Adelaide United coach axes five players

Adelaide United have belatedly called their players to account for a horrid A-League
season, with five regulars omitted for Saturday's fixture against Brisbane.
Defenders Robert Cornthwaite and Mark Rudan are the biggest names to go, while
midfielder Aaron Hughes has paid for his indifferent season and Lucas Pantelis joins
Kristian Sarkies (quad injury) on the sidelines.
In their places come Daniel Mullen, Francesco Monterosso, Inseob Shin, Alemao and
Fabien Barbiero, as Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar chases the fluency that has so far
eluded the bottom placed-club.
United midfielder Paul Reid, whose year has been blighted by injury, said the lack
of any promotion or relegation in the league made it difficult, at times, to find
the same motivation he might have done in the lower leagues of English football.
"It's a valid point, a few of the players who have played overseas have spoken about
it," Reid said on Friday.
"Mark Rudan and Lloyd (Owusu) and I spoke about it about a month ago to say, things
aren't going to change in the next five to 10 years, but if you were fighting for
your lives and knew you were going to get relegated, any team is going to want to
get out of that.
"But as an Adelaide United player I know none of us want to be at the bottom of the
table at the end of the season.
"We aimed to be in the top two at the start of the season and the play-offs were a
certainty for us, so we've definitely underachieved.
"The positive is we've got 10 games to rectify this and we're only five points out
of the play-offs."
Reid said it was up to him and all his teammates to attempt to play a better brand
of football that would allow the team to be more capable of scoring goals, the Reds
having come up with half as many balls in the back of the net compared to
ladder-leaders Melbourne.
"We've struggled to score goals this year and last season it was totally the
opposite, especially at home we scored a lot of goals, so we have been working on
it," he said.
"We've got players who can score goals, and we've just got to be more creative as
individuals, and that's including myself, I've got to start creating more chances
for the strikers and for the midfielders.
"We've got Fabien Barbiero who is always there and thereabouts in the attack and
Matthew Leckie ... we are working on things."
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou could almost feel for his battling rivals.
"They are going through a tough time," he said on Friday.
"If you look at the ladder the two teams who have underperformed based on pre-season
expectations are probably ourselves and Adelaide.
"I think both teams have got a little bit of a crisis at one point and they are
going through it at the moment.
"It doesn't mean that they are not a dangerous side."
Postecoglou said the Roar would be ready for anything on Saturday night.
"They were desperate last week but sometimes when you are playing at home the
pressure of the crowd and everything can get to them," he said.
"So away from home this week they could come out and play with no fear, with nothing
to lose, and we've got to be ready for that.
"But we are just as desperate."