Wellington Phoenix boss Ufuk Talay admits the lack of depth in his squad is starting to hurt them after they suffered yet another crushing defeat.
The Nix are pushing to finish in the top six of the A-League but need to get back on track quickly following a 5-0 loss against the Central Coast Mariners on Tuesday night.
Struggling for numbers
Wellington have now lost four of their last six games to sit in seventh place on the ladder and Talay is well aware they need to get players back as soon as possible.
They lost 6-0 against Melbourne City at the weekend and the loss of players through illness and injury is starting to hit them hard.
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“Obviously a poor result. You can see that we’re desperately in need of certain players coming back into the team,” Talay told the club’s website. “I think we made life a lot more difficult when we concede a penalty in the eighth minute of the game and we concede from a set piece as well.
“At the end of the day we weren’t good enough and it shows the lack of depth that we’re struggling with at the moment.”
Western United next
Things get harder for the Nix as they are set to face second-placed Western United on Saturday and are in need of a positive result.
But at least they should be able to get some time on the training pitch before the game.
“The good thing is we have got an extra day before we play our next game,” Talay added. “The boys will recover tomorrow and then we’ll get two actual sessions on the park where we can actually do some tactical work as well.”
