With November’s hectic calendar drawing to a close, Roar coach Ange Postecoglou says he’s looking forward to some normalcy in Brisbane’s training schedule over the coming weeks.
Speaking after last night-s win over Perth Glory, Postecoglou said having more regular sessions on the training field after playing six Hyundai A-League fixtures in 21 days would make a huge difference to his table-topping team.
Their recent run of games, which included three midweek clashes since the beginning of the month, means the Brisbane players have seen more focus on recovery and game analysis, instead of hard ball sessions on the Ballymore pitch.
“We-re looking forward to having some normal training weeks and work on some of the things that have crept into our game over the past few weeks,” he said.
“It-s nothing major or drastic, you can-t really blame the players, we-ve got so many games after another that you tend to focus on playing and being right physically and sometimes mentally you tend to go through the motions a little bit.”
After Sunday-s clash with fourth-placed Central Coast Mariners, Brisbane will see a better timed fixture list and won-t play another Wednesday night fixture until the middle of January.
“We-ve obviously got a big game on the weekend against one of the other teams that are doing really well, they-re a good side so I-m sure the boys will be up for that,” Postecoglou said.
“After that, we get into a fairly regular routine which is good.”
With Brisbane equalling the Hyundai A-League longest unbeaten streak of 13 games with their 3-2 victory over Perth, the Brisbane mentor said the record hadn-t played on the minds of his players coming into the clash.
“It-s not that we-re ignoring it, but we-ve had so many games that it just creeps up on you,” he said.
“You-re just so focused on the next game and I know the players have been, and us as coaches, we haven-t looked at that but it has been a remarkable feat by the players, considering the program we-ve had.
“It-s been 13 games, but it-s been 13 tough games – we-ve had to travel away, play a lot of midweek games and back up for a lot of games.”
Despite collecting 14 points from a possible 18 so far this month, Postecoglou said his troops would leave celebrating accomplishments until the season end.
“We-ve won the majority of those games as well, it-s not like we-ve been drawing a lot of them – it-s a credit to the players and their effort,” he said.
“I think all those things will be good when we reflect back on them but at the moment, when you-re in the middle of it, you just keep going.”
Brisbane Roar travel south to play Central Coast Mariners on Sunday 28 November. Kick-off at Bluetongue Stadium is at 4pm AEDT.
