Sharing of game time a priority

Matthew Galea

April 19 2014

Shepparton News

Confidence is flowing within the Goulburn Valley under-20 set-up, which is why Serkan Aktas believes he is within his rights to expect a second straight win for the Suns’ fledgling stars tonight.

The Suns welcome Werribee City and with a similar record to his own side this season, Aktas believes a similar performance to last week’s 5-0 result against Port Melbourne Sharks would reap a similar result.

‘‘Looking at their results this season, I believe we’ll match up well with them,’’ Aktas said.

‘‘We’re looking to consolidate on what we did last week. That result doesn’t mean much if we don’t get a result this week.’’

Aktas has a full squad to choose from and will look to shuffle the pack as he tries to ensure a good amount of game time for the whole squad.

‘‘It’s been difficult (picking the teams) and it’s given me a bit of a headache having to leave guys out who have done nothing wrong,’’ Aktas said.

‘‘Speaking to (senior coach) Melvyn Wilkes, we agree we need to rotate more just for the development of these players.

‘‘Justin Cirillo has been very unlucky to miss out, Qadar Karimi and Omran Alhamzah have both been a bit unlucky too, but we’re getting senior guys coming down who we have to play.’’

Rossi Lagana, Tom Langman and Anthony Calandro are all expected to feature for the 20s as overage players once again.

While any rotation that does take place will occur in defence and midfield, the final third will remain largely unchanged, which will please last week’s hat-trick hero Abdullah Wahidi.

‘‘He doesn’t realise how much ability and talent he has, so it’s good to see him get his confidence up,’’ Aktas said.

‘‘He was training with the seniors on Tuesday and he was very humble.

‘‘A lot of these boys don’t realise how close they actually are to a senior call-up.’’

Aktas said there had been a bigger focus on attack in training last week as well, despite putting five past last week’s opponents.

‘‘We’ve mainly worked on defensive structure until now and squeezing teams with our press,’’ Aktas said.

‘‘Now we’re looking at the opposite and working with our forward line so that they’re really pushing up and getting our structures right.’’