Gary van Egmond says he will look to make changes to his team following their 3-0 loss to Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond says he will look to make changes to his team following their 3-0 loss to Wellington Phoenix at Hunter Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Van Egmond said he was disappointed with the Jets- ability to execute their game plan against the Phoenix.
“At the end of the day, we-ve being going through this with some of the players for a good 15 or 16 months who were here last year and if they-re not going to get it, then we just need to change (personnel),” van Egmond said.
“We-ll just see what we-ve got in regards to fit bodies and that will come into it, but we need to change.
“I think the philosophy has always been the same, it-s just a case of implementing it. From my point of view I-m not happy with the way it is being implemented consistently over the course of a game so we need to change.”
Van Egmond pinpointed a number of scenarios where the Jets let themselves down against Wellington. He said positioning in both attack and defence as well as the decision making of the players were the areas that needed improvement.
“Our positioning in the midfield, our rest defence, playing out (from the back), all the different moments in transition, especially from when we have the ball to when we lose it, were not the best shall we say,” he said.
“It-s just the options that you take. The ball movement needs to be quicker and there needed to be less touches on the ball.
“They run with (the ball) when they don-t need to run with it and they need to pass it (instead).
“Players need to get into position early enough. People run with it because people aren-t in position early enough and it-s just a snowball effect.”
After conceding the opening goal on the stroke of half-time, the Jets pushed hard in search of an equaliser for the majority of the second half. However, they were eventually brought undone by goals to Jeremy Brockie and Paul Ifill in the final 10 minutes.
Van Egmond said the Jets were not up to scratch when it came to defending against Wellington-s swift counter attacking play.
“You-ve got the impetus of being at home and at 1-0 down (with 10 minutes to go) you-re still looking to get something out of the game obviously, but they-re a very good team on the counter,” he said.
“We spoke about it – I don-t know how many times – and we were still undisciplined in that area. From that point of view it was really poor.”
Van Egmond said the Jets paid the price for not being ruthless enough throughout the contest, in particular in the first 45 minutes of the match.
“The first half it was there for the taking. We were nervous for whatever reason, I don-t know why,” he said.
“We didn-t look to capitalise, especially on the left-hand side where we overloaded them. People didn-t play with courage, they played with fear and if you do that you-re never going to control the football match.
“We-ve probably had a lot more resolve this year than we had last year and that-s been evident in the games up until now.
“Today we came up against a very desperate opponent which we knew we were coming up against.
“They-re not sitting in the position (on the ladder) they-re accustomed to and they-re a real team of men. They-ll put their foot in when they have to, they-ll defend their box very strongly and they have the players to counter you.”
