Ange Postecoglou is close to finalising his starting line-up for Melbourne Victory’s opening match of the A-League season against local rivals Melbourne Heart.
Ange Postecoglou is close to finalising his starting line-up for Melbourne Victory’s opening match of the A-League season against local rivals Melbourne Heart.
Victory completed an intra-club match on Sunday, with Postecoglou sending out one team very similar to the side which started a friendly with Perth Glory on Wednesday.
While Postecoglou left the door open for his entire squad to push for selection in the fortnight leading up the Melbourne derby on October 5, the coach did admit he has a line-up in his head which looms as the likely starting 11 to play Heart.
“I still think there’ll be a couple of positions I’ll be deciding up to the last minute and it’ll depend on how people are feeling and how we’re training but for the most part I’ve got a fair idea of what we’re going to put out there,” Postecoglou said.
Victory fans can expect their team to line-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with a very fluid front attacking quartet of Marcos Flores and Guilherme Finkler through the middle, while Marco Rojas and Archie Thompson will play on the flanks.
Jonathan Bru and Leigh Broxham loom as Postecoglou’s preferred combination in midfield, with Adama Traore, Adrian Leijer, Mark Milligan and Matthew Foschini are set to form the defence.
The biggest question mark hangs over who will play in goal, with both Tando Velaphi and Lawrence Thomas having had opportunities during pre-season and Postecoglou conceded he would need the remaining 12 days before the first round of the 2012/13 A-League campaign to decide.
“There’s not much between both of them,” Postecoglou said.
“They’ve both had some good spells.”
Postecoglou revealed Victory will now turn their focus toward the Melbourne derby against Heart, with training set to ‘become a little bit more specific now’.
Having also trained on Saturday on top of the friendly with Perth three days earlier, Postecoglou was happy with how both sides performed in the intra-club match at AAMI Stadium, even though the first team began to tire in the second half.
“The first half I thought was excellent from both teams and yeah, tailed off a bit in the second half but ultimately when you look at the players at the end, they’d given all they could and that’s all we could ask for,” Postecoglou said.
Victory’s South American attacking pair of Flores and Finkler looked in fine touch in the first half, giving the fans in attendance a view of things to come but Postecoglou made it clear he expects more.
“I still think there’s more in them and I still think they can improve,” he said.
“You know, Marcos is sort of just starting to find his feet and it’ll be the same with Gui (Finkler), he’s gotta’ get used to the football here.
“They’re going ok; I don’t think they’re anywhere near where I want them to be at the moment but … I’m sure whatever we start with they’ll get better.”