Atkinson, Rashani return and Leckie updates loom as City prepare to hit the road again
Off to Newcastle and then Seoul, a busy stretch for Melbourne City awaits. And with veterans returning, others injured, and clarity on Mat Leckie’s status looming, Aurelio Vidmar says balance is key.
With injuries hitting veteran Socceroos such as Mat Leckie and Nathaniel Atkinson, Aurelio Vidmar has been forced to plug-and-play players, especially young players, as he juggles Melbourne City’s A-League Men and Asian Champions League Elite commitments. But with reinforcements arriving as other veterans bow out, and clarity on Leckie’s status hoped to be arriving soon, the coach says balance is the key.
City will once again jet out for an extended road trip this weekend, first heading to the Hunter to take on the Newcastle Jets on Saturday afternoon before then flying straight to South Korea to take on FC Seoul in the Asian Champions League Elite.
Though their domestic form has been up-and-down as of late – the defending champions playing out a scoreless draw with Central Coast last weekend – three straight wins on the continental front have City second in the East and on the precipice of the knockouts, with one victory in their last three games likely ensuring progression.
Injuries to the likes of Leckie, Atkinson, Andrew Nabbout, and Samuel Souprayen mean they’ve largely had to stage this run with young talent at its core: five members of the XI with an average age of 24.9 that defeated Johor Darul Ta’zim 2-0 last week aged 20 or under, with a further four teenagers added off the bench.
“What we’re trying to do on every given week is trying to put the strongest possible team on the park,” said Vidmar. “Obviously, when we get all the numbers here, it’s a lot easier – and then it’s a little bit tricky about finding the right balance, the right connections in certain sectors of the pitch.
“They’re all the things that we try to consider every week. Sometimes our hands are tied. Early in the first part of the season, our hands were tied, and we tried a couple of new things, a couple of young players.
“For us, it’s really just trying to stay calm and stay balanced with whatever decision we make. And I think we’ve done that.
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“That’s all part of the learning process [for younger players]. It has to start somewhere.
“Let’s take Beckham Baker; as much as we would have loved to start giving him time in the A-League -- 10 or 15 minutes here or there, a start, or whatever -- we’ve launched him into something incredibly harder, which was a debut in the Asian Champions League.
“So they’ve got to learn. They’ve got to learn quickly. Sometimes it’s hard lessons. But ultimately, all these experiences are only going to make them better long term.
“And as Australians, especially in our code, we’re always travelling, so travel for us is just normal.”
Of course, City needs to worry about the Jets before their thoughts can properly turn to facing off with the Korean powers next week – Mark Milligan’s side coming into this weekend’s fixture boosted by a win over defending premiers Auckland that snapped a three-game losing run and lifted them from the foot of the table.
Like their opponents this weekend, it’s been an up-and-down campaign for the Novocastrians thus far, with a brave, passing style highlighted by an Australia Cup win – securing them Asian Champions League 2 football – and a thumping victory over Melbourne Victory in round two, interspersed with some disappointing defeats.
“They’re a young team, an energetic team, good going forward, who want to play a nice type of football,” Vidmar said of the Jets. “[They play] a lot of quick combinations in the front third.
“So, in an attacking sense, one of the better teams going forward, for sure. It’s always difficult your first year as a coach. They won the cup, had a bit of a dip over the last couple of weeks, but you can see the foundations of what [Milligan] is trying to set up there.”
City will welcome back Atkinson and Elbasan Rashani for their upcoming fixtures, with Vidmar signalling that he anticipated that they would see some minutes of both fixtures.
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After experiencing delayed concussion symptoms from the Mariners draw, Nabbout won’t make the trip, while Souprayen will definitely miss the Jets game and is still being assessed for the Seoul encounter after experiencing achilles “thickening”.
The absence of Leckie, who hasn’t played since Halloween with hamstring issues, remains enigmatic. A player who could yet make a late run at the Socceroos’ World Cup squad if he can get fit, the attacker has been dogged with injury for multiple campaigns now, but his coach at City is hopeful that clarity will soon be coming.
“There are a couple of things happening with him,” said the City boss. “It’s not just that he’s getting the hamstring injuries: it’s coming from other parts of his body. They’re considering a lot of different things. So I would say within the next week or so, there’ll be a little bit more communication about what’s going to happen with Lecks.
“In this extended period that it’s happened again, it’s more evident that he’s getting different referral pain around his back, around his hips, which are having a big contribution to why he’s at range, at stretching -- he’s pulling his hamstring.
“He’s not actually sprinting when he’s done the hamstrings; it’s just a reaching motion. So a lot of issues around his hips and things like that.
“We think we’ve got it nailed down to a certain extent, but now it’s about what we’re actually going to do to make sure that he’s able to come back without that sort of tightness and tension around those areas.”
Header Image Credit: Melbourne City