Star striker bolsters ‘scary’ Roar’s depth

BRISBANE right-sided defender Ivan Franjic believes the Roar’s depth is so strong that it’s “scary”.

Star Striker Besart Berisha is due to return from a hip injury for the first-placed side against Adelaide United at Suncorp Stadium today.

Veteran and former Socceroo Shane Stefanutto also gets his long-awaited opportunity to re-join the first team, with left back Corey Brown on Australian under-22 duty.

Brown has not looked back, holding on to his spot since late October, after Stefanutto went down with a hamstring injury.

And Roar coach Mike Mulvey faces the difficult decision of dropping Dimitri Petratos to the bench for Berisha.

Petratos scored four goals over the past two rounds in the Albanian attacker’s absence.

“You look at the quality of players that are being left out, it’s scary at times, and it’s a good headache for the coach,” Franjic said.

“We scored eight goals without Berisha there, and he’s the best striker in the league by far. It’s scary, and you don’t know if he’ll even start this week, which is even scarier.”

Franjic said his team was getting better and better and proof of that could be seen when looking at the past two rounds, with big wins over Sydney FC and the Victory.

“We started off the season a bit slow, but now we’re really coming into our own,” he said.

“Hopefully we can get some consistency now for the back half of the season, because we’ve had two great performances.”

Meanwhile, the Roar announced yesterday that Stefanutto would remain at the club until the end of the 2014/15 season with the experienced defender signing another one-year contract extension.

Stefanutto, who turns 34 on Sunday, has been one of the most consistent performers for the club since joining almost four years ago in April 2010. The Cairns-born player could return from his hamstring problem tonight.

For Adelaide United, new signing Ryan Griffiths admitted the team’s playing style was a significant reason behind him joining the club.

The younger brother of fellow professional footballers Joel and Adam Griffiths, Ryan’s tenure in China, with Beijing Boxy, came to an end two months ago.

“I was actually looking at places in Asia to go and I got the phone call from Adelaide,” the former Newcastle Jets player said.

“It was a great offer; the club seemed really keen to get me on board so that was a major factor.”