The Wellington Phoenix are going back to what worked for them last season as they endeavour to bounce back from successive defeats in the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Phoenix visit Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday evening after 2-1 losses to Auckland FC and Macarthur FC on back-to-back weekends.
It’s a new experience for Giancarlo Italiano in his second season as head coach.
\u201cIt was always going to happen,\u201d Italiano told media before training on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve been very lucky in that I\u2019ve had a lot of good results.
\u201cWe\u2019re not panicked or anything like that. It\u2019s nowhere near that.
\u201cIf you switch off for five minutes in this league you get punished.
\u201cWe switched off for a couple of minutes [against Macarthur] and we didn\u2019t recover well on the second goal. Even the first goal I was really disappointed with the pressure on the ball at such an early part of the game.
\u201cI felt like we were a little bit, I don\u2019t want to say the word flat because that implies fatigue, it was more of a mental focus.
\u201cI think that\u2019s stuff we can fix. It\u2019s nothing too extreme.
\u201cFor me the most important thing is the consistency. These are things that aren\u2019t about talent. It\u2019s more about the mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n