Another major test of the Wellington Phoenix’s depth.
The Phoenix are without six contracted players for Monday night’s Isuzu UTE A-League match against Macarthur FC at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in Sydney.
Versatile defender Matt Sheridan has joined Alex Rufer, Tim Payne, Marco Rojas, Stefan Colakovski and Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues on the sidelines after suffering a concussion in Wednesday night’s scoreless draw with Sydney FC.
The recent departure of Iraq international Mo Al-Taay leaves Phoenix coach Giancarlo Italiano with just 19 fit players, one of which is uncontracted reserves midfielder Lachlan Candy.
Fortunately fullback Sam Sutton is “fine and ready to go” on Monday night, despite suffering a nasty-looking injury against Sydney.
“He’ll start,” Italiano told media after training on Sunday. “At the moment whoever can run, will start.
“We’ve got a couple of boys on the bench that have had a long break and I’m putting them at a risk by putting them on the bench, but that’s all that’s available.
“And it is what it is and I’m not going to make it an excuse because we were shorthanded last game and the game before and these guys all pulled through with very good performances.
“I just need 11 players, and I need six players off the bench that can give me just their heart and soul. And I think that will be good enough.”
Italiano remains an “eternal optimist” and believes there have been positive signs in their past two matches.
“I thought we put in a good performance against Adelaide. We were very unlucky to not get something out of that game.
“I thought we played really well against Sydney. We might not have created a lot of chances, but we defended quite well and were in the game for large parts.
“We have a lot of players out at the moment and there’s an opportunity for these other players to come in like Corban Piper, [Nathan] Walker…and big Lukas [Kelly-Heald] is back now.
“I’m really buoyed by the fact now that even though we’re experiencing some issues with depth these boys are now all stepping up for me.
“The team is going through a bit of suffering, which is good. It’s part of becoming a better team.
“And it’s literally step-by-step. We’re going to grind game-by-game, we’re going to work hard [and] we’re going to stick to what we believe in.
“The moment will come where we’ll win a game and we’ll look at what’s happened over the last month or so and take it as a blessing.”
The Nix sit 10th on the ladder, seven points behind fifth-placed Macarthur, but Giancarlo Italiano isn’t looking at the top six.
“I’m looking at the performance of the first half, performing well, making sure I have 11 fit players and then building on that first half.
“It’s literally a game-by-game proposition now.
“I’m more focused on the performance because I know if we keep performing like we did in the last couple of games the outcome will work itself out. The top six will work itself out if we’re good enough.
“I don’t want to really focus on that too much. I think we need to go back to a more measured approach…game-by-game.”
The two sides met at Sky Stadium last month, with Macarthur prevailing 2-1.
“What have I learned? That you need to be focused defending for 90 minutes. That’s what I learnt from that game.
“We had a poor five minutes at the start of that game at home. There were a lot issues in the phase leading up to the penalty that we conceded, which was disappointing.
“It was probably one of our best games with the ball. We actually had long periods with the ball that we were quite effective. [Hideki] Ishige, [Marco] Rojas and Kosta [Barbarouses] started building combinations and it was very promising.
“Then unfortunately we got to the end part of the game and I didn’t think we defended that well and we got punished for it.
“We won’t be making those mistakes again.”
The round 15 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Macarthur FC is scheduled to kick-off at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in Sydney at 9pm (7pm AEDT) Monday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 3 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 14 December 2024 – Wellington Phoenix 1 Macarthur FC 2
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 7W, Macarthur 3W & 2D.
Wellington Phoenix squad: 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 36. Xuan LOKE, 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER, 46. Lachlan CANDY.Unavailable: 6. Tim PAYNE (injured), 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 14. Alex RUFER (c) (illness), 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES (injured), 21. Marco ROJAS (injured), 27. Matt SHERIDAN (concussion protocol).
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, 20. Kealey ADAMSON, 21. BERNARDO, 22. Liam ROSE, 23. Frans DELI, 24. Dean BOSNJAK, 26. Luke BRATTAN, 28. Harrison SAWYER, 30. Alexander ROBINSON (gk), 44. Marin JAKOLIS, 98. Valere GERMAIN (c).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
