Despite holding one of the top goal scoring records in the 21-22 A League season, the Newcastle Jets had a disappointing campaign finishing in 9th place. Will their attacking style of football and 11 new signings be enough to bring them into the top 6? Robbie Thomson sits down with Head Coach, Arthur Papas to hear his thoughts...
RT: The A-League pre-season is the longest in world football, three months. This is your second one now at Newcastle. Is it really that complicated for a coach?
AP: It's different for sure. It gives you opportunities, and there are also some challenges such as maintaining a certain momentum and building momentum over a long pre-season. So I think what everyone really looks forward to is just getting that season started.
But when you look at this season that's coming in, you've got six games to begin with and then you've got another sort of mini pre-season. So for us, it's really about those six games right now and trying to get a good start and then trying to find yourself in a good little position come the end of the first six games and seeing what you need to work on and build on again and progress with.
RT: The first of those six games is less than two weeks now and it’s a derby first up for you guys. Can you feel that excitement starting to build? Will you be ready to go?
AP: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’ve got a group of boys that, to be honest, they're coming forward ready for that game more than anything and really keen to make a big statement in the first game of the season against a team that did very well last year. Ultimately, for us, it's about concentrating on what we do.
RT: I'd like to talk about your style of coaching and what you just said: we concentrate on ourselves. There are coaches that adapt to the opposition and coaches that say, I want them to adapt to us. Obviously, you study your opponents, you look for weaknesses in their play, but would you say you try and dominate and dictate games?
AP: Like you said, everyone's got their own way of preparing a team and building a team, and I don't think there's any right way, to be honest. I think it's just important that you've got your own way. And that's how I've gone about it for a long time and that's the way we went about it last season as well.
We improved on where we were from when we began and now we want to make another step. To do that, we've got to integrate new players into the team that have got to get used to playing with each other and we’re going to come up against all different types of teams with different styles. But the main thing is that you maintain your identity through those games as well, and that's something that we focus on.
RT: It has been a busy winter for you guys. You talk about integrating new players… By my count, it’s 11 in, 11 out and some important names in there as well. Are you happy with how it's gone?
AP: Yeah, I'm pleased how the squad's developed. Some players moved on for one reason or another. We’ve gone about looking at identifying players that can come in and hopefully take our game to another level and make it stronger.
We've tried to bring in a certain physical quality, a certain technical quality, but also character and stronger leadership on the field. That's what we've tried to identify as a club and really worked very, very hard from early on in the piece to bring in a group that's here for the next couple of years now. I think, for the challenges that we face, we've done a lot of good work. And, more importantly, I think we've got a group here not just for the next 12 months, but hopefully for the next 24 months.
RT: When you talk about last season, have you taken a step back to analyse it and identified what was lacking or why you missed the finals when you scored the second-most goals in the competition? Sometimes you could have played it differently, played for the result...
AP: I think we always played for result. I mean, that's the first thing. there were games that you could really see a great dynamic in the way we played, a real attacking style of play, an intensity and a belief. And ultimately we fell short on occasions. That's why I still take the responsibility for it, because in the end, the players always think they're united and giving their best. Last season the players went through some really difficult situations. That break we had for COVID affected us greatly.
RT: So we can expect more of the same then this year from the Newcastle Jets? To play that same sort of free flowing, expansive football, goals from open play, combinations through midfield, assists from the full-backs getting involved: the Papas stamp! Are we going to see more of that?
AP: Yeah, of course. That's the journey we’re on. Before joining, I was having discussions with the club about wanting to go this way and making sure that we stay the course, so that won't change. And, of course, I want the performances to be able to justify better results and that means more consistency, and being even more attacking. To be honest, we want to be scoring more goals and obviously we want to be better at the other end of the ground as well.
We also know that improving in set pieces alone will give us an extra six points this year, and that's got zero to do with our general play. So these are areas we've identified that we know we need to improve and we've been working hard on.
See what all the other A-League Men's coaches have to say ahead of the 2022/23 season
