Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has praised the performances of the players who came in to replace Archie Thompson, Mark Milligan and Sam Gallagher on Friday night for the side’s 1-0 win against Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has praised the performances of the players who came in to replace Archie Thompson, Mark Milligan and Sam Gallagher on Friday night for the side’s 1-0 win against Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
Victory lost both Thompson and Milligan to national commitments, while Gallagher was suspended for the red card he picked up against Western Sydney last week.
But luckily for Postecoglou, he was able to call upon Marcos Flores, Petar Franjic and Jonathan Bru to fill the holes and the replacement trio all played their parts well.
“I thought Petar Franjic came in and did a good job in place of Sammy, and Jonathan Bru worked hard in the midfield,” Postecoglou said.
“I think him (Bru) and Billy (Celeski) were a big part of why we turned it around in the second half, they got a little bit more positive with their passing.
“I thought they were just a little bit conservative with their passing in the first 45 (minutes).
“He (Flores) does have an enthusiasm and a passion and you know that when he gets the ball he can still create unbelievable things so I’m happy with where he’s at.”
Postecoglou was also full of praise for mercurial youngster Marco Rojas, who scored the match’s only goal – a superb curling effort from just inside the left corner of the penalty area.
The Victory coach felt the New Zealander could have had an even bigger influence on the match if their game plan had been adhered to for longer periods.
“He (Rojas) was good again tonight, I thought we could have got him into the play a little bit more in the first half,” Postecoglou said.
“Our system is designed to give somebody like Marco and Andrew Nabbout and Archie and the wide players we’ve got to give them the freedom to play.
“To get that license to play you’ve got to do all the other things and when we decided to, as a team, stick to our organisation and discipline then people like Marco and Andrew and Gui (Finkler) started really coming into the game.
“He (Rojas) scored a cracking goal and he’s been good all year and the good thing about Marco is he’ll roll up to training and come in wanting to get better and that’s what we need.”
Postecoglou was unhappy with his side’s first half but was pleased with the fact they were more disciplined in the second period and he said that played a big part in why they took all three points away from the match.
“I thought at times in the first half we had opportunities to penetrate and we took bad options because people just weren’t disciplined in executing their roles,” he said.
“In the second half people stuck to the jobs that we work on day in day out, and they see when they do that they get the rewards.
“Sometimes they get confused when they go away from it, it’s a good lesson for us that as we go along we can struggle just as much as anyone else if we don’t stick to our game plan.”
