Melbourne Victory head coach Marco Kurz was disappointed by his side’s 2-1 loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers in the Hyundai A-League.
Goals from Keanu Baccus and Alexander Meier in the second half gave the Wanderers control at Marvel Stadium on Friday.
Ola Toivonen scored a second-half penalty for Victory, but it was unable to find an equaliser despite a strong finish.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Kurz discussed his side’s attacking play and provided an update on left-back Adama Traore.
on the game…
“When you lose the game, you are disappointed of course, also in front of our fantastic supporters. When I saw the 90 minutes, I think we started not too bad, I think the first 10-15 minutes we made it good, we created a big chance from Andrew (Nabbout). After their big chance in minute 20, we dropped it a little bit back with our confidence, our performance, we needed minimum 10 minutes to come back in our rhythm. In the second half, it was clear, I said to the boys again, more confidence, more clear moments, simple things, a little bit similar to last week – final passes, crossing, have a look for our target player with Ola … then we gave them two easy chances, the first one was a second ball but they created a shot and the second goal is too easy. After the changes, I think we had control in the game, a lot of transitions, a lot of power in the game, but at the end we didn’t score the equaliser and that’s the reason we lost the game and we are disappointed.”
on attacking play…
“I think it’s for everyone allowed to score a goal. We had some good moments after set-pieces, we were close to finish in the first game and this game as well. The crossing, sometimes the defending was good, we must be clearer and sometimes a little bit more killer instinct in the box, but the boys when you saw the game, they fought until the end, they had a good attitude, good body language and they want to win.”
on Corey Brown and Traore…
“I had a chat with Adama and currently our situation we have to improve players with late signings, Adama is one of them. He felt a little bit of stiffness in his knee and the risk was for me too high, for one game to risk this quality player makes no sense. Also, Corey was always hard working and it was a chance for Corey.”
on the team’s approach in attack…
“I think when the opponents like City and Western Sydney, they played very compact in a 4-3-3, you must find the outside position and we made it good, we came in the last third, but then you must find the players in the box – that’s the point when we speak about crossing. It’s more the quality of the crossing because it makes no sense to play the ball in the pressing situation, that makes no sense. They stayed very compact and you must find after switching the sides the outside position.”
