Kevin Muscat was full of praise for Leroy George after another impressive performance.
Leroy George continued his fine start to life at Melbourne Victory, turning in another impressive performance in Central Coast on Sunday night.
A stunning free kick on 65 minutes allowed Victory to leave Gosford with a point, and coach Kevin Muscat was full of praise for the 30-year-old.
“He was the most exciting player on the park by a country mile,” Muscat said post-match.
“When we isolated Leroy in the second half, I was hoping we could get the ball to him more because he looked alive and he looked like he meant business.”
George started up front in the absence of the suspended Besart Berisha, before moving out to the right in the second half in a switch with Kosta Barbarouses.
Although he was substituted with minutes remaining, Muscat believes his availability won’t be an issue for the Cup Eve clash with the Wanderers at Etihad Stadium.
“We don’t play until Monday next week so he should be fine.
“It’s going to take him a little bit of time (to full fitness) but he’s got closer and closer to 90 minutes and we’ll recover him and assess him throughout the week.”
What a hit from @LeroyGeorge_NL 🙌#CCMvMVC @FOXFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/m6AT3c38yY
— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) October 29, 2017
Muscat labelled the draw as ‘possibly a fair result’, but bemoaned his side’s slow start.
“There’s a great deal of frustration, because we’ve done some great things and some really ordinary things tonight.
“In possession of the ball, we started off very, very sloppy.
“Going backwards, taking the easy option to go backwards rather than go forward.
“There’s two reasons you’re persistently passing the ball backwards, it’s because you’re not confident enough yourself to pass the ball forward, or people in front of you aren’t moving.
“We’ll get to the bottom of that throughout the week.
“Then we came to grips with it, we started moving the ball forward and we were getting into some very good areas.
“Our quality when it counted was just a little bit lacking, it was off. Otherwise it could have been a different story and in the end it just becomes a game of transition for both teams.
Victory is set to miss a number of stars to international duty for the game against Western Sydney, creating a lengthy unavailable list.
However, Muscat is unconcerned and has faith in his squad.
“It’s an opportunity, not a worry. People get an opportunity and if they take that opportunity they’ll stay in the team.”
