City Head Coach John van’t Schip was proud of his team’s effort on Friday night but said his side lacked the edge in the final third after going down to Brisbane 1-0 at Suncorp Stadium.
Jamie Maclaren’s goal after 11 minutes separated the sides as Brisbane’s new defensive style couldn’t be breached by City who were unable to threaten Michael Theo in the Roar goal.
Going down early played into the hands of the Roar and the Head Coach felt his side were not creative enough when coming up with answerers in the congested final third.
“When you go [1-0 down] it’s going to get even more difficult. The effort was great, the boys put in an unbelievable effort, but we couldn’t penetrate enough,” van’t Schip said.
“We had a lot of ball possession but that doesn’t say enough because with that possession we didn’t create enough and they defended well and went on the counter.
“I think looking at the game we knew they would defend and get us on the counter and when they came 1-0 up – with a goal which we should as a team defended better – we let I think three passages happen that we could have avoided, but in the end it was a goal.”
It’s now two teams who have deployed a very counter attacking game plan and City have lost both matches so far this season – going down to Perth in Round 3 and Brisbane on Friday night – but the Dutchman said his side are not going to change their philosophy but rather find a solution to the problem.
“We have to focus on what we are doing and as I said, there were some good things but also we are going to get more teams who are going to defend and park the bus and try to get us on the counter and we will have to deal with that and come up with solutions,” he said.
“We want to beat every team. That’s our way we go out and want to play. Unfortunately tonight it didn’t work out for us, but it doesn’t mean we have to change our philosophy. We have to look at [other] ways to improve and do things better against teams who are not giving a lot of space away. So that is something we have to work on.”
City will have the opportunity to bounce back this Thursday night as they take on Newcastle Jets at AAMI Park, kick-off 7.50pm.
Click here to get your tickets for the match today.
