Craig Deans says the Jets still need to fine-tune parts of their game following their 1-1 draw against Western Sydney on Saturday.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets assistant coach Craig Deans says the Jets still have plenty to improve on following their 1-1 draw against Western Sydney Wanderers at Wanderers Oval on Saturday.
Newcastle lacked much of the fluency and rhythm they have shown in earlier trial matches this pre-season and Deans was the first to admit the Jets were below their best against the A-League-s newest Club.
“I think from our point of view we were a little bit disappointed with the performance,” he said.
“We expect to control the game a little bit more and be a bit more positive with the ball.
“It wasn-t a great performance, but again it is another game under the belt and there are some positives as well.”
Deans said the Jets still had to fine-tune aspects of their play to ensure they were capitalising on the possession they had.
“I think in the middle of the park, we didn-t use the ball as well as we would-ve hoped,” he said.
“The decision making with the final pass, whether to pass or dribble or shoot is something we need to continue to work on.
“In the front third, we need to be a bit more clinical when we do get the ball in a good area.
“You want to have a good performance and see improvement from game to game. Saturday was a little bit disappointing from that point of view, but you can learn from each game and we-ll do that.”
One positive from Saturday-s match was Scott Neville-s stunning goal that put the Jets ahead, continuing a theme of goals being scored by Jets defenders this pre-season.
“I don-t think Scott will score too many more like that one,” Deans said.
“Craig Goodwin can also strike a ball and he gets into good positions.
“It-s fantastic to have your defenders scoring goals, but they-re not going to do that on a regular basis, so you need to get the rest of the performance right and we-ve now got three weeks before the start of the season to do that.”
Saturday-s match against Western Sydney doubled as the Season Launch for Newcastle Jets Members.
Close to 4,000 Jets Members attended the event and Deans said that kind of support was a promising sign for the season ahead.
“It-s the first time we-ve had the opportunity to do something like this. To have all the Members there with all the red and blue shirts and caps was fantastic,” he said.
“When you-re sitting on the sideline and you look up and see a whole crowd full of our Members with their colours on, it-s a great thing and hopefully it-s something we can do every year.”
