Melbourne Victory coach Tony Popovic spoke to media this morning ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Newcastle at AAMI Park.
Victory’s nine-game unbeaten run across all competitions was broken on Wednesday with a 1-0 defeat to Wellington.
It sets up an important three points on the line against the Jets.
Popovic on rebounding from Wednesday:
“We didn’t play our best game in terms of our style of football but we created numerous opportunities and I’m sure on another day if we take those opportunities, we win the match.
“We created some great opportunities in the second half, which is a positive going into tomorrow that we can create those chances when we’re not at our best.
“But we didn’t get the result and have to be better tomorrow.
“The good thing about football is before you know, there’s another opportunity to get three points. We’ve got a chance again now in front of our members and fans to put in a top performance.”
Popovic on Newcastle:
“They’re really quick going forward, probably the quickest team in transition in the league. When they win the ball, they get to goal very quickly. They press very high and are very aggressive in their play,.
“We’ve got to concentrate on us and controlling the game the way we want to. We need to have better passages of play with the ball but we’ve been defending well as a team.”
Popovic on squad fitness:
“We’re still building match minutes into a lot of players who haven’t had regular game time.
“As we play these games every three or four days, our players will get stronger and hopefully our continuity and stability of the team will improve.”
