by Ben Gilby (27/12/23)
Above: Melbourne City boss Dario Vidosic addressing the media today. Image: Melbourne City.
Melbourne City head coach Dario Vidosic believes he has a potential Championship winning squad assembled ahead of tomorrow’s game with Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park, but knows his team still has to make improvements in order to reach their potential.
Reflecting on his team’s win in the pre-Christmas Melbourne derby that put them clear at the top of the A-League Women, Vidosic said: “It was a great game…for us to walk away as winners of that game with a dominant performance, it didn’t really reflect our dominance on the scoreboard, but we’re starting to put things together…it’s just putting the ball in the back of the net, and that’s the most important thing.”
Conversion rate is just one area that the City boss believes his side can improve in. He is also looking for his side to be a bit “smarter” at times.
“There are quality teams and quality players (in the A-League Women) and we are going to give away chances. We are cleaning things up, and learning how teams adapt to us. Many are deciding to drop off and wait for those transitional moments. We just need to be a bit more smarter in how we conduct our play and how much risk we play to that and how we organise those moments. It’s about improving each week and I think there’s a lot further we can still go.”
Once work on those areas begins to bear fruit, Vidosic believes his side are more than capable of bringing silverware back to Melbourne.
“I think we do. We lost Holly (McNamara) early…but we have been able to adapt. We are still creating so many chances and it’s going to continue to evolve. The girls are taking in all the information and are able to apply it. We had a much more complete performance against Melbourne (Victory last time out) and we are looking to take that even further against Brisbane.”
City go into tomorrow’s game with the Roar with no injury concerns. The game begins a period of three matches against sides currently outside the top six. However, Vidosic doesn’t see this period of fixtures being any easier than their previous games which included encounters with top-three rivals Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory.
“When we go to teams, or when they come to us, we know we come with a large target on our back, especially being league leaders at the moment. I don’t think there are any weak teams. If you don’t show up it’s going to be a very tough game.”
Whilst it’s been a season of ups and downs for Brisbane Roar, the City boss sees real progression in the Queensland side since the arrival of new head coach Alex Smith.
“With the coaching change, they’ve gone a bit more possession-based. They did very well against Sydney (last time out, a 1-1 draw) they caused them problems. They are a little bit more direct, but they still want to have the ball, and they counter-press, so we’re expecting a good tussle tomorrow and they will be up for it.”
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