The Wellington Phoenix are going back to what worked for them last season as they endeavour to bounce back from successive defeats in the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League.
The Phoenix visit Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday evening after 2-1 losses to Auckland FC and Macarthur FC on back-to-back weekends.
It’s a new experience for Giancarlo Italiano in his second season as head coach.
“It was always going to happen,” Italiano told media before training on Friday. “I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve had a lot of good results.
“We’re not panicked or anything like that. It’s nowhere near that.
“If you switch off for five minutes in this league you get punished.
“We switched off for a couple of minutes [against Macarthur] and we didn’t recover well on the second goal. Even the first goal I was really disappointed with the pressure on the ball at such an early part of the game.
“I felt like we were a little bit, I don’t want to say the word flat because that implies fatigue, it was more of a mental focus.
“I think that’s stuff we can fix. It’s nothing too extreme.
“For me the most important thing is the consistency. These are things that aren’t about talent. It’s more about the mindset.”
To get the right mindset “the refocus now is on a game-by-game proposition”.
“We’re going to go back to controlling what we can and we’re going to get back to what works for us.
“I don’t want to be talking about winning the competition or any of that because that just drives expectation and anxiety that’s not needed.
“We’re a very humble team, we work very hard and we’re going to go back to being grounded and things will play out how they will.”
Italiano is also done with talking about Auckland FC.
“We’re still early in the piece. Every week I think everyone is talking about Auckland and us as if we’re the only two teams in the competition. I know we’re the only two teams in New Zealand.
“But the season’s got a long way to play out. There’s a lot of twists and turns and a couple of injuries to either squad and it can look very different maybe in a month or two.”
And he doesn’t want to hear about the Phoenix’s perfect record in Australia so far this season.
“It doesn’t matter for me now. I’m not worrying about any records or any stats.
“We just need to focus on what we need to which is the next half of football and then the second half of football after that.”
Giancarlo Italiano will be forced to make at least one change to his matchday squad, with forward Stefan Colakovski ruled out for the remainder of the season with a serious knee injury.
“It’s very unfortunate. Cola in the small time he’s been here he’s made a huge impact on the group.
“He’s a great kid, has a lot of talent and we were starting to see glimpses of it in games.
“It’s disappointing because I think he would have given us something different.”
Young forwards Luke Supyk, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues and Luke Brooke-Smith are all “chomping at the bit and waiting for an opportunity”.
“Their time will come. We’re trying to make sure they’re settled first.
“If you play too many young players quickly and the expectation is high and they don’t have the experience, it’s a bit of an interesting mix.
“You have to balance these things and make sure you don’t expose those players too quickly too soon and also need to rein it in when it’s needed.”
The ninth round Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers is scheduled to kick-off at CommBank Stadium in Sydney at 7pm (5pm AEDT) Sunday and will be broadcast LIVE on Sky Sport 1 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 23 December 2023 – Wellington Phoenix 3 Western Sydney Wanderers 0
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 13W, Wanderers 14W & 7D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted):1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON (c), 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 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: 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured).
Western Sydney Wanderers squad (two to be omitted): 2. Gabriel CLEUR, 4. Alex BONETIG, 5. Dylan SCICLUNA, 7. Zac SAPSFORD, 9. Marcys ANTONSSON, 10. Alex BADOLATO, 12. Ben HOLLIDAY, 13. Dean PELEKANOS, 14. Nicolas MILANOVIC, 18. Oscar PRIESTMAN, 19. Jack CLISBY, 20. Lawrence THOMAS (gk) (c), 21. Ayda HAMMOND, 22. Anthony PANTAZOPOULOS, 23. Bozhidar KRAEV, 25. Josh BRILLANTE, 26. Brandon BORRELLO, 27. James TEMELKOVSKI, 30. Jordan HOLMES (gk), 64. Juan MATA.
Unavailable: 8. Jeong TAE-WOOK (injured), 31. Aidan SIMMONS (injured).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
