Adelaide United coach Michael Valkanis believes his side’s round 12 disaster against minor premiers Western Sydney Wanderers marked the beginning of the end for the Reds, who were ousted out of contention on Sunday with a 2-1 elimination final loss to Brisbane Roar.
“In Round 12, things started not going too well,” he told Omnisport.
“That’s when teams started overtaking us and we were losing a lot of games (after that).”
Nudging top spot at the time, United were thumped 6-1 by the Wanderers four days before Christmas and never quite recovered. Adelaide United only won two games from their last twelve and barely held onto fourth place.
A grueling Asian Champions League (ACL) campaign in 2012 might also have been to blame.
“It’s been a long season. The ACL was part of it as well,” Valkanis said.
“We had a good ACL. We started a lot earlier than all the other A-League clubs.
“We probably played 10-12 games more than everyone else.”
The season also ended with unfortunate comments from the former coach, John Kosmina.
In his weekly newspaper column, Kosmina smashed his old club, branding Jon McKain as “Batman, charging around getting into fights”, hinted playmaker Dario Vidosic is “a wasted talent” and took a shot at Valkanis for being “more conservative in his tactics than I was as a coach”.
Valkanis appeared rankled at remarks from his predecessor John Kosmina but refrained from biting back.
“He (Kosmina) is entitled to say what he wants,” said Valkanis, holding fire.
“It’s his opinion. I prefer not to speak about what I think.”
Valkanis also declined to immediately enter his hat into the ring for the full-time coaching gig next season, preferring to wait for a more appropriate time before weighing up his options.
“Not now,” the interim manager said. “We’re very disappointed with this result.
“We’ll let the dust settle. It’s about the club today – our season’s over.
“It’s not about individuals.”
Source: Steve Barrett for Omnisport.
