Vidmar: No room for complacency with a finals berth on the line
With their A-League Men finals destiny firmly in their own hands, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar is warning against complacency as his side prepares to visit second-bottom Brisbane Roar.
After logging back-to-back wins in do-or-die six-pointers to place their A-League Men finals destiny firmly in their own hands, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar says guarding against any sense of complacency has been a major focus ahead of his side’s visit to face lowly Brisbane Roar on Saturday evening.
Arresting a tailslide that threatened to condemn them to a finals absence for the first time since 2013–14 – when they were still called Melbourne Heart – City has taken 13 from a possible 15 points on offer across their past five games, setting themselves up as the form side in the competition and placing themselves sixth on the table heading into the season’s penultimate round.
Five points clear of seventh-placed Macarthur after the Bulls fell to defeat against Perth Glory last Sunday, it ensures that a win against either the Roar at Lang Park on Saturday evening or at home against Adelaide the following week will be enough to lock in a 12th straight appearance in the postseason.
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Points, however, aren’t handed out based on form. And although the Roar sit second-bottom on the table heading into the weekend – still at risk of falling to last should they lose their last two games and Western Sydney pick up two wins – Vidmar wouldn’t countenance overlooking the challenge the Queenslanders represent.
“For us, it’s about not being complacent; that was the key message this week,” said the coach. “We’ve had a really good run, three wins on the bounce, it’s been excellent. The group’s reasonably healthy and happy, and the mentality is good.
“But we face a very difficult team at Suncorp Stadium; it’s always difficult there. And although they’re positioned lower in the table, they’re one of those teams, like West Sydney, [where their] position on the table doesn’t reflect their performances.
“It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to be a scrap, and we still have work to do. We need one more win to cement ourselves in the six, and if you get two wins, it gives you a better chance of putting yourself higher up on the table. So I still think anything could happen.”
Indeed, while much of the recent focus surrounding City has been on their attempts to even get into the finals at all, their strong recent form has now put them in a position wherein the prospect of hosting an elimination final isn’t an absurd proposition.
Just two points separate the defending champions from third-placed Sydney FC heading into the campaign’s final fortnight and, while next week’s meeting with the Reds is the only time City themselves will get a chance to take points off the teams ahead of them, the Sky Blues and fifth-placed Melbourne Victory will need to face second-placed Auckland and first-placed Newcastle, respectively, before season’s end.
And with Victory, Adelaide, and City possessing the three best home records in the league, the potential benefits from avoiding a road trip in the first week of the finals are obvious.
“We’ve really set a target or goals... Do we want x amount of points from the next games?” Vidmar said. “For us, we’re trying to win every game. As soon as you start setting targets, you reach the target, and then you start setting a new one. We want to get into the six… but once you get in there, it’s like, you don’t pull the handbrake up and say, ‘Okay, well, now we’ve done that.’ I don’t want us to reset ourselves every time.
“Our messaging is always clear that we’re going to every game trying to win it. So that hasn’t changed, and it doesn’t matter which coach is here in the future; it’s going to be the same thing here. You’re going to go out into the pitch with your strongest possible team, trying to perform well and to win.”
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City will take a largely settled squad with them to face the Roar, with the only injury cloud hovering over them following their 2-0 win over Wellington on Sunday a potential hamstring issue for Daniel Arzani, who will be assessed on Friday morning before the final decision on his availability is made.
Ryan Teague, meanwhile, will miss another game with a knee complaint, a malady that required a cortisone injection earlier in the week but which is still giving the midfielder some issues.
After making his first appearance since last Halloween in the win over the Phoenix, converted midfielder Mat Leckie was described as pulling up well by Vidmar, with the intention for the Socceroo to continue to build his minutes against the Roar.
“We’re trying to get as many minutes as possible into Lecks,” the City coach said. “He’s been able to train well again this week, and he’ll come away with us.
“Depending on how the game’s going, we want him to play a lot of minutes, but we’re slowly building him up to what we can see as a starting position. I don’t know when that’s going to be, but if we can get him 20 plus minutes again this week, I think then we’re slowly progressing his game time, which is going to be important.”
Image: Melbourne City