Melbourne Victory A-League Men’s Head Coach, Giovanni Savarese, and midfielder Jordi Valadon have addressed the media ahead of the Club’s AFC Champions League Two Group Stage fixture versus Persib Bandung.
The Match Day 4 clash takes place at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Wednesday, November 4, kick-off 6:45pm AEDT, with FC Seoul and Thể Công–Viettel facing off in the other Group E contest.
Giovanni Savarese
On player availability:
“We have everybody in a good place. We’ve been adapting, learning, growing into how to be able to manage these types of games after so many matches. After Wellington, when I really saw the team tire, everyone has done a very good job in order to make sure that we’re able to do the rotations and give the right minutes to the players.”
On being at home for a pivotal match:
“We want our fans to support us in this big match that we have. We have a very good fan base. We feel that this is a big match, and hopefully we have as many as we can coming into the stadium.”
On the upcoming Original Rivalry:
“We’re thinking first about this match, and we’re trying to put out the freshest players, all the ones that we feel are going to be able to provide what we need in this game.
“After the match, we’ll think about Adelaide, which is going to be another difficult game. But this is the one that we have in front, the most important right now, and we want to get a good result in order to continue to compete because we’re looking forward to making the next stage.”
Jordi Valadon
On the second chance against Persib:
“Obviously we experienced them last week, and we have played all the teams, and we are looking forward to tomorrow. It’s obviously a very important game, and a very important competition that we take seriously, and we want to perform really well and go as far as we can. So, we are looking forward to continuing on that journey tomorrow.”
On how to get a positive result:
“The game plan we’ve talked about. We prepare for each game on its own, and leading into this, we know what we need to do, and the coaches and everyone at the club has helped us be prepared both physically and mentally for the game. There’s a great synergy between everyone in the team and the group, and we’re just looking forward to executing tomorrow night.”
On his current form:
“It’s been a good patch for me, and obviously it helps the confidence. But even with the goals, I just always want to help the team as much as I can, whether that’s scoring goals or blocking balls, whatever it is in the midfield. That’s what I focus on, and whatever comes of that will be when I play my best football.”
Watch the full press conference below.
