ADELAIDE United’s championship winning defender Tarek Elrich says he is already really worried about next season given the Reds are about to lose a plethora of experienced players.

Elrich, 30, believes Adelaide will suffer a repeat of the same recent A-League season from hell if his bosses don’t make good key decisions on recruiting and keeping trusted heads for the new season.

Elrich is one of the few championship players to keep his spot for certain next season.

He urged the club to reconsider re-signing skipper Eugene Galekovic and Marcelo Carrusca – both players come off contract at the end of the season.

Elrich missed Tuesday’s important AFC Champions League clash against Jiangsu Suning at Hindmarsh after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in the penultimate A-league clash of the season in a 1-0 loss to Melbourne City in Melbourne.

REPORT: Reds to farewell legend after ACL loss

Eugene Galekovic waves goodbye to the United fans. Source: News Corp Australia

“People talk about Marcelo being a lazy player but you look at his GPS results and how hard he works as a No. 10 for our team in the championship winning year, he actually done a lot of hard work and worked really well with Brucey (Djite),’’ Elrich told Fox Sports before the Reds clash at Hindmarsh.

“He got us decent results in the end.

“He’s a creator if they lose him… he becomes an Aussie citizen very soon too so.

“It’s always hard to find good players and good players in the change rooms and Marcelo ticks all those boxes.

“But I’m worried about next season, I think we’ve only got about seven or eight players signed (next season).

“This (A-League) season that just went past we left our signings very late and it showed.

“We didn’t take off too quick and we finished off the season on a bit of a high and as bad as it sounds, I can see a repeat of that if the club doesn’t make their decisions soon.”