Melbourne City boss John van’t Schip says the high number of changes to his starting XI had an effect on his team’s sluggish start in the opening half.
City lost Ivan Franjic (corked quad), Aaron Mooy and Erik Paartalu (both general soreness), with all three succumbing to injury very late in week, even on Saturday morning, according to the coach.
He says that was an issue in a first half that “was not good” and that debutant Mahmut Ali Eyigun was substituted early for a tactical revamp rather than any poor performance.
“Erik … tried but pulled up and the same with Aaron, he got a little hit and reprted some soreness … it’s a very busy schedule … Ivan all week was struggling,” van’t Schip said.
“It was tough missing five different players from last week. We had so many changes and we didn’t even practice this week with this team because they (the changes) came up this morning.
“In that first half, we were struggling to get our play going and we were lucky we didn’t concede.”
“It was not good, the first half, especially the first 30 minutes.
“Unfortunately for Ali, we had to take him off, not because he was not playing well, but we had to do something to get some structure back. We had to do something and have early change.
Van’t Schip believes his team should have put the game to bed, but says Sydney were also unlucky not to have stolen the result late.
“Leading 2-1 and getting two big opportunities to go to 3-1 with Robi Koren and Michael Zullo, and even with 2-2, getting opportunities with Harry Novillo, we could have won the game as well.
“Of course at the end, we were lucky that they didn’t win the game. I think it’s a fair result, 2-2.”
The Dutch coach provided an update on his injured trio, saying he expects them all to return in next week’s vital clash against Western Sydney Wanderers.
“Yes … I think Ivan (Franjic) was a cork, so he should be okay, Erik (Paartalu) was a groin or something and Aaron (Mooy) just had general soreness.
“So hopefully that’s going to be okay next week.”
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