Aloisi wants Western youngsters to seize moment against Victory

Injury and suspension will force John Aloisi to test the limits of Western United's depth against Melbourne Victory on Tuesday, but he's looking at it as a chance to lay down a marker for the future.

Ravaged by injury and suspension, particularly down back, Western United coach John Aloisi is only one or two more adverse developments away from pulling people off the street to field a side against Melbourne Victory on Tuesday evening. But against a local foe, with young players getting a chance, the gaffer believes the coming fixture represents an opportunity to lay down a marker for the future. 

Goals from Daniel Penha and Noah Botic propelled United to a 2-0 win over Newcastle on Friday, just their third of the season and the first time they’d kept a clean sheet since April of last year. This did, however, come at a price, with defenders Josh Risdon and James Donachie both picking up suspensions, for yellow card accumulation and a red card respectively, that will rule them out of Tuesday’s game. 

They join a list of unavailabilities already featuring Steven Lustica, Ben Garuccio, Connor O’Toole, Jacob Tratt, Oliver Lavale, and Riku Danzaki; Aloisi saying Garuccio is a chance to feature against Brisbane on Friday night but the O’Toole is still likely a fortnight away. 

In their place, it will be left to Tomoki Imai, the ‘elder statesmen’ of the group at 33-years-old, and young prospects such as Kane Vidmar and Charbel Shamoon to step it up against the fourth-placed Victory, alongside the likes of NPL call-ups Khoder Kaddour and James York.

“We want to like show what we're capable of doing even with the young players that we've got in there,” said Aloisi. “We have eight contracted players unavailable.

“So if we can get a positive result and a positive performance then not only for this season, but it builds for our future because it shows that we're capable even with all these players out, that we can match it against anyone.

“So you know that's what we'll be trying to do. 

“We believe that we can go out and get the win – no doubt about that. But we know that it's not going to be an easy game but you know all these always these are these are interesting games.

“It could be something that could set us up for the rest of the season and also for the season coming.”

Despite the positivity of the win over the win over the Jets, vibes that were boosted on Sunday by the club’s A-League Women's side going top of the league after a win over Wellington, United’s men still find themselves mired at the foot of the A-League Men table heading into this weekend. 

With just three wins and two draws on the season against eleven defeats, Aloisi's side remain seven points adrift of eleventh-placed Newcastle heading into this weekend and with a goal difference of negative 18 – easily the worst in the competition. 

And yet, they’ve still picked up more points than Victory across their last five games, winning once and drawing twice compared to the four draws and a loss that have been recorded by Tony Popovic’s side. 

“We have to focus on us and try and take the positives out of the last game that we played,” Aloisi said. “We finally kept the clean sheet. We looked dangerous going forward, every time we went forward. We scored two goals and could have scored more. So that's the main focus, what we can do. 

“But we know them, we know what they're capable of doing. We know the way they play, what players they have. 

“Yeah, they've drawn quite a few games. They'll be disappointed, in a few of those games they should have won or could have got something out of the game. In the Macarthur game, they peppered the goal really and were unable to get that goal that they needed. 

“We have to take advantage if they are feeling [the strain of a run of draws], but we can't think that they're not going to be up for it because they will be.”

Beyond their run of draws and somewhat profligate nature as of late – not having scored more than a single goal in a game since a 3-2 win against Perth Glory on January 6 – Victory will have concerns over the health of Bruno Fornaroli and Adama Traore coming into the fixture. 

Both will be put through their paces in one final session on Monday afternoon to determine their ability to feature, with Popovic pouring cold water on the chances of Roly Bonevacia making his debut for the club after Saturday’s 0-0 Melbourne Derby draw.

Sitting forth on the table with 28 points — eight back of top-of-the-tree Wellington — Victory will head to AAMI Park on Tuesday winless in their last six games, with five draws and a loss, their first of the season, in that stretch.

They are, however, only three points back of second-placed Central Coast and a potential spot in next season’s Asian Champions League Elite; Australia’s lone slot in that competition going to the highest-placed eligible finisher in the A-League Men and the New Zealand/Oceania-based Phoenix not able to compete in AFC tournaments.