http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/a-league/bleiberg-mariners-to-blame-249952
Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg conceded that Central Coast Mariners had shown the rest of the league how to beat his high-flying team.
The Mariners gave United a football lesson in a 3-0 thrashing in Round 7 with a physical and pressing approach to which Mirons men had no answer.
Gold Coasts season has deteriorated sharply since that evening in Gosford on September 19 and at the weekend they suffered the ignominy of a comprehensive 6-0 drubbing against bottom club Wellington Phoenix.
All our troubles started against the Mariners, Bleiberg admitted.
They frustrated us and punished us with a physical game. They did nothing illegal but they did enough to unsettle us, particularly our ball-playing South American players.
I am not sure if they can cope well enough with the physical stuff.
We are now paying the price for our brilliant start to the season. At the start all the teams respected us but after a while they started using the rough stuff and we have to learn to cope with this.
Bleiberg said he was at a loss to explain the debacle in Wellington that sent shockwaves across the competition.
What happened is that Wellington were relegated to the bottom of the ladder the night before and they were super motivated and put a lot of pressure on us, he said.
We were coping well in the first half an hour but then we suffered injuries to Kristian Rees and later Jess Vanstrattan at crucial moments of the game. Then it was one disaster after another.
These things happen and you just hope that we copped all the bad luck you can get in this one game. We have to learn from it and move on.
Bleiberg said his teams recent dip in form could be attributed to the fact that some of his key players were feeling the strain of a heavy international schedule.
We do have a problem with our away form but this stems from the fact that after round three we started to lose players on international duty," he explained.
Jason Culina, Shane Smeltz and Tahj Minniecon are key players for us and the long travel caused their standards to drop a bit which is natural.
Bleiberg conceded that pre-season predictions from the club that it would win the league unbeaten might have put his men under unnecessary pressure.
Those statements gave us the spirit and momentum to start the season well because they gave us the self-belief we needed as a new club, he explained.
But on the other hand we are now paying the price for giving the other teams an extra motivation to do well against us.
But well get over this, starting from the weekend match against North Queensland Fury. I can tell you they can expect a very strong reaction from a very angry side.
Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg conceded that Central Coast Mariners had shown the rest of the league how to beat his high-flying team.
The Mariners gave United a football lesson in a 3-0 thrashing in Round 7 with a physical and pressing approach to which Mirons men had no answer.
Gold Coasts season has deteriorated sharply since that evening in Gosford on September 19 and at the weekend they suffered the ignominy of a comprehensive 6-0 drubbing against bottom club Wellington Phoenix.
All our troubles started against the Mariners, Bleiberg admitted.
They frustrated us and punished us with a physical game. They did nothing illegal but they did enough to unsettle us, particularly our ball-playing South American players.
I am not sure if they can cope well enough with the physical stuff.
We are now paying the price for our brilliant start to the season. At the start all the teams respected us but after a while they started using the rough stuff and we have to learn to cope with this.
Bleiberg said he was at a loss to explain the debacle in Wellington that sent shockwaves across the competition.
What happened is that Wellington were relegated to the bottom of the ladder the night before and they were super motivated and put a lot of pressure on us, he said.
We were coping well in the first half an hour but then we suffered injuries to Kristian Rees and later Jess Vanstrattan at crucial moments of the game. Then it was one disaster after another.
These things happen and you just hope that we copped all the bad luck you can get in this one game. We have to learn from it and move on.
Bleiberg said his teams recent dip in form could be attributed to the fact that some of his key players were feeling the strain of a heavy international schedule.
We do have a problem with our away form but this stems from the fact that after round three we started to lose players on international duty," he explained.
Jason Culina, Shane Smeltz and Tahj Minniecon are key players for us and the long travel caused their standards to drop a bit which is natural.
Bleiberg conceded that pre-season predictions from the club that it would win the league unbeaten might have put his men under unnecessary pressure.
Those statements gave us the spirit and momentum to start the season well because they gave us the self-belief we needed as a new club, he explained.
But on the other hand we are now paying the price for giving the other teams an extra motivation to do well against us.
But well get over this, starting from the weekend match against North Queensland Fury. I can tell you they can expect a very strong reaction from a very angry side.
