Kalezic confident the wins are coming
Darjie Kalezic says he now knows the full situation at the Wellington Phoenix and can start to take the club forward.
The head coach has endured a tough start to life at the Phoenix, winning just one win in his first nine games in charge as his side sit bottom of the Hyundai A-League ladder, four points off the top six.
Kalezic arrived in the capital in June and said his first six months had been a learning experience.
‘‘The process and how everything is going from the pre-season until now, it’s gone a little bit dif- ferent to what I expect as a head coach. That’s not such a big deal, but it asks for another approach to management from my side as a head coach.’’
Kalezic has made minor and major changes to his tactical approach.
Teenaged goalkeeper Keegan Smith started the first six games as they tried to play out from the back. He was replaced by Lewis Italiano in round eight, which coincided with them taking a more direct approach when distributing from their defence.
Injuries forced changes out wide in the 0-0 draw against Brisbane Roar last weekend, with Matthew Ridenton and Adam Parkhouse starting as inverted wingers on the left and right respectively.
Kalezic said he sensed last week’s effort, where they kept their first clean sheet of the season, was a turning point.
‘‘You have to see it like this: I have a feeling now that we really start being competitive from last week.
‘‘All of those things in preseason and the first round of the competition, from my point of view, we used that to assess what is the real situation in the team, in the squad, in the club, all of those things.
‘‘We needed that period to make a good analysis, to make good organisation and to make good preparation for the better performances in the future.’’
The next test will come in Perth today as they take on an out-ofsorts Glory side.
They have won just one of their last five games, including a 5-2 loss in Wellington on November 12.
Like Brisbane last week, they will be without seven players, including attackers Andy Keogh and Adam Taggart, midfielder Andreu, as well as long-term injured defenders Marc Warren and Scott Neville.
The Phoenix also have injury issues, with skipper Andrew Durante, Roy Krishna and Michael McGlinchey all still out injured after missing the Brisbane game.
Wellington have an adequate record in Perth given the travel needed to get there, with five wins and a draw from 16 matches, although they lost both away trips last season.
The squad stayed on the Gold Coast until Wednesday before travelling to Perth, in an attempt to combat the long travel times.