Melbourne Victory head coach Tony Popovic spoke to the media following Monday night’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Western United.
On the performance…
“Overall we didn’t do enough to break down 10 men. They sat very deep and defended well – that’s what they do.”
“We had some good opportunities in the first half where we could have opened the game up if we had taken one of them.”
“I think we could have done a little better with our final decisions.”
“But in the circumstances it’s disappointing to not at least get a point.”
“They defended very well with 10 men. Credit to them. We look forward to doing better against them next time we play them.”
On the build-up to the goal…
“It was a clear offside. It was three metres offside before the corner. It’s not close.”
“It’s so far offside that I’m not really sure what we have to do now.”
“The VAR must intervene.”
“Three metres offside running towards goal, they get a corner, and they scored from the corner.”
“We needed to put that aside. We still had plenty of time to come back. But that’s where the goal came from.”
On any injury concerns…
“[Nani] had some tightness – hip, hamstring. He was very touch and go for the game. In the end [we decided] to wait another week. I expect him to be fine against Central Coast.”
“Roderick (Miranda) we’ll see. He trained with the group but he doesn’t quite feel one hundred percent yet. We’ll see how he goes this week.”
“I think we’ve got a few players that are still trying to get back. Jason Geria…[Roderick Miranda]…[Matthew Spiranovic]. If we can get those players back on deck, it’ll certainly make our squad stronger.”
On the absence of Victory fans…
“It’s different…it felt like some of those games that we played with the Covid restrictions.”
“It is what it is for us at the moment. We can’t use that as an excuse for what happened out there today.”
On the potential for future sanctions…
“We’ll deal with whatever comes up.”
“I’d like to think that what we’re seeing so far is pretty heavy sanctions.”
“If they think we need more then we’ll have to deal with that.”
