Melbourne Victory head coach Kevin Muscat was pleased with his team’s and Besart Berisha’s performance in the win over the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Berisha set up the opener for Kosta Barbarouses before getting on the scoresheet in the 3-0 Hyundai A-League victory at ANZ Stadium on Friday.
Barbarouses completed his brace with a spectacular late effort as Victory sealed a deserved win.
Speaking at a news conference after the game, Muscat praised his team, Berisha and goalkeeper Matt Acton.
on the game…
“The first half was a big battle and analysing them over the last three or four weeks, there was a certain trend, a certain pattern about them and they were undefeated and we noticed some things. They’re a very, very competitive side and that first half was exactly that. At half-time we thought we could’ve utilised our full-backs in the build-up a hell of a lot more in the first half and that didn’t allow us to create an overload in the middle of the park often enough. On the occasions that we did do, we played through and got into the midfield area and got the balls into areas where you can start bringing your attackers into play. In the second half, I thought from our perspective I was very pleased with the level of fitness from the group and right until the death there and being as respectful as I can, we had very, very good opportunities to increase the goals for a lot more.”
on Acton’s performance…
“He had to make a couple of saves, I think the hardest one was off Rhys (Williams). When the angle that we’re on from there, as soon as he headed it you think it’s going in because you always think the worst. When I saw the replay, it’s an outstanding save, a great save.”
on his team’s and Berisha’s form…
“I was always positive and probably get labelled maybe sticking to my guns, sticking to things that have been successful or sticking to things that we actually train for. If you start changing things, you start relying on luck. I thought we showed a great appetite, a great attitude, coupled with some good football. It took us a while to break them down in that first half, it took a while and right at the death we’re still creating chances. I thought Leroy (George’s) trickery in the box and his calmness to set Bes up was outstanding and then Kosta gets his reward for his efforts with that wonderful strike.”
“Even the first one, Bes, he’s a victim of his own success because we love to chase down a winner and it certainly happened a little bit during the week and rightly so because he’s set such unbelievable standards but maybe we don’t notice the other things that he does do. But I’ll take him and back him every day of the week. Even when he has a great strike and it’s a wonderful save by Vedran (Janjetovic), was it a bad miss or a good save? We tend to harp on the negatives, I suppose we get a lot more fun out of it, but I’ll back him and take him every day of the week. I was pleased for him.”
