Victory coach Tony Popovic insists his membership has “moved on” from the shameful occasions of December’s Melbourne derby regardless of his City counterpart Rado Vidosic believing the fallen giants are “lacking confidence”.
For the primary time for the reason that December 17 pitch invasion at AAMI Park that led to the derby being deserted after 20 minutes, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City will meet – on the identical venue – on Saturday evening.
Despite Popovic’s assertion that the Victory has put the incident behind them, it’s but to get well on and off the sector.
Sanctioned closely by Football Australia for the actions of a gaggle of their supporters – a few of whom have acquired life bans – the Victory off-field issues have been mirrored by the slide down the ladder.
Since December’s derby, Popovic’s males have picked up simply 4 factors from a doable 24 in a dismal eight-match run that has included six losses.
Not surprisingly, the Victory is final on the ladder.
In distinction, Vidosic’s City are eight factors clear on the high of the ladder and have scored 13 targets of their previous three matches.
“They’re on top for a reason – they keep winning and all their players are in very good form, but we’re not playing badly,” Victory boss Popovic insisted.
“We’re just not getting results, and we feel we are very close to turning this (around), and there’s no better night or game to do it than in a derby.
“We know we’re good enough to win the game (but) instead of talking about it, we have to show it.
“If we can bring our best performance (on Saturday), we can really show Melbourne City what a good team we are.”
Popovic stated he had this week not addressed his enjoying group concerning the pitch invasion.
“No one’s ignoring it, (but) I think we’ve all moved on from that,” he stated.
“I don’t know if the players are speaking about it internally but … we’re happy to see our fans and members back, and we want that to continue.”
Vidosic received’t enable his star-studded City aspect to underestimate the Victory.
“At the moment, they are maybe lacking a little bit of confidence, (but) it’s not like they are playing poorly – absolutely not,” Vidosic stated.
“They’re going to be a good team (on Saturday). They’re going to come out firing. We need to be ready for the game.”
Vidosic stated the City squad had stopped speaking concerning the pitch invasion “two or three days after it happened”.
“It was just ‘forget about it, let’s move on’. Every week we are trying to concentrate on the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents,” he stated.
The Victory’s first-choice goalkeeper Paul Izzo is predicted to return from a thumb harm that has sidelined him since late December.
“He looks good and we’re very hopeful that we see him out there (on Saturday),” Popovic stated.
Source: www.news.com.au
