Purposefulness and accountability key for Victory ahead of Mariner visit.

Melbourne Victory's ALM side know they need to be purposeful with the ball. They know they need to be better in front of goal. And they know they need to be accountable for this, starting with CCM.

Melbourne Victory had plenty of the ball in their 1-1 draw with Brisbane Roar last week but most of it, in the words of Arthur Diles, was of the “meaningless” sort. And with the race for playoff places as fraught as ever, both the coach and his players know that a greater level of purposefulness with the ball and a more lethal edge in front of goal has to be found in the season’s final months.

Making the trip north to face a Roar outfit that hasn’t won at home in more than a year, it took a 97th minute equaliser from Kasey Bos – the youngster’s first-ever A-League Men goal – for Victory to salvage a point last Saturday, ensuring they remained just inside the top six come the end of the weekend. In truth, the Victorians were lucky to even still be in a position to equalise at that point, the hosts squandering a series of chances as they outshot their foes twelve to ten (six on target to four) despite having just 34% of the ball throughout the 90 minutes.

Victory being wasteful in front of goals this season is a long-established trend, a presence of their game even before Diles took the reins following Patrick Kisnorbo’s surprise exit just before the Christmas Derby. Increasingly, however, their play has also been dominated by large periods of dead possession and bluntness when presented with an embedded defence.

Just three sides have averaged more of the ball this season than Victory while only Sydney FC and Western Sydney have sent in more shots on goal this season than the Vuck and Wanderers and Adelaide are the lone outfits to have produced more expected goals (xG). Nonetheless, Victory’s 28 goals this season only outpace City’s 27 amongst their top six rivals, underperforming their xG by a league-leading 6.4 across their 19 games as only cellar-dwellers Roar and Perth convert a smaller percentage of their shots on target.

Sitting on 30 points heading into the weekend, Sydney’s bye means that Victory can’t fall out of the top six regardless of their result against the Central Coast on Saturday evening. However, a win could, if other results go their way, see them vault into third on the table come the end of the round and, with three games against top six rivals to come in the next month, serve as an important morale and form boost against an outfit that has proven maddeningly difficult to beat this season.

“We definitely need to improve our intent with the ball to break down an opponent's deep block,” said Diles. “We had a lot of possession last week, but it was meaningless possession because we didn't create enough chances off the back of that. Possession for the sake of possession is not what we want. It's possession to create good and clear goalscoring opportunities. And that wasn't the case last week. The important thing was that we kept going, and in the end, you get a reward for not giving up, and that's important.

“[The squad has] responded from the first session back from Brisbane. It's been a fantastic week of training. That response has given us a lot of belief and confidence for tomorrow night. I couldn't have asked for more on the training pitch this week, in terms of quality, intent, attitude, and intensity. It's been a fantastic week. Now we just have to put that out in the park tomorrow. And if we do that, it's going to be a good night.”

Still struggling to rediscover his early-season form after he suffered an ankle injury in a November World Cup qualifier with the Socceroos, Nishan Velupillay said plenty of conversations had taken place across the week about the need for improvements, as well as the need for he and his fellow attackers to step up.

“We've had a couple conversations as a team,” said Velupillay. “We understand that we probably got away with one in Brisbane. But on the training pitch, we've tried to implement a couple new things and just get back to our principles of how we've been playing before.

“One of [the topics] was accountability. It's something we already do, but, the position we're in now and the club we are, we want to put more expectation on ourselves to do more. All our boys can handle it.”

Consistently praising the environment in the dressing room ever since taking over as coach of the side, Diles said that these conversations should provide a platform for an improved performance against the Mariners.

“[Accountability is] something they discuss amongst themselves, as well,” he said. “They take ownership over things, as well [hearing it from coaches]. That's a great part of that group of players as people, and the leadership team that drives that as well. They've had some good discussions. We have collectively, and they have as a group. That's probably laid the platform for a great week so far, and we've got to build on that.”

Diles said that he had an almost complete squad to choose from for the visit from Mark Jackson’s Mariners except for Jack Duncan, who will miss his second-straight game as he deals with the effects of a concussion.

One player that will be part of the squad is Alex Badolato, who touched down in Melbourne this week after helping the Young Socceroos to an AFC U20 Cup title. Having previously worked with Diles when he was part of the coaching staff at Western Sydney’s academy, the 20-year-old was loaned from the Wanderers to Victory while he was in China with the Young Socceroos but didn’t let that distract him going on to be crowned player of the tournament.

He's integrated already, he's hit the ground running,” Diles said of his new addition. He trained the full week with the group, and got familiar with the group. The group got familiar with him. He'll be part of the squad tomorrow.

“He's been brought here to make the team stronger and better. And he will do that. He can play a number of roles. When you've got that ability as a footballer, technical ability, tactical ability -- he's tactically advanced for his age -- physically he's great. He can play a number of positions. He can play in the midfield. He can play in attack. He's going to add real value to this team. And the players have already seen the quality that he has. He's fit in really well this week.”

Beyond his on-field impact, the arrival of Badolato, who Diles said had a year to run on his contract with the Wanderers following this season, could also serve as a jolt to Victory’s existing playing ranks as they look to break out of their attacking slump.

“That's one thing that we've been talking about all year: our attack and scoring more goals,” said Diles. “Part of that's collective as a team, to make sure we provide our attackers with enough goalscoring opportunities and we get the ball in the attacking third as often as we can.

“And then another part of that is the individual creating that outcome, creating that chance, and scoring that goal. That's where accountability comes in. At the moment, we can't say we've been outstanding in attack. We've been getting there, but we haven't had the reward. So we've got to keep building and working on that. And the players have to stand up there as well and do their bit, while the team does their bit as well.”