Loving it: Hooper to start for Phoenix
Gary Hooper will get his wish to night, with Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay showing him a bit of love on Valentine’s Day.
The experienced English striker made it clear at the start of the week that he hasn’t come to the A-League to sit on the bench, after being dropped from the starting XI for last week’s loss away to Perth Glory, where he came on and scored twice.
Yesterday, Valentines Day, Talay confirmed that Hooper would be restored to the starting lineup for tonight’s clash with Melbourne City at Eden Park in Auckland, likely in place of Jaushua Sotirio.
‘‘I show all my players love and Gary’s no exception to that,’’ he said with a chuckle.
‘‘For me he did well last week, coming on against Perth. I’ll start him against Melbourne City and hopefully he will do well again.’’
Talay said the change last week was down to a desire to exploit Perth’s high line using the pace of Sotirio.
‘‘Sometimes I change players where I think we need different attributes in certain positions at certain times against the opposition that we play.
‘‘Perth play very compact and they also play a high line, so I wanted to utilise Joshy’s pace.
‘‘The decision was made like that and I always speak to my players beforehand, when I make a decision whether they’re playing or they’re not playing, so they always get a heads up.
‘‘At the end of the day it’s about the team getting the three points, so everyone works together. Obviously they all want to play and sometimes they’re not going to be happy, but it’s about the bigger picture.’’
Hooper has shown his quality in his limited playing time this season, but doubts remain as to whether he’s better suited to starting or coming off the bench, with his relative lack of dynamism clear to see early on in matches.
Talay wouldn’t be drawn on whether he has an ideal front four in mind.
‘‘You always want to play with your best players that are available, but at times you need to adapt,’’ he said.
‘‘[Right back Tim Payne’s] suspended this week, so we’ll need to adapt, and we’ll decide whether Te Atawhai or Brandon Wilson will come into that position.’’
Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi got the nod at right back when Payne was sent off against Perth after receiving two yellow cards, so would appear to have the inside running, but regardless of who starts, it will be an area for City to target.
The Melburnians sit second on the A-League ladder and are the second of three top six rivals the Phoenix will play this month – with their match on the final weekend of February away to Sydney now shifted to Wednesday March 18.
If they suffer back-to-back losses for the first time since the run of four they had to start the season, they could find themselves playing for their place in the top six next Friday, when they host Western United in Wellington.
Captain Steven Taylor is well aware the Phoenix took their eye off the ball a year ago, slipping from fourth – which means a home playoff – to sixth, and is determined there won’t be a repeat.
‘‘One thing we started to do, was we got a bit ahead of ourselves last year,’’ he said.
‘‘People were coming out in the press and players were talking about finals football and who they wanted to play and it got amongst a few of the players that hadn’t been in that situation before – players who hadn’t played in the A-League, who didn’t understand it.
‘‘We were six to eight points ahead of teams, then you get a few draws – you’ve got to be very, very careful.
‘‘The lads who are here now are concentrating game by game and are very grounded.
‘‘Every Monday morning the manager’s grounding the rest of the boys and he’s very harsh on them, and that’s how it should be.’’