Adelaide United Head Coach Airton Andrioli praised his side’s belief, discipline and game management after a superb 4-0 win over Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium on Friday night — the biggest victory for United over Glory in Isuzu UTE A-League history.
Andrioli said the performance was the reward for the principles the group has been building throughout the season, with the Reds executing a clear game plan and finishing the job with authority.
Airton on the most complete home performance of the season
“Yeah, I think it was. We put a very good performance tonight, not just the result, but the way we play. All the stuff we’ve been talking about, came together tonight, playing with belief, and all players having freedom to express themselves and to do the things they know they can do. Very pleasing with the way we start the game, the way we manage the game, and the way we finish the game. It was a very good performance tonight.”
Airton on staying focused as the ladder tightens
“All the stuff you said is true, but for us, and especially for me, people say I don’t look at the table… I don’t. I want to focus on performance and playing game by game. If you start thinking about where you can end up and where you are on the table, you need to focus on the next opponent, which is Victory. Like we did today, we had to concentrate. We had a good result last week against Sydney. We had to prepare well. We had to stay focused and concentrate to put this performance in tonight. If you do the same this week for the next game, the table will take care of itself. We want to make sure the players focus on the job in hand, which is now preparing for the next match.”
Airton on the game plan and controlling the tempo
“We have a way of playing. We had a plan tonight, and tactically you can analyse and see our game plan was clearly defined in the way we want to play. We know we are a team that can play with the ball. We know we are a transition team — if you look at the stats, how many goals we score in transition. We work on that, we want to be better in transition, but we’re a football team that picks the moment. That’s what football is about — reading the situation, being confident moving the ball, and when the opportunity opens to go forward, we do that. Even tonight in the first half, we did that well. There are moments where we force a pass and give balls away, something we still need to work on. But I’m really happy — credit to the boys. They executed the plan and the structures we have tonight very well.”
Airton on moments of leadership and players stepping up
“We know we’ve got players here capable of playing football. It’s a matter of translating the belief and confidence into performance and taking that into matches. You picked up on that very well, and it was one of the highlights of the match — not just winning the ball and then going forward straight away. That’s what we need. If we can perform like that, our football can do the rest.”
Airton on building consistency and belief through wins
“That word has been mentioned a lot this season — consistency. I think everyone is searching for that. Winning games like we did against Sydney, then backing it up and performing the way we did tonight, that’s what we need. Sometimes young players can second guess themselves. You need to play with belief. We constantly want the players to understand: go in there, enjoy yourself and play with confidence, play with conviction. Winning matches will help us minimise some of those self-inflicted situations we create for ourselves. The message is the same: be clinical in front of goal and control the tempo of the game. We’re looking to find consistency like everybody else, but hopefully winning games like this will help us a long way.”
Airton on what young players can learn from a controlled win
“The more you get exposed to those situations, the more you’re learning. For young players it’s about being exposed to that and then learning. Hopefully they can take from tonight and see the reward of being disciplined. People see the freedom and creativity, but there was a lot of discipline within the structure and the jobs each individual had to do. We have a good understanding now because we have a more consistent lineup playing. Players are standing up, and we pretty much have a first 11, or maybe 13 or 14 players that can be part of that team. It’s about doing the little things well, playing with discipline, and then the individuals shine collectively as a team. If we can continue to build on that, it’s good timing in the season. Now we regroup, prepare this week, and see if we can do the same next weekend.”