ivan VUJICA, 15. Dino ARSLANAGIC, 16. Oliver JONES, 18. Walter SCOTT, 19. Ariath PIOL, 20. Kealey ADAMSON, 21. BERNARDO, 22. Liam ROSE, 23. Frans DELI, 24. Dean BOSNJAK, 26. Luke BRATTAN, 30. Alexander ROBINSON (gk), 44. Marin JAKOLIS, 98. Valere GERMAIN (c).
Unavailable: 9. Chris IKONOMIDIS (injured).
Main photo: Cam McIntosh/Photomac
