Andrioli reassured despite City loss | OneFootball

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Adelaide United

·31 May 2023

Andrioli reassured despite City loss

Article image:Andrioli reassured despite City loss

Adelaide United Youth Head Coach, Airton Andrioli, had only words of encouragement for his playing group despite a 1-3 defeat to rivals, Adelaide City, at the weekend.

Andrioli felt his side remained true to their style and played to their strengths, and could have snatched the game from City, who took a 0-1 lead at the interval.


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The individual brilliance of Aladin Irabona hurt the Reds every time they regathered momentum, with a hat-trick to see the game out for the visitors.

“Results-wise we lost the game, but if we dive deeper and analyse the performance, I have to say that I was really happy with the way we played,” Andrioli said.

“My message to the group particularly after the game was to remain calm and remain proud of the way they played, because they put in a good performance.

“We’ll pick ourselves up and be ready for Olympic this week.”

United fielded a young side against City that was also hurt by the dismissal of Musa Toure after 72 minutes when they were pushing for an equaliser.

Forward, Luka Jovanović, started and scored United’s consolation as their most senior player, before he departs for the FPF Portugal Sub-18 tournament with the Young Socceroos.

The game also featured maiden minutes for Giorgio Parhas, Luka Blazevic, and Bae Versace, and those are the players that Andrioli will need to call upon at times during the run-in to finals.

Fergus Lynch also played his first game of Senior football following a year recovering from a torrid injury run, in positive news individually and for the squad.

“Along with the performance, it’s really good to see these guys getting minutes and Fergus make his return to Senior football as well which only improves our depth,” he said.

“Even with 10 players we still kept on pushing and speaking with Carl (Veart) after the game and he was really pleased as well.

“It’s a priority for us to keep developing these players.”

The Reds’ Reserves were also beaten 1-2 by City, who cancelled out Mohammed Hassan’s opener.

Changing dynamic:Andrioli admits the ever-changing dynamic of the squad of late can be challenging but is steadfast in preparing every player for the tribulations of first team football.

It’s certainly a case of ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’, for a United side that has had to reach into the development studio recently to field players for their RAA NPL sides.

“Despite the changes to our team weekend to weekend lately, we were still up to a very good standard, and this makes me excited for the future,” Andrioli said.

“With the upcoming Joeys tournament, we will likely see some more opportunities to some players who haven’t been with the Seniors before, which is only a good thing.

“It is a similar situation even when the A-League is on, because they are expected to perform with a new group at any given time which is the environment we instil.”

Digging deep:United will next travel to Adelaide Olympic in what looms as a tantalising fixture on Saturday under lights.

Despite a Reds outfit still seven points clear in third position, Andrioli will ensure his young group do not take anything for granted in this league.

“We are aware and often find that teams find that extra bit of motivation and raise the bar against us, so we need to maintain a high standard of play and go into each game prepared for a battle,” Andrioli said.

“Olympic are finding a bit of form and will be a tough team to break down, so we’ll have to stick together and play the way we want to play.

“Results aren’t everything and all of the experiences, both positive and negative, mould professional footballers.”

The Reserves will kick off a twilight fixture against Olympic at 3:45pm at Apex Football Stadium (Pitch 2), before the Seniors clash at 6:00pm on the main pitch.

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