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Coach unfazed by Wanderers' set-piece woes

Pamela WhaleyAAP
Wanderers' coach Carl Robinson isn't fazed by the growing tally of set-piece goals against his team.
Camera IconWanderers' coach Carl Robinson isn't fazed by the growing tally of set-piece goals against his team.

Western Sydney have conceded more goals from set pieces than any other A-League side this season but coach Carl Robinson is taking a positive approach to the record.

From the eight goals against the Wanderers in eight games, seven have come from set pieces with just one through open play - the fewest in the league.

It speaks volumes for their defence in general play, but Robinson won't cop criticism for the way they concede, nor will he dwell on it.

"There's two corners in which we lost our markers which is 100 per cent on us," he said ahead of Saturday's match against Adelaide.

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"There's two penalties, which, you'd need to speak to the referees about that, whether they're penalties or not.

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"A deflected free kick, what can you do about that? We were all set up correctly and then two wide free kicks, one against Newcastle and we won that game and one on Sunday, which hurts.

"You can look at it whichever way you want.

"I'm a really positive guy. I look at it like we do need to be better, there's four or five set pieces we can't do anything about but we can tidy up."

The Wanderers are sitting fourth on the ladder, but a confident Robinson said he doesn't rue the points lost in the last few weeks to set pieces, particularly in Sunday's 2-all draw with Wellington.

"I'm sure people (dwell on it) but I don't because that's gone," he said.

"Why look in the rearview mirror when you look through the front windscreen? That's the way you look at life in general.

"We look forward. We know we can be better.

"If that's what we're worried about, the points we've lost and we're still not playing to the levels that I want us, when we do get that tidied up we won't be a bad team."

Robinson said James Troisi is a chance to play against Adelaide.

"He's touch and go, we'll leave it until the last minute to se how Jimmy is," he said.

"I won't rush any player into getting back because we've got lots of games ahead, especially this week, we've got three games in eight days so if there's a risk at all I won't take that risk with him.

"I know he wants to play and and it's important that he gets back up to speed as quick as he can."

**STATS THAT MATTER**

*Western Sydney have won their last three games against Adelaide.

*Adelaide are winless in their last six games outside of South Australia (L3, D3).

*Western Sydney are undefeated from their last seven A-League games (W3, D4), with their only loss for the season coming against Macarthur in week one.

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