Coach Kosmina wants Adelaide United warriors

Newly re-appointed Adelaide United coach John Kosmina has just four days to turn around his team’s fortunes before their key clash with rivals Sydney FC on Thursday.

Kosmina hopes to follow the lead of Graham Arnold, who galvanised his trailblazing Mariners to the top of this season’s Hyundai A-League table despite a poor start to the season.

“I want to make them warriors… they need to adopt that warrior mentality, but if they don’t buy into it it’s not going to work,” he said.

Overseeing his first United training session today, Kosmina was pleased with the fight the players showed but said they had to maintain that intensity before they can start to see results.

“They got stuck in a bit it was fairly intense… but they’ve got to come back and do it tomorrow, then they’ve got to do it Thursday night and then they’ve got to do it first session next week.”

Kosmina coached the inaugural Adelaide United squad until 2007 and will look to bring the passion back to a Reds team which is just one point from the bottom of the ladder.

“Tradition is something that you’ve got to feel, history you can learn about but whether you actually feel it or not is a whole different situation.”

“It’s not going to change overnight, it won’t just happen. I see a room full of players but I don’t see a team in there at the moment.”

Adelaide takes on the Sky Blues this Thursday at the Sydney Football Stadium where Kosmina will look to take all three points from his successor at Sydney, Vítězslav Lavička.