Melbourne City coach John van’t Schip is hopeful the experienced players he missed through injury will act as blessing in disguise come the end of the season.
City had several wounded players for the first four rounds of the A-League season, but they look to regain Aaron Hughes, Harry Novillo and Corey Gameiro in the coming weeks. However, much to the dismay of City fans, it may still be a while before they see Robert Koren, Ivan Franjic and Michael Zullo in action.
“I see what’s happening within the team, within the group and we know that we have to get through this storm of injuries and less depth in your squad and look further as well,” van’t Schip said in a statement released to the media on Wednesday.
“In the meantime the boys are playing better and showing good things, now it’s about extending those periods of good play to a longer period.
“There are also opportunities that they’re getting, hopefully it will help us towards the end of the season that now players that are playing are becoming a full squad member, so that when everybody is there, there is a big competition going on.
“We will need every player towards the rest of the season, I think it’s in the circumstance you can see it as every negative thing is a big advantage, and that’s the way I look at it at this moment.”
Van’t Schip acknowledged there were still holes in his team due to the lack of experience after City squandered a two goal lead to lose last Friday night against the Jets.
“If you look at the difference, again it’s too big of a difference, how we played the first 30 minutes and how we dropped,” he said.
“I think we should also look in the mirror and say ‘Hey, we let something slip away there’, altogether we have to be more brave and courageous to keep on doing what we were doing, instead of what happened going back.
“Of course it’s also a fact the depth, you would see it now, we are playing with very young players and you know with young players it’s up and down.
Melbourne City take on Adelaide United at Coopers stadium on Thursday night.
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