Melbourne Victory interim Head Coach, Steve Kean, has shared his reaction to the 2-0 defeat against Sydney FC at Jubilee Stadium.
A goal in each half saw Victory leave Sydney empty-handed on Wednesday night.
In a positive, Nishan Velupillay, 20, made his A-League debut, replacing Callum McManaman in the 62nd minute.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Kean discussed the game, Ben Folami’s performance and Nick Ansell’s injury.
on the game…
“I think there’s a big moment in the game in the second half when the ball is flashed across and there was a bit of a contact between goalkeeper and centre-back, when Rudy (Gestede) is sliding and it just doesn’t spill for us, I think that’s the key moment and if it spills the right way and we get a tap in then all of a sudden it’s game on, but against a good team you’ve got to take those moments. We didn’t have too many in the first half, we gave away too many set-plays in the first half and a massive danger obviously with (Luke) Brattan’s quality the way he delivers the ball. I felt we dealt with that, we didn’t give as many away in the second half and we just really needed to get the first goal of the second half, then I think it might’ve been a different outcome, but a little bit like the first game when we were here, we gave it a good crack and it just didn’t fall our way tonight, but it wasn’t for a want of trying, I thought we gave a good account of ourselves.”
on Folami…
“I think Ben shows that if we can give him service and he can get at defenders in wide areas, he can create problems. He also needs to just add a little bit more to his game as far as his accuracy when he’s crossing, we’ve spoken about, we’ve worked on him with him and I think that’s getting better. I certainly think he’s got promise because when he opens his legs and he can get at you and back you into the box, good defenders don’t want to see that with somebody that can shift the ball inside or they can step over, they can take it on the outside and if you’ve got pace and power and presence then I think you can cause anybody a problem which I think he did tonight. We’re working on his defensive side of his game when the ball is on the other side of the pitch to tuck in and give us an extra player in midfield and I think he’s taken on board the information well, I think he just tired a little bit at the end and maybe on the second goal got done a little bit with a one-two, but that’s because he’s making forward runs and trying to create and get in behind and then maybe just ran out of legs a little bit to try and track the full-back as (Rhyan) Grant runs in, he gets done, but his overall performance – he’s creating problems and he’s causing opposition massive problems when we can give him service.”
on Ansell…
“I don’t know how bad it is, we’ll know, but he felt tightness in his hamstring, he didn’t think he could carry on, whether that’s a strain or whether it’s just a cramp we’ll find that out when we scan it in the morning.”
