Playing well and playing often all Marco Tilio can do

Stringing together starts for the first time in two years, on-loan Celtic attacker Marco Tilio knows the best thing he can do for his Socceroo and club future is to play well with Melbourne City.

Amid his first consistent run of games in almost two years, Marco Tilio feels both he and Melbourne City are only going to get stronger heading into the season’s finals weeks. And he knows a good run of regular football is the best possible thing he can do to strengthen both his Socceroo and club future.

Returning after the latest in a string of hamstring injuries, Tilio has started and emerged unscathed from City’s last four fixtures, stringing together his longest consecutive run of football since the 2022-23 A-League Men finals and netting twice during what has been an unbeaten run by his side.

Max Caputo scoring a brace in a 2-0 win over Macarthur on Saturday, Andreas Kuen and Yonatan Cohen returning from injury, and Mat Leckie slowly starting to bring his impact to bear, City’s strong run of form has coincided, unsurprisingly, with the continued integration of their difference-makers in attack.

And with the Newcastle Jets awaiting on Wednesday evening, the last fixture City will play before the international break, Tilio believes there’s more to come from both the team and himself.

“The biggest thing is, I think, personnel,” said Tilio. “We've got the players that I think the club and Viddy [coach Aurelio Vidmar] thought would be there from round one and so many of us are slowly all coming together now.

“It's starting to go into fruition now; we've had a good run of games together and I think we're going to get stronger with that.

“I haven't played many games. I feel I'm slowly, slowly finding my feet again and getting that match fitness. That's the most important thing, match fitness, you can only build from playing games.

“I'd say I'm at that 70, 80% mark now and I still feel I have a bit to give and a bit more to learn in terms of the actual game. Hopefully over the next month or so that I'll be there or thereabouts at 100% and feeling fit and confident.”

City will welcome the Jets to AAMI Park on Wednesday evening sitting third on the table, a point back of second-placed Western United -- retaining a game in hand on John Aloisi's side -- but also just three points clear of sixth-placed Western Sydney Wanderers.

With Macarthur's loss last weekend dealing a heavy blow to their finals chances, the jeopardy associated with falling out of the top six with one bad result has somewhat lessened -- seventh-placed Sydney FC are five points back of City -- but with second-spot enough to secure an Asian Champions League Elite slot should Auckland take the Premiers' Plate, and Corica's side's lead atop the table not yet of the unassailable variety, wins are still vital.

Winners of three of their last four games – the other result a 2-2 derby draw with Melbourne Victory – Wednesday’s clash pits two of the league’s form sides against each other, the Jets unbeaten in their last seven games and staging a Kota Mizunuma-driven surge up the table.

We've found a good run of form so, for us, I think it's a good thing that we're playing another game on Wednesday,” Tilio said. “Bringing a little bit of momentum going into the international break.”

“[The Jets] have been doing really well under Rob [Stanton, the Jets coach who coached Tilio in the Sydney FC academy]. You can see they're a tight-knit group and they've been going out fighting the last few weeks and they've had a lot of good results.

“We know we're up for a big game, the main thing for us is just to focus on ourselves and hopefully go out tomorrow at home and get three points.”

Given the rash of injuries hitting Australian playing stocks, as well as the utility Tilio could bring to the system employed by Socceroos boss, the attacker’s form has potentially come at a good time for both himself and the national team, with the squad for coming World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and China to be named on Friday.

Should that prove a bridge too far, fixtures against Japan and Saudi Arabia in June would provide ample opportunity for him to get further minutes.

Meanwhile, Tilio’s future at club level remains clouded. The nine-time Socceroo is currently on-loan at City from Scottish powers Celtic, with whom he signed a five-year contract in June of 2023. However, injuries not aiding his cause, he struggled to force his way into Brendan Rodgers’ calculations during his time at Parkhead and is unlikely to feature in the manager’s plans heading into next season.

But regardless of if it’s about his future at the international level or in the domestic game, Tilio knows the best thing he can do to strengthen his hand is get on the park, play minutes, and continue to build.

“I've been worried about playing and playing consistently and putting myself out there for [City],” he said. “I've been trying to put this string of games together and have good form to put myself in that window. But ultimately, I just wanted to be out there playing football.

“If [an international call-up] comes along, I'll be more than privileged to be back in the Socceroos' setup. We'll just wait and see. But for now, I'm just worrying about the game on Wednesday and putting in a good performance and winning.

“There has been a bit of chat [on his club future] but nothing concrete yet. It's still early on; there's about three months to go and I've only just started coming back into the [City] team. I'm sure in the next couple of months, the conversations will start to ramp up and we'll see where it goes from there.

“My only thought is just to play, play well, and then put myself out there and have better options to consider at the end of this season.”