Giovanni Savarese has refused to hide behind Melbourne Victory’s schedule as they hunt a first A-League Men win of the season.
The Boys in Blue play their fifth game in a little over two weeks this weekend, making the journey to South Australia for a clash with Adelaide United on Sunday, November 8, kick-off 5:00pm AEDT.
Victory have earned draws in their last two domestic outings, sharing the points at AAMI Park with both Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners around AFC Champions League Two matches against Persib Bandung, but would love to claim a league maximum going into the FIFA Men’s international window.
And what better setting to achieve this than an Original Rivalry showdown at Coopers Stadium.
Speaking during the pre-match press conference, Savarese stressed the importance of winning despite the season being only a few weeks old, and backed his players to continue going to the well.
“We want to win games. A team is always viewed on winning and losing – that’s clear. I grew up as a fan, so as a fan, I want my team to win, sometimes even ugly. As much as people say that we want to see a style of play, it’s about winning and losing, and unfortunately, in this particular match [against Persib], we didn’t get a result.
“It wasn’t because of a lack of running, especially not because of a lack of running. Actually, in the data, this is the game that any Melbourne Victory team since 2023 has run the most, so that shows how much the team wants to win, but as I said before, we have to find the ways to make sure that we get the result.”
Former Adelaide man Louis D’Arrigo, two matches back from a minor muscle injury, joined his Head Coach to preview the Matchweek 4 contest.
The midfielder started his career at the Reds and, as a South Australian, will always be associated with his hometown club, but now wants to make new memories on familiar ground in Victory colours.
“[I have] really good memories. Hopefully, I can create some more memories this weekend. Form put aside, this weekend, it’s a big game, big emotions, and I can’t wait to play there in front of friends and family and both sets of fans.”
