Glory Head Coach has praised the work done by his Central Coast Mariners counterpart Nick Montgomery ahead of Saturday’s clash between the two sides at Macedonia Park (kick-off at 7pm, tickets HERE).
The men from Gosford will head west riding high in second spot in the A-League standings and buoyed by an away win over Brisbane Roar last time out.
But while keenly aware of the threat the visitors will pose, Zadkovich is quietly confident that his charges can get the better of them and in doing so, bounce back from last weekend’s first home defeat of the season against Melbourne City.
View his full pre-match media conference HERE.
“The Mariners are a very good team,” he said.
“They’re very solid and they ask a lot of questions going forward.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for what Monty is doing at that club and a lot of respect for the way they play and the way they go about their business.
“So we expect a very difficult game.
“They’re up in second for a reason and it’s not through luck; it’s through some good football.
“We know what they’re about, we’ve done our analysis and we know where we have to be strong.
“We think we’ve got some areas where we can ask some questions as well and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.
“There were huge amounts of positives out of that game [v City] and what we’re focusing on is continuing that momentum, trying to get back on the front foot pretty quickly and make sure we get a result this weekend.”
The Head Coach went on to provide an update regarding the fitness of key trio Salim Khelifi, Aaron McEneff and Adam Taggart.
“It’s all looking positive this week… most of those guys are making some really good headway,” he said.
“Salim has got the boots back on and he’s training, which is a positive and he’s doing really well.
“He’s slowly training himself into contention again, but I’m still not sure if he may or may not play some part [on Saturday].
“If it’s not this weekend, then he’ll definitely be close.
“Aaron is actually building really nicely… he’s got to get some clearance from the surgeon for the next phase of his progression in training, but he’s looking really good.
“Taggs is looking good.
“He’s trained really well this week and again, it’s a step by step process.
“We’re really trying to make sure we look at the long-term for him and not just throw him in the deep end.
“He missed a fair bit of football and had a couple of niggles that we needed to sort out and the good thing is that his attitude has been fantastic.
“It’s been nice to see him get some minutes for us and he’s working his way into contention, for sure.”
Central Coast’s impressive campaign to date has been built upon a relatively small core of players, including Socceroos forward Jason Cummings, who has scored ten goals and provided three assists, Cote d’Ivoire import Beni NKololo, who has found the net five times and former Glory ‘keeper Danny Vukovic, who has made 40 saves and kept three clean sheets.
One of their six defeats this term came in Round 3 when Glory ran out 2-1 winners at Central Coast Stadium and in the last 12 meetings between the two clubs, the Mariners have claimed the spoils on just two occasions.
Match Details
ISUZU UTE A-League 2022/23 Season Round 17
Perth Glory v Central Coast Mariners
Macedonia Park
Saturday 18 February 2023
Kick-off: 7pm WST
Perth Glory Squad: 2.John KOUTROUMBIS, 3.Jacob DOWSE, 4.Luke BODNAR, 5.Mark BEEVERS, 7.Ryan WILLIAMS, 8.Mustafa AMINI (c), 13.Cameron COOK (gk),14.Jack CLISBY, 15.Jordan ELSEY, 16.Keegan JELACIC, 18.David WILLIAMS, 19.Zach DUNCAN, 20.Giordano COLLI, 21.Antonee BURKE-GILROY, 22.Adam TAGGART, 28.Trent OSTLER, 30.Pierce CLARK (gk), 36.Joseph FORDE, 37.Jacob MUIR, 43.Adam ZIMARINO
Ins: 20.Giordano COLLI, 36.Joseph FORDE, 37.Jacob MUIR
Outs: 29.Darryl LACHMAN
Unavailable: 1.Brad JONES (gk) (injured), 6.Aaron MCENEFF (injured), 10.Salim KHELIFI (injured), 24.Adrian SARDINERO (injured), 29.Darryl LACHMAN (suspended)
Central Coast Mariners squad: 3. Brian KALTAK, 4. Joshua NISBET, 5. James MCGARRY, 6. Maximilien BALARD, 7 Samuel SILVERA, 9. Jason CUMMINGS, 10. Matheus MORESCHE, 11. Beni NKOLOLO, 13. Harry STEELE, 14. Dylan WENZEL-HALLS, 15. Storm ROUX, 18. Jacob FARRELL, 20 Danny VUKOVIC (gk) (c), 22. Cameron WINDUST, 23. Daniel HALL, 24. Yaren SOZER (gk), 25 Nectarios TRIANTIS, 28. James BAYLISS, 31. Christian THEOHAROUS, 98. Marco TULIO
Ins: 3. Brian KALTAK, 10. Matheus MORESCHE
Outs: 27. Sasha KUZEVSKI, 47. Olayinka Sunmola
Unavailable: 26. Bradley TAPP (injured)
#ONEGlory
