Local boys are back in town for Adelaide United

Adelaide United looks set to re-introduce a local flavour to their squad for this Friday’s Hyundai A-League match against the Central Coast Mariners.

After impressing last week off the bench, former Adelaide City midfielder Ricardo Da Silva and South Australia’s own Fabian Barbiero appear to have fought their way into Rini Coolen’s first team plans.

“He (Barbiero) gets an opportunity this game to be in the starting eleven, so that’s fantastic and again like Malik he’s a South Australian player so that’s fantastic,” Coolen said.

“Also Ricky (Da Silva), he did very well when he came in last week and we prepared him for the A-League level in what was another step for him…if Serge (van Dijk) is not available it gives an opportunity to Ricky and if you work hard you get a chance to achieve something, he could be another South Australian player in the stating eleven, so of course we prefer everyone to be available but it gives opportunities to other players and they deserve it,” he said.

Adelaide is unbeaten since the end of October but with only one win since then, Coolen believes things need to turn around quickly for the Reds to start their climb back up the A-League ladder.

“We haven’t lost our last four games but we need a few wins to make a step on the ladder and to work on the confidence and we prefer to play better football. It’s not easy at the moment because we’ve lost some players but as I said it gives some opportunities to other players.”

The Reds could be bolstered by the return of Sergio van Dijk and Evgeniy Levchenko from injury but Coolen appears cautious over bringing the pair straight back into his starting line-up.

“We prefer to use them as quickly as possible but you also have to be realistic and we’re definitely not going to take any risks because they’re both players who have had some issues with muscle problems, so in that case you can’t take risks but if they are available we will use them,” Coolen said.

United haven’t beaten the Mariners in their last five meetings and will be searching for just their third win of the season Friday night at Hindmarsh Stadium.