Glory show Phoenix the way ahead
spare parts so they didn’t want to risk damage by the pair racing each other.
Hartley was told Gasly would let him by to avoid a repeat of the Chinese Grand Prix when Gasly ran up the back of him.
‘‘In the end I was told – a long way before I caught him – he’d let me through when I got there. And I was told each lap he was going to let me by in turn four.
‘‘I did a better job managing tyres, fuel, and had better race pace than him in the race, so the team saw that I had the best chance to score points if somebody had an issue ahead, which didn’t happen,’’ Hartley told Autosport.
‘‘If the team tells us that we’re racing, that’s what I’ll do, but from the team’s point of view, when we don’t have spare parts for the new aerokit, it didn’t really make sense for us to be fighting.
‘‘I’m all for racing, but if I’m told that the race isn’t on, then I’m not going to go against the team orders and risk damaging a car that we don’t have a lot of spares for.
‘‘I mean, the team’s position was pretty clear in the meeting so there wasn’t really much more to discuss,’’ Hartley said.
‘‘We have very clear team order guidelines, after he went into the back of me in China earlier this season and we had the clash.’’ Perth Glory have provided the Wellington Phoenix with a road map of how to beat Adelaide United.
The league leaders scored a 2-0 victory in Adelaide two weeks ago playing a similar system to the Phoenix.
They played five (or three) at the back, had just 38 per cent possession and completed 200 fewer passes than United, but had 13 shots to Adelaide’s 12, with five on target to Adelaide’s one.
Phoenix coach Mark Rudan was well aware of these facts and said his side would be looking to replicate some of what Perth did.
‘‘It’s something that we showed in the video to the players,’’ Rudan said before training yesterday.
‘‘They [Perth] work extremely hard as a unit, they’re very deep when they don’t have the ball, particularly their front three.
‘‘Their defence starts from that line. They’re very compact in defence and broke very quickly against Adelaide, who play a high line.
‘‘So there is enough there to have a look at to say there are situations where we can counter what we believe are their weaknesses and play to our strengths.’’
There are a few differences between the Phoenix and Perth.
The biggest of those was Andy Keogh, Perth’s striker and captain, who has scored in each of the first four games of a season to lead the Golden Boot race with Sydney FC’s Adam Le Fondre.
The Phoenix lack an out-and-out striker.
However, Rudan said Keogh was just one player and he had been talking with Glory coach Tony Popovic about how to get the best out of their system.
‘‘It’s interesting because he asked about what we do in our formation and I asked the same sort of questions. That’s what coaches do, we talk about certain things.’’
As for Adelaide, the FFA Cup champions have five points from their first four games to sit one point and one place ahead of the Phoenix on the A-League ladder in sixth.
Craig Goodwin has been their star so far, capping an outstanding opening four games with a Socceroos callup for their games over the international break.
Phoenix captain Andrew Durante said shutting him down would be a key part of their gameplan at Westpac Stadium tonight.
‘‘He’s been good. We’ve identified that, it’s pretty clear he’s been having a strong season. You pay a little bit more attention to him and stopping the service getting to him is probably the biggest thing. If he can’t get the ball he’ll be less effective.
‘‘They’ve got a lot of pace out wide, Goodwin and Halloran are having good seasons so far, so we’ve identified them, and obviously Isaias is a good player, so if we can stop those guys it will go a long way to us winning.
‘‘At home we want to be attacking, we want to be positive, so we’ll have an attacking mindset.’’
By their own admission, the Phoenix overdid that attacking intent in their 3-0 home loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers three weeks ago, but reverted too far back into their shells in the subsequent 2-0 away loss to Melbourne City.
Durante said finding the right balance between the two would be important tonight.
‘‘If I’m told that the race isn’t on, then I’m not going to go against the team orders and risk damaging a car.’’ Brendon Hartley, left, hits out at Toro Ross team-mate Pierre Gasly, right
What: Where and when:
United: