New coach, new import for Phoenix
The new year renovation of the Wellington Phoenix is starting to take shape.
The club was finally able to announce the signing for Serbian midfielder Matija Ljujic yesterday after he cleared all the hurdles needed to fill an import spot, just in time for him to make the squad for tonight’s clash against Melbourne Victory at Westpac Stadium.
They have also secured a replacement for assistant coach Rado Vidosic in the form of Dario Pot.
He worked for Kalezic during his two seasons in charge of De Graafschap in Holland from 2009-2011 and has been with the squad for their last two away games. He was still getting his head around the Westpac Stadium setup yesterday though, needing the assistance of a helpful cameraman to open the roller door out to the playing field.
Add to that the fact 2014-15 Johnny Warren Medallist Nathan Burns made his second debut for the club in last Saturday’s 2-1 away loss to Melbourne City and there is a fresher feel to the operation.
Kalezic confirmed Kiwi Hamish Watson has gone off on trials with clubs in New Zealand and Australia, while Australians Ryan Lowry and Ali Abbas were both understood to be assessing other options.
Kalezic said they would be looking to sign at least one New Zealander to fill those spots.
‘‘This is short-term, I think also in the long-term vision we have to think more from the point of view to have more New Zealand players in our squad.
‘‘We haven’t had a transfer window until now to improve that. This is a long process, you need two, three transfer windows to create that. Maybe from January we can start to do that.’’
That will be welcome news for the many Phoenix fans who have bemoaned the lack of Kiwis in the squad this season.
Kalezic said his squad was still some way from where he wanted it to be and hinted they would continue the defence-focused approach they have adopted in the last two away games when they take on a Victory side unbeaten in their last four games.
‘‘Everybody knows exactly how I want to play. How I want to play is maybe not realistic in terms of the quality of players we have in the squad.’’
Kalezic would target players with ‘‘leadership’’ and ‘‘proactive thinking’’ for the rest of January with the hope they would make the team ‘‘20 per cent better’’, he said.
Both Ljujic and Burns should help with that and will play some part in Wednesday’s proceedings, but it would seem both are unlikely to start due to lack of match fitness.
When Burns signed for the Phoenix he said it was, in part, due to the way they were playing the game.
Since then, they have gone to the 5-3-2 formation and been happy to give up a lot of possession, but Burns said that didn’t worry him.
‘‘Personally, I didn’t mind the setup because sitting from the outside we did have more attacking options.
‘‘We probably had four shots to their [City] one in the first half which were clear chances. It’s not so much about the possession, it’s about the attack on goal.’’