A-League: Jackson earns recall but Jets coach concerned with attitude more than squad shake up

But coach Craig Deans is more concerned about a change in attitude and discipline than a shake up of personnel.

The Jets produced their worst performance of the campaign, giving up four first-half goals, in a 4-1 surrender to Adelaide at home on Sunday night.

"We could talk about the starting team, tactics and all that, but the bottom line is that we weren't prepared to do what we had to do to win the game," Deans said. "We let it go in the first 40 minutes. We take way to many risks at inappropriate times."

There will be at least one change to the starting side for the trip west.

Captain Nigel Boogaard is suspended after he received a fifth yellow card for the season and was also limping noticeably when replaced in the 55th minute by Jackson.

It was Jackson's first appearance since suffering an ankle injury two months ago.

The 25-year-old missed the second half of last season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament playing against Wellington Phoenix in round 16.

"I thought Lachy Jackson came in and did a good job," Deans said. "Nigel is not going to play next week and that's why we took him off. Lachy has been out for a little while and he is going to have to play next week."

Johnny Koutroumbis was another casualty, succumbing to a knee injury in the first half. He had an MRI Monday night and is awaiting results.

"For Johnny to go down and come off, it is something more than a little kick," Deans said.

Hoffman (groin) has resumed full training and is likely to be recalled.

"We need people like Hoffy around. He has the attitude, the hunger and the spark we need," Deans said. "If he is fit, he is definitely an option."

Ramy Najjarine is also pushing for a return to the XI after setting up a goal for Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and crafting a series of chances in his return from an ankle injury.

"Ramy has been out for a while and had to work his way," Deans said. "He has had one week of full training in the last six."

Fellow half-time substitute Liridon Krasniqi also made an impact.

"Liri has not played a lot of football in the past 12 months, and we have been working on trying to get him match fit," the coach said.

READ MORE: COACH APOLOGISES AFTER HORROR LOSS

READ MORE: FULLBACK SAYS TIME FOR ACTION NOT WORDS

The loss was the Jets' fourth on the bounce. They opened the season with four defeats, before rebounding to go five games unbeaten. Though losing early on, they were playing far better than the past month.

They now sit in 11^th spot on 11 points and are two wins outside the top six.

"It is crunch time every week," Deans said. "We are in a situation now where every time we don't get three points, we make it more difficult for ourselves.

"There is no more time to say, we are only six points from this or eight points from that, we need to win games of football and we need to do it very quickly."

The Jets had a disrupted start to the season, with a change of ownership and uncertainty over the coaching position until Deans was handed the gig full-time.

However, the coach refuses to use that as an excuse for the drop in form.

"To say it has been a tough year and we did well to do what we did early on - you can't be like that in professional sport," he said. "At every club in the world there is something going on behind the scenes that you can allow to be a distraction or you can allow yourself to use as an excuse.

"We had our issues. That is done now.

"Our issue is accepting that we need to be better at games of football."

Deans confirmed that Lewis Italiano is also likely to stay in goals, with Jack Duncan not 100 per cent.

"Jack has has had a little niggle for a couple of weeks," Deans said. "I backed his judgement on his availability and his fitness. Last week, there were little things creeping in that showed the injury is impacting him more than he wanted to let on.

"I like the attitude of not wanting to let the team down and being prepared to sacrifice yourself, but I had to make a decision to take him out.

"There wasn't much Lewis could have done [to prevent] the four goals. They are both very capable keepers. It was a tough decision with which one I went with at the start.

"When Jack is back 100 per cent fit there is another decision to make there."

N THE NEWS:

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: