Melbourne Heart FC defender Michael Marrone is wary of the challenge posed by Adelaide United in this afternoon’s Hyundai A-League encounter at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Heart FC defender Michael Marrone is wary of the challenge posed by Adelaide United in this afternoon-s Hyundai A-League encounter at AAMI Park.
United has been unbeaten since new coach John Kosmina took over the reins last month, demonstrating significant improvement as the side has risen from the bottom of the competition table.
With Kosmina instilling new found belief in his side, United will be determined to maintain its current form and continue its charge up the competition table.
Marrone believes Kosmina-s arrival has undoubtedly been the catalyst for Adelaide-s upturn in form, and says Heart must be vigilant if its hopes to snare all three points at AAMI Park today.
“Whenever you change coach it gives you momentum,” he said.
“He (Kossie) is pretty outspoken and he’s come out and said some things, and so far he’s pretty much delivered on them. They’ve got a good leader.”
Heart has emerged as arguably the form side of the competition over the past month, with Marrone proving to be a pivotal cog down the right flank.
The only Heart squad member to play every minute this season, Marrone has been ever-present, marauding forward from his full back position with trademark energy from minute one to 90 each week.
“I only missed one last year, so hopefully I can play every one this year,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence because we’ve built up a bit of momentum by beating some good teams and coming off a 4-0 win I’m sure we’ll go in confident.”
While the improved performances of John van ‘t Schip-s side have proved surprising to some, Marrone has attributed the transformation to the Club-s lengthy pre-season.
“We’re going in the right direction and everyone is listening to what the coach wants to do,” Marrone said.
“With the long pre-season he’s put down how we’ve wanted to play as opposed to the first season, where we only had a couple of weeks to get together.
“We had players like Alex Terra and Josip Skoko only come a week or two before the season. This year we’ve had a long pre-season and got everything together.”
