Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has praised the performance of Brazilian midfielder Gui Finkler in Monday’s 3-2 win over Wellington Phoenix.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has praised the performance of Brazilian midfielder Gui Finkler in Monday’s 3-2 win over Wellington Phoenix.
Finkler, who returned from a groin injury as one of two changes to the side that lost to the Newcastle Jets last week, was outstanding before coming off as a substitute in the 59th minute.
Victory had a 3-0 advantage at that point, before a late brace from Jeremy Brockie reduced the margin to just one goal at Etihad Stadium.
Postecoglou said Finkler, who played for 12 clubs over six years before moving to Melbourne, had impressed at training and simply needed more time to establish himself in Australia.
“I haven’t seen one (foreigner) really hit the ground running and be outstanding from day one and I’ve dealt with probably some of the best ones that have come into this country,” Postecoglou told reporters after the game.
“And that’s a testament to our league. It doesn’t matter about your pedigree or quality; you can’t just stroll in here and dominate.
“It’s a hard competition and he’s getting used to that.
“From our point of view, we can see at training that he’s a good player and he’s a quality player. I think what we saw tonight is what we’ve been seeing in training.”
Despite climbing off the bottom of the Hyundai A-League table with their second win of the season, Postecoglou was critical of his side’s performance in the dying stages, which saw Brockie score twice in the final 10 minutes.
“You’re left with a negative at the end and that sits in your gut a little bit,” he said.
“I don’t want to take away from the football we played in the first hour or so, but it was really disappointing. It was unacceptable.
“We’re working really hard on a style of play and being disciplined about it and we veered away from that.”
Postecoglou said he was unsure whether the players had mentally switched off in the dying stages.
“It’s pretty clear now we try to play a certain way and everyone’s accepted that,” he added.
“If you accept that, you do it come hell or high water. You can’t just take it upon yourself to do what you feel like just because a game’s going a certain way.
“We were good for the first 60, 70 minutes and I thought we’d be hard to handle for any team in the league if we played like that.
“But we’re not just about playing some good football over a period of time, we want to be better than that and that’s the lesson that comes out of tonight.”
