Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou may be a hard taskmaster, but he’s relishing the scrutiny his side is attracting as they seek to successfully defend their title as Hyundai A-League Champions.
Brisbane Roar Head Coach Ange Postecoglou may be a hard taskmaster, but he-s relishing the scrutiny his side is attracting as they seek to successfully defend their title as Hyundai A-League Champions.
The Central Coast Mariners may have a stranglehold on top spot with a third of the season left to play, but Postecoglou said his side would continue to chase the side from Gosford.
However, the Roar mentor said the key focus for his side would be to head into the finals series in good form.
“I-ve always thought the key thing to winning Championships is to go into finals in good form,” Postecoglou said.
“That could be from sixth, fifth, fourth position or whatever it is.
“You don-t want to be limping into finals.
“If you want to win the big trophy, that-s the key.
“You-re always chasing until someone tells you that you can-t win something.
“If we-re in good form, it means we-re getting good results and we may be bridging the gap.
“At the moment we-re not in the fantastic kind of form we need to be in, so that-s the focus.”
The fantastic form Postecoglou speaks of led the squad to a 36-game unbeaten run in the Hyundai A-League, something which was abruptly brought to an end by five losses on the bounce.
Brisbane have since arrested that stretch with five unbeaten game, however Postecoglou welcomed the intense dissection of his team-s performances.
“What we have done in the past 18 months is to raise the expectations of ourselves as a football club,” he said.
“If you look at it from an objective point of view, we won it last year and we-re sitting in second spot now.
“For a club who hadn-t won anything before and historically going back-to-back has never been done, so from those perspectives we-re traveling okay.
“We set some pretty high standards and we-re getting measured against them and rightly so.
“We-re not quite where we were last year or where we were earlier this year so we-ve got to get back up there.
“For us a top two finish is vital, but it-s not going to be an easy run in for us because we have the Champions League hanging over our heads as well so it-s going to be a real challenge.”
The next challenge facing Postecoglou-s charges is Saturday-s clash with the Newcastle Jets at Suncorp Stadium.
Kick-off for the match is 6.45pm and tickets are available through Ticketek on 132 849 or by purchasing online here.
