Despite succumbing to their first loss of the season on Sunday afternoon, Melbourne Heart FC centre back Rob Wielaert is nevertheless optimistic that his side can recapture the promising form they displayed in the opening rounds.
“We have to stay positive,” Wielaert said off the back of a 1 – 0 loss to Perth Glory FC.
“The first game, nobody expected us to get a result against [Melbourne] Victory and we did. I think we even had a better chance to win.
“The second game [against Central Coast Mariners] I think we should have won, especially when you are two goals in front.
“I think the last game that was our worst. Our structure was okay but we didn’t have enough pressure on the ball.”
Still chasing their first win of the 2013-14 campaign, the 34-year-old believes Melbourne Heart FC will continually improve as the season progresses.
“We [need to] work on the negative things and put more pressure on the ball but our structure is good and we will get better every week,” Wielaert said.
Having played at the elite level in Europe, captaining FC Twente in the European Champions League, the Dutchman outlined that he had no issues wearing the armband in the absence of skipper Harry Kewell.
“It doesn’t change me if I wear the armband or not,” he explained.
“I keep doing the same things and I think we all have to do the same thing if we wear the armband or not.”
With fellow centre back Patrick Kisnorbo expected to miss the next three weeks due to ligament damage in his right knee, the stand-in-skipper is confident there is enough depth in the squad to fill the void in defence.
“It’s not a problem; we have enough players who can fill that space,” Wielaert said.
“They can both play there (Patrick Gerhardt and David Vrankovic) so that’s the coach’s decision who is going to play with me in the centre.”
Having arrived in Australia only a few months before the season commenced, Wielaert has so far been impressed with the standard of competition the A-League has displayed.
“I already knew it was a good level,” he said
“I think most of the teams in the A-League can easily play in the Netherlands competition [Eredivisie].
“They are all fit players and they all want to work very hard. Sometimes tactics are a little bit behind the Netherlands but I think the level is pretty good.”
Melbourne Heart will face Brisbane Roar FC next Sunday at Suncorp Stadium and Wielaert is aware of the challenge ahead but confident the Red and White can achieve a result away from home.
“[Brisbane is] a very good team, especially on the ball [but] I think we will do better against Brisbane,” he said
“I think we have to put good pressure on the ball, that’s the main thing.”
“If we have the ball we have to keep it a little bit longer because if you keep losing the ball as quickly as we did last week then it’s hard to win a game.
“We did it against Victory who was also very good on the ball and we did it very well against them.”