After being instated as the Club’s full-time Head Coach for the rest of the season, Michael Valkanis says the only thing that has changed is the term ‘interim’ as he prepares his side for a crucial encounter against Newcastle on Friday.
It was announced on Wednesday that Valkanis would continue in the role for the remainder of the 2016/17 season, with the new boss saying he was “honoured and humbled at the same time” to be given the reigns on a permanent basis. The former defender however says speculation about the role stemmed from those outside of the camp, saying his side were, and continue to be focused on the job at hand.
“Everyone within the club was focused,” Valkanis said.
“It was more the outsiders that there was more talk and people making their claims who will be coming in and taking over the role. I was happy with the way we moved on about it as a club and focused on what we had to do.
“The players and staff have been fantastic. We have a lot of passionate people who work very hard and when JvS’ shock news came about, we moved on quickly and we had to. We just focused on the job at hand and we continue to do so now.
“I love what I do, I’m very lucky to do what I do and to do what I love doing. I’m very passionate about what I do and nothing changes. I’ll be coming in here every morning working very hard, be the last to leave and prepare the team as bet as possible on and off the park to be ready for every game.
“We’ll keep working hard, keep aligning ourselves with the goals we have set from the beginning of the season and we continue on with the job.”
This job continues on Friday as City travel to Coffs Harbour to take on Newcastle Jets in an important Round 17 clash and after recording 26 shots on goal last week against the Central Coast with only a two goal return, it was clear what Valkanis and his side were working on during the week.
“We have been working a lot on our front third,” he said.
“On things like our last pass and our runs into the box and our build up within that zone. We continue to work on our defensive game as well, that’s something we need to improve as well.
“The team has been playing really well and they have been playing good football and creating lots of chances and if there is one thing we have to fix, that’s capitalising on the chances and all the box entries that we have had.
That’s going to come, we’ve really focused on that as well and every player is working hard. The ones on the outer are putting pressure on those in the eleven and everyone is really looking to get that opportunity to play.
“It’s going to be a tough game but like I said before, you have to respect every team in the A-League, every opponent is difficult and there is no easy game. We don’t look at the ladder, we look at the opponent and focus on what we can do better for that game and our own game to get the three points.”
City face the Jets on Friday night to keep pace with the top two at Coffs International Stadium, kick-off 7.50pm. See the match live on Fox Sports 505 and SBSVICELAND. Don’t forget you can see our run home to the season with our 3 Match Membership! Sign up today!
