Wellington Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano remains “very optimistic about the future” and believes his team is close to turning the corner.
The Phoenix have lost five of their past six matches to slip seven points adrift of the top six, and host inform Sydney FC at Sky Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Sky Blues are unbeaten in their past five matches and are coming off three-goal wins in their past two matches to rise to sixth on the ladder.
Italiano says there’s no special formula for lifting the team’s spirits when its low on confidence.
“I’m experiencing this for the first time as a head coach,” he told media before training on Tuesday. “I’m learning a lot about myself and the playing group.
“I don’t have a perfect answer for you to say this is going to work, because if it was that easy everyone would be doing it.
“It’s really going to come down to how hard the group works and rallies behind each other.
“The reality is not to make any excuses about why we’re here, it’s just about getting on with it.
“There’s going to be a game where something significant happens, or we need to step up, or we get a bounce of the ball and the confidence comes back flowing.”
Italiano concedes his side is going through a tough period, but was “very happy with the performance against Adelaide” on Saturday despite the 2-1 defeat.
“We took it to a team with a relatively inexperienced team on the park in terms of the collective.
“Unfortunately, we made some errors and it cost us
“But if they can keep putting those performances in we’ll get there.
“I’m still very optimistic about the future, I’m optimistic about this team.
“We have three players that started from last year’s team so it is really a new team at the moment. It needs time to find its feet.”
Sydney FC are playing in Wellington for the first time since former Nix coach Ufuk Talay took over the Sky Blues and Italiano is looking forward to catching up with his old mentor.
“Definitely not before the game, maybe after.”
It is no surprise to him that Talay has overcome a slow start to now have Sydney just four points off the top of the table.
“I think he’s got some players back on the park now. They’re starting to build a bit of cohesion.
“He also is…building it more to what he likes.
“He’s doing a great job there. I think last season was an epic result to get third or fourth from where he was. He took a squad that was very disenfranchised and did very well.
“And this season he’s got some good players and you can tell that some of the young players he has as well are going to be very good players in the future.
“He’s got good chemistry within the team and I have to respect them.”
Giancarlo Italiano has a limited squad to pick from with club captain Alex Rufer (illness) and fullback Tim Payne (injury) still sidelined alongside long-term absentees Stefan Colakovski and Marco Rojas.
Teenager Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues has also been ruled out after picking up an injury at training this week, and fellow forwards David Ball and Oskar van Hattum are no longer in the first team squad.
Italiano still believes he has the players to beat Sydney.
“Always. If I go into a game thinking I can’t win, then I’m not the right coach.
“It doesn’t matter what players you give me, I always come up with a gameplan to make sure that we’re competitive.
“Again, if we can eliminate some unforced errors, and [the] timing [of them]. Not giving up these goals keeps us in the games for longer.
“So we can definitely get a result tomorrow.”
The round 14 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC is scheduled to kick-off at Sky Stadium in Wellington at 7pm Wednesday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 3 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 16 March 2024 – Wellington Phoenix 2 Sydney FC 1
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 16W, Sydney 27W & 6D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (one to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 12. Mo AL-TAAY, 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 36. Xuan LOKE, 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER.Unavailable: 6. Tim PAYNE (injured), 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 14. Alex RUFER (c) (illness), 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES (injured), 21. Marco ROJAS (injured).
Sydney FC squad (two to be omitted): 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (gk), 3. Aaron GURD, 4. Jordan COURTNEY-PERKINS, 5. Hayden MATTHEWS, 6. Corey HOLLMAN, 7. Adrian SEGECIC, 8. Anas OUAHIM, 9. Patryk KLIMALA, 10. Joe LOLLEY, 12. Harrison DEVENISH-MEARES (gk), 13. Pat WOOD, 15. Leo SENA, 16. Joel KING, 17. Anthony CACERES, 20. Tiago QUINTAL, 21. Zac DE JESUS, 23. Rhyan GRANT (c), 25. Jaiden KUCHARSKI, 29. Joe LACEY, 41. Alex POPOVIC.
Unavailable: 11. Douglas COSTA (injured).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
