Preview
Our boys in blue return to AAMI Park on Thursday night to face an in-form Western United.
Speaking to the media ahead of the match, head coach Tony Popovic emphasised just how important the match is going to be.
“It’s a very important game. We’re at the business end of the season,” he said.
“We know what to expect tomorrow night. A really tough encounter.
“We know recently how the game transpired against Western United, where we scored two late goals and we expect another tough match against a team that’s in good form.”
Looking to build on last week’s win against Adelaide, Popovic said the team still “need to improve” further if they want to continue to challenge for the Premiers Plate.
“We really focused on the lead-up to the Adelaide game for a whole week on getting our game on track, getting our work rate to the levels that are required to be a team that wants to challenge and wants to win titles,” he said
“We saw signs of that. It wasn’t perfect. But certainly a big improvement. You know, but we need to improve again.
“The attitude is, ‘we have to work extremely hard. You have to earn everything you get’.
“We’re hoping to see more quality moments, add a few more of those moments from the Adelaide game into this one. And if we can do that and have that same discipline and work rate, we give ourselves a great chance to get a win before we head to the (international) break.”
From Tony
The Stats
Last Time
Squad
2.Jason GERIA, 3.Adama TRAORE, 5.Damien DA SILVA, 7.Chris IKONOMIDIS, 8.Zinedine MACHACH, 10.Bruno FORNAROLI, 11.Ben FOLAMI, 14.Connor CHAPMAN, 16.Stefan NIGRO, 17.Nishan VELUPILLAY, 18.Fabian MONGE, 19.Daniel ARZANI, 20.Paul IZZO, 21.Roderick MIRANDA, 22.Jake BRIMMER, 23.Salim KHELIFI, 27.Jordi VALADON, 28.Roly BONEVACIA, 37.Kasey BOS, 40.Christian SICILIANO
Ins: 3.Adama TRAORE, 16.Stefan NIGRO
Out:
Unavailable: 25.Ryan TEAGUE
