Melbourne Victory Head Coach Kevin Muscat says his side was happy with their last start win and performance but haven’t lingered on the result ahead of tomorrow night’s visit of Adelaide United.
“So much work has been done in preparing for Adelaide, it’s almost a distant memory to be honest,” Muscat said of last weekend’s 4-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers at his weekly press conference.
“We’ve worked on reproducing a performance, but against a different opponent. There’ll be different challenges and different questions asked in [this week’s] game.
As the two teams prepare for the latest instalment in one of the Hyundai A-League’s most storied rivalries, the focus of Muscat and his coaching group has been meeting internal standards and being prepared for the test that awaits.
“The one thing that stays constant is we rely on what we do. That’s been the clear focus this week.
“They come across here – there’s no love lost between the two clubs, for the fact of playing some very important games against each other over the years.
“We look forward to reproducing a performance and the concentration has been on getting better and identifying what we did well last week.
“We’ve been building… and we’ll strive to continue to build. It’s a completely different game and we’ll be focussed on what we’re doing well.
Muscat confirmed that defender Nick Ansell will miss the match due to a shoulder injury.
“Unfortunately for Nick he gets injured at the death [last week], so there’ll be an opportunity for someone else.
“We’ve had a few injuries this year, but players have been able to come in and perform when asked, which has been really good for us.”
Having missed last week due to concussion, German Georg Niedermeier shapes as the potential replacement for Ansell, whilst James Troisi has also returned the extended 18-man squad after illness ruled him out for one week.
