Taylor unfazed by Wanderers setback as Phoenix keep the faith
It’ll take more than one blow to knock the spirit out of Wellington Phoenix’s star signing.
Former Premier League defender Steven Taylor said morale remained high in the Phoenix squad, despite losing heavily to the previously winless Western Sydney Wanderers in their worst performance of the season so far.
‘‘With this group of players that we’ve got here, we’ve got big characters and players who have relished this opportunity. It’s been a great start for Wellington and the best start they’ve had like this was years ago,’’ an undeterred Taylor said in the wake of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat.
‘‘In the first game of the season against the Newcastle Jets we didn’t get too high, we were back concentrating on the following game against Brisbane [Roar], and that’s what we do after every game; we move on to the next one. We don’t dwell on the past and we look forward to the Melbourne City game.
‘‘The boys are in a positive frame of mind and you could tell by the training this morning that everyone is looking forward to the Melbourne game because it’s a massive game for us and they’ll be under pressure and they’ll have to try and take the game to us.’’
City under pressure? It was quickly pointed out to Taylor that Friday’s opposition have an identical record to the Phoenix through three games.
While they too suffered a 3-0 defeat at the weekend, they have also banked four points from a win over rivals Melbourne Victory and a draw with Central Coast Mariners.
‘‘They’re a so-called big club that everyone keeps talking about.
‘‘They’ve had a bad result as
well so for us we’re going to go there confident and they’ll have to come at us,’’ he said.
‘‘Over the years Wellington have given teams too much respect but for us we go there positive and believing we can win.
‘‘That’s how we go into every game and it’ll never change.’’
Coach Mark Rudan has set the team up in a defensive 5-2-3 formation in their opening three games, and although they were solid at the back against the Jets and the Roar, there were concerns that the Phoenix may struggle to chase a game if they were to concede early – something that was even pointed out by Jets coach Ernie Merrick.
That proved to be the case against the Wanderers on Saturday but Taylor said it was not an area of their game that he was concerned about heading into a challenging away trip to Melbourne.
‘‘We do that in training. We’ve worked on different tactics when we’re two down, three down.
‘‘We did it last week 3-0 down and came back to win 4-3 in a practice game amongst ourselves. I think that’s an excuse from the guys who haven’t played football.
‘‘We just concentrate on what we need to do and it’s only now that you see people chirping up and we’ve had one defeat. But we’ll let them talk.
‘‘We’ve got a good unit and we look forward to the Melbourne game and hopefully we get the result we want.’’
‘‘Over the years Wellington have given teams too much respect but for us we go there positive and believing we can win.’’ Steven Taylor on the Phoenix’s upcoming game against Melbourne City