Vidošić thinks City have the tools for A-League Women title tilt

Top of the table nine weeks into the A-League Women season and standing pat on deadline day, Melbourne City coach Dario Vidošić believes he has a team capable of winning a title assembled in Casey.

As he prepares for a Thursday evening clash with Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City boss Dario Vidošić believes he already possesses a squad capable of winning an A-League Women title after the league’s deadline day passed without any comings or goings at Casey Fields. 

The A-League Women’s transfer window slammed shut at the conclusion of Boxing Day and while it’s expected at least one further team will be announcing a new signing, to this point only the Wellington Phoenix has confirmed any fresh faces in their squad, confirming the signing of Tiana Jaber and Helena Errington. 

City has previously added American-born Bosnian international Emina Ekic on a two-year deal since the start of the campaign, adding a difference-maker to their attack after the loss of talisman Holly McNamara to a season-ending ACL injury.

Nonetheless, sitting three points clear atop the table and coming off a deserved win over Melbourne Victory in last Saturday’s Christmas Derby, Vidošić believes his side is well-placed to mount a charge for silverware following nine rounds of play.

“If we look back through these nine games, I think we do [have the talent to win a title],” Vidošić said on Wednesday. “We've played very well. We're top of the league. We lost Holly early into the season, which was a big blow, but we've been able to adapt and we're still creating so many chances. 

“And it's going to continue to evolve. We've still got more steps that we want to take and more things that we want to develop into our game. The girls are taking in all the information, they're able to apply it on the weekend and we had a much more complete performance against Melbourne. And now we're just looking to take that even further against Brisbane.

“Then going further into the season, we continue to improve and we get a better understanding now of how teams adapt to us; we're close to playing everyone now for the first time so then it'll give us a better outlook on how they approach us and then how we can then get more reward against those certain ways that teams play against us.”

City players returned to training on Boxing Day after having Christmas off, with Vidošić saying that outside of his long-term injuries, he had a full squad available to choose from for Roar’s visit. 

One of the key next steps for Vidošić on this front is one of the more obvious: more goals. City has had control of vast swathes of several games this season but has proven unable to capitalise on this control by putting multiple goals into their opponent’s net: allowing their foes to stick around in games. 

No team in the league has created more shots than City but despite leading the league in both expected and actual goals, their expected goals xG total of 20.9 compared to their actual total of 18 suggests they have been fashioning enough to score even more with better quality finishing. 

Against Victory, for instance, they created 3.4 xG compared to Victory’s 1.0 but were forced to survive a few nervy moments as their navy blue rivals stuck around in the contest. 

“We probably didn't reflect our dominance on the scoreboard but we're starting to put it together,” said Vidošić. 

“It's starting to happen now, where we're dominating games for longer periods and now it's just that final part is putting the ball on the back of the net, which is the most important thing in football.”

Inevitably, any chances created and subsequent goals will be born from City’s high-possession gameplan, the side from Casey Fields averaging 62.8% possession this season, eight points clear of their closest rivals. 

This, nonetheless, carries its own level of risk, especially when it’s well-established to the point that every opponent knows it’s coming. 

"We're cleaning things up, we're learning how teams adapt to us,” said the City coach. “And many of them have decided to drop off and wait for those transitional moments. 

“So we just need to be sometimes a little bit smarter in how we conduct our play and how much risk we play to that and that we organise those moments. And I think against Victory we took big steps in that.”

Header Image Credit: Melbourne City