Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi cut a dejected figure after his side’s 2-0 loss at home to Sydney FC, but still insisted that everyone at the club was committed to turning their fortunes around.
They were thoroughly beaten by the Sky Blues, a result which left them rooted to the foot of the table, and winless so far this season.
Aloisi didn’t feel his decisions were wrong on the night, instead pointing the finger at his players for not being at their best.
“I don’t think [the tactics] were wrong tonight,” Aloisi said.
“We set out to try and press them from the word go and we didn’t do that well.
“They looked anxious and nervous and we couldn’t really get into the game.
“Second half it was a bit better but that’s still not what we’ve been playing like and it wasn’t acceptable.
“We performed a lot better than what we did tonight in the other games and the results weren’t what we wanted.”
With a lack of performance on the field, fans in the terraces began to voice their frustrations at Aloisi, but the former Socceroo said it doesn’t affect him one bit.
“I can understand their frustration which is understandable because they don’t want to see their team down the bottom,” he said.
“And of course with a performance like that they’ve got every right to show their frustration and show their anger.
“I’ve played in front of crowds that have done that before and been able to get over that so I expect my players to be able to get over that, frustration from the fans is normal.”
In order to settle the fans down, Aloisi insisted that no one inside the club was giving up, and that everyone involved will knuckle down to ensure they ride out this rough patch.
“I think the players were still trying in the second half,” he said.
“I thought we changed a few things, tried to change things up, go a little more direct towards the end with putting Gol central and it looked like it got to the players a little bit tonight because the results haven’t gone our way.
“We’ll work hard to make sure we get it right because my players, the group I know won’t give up.
“I know we got players coming back in and we’ll work hard to make sure we’ll get things right.”
Heart will look to turn things around away to Newcastle, a tough assignment given their away record in the A-League.