Melbourne Victory interim head coach Steve Kean praised his attackers after a thrilling win over the Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday.
Victory held on for a 5-4 win against the Wanderers at Marvel Stadium, where Ben Folami scored a brace to go with goals from Storm Roux, Dylan Ryan and Jacob Butterfield.
Robbie Kruse was a constant threat as Victory claimed three points after a nervy finish as Western Sydney pushed from 5-1 down.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Kean discussed the performance, his attack and provided an injury update.
on the finish…
“I said to the players there after the game, a great effort, but the game is never finished until you learned something from it and certainly the learning aspect is just how you manage the game because we don’t need to score any more goals, we don’t need to be as expansive, we just need to manage our way through it, especially because they’re one of the strongest in the league in the last 25 to 30 minutes of the game because they’ve got so many attacking threats that they can bring onto the pitch. That’s the learning thing for the players, that we just need to try and manage the game and don’t chase another goal.”
on attack…
“When you’ve got Rudy (Gestede) on the pitch, some people might not think he had an impact, but when he’s on there, sometimes he ties up two or three defenders, I think Robbie Kruse has had an exceptional game because he’s playing beside Rudy, he’s a very good foil for other players. It’s not a coincidence that Ben Folami’s got more in the game, Krusey’s looked good in the game, Callum McManaman’s looked good in the game, that’s because Rudy is there and he can retain the ball, he can hold it up and bring other people into the game so I thought he was great tonight.”
on injuries…
“We’ve got Leigh Broxham who had to come off (due to a calf injury) so hopefully he pulled up okay. We will have Nick Ansell coming back which is an added bonus and then we just need to see how they recover tomorrow. But Broxy’s probably the one major concern and then we’ll look at the normal way that they return to play over the next 48 hours.”
on Folami…
“It was great. I think he could’ve probably had more goals if we’re examining every chance that he had, he probably could’ve got more. It’s when he opens up his legs and he drives into the box and he can get one-on-one, he’s dangerous because he can change angle of the ball, he can go on the outside, he can come on the inside and cause any defender problems so I thought he had a big impact in the game and I was delighted for him.”