After a stellar start to the season with an 11 game unbeaten run, the last two games have been less than ordinary with the latest indignity being a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of a rampant Brisbane Roar. But are the wheels about to fall off the Reds season?
Well, let's just take a deep breath and relax while we have a measured look at just what has transpired over the past two weeks. The match against Melbourne Victory was marred early on by the unfortunate injury to Matthew Leckie. Rini Coolen then may have made his first error in judgement for the season by bringing on Barbiero to fill Leckie's wing spot which clearly didn't work.
But even so, Adelaide were out worked by a team that had a clear intention to enforce their historical advantage over us. They came out knowing they could beat us and would accept nothing less. The Reds wilted under the pressure from Victory but also the obvious structure problem did not help matters.
However, it was the first loss of the season and although it was tough losing once again to Victory, a loss was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Melbourne had already proven their ability to get up for the big games by beating Brisbane, arguably the hottest team right now, earlier in the season.
Speaking of Brisbane, Saturday was a night to forget, for many reasons. The loss of Leckie and Daniel Mullen was compounded by the absence of Marcos Flores due to injury and the late removal from the starting XI of Cameron Watson due to illness. This forced a reshuffle of Adam Hughes, who had been performing well in his defensive midfield role, to right back and the early return to the starting lineup for a clearly not match fit Barbiero.
The first half was punctuated by missed chances at both ends but on the whole, the Reds had done well to stifle a Roar side that was up and about. The late goal by Reinaldo was unfortunate but not exactly unexpected with Brisbane having the better of possession for the half.
What followed the sending off of Reinaldo, which was quite silly by him by the way, was nothing short of appalling. Defensive brain fades galore and a clear case of head droppage. We did not believe we could get back into the game and it showed. United were opened up time after time and if not for Eugene doing his best, the result could have been much worse.
However, the fact we played much of the second half with a man advantage is not the big disaster that people think. Sometimes the man advantage is inconsequential to the result. I refer you to last season where the champions Sydney were beaten by wooden spooners Adelaide 2-1 at Hindmarsh Stadium after Barbiero had been sent off in the first five minutes.
Quite clearly the man advantage does not always guarantee results. But were we bad? Definitely the worst display since Round One, no question. Here's the thing though, both of these losses have been away from home. Both have been against good teams, Brisbane being touted as the best team in the history of the A-League in some quarters.
Last time I checked, losing away from home to title contenders was nothing to slit your wrists over. Sure, losing so badly is not ideal but these things happen when your team is as disjointed as it was on the weekend. With Flores hopefully returning to the squad on Wednesday for the clash against the struggling Perth Glory, the best way to answer the critics is to have a big win at home and show that this team should not be written off so quickly.
As long as this dip in form doesn't turn into a Gloryesque run of losses, I'm not too worried right at this moment.
