Victory ready to keep grinding against Roar
After doing what they needed to do to grab three points against Wellington, Arthur Diles says the ability to grind out results will be an important one for his side as the season winds down.
Melbourne Victory can look to multiple examples from this season in which they played better than they did against Wellington last weekend. However, that trip to New Zealand produced three points, while some of those other, nominally better, performances didn’t. And his side prepares for a dogfight with a desperate Brisbane Roar, Victory boss Arthur Diles has said that this ability to grind out results is an important asset.
Leading 2-1 heading into the final 15 minutes at Sky Stadium, Victory ultimately took the chocolates last Friday thanks to a 77th-minute goal from Louis D’Arrigo; the midfielder’s goal giving them a sufficient buffer to absorb Roderick Miranda’s unfortunate 84th-minute own goal.
Helping them bounce back from a disappointing defeat against Central Coast the week prior, the result moved Victory up into fifth position on the A-League Men’s table, two points back of third-placed Sydney and seven behind top-of-the-table Newcastle.
Notably, however, compared to their loss to the Mariners the week prior, Diles’ side didn’t create nearly as many goal-scoring chances: possessing just 43% of the ball, down from 67%, and fashioning 12 shots, down from 26 in Gosford. An expected goals of just 1.61 (xG) against Central Coast did speak to a level of bluntness with their multitude of attempts, admittedly, but it was, nonetheless, greater than the 1.02 xG they attained against the ‘Nix.
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“That’s always important,” said Diles. “As a team, things don’t always fall like you want them to fall. We always look at the performance as being really important; we value our performance and how we want to play. And we know that always gives us the best chance of winning. It doesn’t guarantee you the win -- nothing does.
“We weren’t poor last week by any means. I just think we’ve played better in many games than we did last week. We were still dangerous; in patches, we were playing some really good stuff. It wasn’t a great performance throughout the whole match, but I believe that we were good enough to win the game, and we did enough to win the game.”
“Being able to not be at your best, in terms of your football, and still get a result is really important. That shows mentality, that shows, [you’re] finding other ways to win sometimes. And in the end, we did that, and that’s important for our growth as a team, and it’s important for us to try to push forward.”
Unfortunately for Diles, his plans for this Saturday’s visit from Brisbane have been hit by a few enforced absences.
The coach confirmed on Friday that D’Ariggo, though not needing surgery, will be out for four to six weeks after suffering ligament damage in his foot late in the win over Wellington. Reno Piscopo suffered a tweak in his hamstring in training on Friday morning and won’t feature against the Roar, while defender BJ Hamill will need to make it through 90 minutes of one final practice match in the coming weeks before he’s considered for selection with the senior side. Flanker Franco Lino, meanwhile, who has battled injury and hasn’t featured for the senior team since returning on loan from Viking FK, was described as being close but still needing to show the coaching staff more.
“I’m still waiting to see a little bit more from Franco,” said Diles. “We’ve spoken, he’s aware of that; my expectation is a little bit higher than where he’s been shown at the moment. He’s been out for a long time, so we’ve got to be patient as well, and don’t want to rush him, but I want him to also be at the level that we want, expect and that he needs to be. He’s getting closer and closer, and hopefully, in the next week or so, he’s knocking on the door.”
After making his starting debut against Wellington and, bizarre handball aside, earning praise from Diles, the coach said that Charles N’Duka and Nikos Vergos both were in contention to start against Brisbane.
“It’s match by match,” said the coach. “There’s a number of things we look at when we’re picking the team: we look at the opponent, we look at form, we look at a number of things. Charles has got a fight on his hands with Nikko. I’m sure Nikko wasn’t happy not [starting] last week, but that’s football -- you’ve got to rise above that. You’ve got to be ready when called upon, ready to start or ready to make an impact off the bench. I thought Charles did really well last week; unlucky not to score, but he was a handful for Wellington.
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“Charles did well last week. He’s improving week by week, day by day, and you can start to see some of his qualities. You can see physically, he’s a massive threat. You can see he puts people in compromising positions as defenders. And he’s always in the area, he’s always in the box, and that’s important for us.”
The Roar, for their part, will head to Victoria in something of a wounded state, in the midst of a form slump that has seen them slump out of the playoff places and set to be without coach Michael Valkanis after he received a red card following their loss to Central Coast last week.
Nonetheless, with the Roar placing a fighting spirit at the core of their identity this season and in desperate need of a win, to say nothing of having increasingly fit Socceroo and former Victory striker Nick D’Agostino leading the line, Diles said a challenging game awaited.
“We know it’s going to be a really tough match, a real physical match,” he said. “They’ve shown what type of team they are this year. We’ve played them already once, and been on the end of what that looks like.
“We’ve got to be ready tomorrow. We’re back at home, we’ve got to make sure we take the home form with us. We’ve got to make sure we improve from last week, and we’ve got to make sure we keep the ball rolling.”