Adelaide United's wing-back to the future

Adelaide United look set to keep Iain Ramsey in their backline for Friday’s clash with fellow cellar dwellers Gold Coast, after impressing out of position last week against the Victory.

Ramsey’s form on the wing has been a highlight for the Reds this year but a lack of left-sided players has forced Rini Coolen to turn the 23-year-old into an overlapping wing-back.

“The week before [4-0 loss to Mariners] we played with a right-footer on the left side but we didn’t get much out of it so we decided to start with Ramsey,” Coolen said.

The move is another example of an attacking left-sided player reinventing themselves in the fullback position with David Carney, Matt McKay and Michael Zullo notable examples of players who can play multiple roles on the left side of the field.

Coolen was pleased with Ramsey’s performance against the Victory and will again start the youngster in defence, but the Dutchman hopes he won’t be a permanent addition to the United backline.

“I’m not scared to play Ramsey as a fullback he picked it up very well, he likes to play there as well and he played a lot of games there as a junior player.”

“It’s good to develop players in different positions. We’d prefer not to play the whole year with Ramsey as a fullback, we hope that other players can play there as well but more than likely he will start in the same position.”

United stopper Nigel Boogaard was happy with Ramsey’s first outing in defence and feels his inclusion in Adelaide’s backline adds another dimension to the team.

“I thought Ramsey did a great job last week in Melbourne especially going forward he gives us that little bit of spark and that little bit of energy going forward, so I thought it was great and defensively he did his role as well,” he said.

Friday’s clash against Gold Coast sees the bottom two teams of the Hyundai A-League meet and while Adelaide’s last win came against the boys from Skilled Park, Boogaard is under no illusions it will be an easy game.

“The boys know it’s a tough challenge tomorrow night they might be last but they’ve got some quality all over the park so we’ve got to be on our game and hopefully we can get the result in front of our home crowd," Boogaard said.

“We really need the three points there’s no more excuses we can’t keep saying we need to win, we have to win there’s no doubt about it we cant keep letting games go by so hopefully tomorrow night we can get the result we need”.

Friday’s game at Hindmarsh Stadium kicks-off week 11 of A-League fixtures with both sides looking to start their climb up the ladder.