City bringing their guns to bear ahead of Wellington trip

Making the trek across the Tasman for a meeting with Wellington, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar is confident his side’s sputtering attack is trending in the right direction.

Making the trek across the Tasman, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar is confident his side’s sputtering attack is trending in the right direction as they prepare to meet a Wellington side that, Auckland humiliation aside, has proven a tough nut to crack this A-League Men season.

Playing out a 2-2 with Melbourne Victory in their third and final derby meeting of the campaign, City will enter the round’s play in sixth position on the league table, just three points off second-placed Adelaide United – and possessing a better goal difference than the Reds – but also just three points clear of eighth-placed Macarthur. It’s a remarkable situation, a lack of consistency amongst the various challengers creating a suffocatingly tight playoff race means in which narratives can turn in an instant; where it doesn’t take much for a side to place themselves in a commanding position with a few strong results or fall into a deficit with a couple of bad ones.

Every side in this mix has their challenges. And, for City they mostly come down to their ability (or inability, to be more accurate) to turn what has been plentiful possession into clear-cut chances and, even more pressingly, goals. Though their defence ranks as the second stoutest in the league, trailing only table-toppers Auckland, Vidmar’s outfit ranks ninth in the competition for goals scored this season with 1.4 per game – the lowest of any side in the top six. Their big chances created, per FotMOb, ranks eighth in the ALM and their 22.4 expected goals (xG) is ninth, their lowest ranking in this statistic since the start of their modern era of success under Erick Mombaerts. This is despite their 53.9% average possession being the competition’s second highest.

Taken together, it doesn’t sound like a recipe for success against a Phoenix side whose deep, deep block this season won’t be winning many beauty pageants – or many games, given they currently sit 11th – but has proven maddeningly difficult for opponents to break down. Despite losing multiple key contributors to injury along the way, their 1.1 goals conceded per game before their 6-0 hammering against Auckland last week was the third best in the league.

Steve Corica’s side, however, did find a way to punch through their defences. And despite last week’s draw with Victory being the first time his side had scored multiple goals in six games, Vidmar feels his side are heading in the right direction.

“We're trending in the right way in terms of our attacking play, that's for sure,” he said. “It hasn't been at the level that we will require, for a number of reasons, but in the last couple of weeks, it's certainly started to track in the right direction. And we expect that to continue to track in that direction.

“Wellington, they're a good defensive team. They've been more attacking over the last five or six weeks. It's always going to be a tricky game. We know that. So we got to be at our very, very best. We’ve got to be concentrating for 100 minutes. We've had some lapses at the beginning of the second half -- especially last week [Santos put Victory ahead 2-1 in the 48th minute of the derby] -- and we need to make sure that we get that right. Every individual has a responsibility to make sure that their intensity is at a very high level, so we don't start negatively.

“Getting the ball in the right areas and then when we have the ball in the right areas, just making a final decision [is key]. We get the ball in there quite often and pretty easily. And then it's about individuals making the right decision.

“They're the things that we can show, but we can't teach you. You just gotta keep going in there. Even if you miss a goal, you miss a chance, you just gotta keep going back in there and presenting. The ones who run away and hide, that generally tells you they don't have the right temperament to play professional sports. So the ones who keep going in there and keep showing themselves, they're generally the guys that want to prove something.”

No doubt giving Vidmar reason for optimism are the increasing minutes that have been put into the legs of long-term injured attackers such as Mat Leckie, Marco Tilio, and Max Caputo in recent weeks.

After making his return from a two-month injury layoff in January, Leckie played 90 minutes for the second successive week in last week's derby, with Vidmar still of the belief that, when he's fit and in form, no player in the ALM is better than the Socceroo stalwart. Caputo, meanwhile, started his third-straight game since returning from a broken leg against the Vuck, while Tilio was in the starting XI for the second straight game as he returned from a hamstring injury.

Netting in just the fifth minute – after an intelligent dummy from Leckie to give him space – Tilio also scored his first goal since round one in the 2-2 draw and Vidmar is confident that as his injured cohort finds rhythm and comfort on the pitch, rewards will come.

“Generally, when guys come back from injury, their first game is generally pretty good and then they have a little bit of a dip,” said the coach. “Then they just need some momentum and continuity, and generally, that can take three, four, five weeks. So keeping those guys on the pitch is going to be very, very important for us; making sure that they keep completing minutes and they'll get better as the more time they spend on the pitch.”

Also welcoming Austrian attacker Andreas Kuen back last week, City didn’t add any new fitness concerns in the derby and will take the same squad to Wellington on Friday night. Midfielder Steven Ugarkovic, meanwhile, is tracking for a return against the Newcastle Jets on Labour Day weekend, while winger Yonatan Cohen is ahead of schedule in his recovery from an MCL injury and could push to feature the following week against Macarthur. Alessandro Lopane returned to action with Alessandro Diamanti’s VPL1 side last week and has resumed full training, while Jimmy Jeggo is on track to return from his Achilles injury before the end of the season.

“You can see how the dynamics change when you have Andreas in there, and Lecks, Tilio and Maxie Caputo,” said Vidmar. “The dynamics change, especially in the front end of the pitch.

“But, as well, when they weren't in there, we've got guys underneath that coming in and doing a pretty good job for us. So they'll need to continue to make an impact as well.”