Isuzu UTE A-League Round 10 Match Preview

The Wellington Phoenix have focused on their defensive principles and wider gameplan as they look to halt a three match losing skid in the Isuzu UTE A-League.

The Phoenix play host to Newcastle Jets at Sky Stadium on Saturday afternoon and are looking to end 2024 on a high.

The Nix have had a December to forget, with defeats to Auckland, Macarthur and Western Sydney seeing them drop out of the top six.

But Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano believes his side is 90 minutes away from getting their season back on track.

“I’m not going to hide from the fact that losing three on the trot is not a great feeling,” Italiano told media before training on Friday.

“But the group is focused. We’re all still together and we’re very determined to turn it around.

“There’s been a reemphasis on our defensive principles.

“The one thing we addressed more than anything is when we conceded [against Wanderers]…we played the result, being two-nil down, as opposed to sticking to what we worked on.

“We were able to address it as a group this week. [We] spoke about it and spoke also about staying together and not losing focus, and making sure that we stick to the gameplan. The boys have all taken that onboard.”

Italiano doesn’t believe he needs to make any significant structural or personnel changes to turn around their fortunes.

“For a large part we’re still in the infancy of this team.

“We have some players from last year, with a mixture of new players and a lot of young players that we’re giving an opportunity to. It’s part of their learning experience.

“I don’t expect them to be perfect. Players make errors or errors of judgment, and it happens. We just got punished for them at the weekend.

“That’s passed now, it’s about refocusing and making sure we stick to what we believe in and how we want to play.”

The players were given Christmas Day off and had the chance for “a bit of a reset” before turning their attentions to Newcastle Jets.

“They’re a dangerous team. I know the coach very well, respect him highly and he’s a good guy as well.

“You can tell he’s got a very young team and he tries to push his team to be expansive and on the front foot.

“And they’ve got some very dangerous players up front; [Eli] Adams and Clayton Taylor they can hurt you. We have to make sure that we stop them getting on the ball.

“But again, if we stick to our gameplan and work on the things that we believe in I think we can score a couple of goals tomorrow.”

And Italiano says “it’s no different to every other team” preparing to face his former mentor Rob Stanton.

“To be fair I’m starting to know most of the coaches now. We’ve all been in that coaching circle.

“It’ll be good to see him and we’re both very competitive, so I’d like to have some bragging rights at the end.

“But it’s like every other game. We go in, we analyse and we make sure that we have all of our bases covered.”

Giancarlo Italiano will be without experienced forward Marco Rojas for another three to four weeks because of an ankle injury, and All Whites fullback Tim Payne, who sustained a knock at training on Thursday.

It will give an opportunity to younger players like Luke Brooke-Smith, who became the youngest Phoenix player in A-League history when he made his pro debut against Western Sydney at 16 years and 199 days old.

“I was very happy with his performance and [Nathan] Walker’s performance in the second half.

“I thought they gave us a different dynamic. They were on the front foot, they wanted to go forward and were very, very positive.

“With the scholarship boys…I want to give them as much game exposure as I can and be part of these games, because I think it’s very, very important for their development.

“I know we’re not going through a good run of form but it’s also good for them to learn to be part of the group and see what’s required in order to get us out of this bit of a form slump.”

 The round 10 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets is scheduled to kick-off at Sky Stadium in Wellington at 5pm Saturday and will be broadcast free-to-air on Sky Open in New Zealand and LIVE on Sky Sport 2 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.

Most recent meeting: 19 April 2024 – Newcastle Jets 1 Wellington Phoenix 1

All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 25W, Jets 17W & 7D.

Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted):1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 12. Mo AL-TAAY, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, , 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER.Unavailable: 6. Tim PAYNE (injured), 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 21. Marco ROJAS (injured).

Main image: The Wellington Phoenix at a training session at NZCIS. Photo: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.