Victory wary of wounded Wanderers, add Japanese striker
Melbourne Victory are flying. The Western Sydney Wanderers are not. And yet when the two sides meet at AAMI Park this Saturday, the hosts are anticipating the toughest test of their season to date.
Melbourne Victory are flying. The Western Sydney Wanderers are not. And yet when the two sides meet at AAMI Park this Saturday, the hosts are anticipating the toughest test of their season to date. And while he won’t feature in this game, Victory has attacking reinforcement is on the way.
Continuing their strong run of form, the Vuck defeated Perth Glory last Friday to make it four wins from their last four games – their longest run of consecutive wins since a Kevin Muscat-led side recorded six on the bounce during the 2018-19 campaign.
As well as cooling what had been a red-hot seat under Arthur Diles – the coach at one stage looking set for the axe as his side sat bottom of the table and in a goalscoring drought – it’s a run of form that has seen them move back into the playoff places entering the weekend and, if it continues on Saturday, could see them finish the weekend as high as third.
The Wanderers, conversely, remain mired in a run of form that risks turning their season into an annus horribilis sooner rather than later. After entering the season with eyes on silverware, they’re now winless since their 1-0 Sydney Derby triumph back in November, with Alen Stajcic’s side losing four of their last five games and netting just two goals (in the same game) during this stretch.
But the adage beware the wounded animal has held at Victory this week. And knowing the underlying stats at Wanderland paint the picture of a side not as bad as their table positioning would suggest, they’re preaching caution heading into the clash with one of their historic rivals.
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“We expect probably the toughest game we’ve had this year,” said Diles. “We’ve got a lot of respect for them as a team, as a club. And we know they’re hurting.
“They probably don’t deserve to be where they are. I don’t believe they deserve to be there; they’re a better side than that.
“They’ll be up for it. We were there not long ago. We know what it feels like. It’s not nice, and you’ve got to fight your way out of it. We’re expecting a big fight tomorrow.”
The elephant in the room in all this, of course, is Juan Mata, who will face his former employers for the first time in Victory colours on Saturday.
The Spaniard comes into the clash as arguably the most in-form player in the competition after orchestrating his side’s win over the Glory, and leads the competition in both assists and chances created. His 77 minutes in that game brought him up to 688 through 11 games, meanwhile, are 74 more than his total across 23 games with Western Sydney last campaign.
Sporadically used by Stajcic during his time in Western Sydney, the former World Cup winner made the move to Melbourne in a successful search for more gametime, and while he’s given no indication that the game means more to him than any other, the diverging trajectories of the two sides make the narrative obvious.
“He’s a pro and nothing has been discussed,” Diles said of Mata. “He’s not that type of person, and neither am I. He’s got to keep going. He’s doing really well. He’s doing everything we wanted him to do and believed that he would and could.
“It’s nice to see him enjoying his football. It’s nice to see the players and him gelling really well. And it’s nice to see the whole team starting to gel -- that’s important. The football is getting more fluent and fluid and and the relationships between players are getting better and stronger, and the team’s better for it.”
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Though the A-League Men’s transfer window doesn’t open until January 14, ruling him out of Saturday’s game, Victory have also welcomed in attacking reinforcement in the form of Japanese striker Charles Nduka.
Last attached to J3 League side Kagoshima United, the 27-year-old netted seven goals and added a further six assists across 28 league appearances at the Shiranami Stadium in 2025, a campaign which ended with his side finishing fifth before losing a promotion playoff to Tegevajaro Miyazaki.
Identified as a part of Victory’s access to minority owner Tony Bloom’s analytics company Jamestown Analytics, the central striker has signed until the end of the 2025-26 season – ostensibly a prove-it contract during his native Japan’s shift in calendar to align with the European seasons.
And as well as offering what he sees as a different profile, Diles is also of the belief that Nduku can play alongside suddenly in-form striker Nikos Vergos.
“He’s a different type of striker,” Diles said of his new signing. “He’s a different profile from what we got. He’s quite physical. He’s a big lad and is physically robust.
“I definitely think with him, you can play with two up top. It gives you that opportunity to do that. It’s something different.”