A-League soccer, 2023: Young talent time - New coach reveals plans for success at Jets

Both, he believes, will help the Jets take the next step and return to the A-League finals.

Stanton took his first training session on Tuesday after being handed the controls following the resignation of Arthur Papas last week.

"What attracted me to Newcastle is that it is such a passionate place," Stanton said. "I want to ingrain myself in the community - get to know people, get to know players, invite good people to be involved. I think those connections are really important. I want to put myself out there and understand the community, and what they want to see in their football team. I want to put my touch to that and bring it to life."

The return of Daniel Stynes leaves Stanton with three spots vacant on the 23-man roster. Two of those are likely to be filled by foreigners.

"We need to add a couple of players, and we have a little bit of time for that," Stanton said. "We are looking to bring in a striker. One I have identified, I think he will be a good fit and complement other strikers we have. We also need a defender, a strong leader there to add to players like Brandon O'Neill in the spine."

Stanton, 51, has spent the past eight years at Sydney FC, three as the youth coach, where he won a premiership and helped develop a conveyor belt of talented players headed by Socceroos Marco Tilio, Cam Devlin and Joel King.

For the past five years, he has been Steve Corica's right-hand man and played an integral role in the Sky Blues securing consecutive championships. Before linking with Sydney, Stanton led Sutherland to an NPL title.

"I have worked in youth development at Sydney and then into senior football," he said. "I know the importance of youth development. That can be the foundation to move forward.

"I know we are not the most resourced and biggest club. That is fine. It has been proven this season [by Central Coast] what you can achieve with limited resources. It is how you maximise what you have. How you develop the players and people in the club to get to the point where you can be successful. We are in a nice position."

READ MORE:

The Jets had the second youngest squad, behind the Mariners, last season.

Local products Jacob Dowse, Lucas Mauragis and Lachie Bayliss, who signed this week from the Mariners, have been added to the crop of young players.

"Jacob Dowse has returned," Stanton said. "Lachie Bayliss was the Mariners' top scorer in the NPL. We all know about Archie Goodwin. He is still going through the transformation of getting his body 100 per cent, which is really important. Those are the types of players we are looking for to bring in. The fans connect with them because they feel they know them.

"The players [from outside] who come in have to learn what Newcastle is about. I am learning about that now.

"There are players like Jason Hoffman who live and breathe Newcastle and portray that inside the change room.

"If you look at the age of the team. We have a lot of players in the 23-24 and 26-27 age bracket. That is a really good age group. You need a sprinkling of senior players. That mid age group is where you can be successful. We have a good core group of those players.

"The team under Arthur did a good job. This is a bit of a different situation. Arthur wasn't sacked. A different opportunity came for him because of good work. We are in a position where we can build on that foundation."

Stanton has identified areas for improvement.

"We want to play attacking football," he said. "If I look at the stats last year, we scored 1.15 goals a game and conceded 1.73. Expected goals were 1.21. If we can improve what we do at the attacking end that is a good starting point.

"You need to move the ball into those areas quicker, you need to create more scoring chances.

"I have made some adjustments on how the team will be structured, but there is flexibility to make changes during the game. It utilises best the qualities of the players we have. My job is to get the players to buy in. If they buy in we can do great things for the club."