Hard truths shared as City target Sydney ALM bounceback
After a “brutal” review of their 3-1 loss to Perth, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar says his side knows they’ll need to bring the right attitude if they’re to bounce back against Sydney.
After undertaking a “brutal” review of their 3-1 loss to Perth Glory, Melbourne City A-League Men boss Aurelio Vidmar says his side knows they’ll need to bring the right attitude if they’re to bounce back against Sydney FC this Saturday.
Powered by a hat-trick from former Welsh international Tom Lawrence, the Glory cruised to a drought-breaking and much-deserved win over the defending champions at AAMI Park last Sunday – ending a nearly five-year run of fixtures without a victory over City at the venue.
Not only did the result mean that Vidmar’s side ended 2025 outside of the top-six – relegated out of the playoff spaces by Melbourne Victory’s 5-1 thumping of Wellington the following day but it also maintained a trend in which City hasn’t scored multiple goals in a game since they beat Johor Darul Ta’zim 2-0 in the Asian Champions League Elite back on November 25 and only scored multiple goals in two league fixtures this season.
While reiterating once more that it didn’t represent a justification as much as a potential explanation, Vidmar noted at his pre-Sydney press conference on Friday that the defeat to Perth came in City’s third game in just over a week, following on from a Christmas Derby defeat on December 20 and a 1-1 draw with Macarthur on December 23. But having bemoaned his side not demonstrating the behaviours that are expected from them in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, he also noted that City were a vastly different side in the second half, suggesting a shift in attitude after a “little smack on the chops” in a poor opening stanza.
He also noted that the review following the defeat had been “brutal” in nature, with both the coaching staff and senior leaders such as Aziz Behich and Mat Leckie leading the soul-searching.
“Reviewing the game, it’s sometimes not what you want to see,” said the coach. “But the honest truth and the facts are, the video never lies. Part of that review is always the way we play, and also, we keep talking about our standards and our behaviours.
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“If someone’s not chasing back 20 meters or giving up a chase when you don’t have the ball, for example, they’re all the things that get highlighted. You don’t like it, but you have to do it, because if you want the very best, you’ve got to keep striving for the very best. You know you can’t cut corners and expect to get a positive result. Hard work, a good work ethic have been one of our staples here, one of our pillars. So that continues to happen and needs to continue to happen.
“We all can understand that on any given training session or any given game, it’s going to happen. We’re human, we’re not robots. So that will happen, but the consistency in those behaviours is what we’re always looking for.
“We did the review, the coaches and the players, of the Perth game. And our leaders, Aziz, Lecks and the other senior players have had a good discussion with the rest of the squad, and that’s part of their role as well.”
City’s first chance to respond and, they hope, avoid another scathing recap will come on Saturday evening, when they host Sydney FC at AAMI Park.
Win that game and, depending on results elsewhere, they could move up into fifth place by the time the weekend is out, with the chance to vault all the way up to second if they follow that with three points when Brisbane comes to town the following Tuesday. Lose that game, though, and they could find themselves crashing all the way to tenth if Perth beat Victory and Wellington down the Roar in their games this weekend.
Boosting their cause, Vidmar didn’t report any absences arising from the Glory defeat. Highly-rated young keeper James Nieuwenhuizen has also recovered from an ACL injury and will be able to back up Patrick Beach, with the 21-year-old Shepparton product, pre-injury, having been seen as the heir apparent for the now Socceroos-custodian. However, while Elbasan Rashani was named in the matchday squad on Thursday, Vidmar cut a more sanguine figure on the Kosovan international’s availability, noting that while there weren’t any structural issues that had been found on scans, he continued to face significant challenges with delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
“I don’t think it’s anything untoward, but we’re just going to have a look at him again this morning and then make a decision,” said the coach.
The Sky Blues, meanwhile, come into Saturday evening having not played since December 20, their scheduled fixture against Auckland having been postponed due to a (farcical) lack of ground availability in the Harbour City. Despite the extended break, Ufuk Talay’s remain in second-place coming into the weekend and will vault Auckland to return to the league’s summit should they take the win on Saturday.
In a blow for Sydney, attacker Joe Lolley will be sidelined until the end of the month due to a hamstring injury aggravated in their pre-Christmas loss to Newcastle, while Mathias Macallister has been called into Tony Vidmar’s U23 squad for the Asian Championships. Paul Okon Jnr has been named in the matchday squad, but the City gaffer sounded doubtful as to his availability.
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“We’re going to prepare for a very difficult game,” Vidmar said of Sydney. “Uffy [Talay], he had difficulties last season, and he’s changed it up. He’s got good foreigners coming back in now. I know they’re missing Okon Jr and Lolley, but he seems to replace those guys without missing too much.
“So they’re a good team. They’re better defensively than they were last season as well, and they’re better going forward. Their dangerous guys, like Al Hassan Toure, for example, moving forward, are always powerful and unpredictable.
“So, it’s going to be a challenge, but that’s fine. It’s all part of it. As you can see, in the league, everyone is beating everyone in a given stage. It’s nice for everyone. The competition is really tight. But you can see what two or three wins do to you. You can be close to the bottom of the pack, and then all of a sudden you can be in the top four. So it’s exciting for the competition, for sure.”