Kevin Muscat confirms new signings Kenny Athiu and Matias Sanchez will feature against Western Sydney Wanderers on Monday night.
Melbourne Victory v Western Sydney Wanderers
Monday, November 6, Etihad Stadium
7.50pm AEDT
Live on Fox Sports 501
Transport
We recommend public transport to the game. If driving, we recommend pre-booking your parking at the stadium for a discounted rate, by using the online booking system.
Membership
Memberships will be available to purchase from the Gate 5 membership hub, and there will be a marquee on the footbridge. Both will be open from 4:00pm. The new membership merchandise will also be available to purchase.
Merchandise
Our popular Victory merchandise is available at the game. Visit the Gate 5 hub outside the stadium, or inside head to Gates 4 and 5 on Level 1, and Aisle 38 on Level 2.
On Kenny Athiu….
“He’s (Kenny Athiu) scored a hell of a lot of goals, he’s got a lot of endeavour and persistence. He’s certainly different to what we’ve currently got in the squad and he’s relishing the opportunity.
“He’ll be involved tomorrow night and we’ll make those decisions as to who’s going to start.
“I’ve got every confidence that we’ll utilise him and he’ll get an opportunity, without a doubt, throughout the season.”
On the season to date….
“We’d certainly like to return more points than we have. The performances alone should’ve returned us more points, but it’s becoming a little bit of a theme. It seems to be the same thing.
“The weekend, Central Coast had some chances late on in the game, we had a couple of gilt-edged ones early on in the game where we should’ve been a couple of goals up after 25 minutes, but we’ve found what we’ve been consistent at is being inconsistent at the moment. We’ve spoken about it once again and, not to use anything, we’ve had a lot of players coming and going, which we were aware in planning of quite a few of them in terms of internationals. We’ve had James Donachie’s injury and obviously Bes’ (Besart Berisha’s) suspension, but having said that, I believe we can still be better than our output is at the moment with such quality in the team.
“I still maintain, even that first game where we didn’t have the internationals available – against Sydney – we performed very well and lost to an own goal. It’s more concentrating on what we’ve got available and who we’ve got available and putting in a performance at home and taking three points.”
“It’s been OK (the mood). I know from the outside it may look like a bit of panic stations maybe, but to us, we’re fine, we know what we need to do, we’re just working on getting ourselves in the best possible shape to get three points on Monday.
“It doesn’t really affect us what’s been spoken about outside of these walls. We know what we need to do and we know the process to get us on the right track to start getting three points and I think we’re heading in that direction.
“I think it is that last little bit that we’re really lacking at the moment for us to click. I think we’re very close and today and the rest of the week is us working towards that to put in a good performance on Monday.”
- Victory has lost just one of its past 11 games against the Wanderers, winning seven.
- Victory is unbeaten against the Wanderers at Etihad Stadium, winning two and drawing one of their previous three meetings at the venue.
- Rhys Williams has made 16 tackles this season – the second-most of any player in the Hyundai A-League.
Melbourne Victory: 1.Matt ACTON (gk), 2.Jason GERIA, 4.Rhys WILLIAMS, 5.Mark MILLIGAN, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Kenny ATHIU, 11.Mitch AUSTIN, 14.Thomas DENG, 16.Josh HOPE, 18.Matias SANCHEZ, 19.Pierce WARING, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Carl VALERI (c), 22.Stefan NIGRO, 23.Jai INGHAM, 41.Leroy GEORGE
Ins: 7.Kenny ATHIU (promoted), 16.Josh HOPE (promoted), 19.Pierce WARING (promoted)
Outs: 9.Kosta BARBAROUSES (international duty – 2 weeks), 10.James TROISI (international duty – 2 weeks), 31.Christian THEOHAROUS (international duty – 1 week)
Unavailable: 8.Besart Berisha (suspended – 1 week), 17.James DONACHIE (quad)
Western Sydney Wanderers (two to be omitted): 3.Jack CLISBY, 5.Brendan HAMILL, 6.Jacob MELLING, 8.Roly BONEVACIA, 9.Oriol RIERA, 10.Àlvaro CEJUDO, 11.Brendon SANTALAB, 14.Jumpei KUSUKAMI, 15.Kearyn BACCUS, 16.Jaushua SOTIRIO, 18.Robert CORNTHWAITE (c), 19.Mark BRIDGE, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 22.Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS, 24.Raúl LLORENTE, 25.Chris HERD, 30.John HALL (gk), 33.Michael THWAITE
Ins: 3.Jack CLISBY (promoted), 6.Jacob MELLING (promoted), 33.Michael THWAITE (returns from injury)
Outs: 4.Josh RISDON (International duty – 2 weeks)
Unavailable: 1.Jerrad TYSON (shoulder), 7.Steven LUSTICA (leg), 21.Marc TOKICH (international duty – 1 week)
