Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick believes Sunday’s shock 3-1 loss to Perth Glory was simply an out-of-character performance and that his team can bounce back against Central Coast Mariners on Thursday.
Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick believes Sunday’s shock 3-1 loss to Perth Glory was simply an out-of-character performance and that his team can bounce back against Central Coast Mariners on Thursday.
Merrick said he was disappointed with how the match had evolved and that after Rody Vargas conceded an unlucky early penalty, things just went wrong.
“They got a goal from the penalty kick and I don’t think they looked back after that,” Merrick said.
“I hope it was just an off night,” he said. “Our game is about strong defence and our midfield are able to hold possession and service the strikers.”
“We just couldn’t get our midfield going this afternoon and if you don’t get a hold of the ball in the midfield, you finish up sending long balls to the strikers and that’s not a good game for us and it certainly suits the Perth Glory team.”
“(So) a game like that, you just have to forget about and move on.”
“If it was front third stuff or a defensive error, you’d work on it, but there was just too many things that were out for us.”
Merrick said he was inclined to write off the match as an aberration and backed a quick rebound.
“We’ve got a short turnaround and we play on Thursday against the Mariners, I think that will be good for us,” Merrick said.
“It’s very important to get back on track and get three points at home.”
“I still feel that we’ve got the team to do that.”
“I think we’ve got the team to get into the finals and we’ll worry about the finals when we get there.”
“But you’ve got to score goals to do that and we just haven’t been producing up front,” he said.
