Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic is convinced it’s only a matter of time before his charges start getting appropriately rewarded for their efforts.
Melbourne Victory coach Mehmet Durakovic is convinced it’s only a matter of time before his charges start getting appropriately rewarded for their efforts.
Durakovic believes Victory have played ‘really well’ in the past four Hyundai A-League matches and deserved more than the five points that they accrued over that period of time.
The coach warned if Victory maintained their positive form line between now and the end of the season, the results would follow.
“If those (many) chances (on goal) go at the back of the net, then we’re going to hurt teams,” Durakovic said after training at Gosch’s Paddock on Friday.
“I’ve been very happy with the way we’ve been playing the last three or four weeks and if we continue like that we’re going to win more games than we’re going to draw.”
Victory’s next assignment is at AAMI Park on Sunday against Wellington Phoenix who are fresh from beating league leaders Brisbane 2-0.
Durakovic said his team had to be wary of the visitors’ set pieces and implement an accurate passing game if they were going to collect all three points.
“(With) set pieces, they’ve shown they can hurt people and the way they played against Brisbane the other night is full credit to them,” he said.
“But as long as we play our football and the way we can play, we’ll hurt Wellington this week.”
“We need to stick to our game plan, our game plan will be like short, sharp passing and movement off the ball.”
“If we can do that like we’ve been doing in the last three or four weeks, I’m sure we’ll have a good game this week.”
Durakovic intimated shutting down Paul Ifill (if fit) and Nicky Ward would also go a long way to ensuring a win.
“Ifill’s done some damage and Ward has done some damage as well so we’ve got to be careful on their breaks,” he said.
“But having said that we’re going to be concentrating on our play and the way we want them to play.”
Victory have almost a fully clean bill of health at the moment and could be further bolstered by the return of Rody Vargas from suspension.
Adrian Leijer suffered a knock at training but Durakovic said the captain will be right to play on Sunday.
“Adrian’s a strong guy and I’m positive that he’ll be okay for tomorrow’s training (session),” Durakovic said.
