Sliema Wanderers coach Alfonso Greco has urged his players to show more consistency as the Blues continued their revival when they eased past Sta Lucia 4-0 at the Centenary Stadium last weekend.
It was the second successive win for the Wanderers and lifted them outside the relegation zone as they are now 11th in the standings on 11 points, level with Gudja United.
“These two victories have been a huge boost for our group of players,” Greco told the Times of Malta yesterday.
“The team has grown a lot in recent weeks, in terms of performance but definitely we are far from being a finished article.
“Our performance against Ħamrun Spartans was very good while against Sta Lucia we didn’t start so well but after scoring the first goal, the team settled down and from then on, we did well.
“The last two matches have shown the importance of maintaining our level of consistency. This season, the level of competition is very high and we can’t afford to let our concentration levels to go down or we would be risking to pay a hefty price.
“I’m pleased to see that we are also recovering some key players, such as Goran Adamovic, who surely is an important player to help our team maintain its defensive solidity so hopefully we can kick on.”
The start of the 2019-20 season was far from positive for the Wanderers as they managed just one win from their opening nine matches, leaving the team in the relegation zone.
That poor take off was due to some internal problems within the Sliema camp which saw the players lament failure from the club to pay their salaries. Since then, the club’s administration has moved quickly to solve the situation by paying all their dues and that has been a major factor behind the team’s revival.
“It has already come out all the internal problems we had at the club at the start of the season,” Greco admitted.
“There’s no hiding that those problems had a negative effect on the players but luckily the club have moved quickly to solve the situation and we can now move forward and start focusing solely on football.
“Now that everything is settled it’s imperative to keep working hard and try to develop more as a team. We are definitely not setting ourselves any long-term objectives. Our goal has to be our next match where we need to get another three points.
“Our position in the standings is certainly not a particular great view for us so it’s imperative that we try and climb the standings to the position where the club is more used to be.
“However, it’s not going to be that simple as the championship this year is far more competitive than previous years. All teams seem to have what it takes to beat one another and there is a very small gap between one team and another which means one win or one defeat could have a major impact.”
Greco said that his main concern is to improve the team’s scoring record this term.
“If you look well at our performances this season, one of the most concerning areas was our attack,” Greco said.
“We are creating a lot of chances but we are finding it very difficult to put the ball into the net and that many times has put us in a lot of trouble. But hopefully things are on the up and we must continue to work harder to improve our game all round.”
The talk in local football in recent weeks has been focused on the MFA plans to have a team playing in the Italian Serie C as from next season.
Greco has good knowledge of the level of football played in the Italian third-tier and said that it will certainly be a good step in the right direction to boost the level of Maltese players.
“I think it is a very interesting project,” Greco said.
“It is a good opportunity for Maltese players to confront themselves against other realities of football and will provide them a good platform to showcase their talent.
“No doubt, that if they have the chance to work and train with the right people, they have only to gain and that will only benefit the fortunes of the players involved in this project.”