City desperately searching for consistency on eve of "grand final" against Wanderers

The good news for Melbourne City is that they're coming into their do-or-die clash with Western Sydney after an 8-0 win. The bad news is they've not exactly backed up their big wins well this season.

Melbourne City have shown that they can score in bunches this season. In really big, record-setting bunches; their 8-0 win over Perth Glory on Sunday somehow managing to eclipse 8-1 and 7-0 wins over Brisbane and Western Sydney earlier in the season and set a new A-League Men record for its greatest-ever winning margin. But while City has now repeatedly demonstrated they can blow sides away, the problem, invariably, has been what’s come next. A conundrum when they’re heading into a game in which their playoff hopes could conceivably be ended. 

The 23 goals that City has netted across these games represent 48.9% of the total goals they have scored across their 25 games this season and, in the cumulative six games following their wins over the Roar and Wanderers, they’ve scored fewer than one goal per 90 minutes in accumulating a record of one win, two draws, and three defeats. 

Had they been able to turn either of those draws into wins they’d be in the top six right now or, if they’d been able to salvage a point from any of the losses, they’d be level on points with their opponent on Saturday afternoon, sixth-placed Western Sydney. 

It’s reflective of one of the most telling narratives surrounding City this season, one of the key reasons they find themselves in a dogfight to maintain a decade-long run of playoff appearances heading into the penultimate week of the campaign: maddening inconsistency. As observed by Vidmar on Thursday, his side are yet to win more than two games on the bounce all season – something they’ll likely need to do to pip the Wanderers to sixth – and their away form has been poor. 

Indeed, if away form had its own league table, City would sit third-last heading into the season's final weeks -- compared to a third-place ranking on a home variant -- with just two wins against eight defeats — and we can make that nine once we account for their ‘home’ game against the Wanderers at Parramatta Stadium in Unite Round. Only Western United and Perth Glory, who are currently battling it out to avoid the wooden spoon, have a worse record on the road than City does this season. 

“That's why we've been so inconsistent,” said Vidmar. “We have a couple of decent games and then take a big step backwards. That's been a bit of the key message this week, to be honest. It's about backing up. It doesn't have to be a performance of five or six goals. 

“It's just super consistent performances and backing up with a win.[We haven’t] had more than two [league] wins in a row all season. That's also something to look at. Our form away from home is pretty poor. So that's also something that we have to try to make amends for this weekend.

“The key is always mentality and attitude. Every team, when you're playing at home if you've got that little bit of comfort. You're at home, it's very, very familiar. And then the away games are always a little bit tricky, not just for us, but for a lot of teams. But we'll keep our heads down and keep working and try to put them under pressure and try to get the win.”

Perhaps giving Vidmar an extra reason to be optimistic, the Wanderers’ form at home in 2023-24 is almost as bad as their rival's away results. Only the Newcastle Jets – the ownerless, perennially existentially threatened Jets – have picked up fewer points as the home side than Western Sydney this season – Marko Rudan’s unit picking up four wins against two draws and six defeats. 

Though able to bounce back from their 7-0 shellacking at the hands of City last month with back-to-back wins, the Wanderers spurned the opportunity to take advantage of their finals rival's stumbles in recent weeks, falling to back-to-back losses against Brisbane and Sydney FC. 

Vidmar, however, refused to countenance any thoughts of underestimating a wounded Wanderer beast. 

“They're an absolutely dangerous team,” said Vidmar. “That's quite clear, this is not going to be a blowout by no means. It's a different kettle of fish [to the 7-0 result]. They'll be hurting from that game. They'll be hurting from last week's derby loss in the last minute. 

“There's a hell of a lot on the line, for both teams. I think it's going to be a great battle. Sometimes when you've got games like this There may be some nerves and sometimes these types of games aren't classic games. That can be just tough slogs. And I'm expecting more of that.”

After Mat Leckie played 60 minutes in his return to the starting XI last week, City will potentially get Marco Tilio back in some form for Saturday, with the winger to be assessed in their final two training sessions before a game that they, quietly simply, cannot afford to lose.

Currently on 34 points, a Wanderer win would put them four clear from City's 33 and eliminate them from finals contention heading into the last week of the season. Draw, and City would need Melbourne Victory to defeat Western Sydney at AAMI Park on the final Saturday of the regular season before heading to the same venue the next afternoon and defeating Western United. Should City win, Rudan would need his former employers to do him a favour after his team had done the business against their old coach Tony Popovic.

Depending on the results of this weekend, Victory could be playing to secure a home final in that contest, while Western would be seeking to not just avoid a wooden spoon but also home advantage in an Australia Cup play-in fixture.  

"All the big games you gotta get up for even the small games you gotta get up for,” said Vidmar. “As we saw this season, anyone can beat anyone. It doesn't matter where you are on the table. It's just been a bizarre season. 

“We mentioned before the Perth game that this is a final and now this is a final for us, it is a grand final. Because for both teams, a win puts you in a better position and a loss just knocks you out. So it's a big game. You've got to get up for it, you've got to have the right mentality, the right attitude, and everyone rolling up their sleeves. 

“If we can be close to consistent like we were over the last six or seven weeks [City will be in good stead]. Because I think probably since the Wellington game we have been absolutely super consistent. We probably [had] those games that we didn't win against Newcastle and Central Coast that we deserved a lot more [from]. So the last couple of months have been super consistent in terms of performance.”