Heading into their fourth match in ten days, Ufuk Talay’s side are six matches unbeaten and take on Brisbane Roar on Saturday afternoon at Allianz Stadium.
Despite sitting at the foot of the table, Talay is vary of the threat that Brisbane pose and also provided an update on three of his players.
On Wednesday night they drew 0-0 with Wellington Phoenix at Sky Stadium and landed back in the country on Thursday afternoon, giving them one training session before the Roar game.
Despite the travel and the backlog of games, the Head Coach believes the tactical changes they have made are paying dividends.
“Moving Rhyan [Grant] into that central defensive role has made a massive difference for us, giving leadership and experience for our youthful backline.
“We’ve tweaked a few things as well in the way that we set up which has also helped but I also really like the players’ response to that,” Talay said.
“We’re building some good momentum at the moment and even though Brisbane are at the bottom, the table can be quite deceiving and they’re a good team that try to play football.”
Before this as well, Ufuk Talay was also asked about the status of a number of players including Max Burgess, Douglas Costa and Patrick Wood.
“Douglas we are still thinking early February for him hopefully. If he comes back earlier than that, fantastic, but at the moment we are tracking towards then.
“Patrick will go on loan to Perth Glory which is important for him to get minutes of football and consistent minutes at that. We have that relationship with Davey [Zdrilic] and I think it’s important for Patty to go.
“Max is still part of our squad, he’s been here for a long time and the team is doing well at the moment which makes it hard for Maxxy at the moment.
“We’ve got some quality young players who are stepping up and doing a fantastic job for the team as well so he is still working with the group and he needs to continue to work to get his spot back in the team,” Talay said.
