Central Coast Mariners Head Coach Phil Moss says his players must start making the most of the big moments in their matches as the Club heads into a busy period of Hyundai A-League clashes combined with its 2014 AFC Champions League campaign.
Central Coast Mariners Head Coach Phil Moss says his players must start making the most of the big moments in their matches as the Club heads into a busy period of Hyundai A-League clashes combined with its 2014 AFC Champions League campaign.
Moss-s Mariners will take on Ernie Merrick-s Wellington Phoenix in Gosford on Friday night, before venturing to Korea Republic to take on FC Seoul next Tuesday in the yellow and navy-s first fixture of the 2014 version of Asia-s premier club competition.
The Mariners will return to Gosford next Thursday morning, before taking on southern foes Sydney FC on the banks of the Brisbane Water on Saturday 1 March.
With the Mariners currently on a run of three successive defeats in the league, Moss said his men have been working hard this week to address the “small things” that can make a big difference on matches at the highest level.
“It-s never nice to lose games, especially three on the trot,” Moss said. “We-re working towards an end goal and we-ve got a holistic plan in place for the club. We-ve got to keep working in the right direction (and) I believe we are doing that regardless of the results.”
“The attitude and the focus in the dressing room is very good (and) it-s just the small things that we have to address — we have to seize the big moments in games. At the moment a little bit of sloppiness here and there is hurting us.”
Moss highlighted that his side must maintain larger spells of possession and make the most of its opportunities in the final third if the club is to achieve its first season goal of qualifying for the end of season league playoffs.
Thus far in Mariners history the Club has qualified for six Hyundai A-League Finals Series, and Moss wants to ensure that that fine record is only enhanced under his leadership.
“Our execution in the final third is hurting us, but it-s also the build up, because we-re forcing passes where we shouldn-t and we have been giving away cheap possession,” he explained.
“I think in the last three weeks against Brisbane, Melbourne Victory and Adelaide the possession statistics have not looked good in our favour, so that is something we have to work on.
“At the end of the day you can-t create chances and score goals without the ball, and when you give up as much ball as we-re giving up it allows quality teams to hurt you, and that-s pretty much been the story of the last three weeks.
“We-re not far away, but it-s the attention to detail, and that-s something that we-ve really been working hard on this week.”
With Matt Simon, Josh Rose, Nick Fitzgerald and Brent Griffiths all suspended for Friday-s clash, Moss will need to shuffle his pack against ‘Nix. But despite not having a full deck of players to select from, the former Manly United man is looking on the bright side.
“I am not worried about that to be honest,” he said. “With the Asian games coming up and the trip to Korea next week there was always going to be a situation where we rested players and rotated a few boys in and out.”
“Kim (Seung-yong) will start on Friday. He-s fitted in very well on and off the field here and his quality is there for all to see.”
“It-s pretty much a race between ‘Dukey- (Mitchell Duke) and Mile Sterjovski for the number nine spot.”
“-Hutch- (John Hutchinson) is in contention. Hutch has trained well this week — he-s a real leader, a great clubman.
“We had a good chat about things earlier in the week to clarify why I didn-t select him last week and he-s fine with that.”
“I don-t expect any player to be happy about missing out on the starting eleven but certainly his (Hutchinson-s) attitude this week has been fantastic. He galvanises the dressing room and he-ll continue to do so whether he-s starting or is on the bench,” Moss concluded.
Central Coast Mariners FC vs. Wellington Phoenix FC – Hyundai A-League 2013/14 round 20
Friday 21 February 2014
Central Coast Stadium, Gosford
Kick-off: 7:30pm
Tickets: Please CLICK HERE to purchase tickets to the match
Twitter: Join the match conversation on Twitter! The official match hashtag is #CCMvWEL
Television: Live on Fox Sports 1 & 1HD, Live on SBS TWO
Radio: Listen on ABC Grandstand or Coast FM
