One week after putting Melbourne Victory’s hope of playing finals football on life support, Western United will look to continue their own unlikely playoff resuscitation at the expense of another this week when they travel to Queensland to take on Brisbane Roar. But they know their foes won’t go quietly.
Goals from strike duo Noah Botić and Aleksander Prijović lifted the defending A-League Men champions to their third straight win on Monday; the three points earned from a 2-1 triumph over Victory propelling them up into seventh on the table, just two points back of Sydney FC.
Having sat second-bottom of the league just a month ago, United’s run of success against the sides around them – their winning streak forged against Newcastle, Perth, and Victory – has been enough to turbocharge a run up the table. Now, they will get the chance to prosper at the expense of another one of their bottom six rivals on Saturday in the form of the Roar.
Losers of their last two games, the Queenslanders now sit second-bottom of the ALM heading into this weekend, seven points adrift of Sydney five back of Western. A win by the Green and Black, combined with a Sky Blue triumph in the Sydney Derby, would effectively wreck the increasingly faint hopes that the Roar hold of staging an unlikely run to the finals.
It’s a form guide that suggests that the visitors should be able to get the job done. But they’re also stakes that have their coach John Aloisi wary of what awaits them in Redcliffe.
“We know it’s going to be a difficult game because going up to Brisbane is never easy,” he said. “They’re a side that probably for them, they’ll think that this is their last opportunity to really make that finals push.
“We’re focused, we’re making sure that we prepare the same as we have been in the last three games when we’ve got those results that we needed.
“Some teams deal with [high stakes] differently. Some deal with it better than others. You can’t really say. All you know is that they’re going to give everything, that’s for sure.
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“Victory, when they got their goal, they got a lift, the fans lifted them as well and I expect the same in Brisbane. They’re in that little boutique stadium, they’ll get a lift from their fans.
“They’ll have energy and then you just have to try and shut them up as much as possible by playing well and limiting their chances and hopefully grabbing a goal yourself and getting the lead.”
Alosi anticipates bringing a squad unchanged from the one that defeated Victory with him to Queensland, with the injured James Troisi and Ramy Najjarine both targeted for a return following the international break.
This likely means that the strike force of Botic and Prijovic will start once again this weekend, a different look from the last meeting between the pair, when Prijovic started up top and Alessandro Diamanti, in a rare start this year, slotted in behind.
“It doesn’t really change the approach,” the United boss said of the two-striker system. “When you get into the final third you get as many bodies into the box as possible. It’s just now you’ve got natural strikers getting in there. It’s a little bit more natural for them.
“Depending on the personnel that we have at the back, there are your fullbacks, do they get forward, can your wingers come inside? Then you can play without a natural number ten.
“Or if you play with a number ten your winger might stay a little bit wider and you create space for your attacking midfielder. It depends on who you have available, what you’re trying to achieve, and where you see a weakness in the opposition.
“But the actual approach doesn’t change from us, it’s still the same approach.”
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Header Image Credit: Western United
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