Melbourne Victory Head Coach Jeff Hopkins believes fatigue played a part in a 2-0 loss to Perth Glory in the Liberty A-League on Saturday.
Victory’s five-game unbeaten run was ended at AAMI Park, where Mie Leth Jans and Leena Khamis scored in the second half.
It was Victory’s fifth game in 16 days in a run which will include seven outings in 23 days.
Speaking at his post-match news conference, Hopkins said tiredness proved costly.
on the game…
“There were a lot of things I was pretty happy with to be honest. I thought we passed the ball really well, built the ball up well, just I think the game mid-week against Sydney took a lot out of us, more than we thought I think, physically and maybe emotionally as well. I thought it was a good performance, but it just lacked a little bit of energy, especially in the final third. I thought we built up really well from the back, I thought we played through them really well, just that ability to penetrate in the final third we kind of didn’t have today and I put that down to fatigue. It was elements of fatigue and tiredness that showed there at key parts of the game, but really proud of the way we played today, really proud of the way we kept going right to the end. It’s something players have got to understand, a performance like this was going to come, it’s not a disaster, I thought there were some really good individual performances out there and on another day with just a little less fatigue in their legs, we would’ve gone on and won that game.”
on Alana Murphy’s injury…
“She rolled her ankle. She came back on and then she looked okay for a few minutes, then she was limping quite heavily so we decided to take no chance with her and get her off. I think we’ll have a look at her, it’s a very quick turnaround so I don’t know how she’ll go. Kyra (Cooney-Cross) had a bit of a knock before the game but she was fine. I don’t think Amy (Jackson) will be right for Tuesday. We’ll have just to see. The girls are just coming into the rooms now, they’ll be a little bit disappointed but we’ll have a quick chat and start the recovery process again. That’s what it’s like at the moment, these short turnarounds, we’ve got to talk about the game and then put the game right out of our minds and start thinking and looking ahead.”
on the busy schedule…
“It’s something that we all have to do as professional coaches, professional players. Games are coming thick and fast at the moment. We’ll review this game very, very quickly, take a few things out of the game that we can hopefully bring into the game on Tuesday and then away we go, have a look at Canberra, look at specific things that we’ll need to do to beat them and maybe add one or two things that we didn’t do today.”