Melbourne City defender Michael Zullo says he hasn’t given a Socceroos call up any thought after recovering from his ACL injury.
Zullo made his return against Wellington three weeks ago and has looked lively ever since. Australia have two World Cup qualifiers coming up near the end of March against Tajikistan and Jordan, however Zullo says the club is his top priority.
“Whether I’ve done enough to deserve a call up is another issue, I need to get some more consistency in my football at the moment. Play a lot more minutes and whatever happens, happens,” Zullo said.
“My sole focus is firmly on our season, because we can do a lot this year, we’ve got time left to do it, but it needs to happen right now.
“There’s enough going on here at Melbourne City, we’re at a pretty defining point of our season.
“I’m fully concentrated on playing well for my club, winning games and staying healthy, so it hasn’t weighed on my mind to be honest.”
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It’s the third and final derby of the regular season this weekend, and both Melbourne Victory and City are equal on 28 points on the table in the top four. The 27-year-old believes it’s all about intensity to break down Victory on Saturday.
“We need to show who the real title contenders are. This game can go a long way to define our season,” he said.
“A derby is a very unique experience, all across the world. Doesn’t matter if Victory had lost the last six and they were at the bottom of the table.
“It’s almost like a grand final kind of atmosphere and experience, for us we need to come out of the gates flying which is different to how we played against in Newcastle.
“We pretty much need to do what Western Sydney did to them [Victory] and that’s just to be aggressive, boss them around the field a bit and exert ourselves without getting overexcited.”
City’s new signing, Alex Wilkinson, is in a similar situation to Zullo, who isn’t favoured in the Socceroos squad with a lack of game time for the national team.
He is excited about Wilkinson’s arrival, with Zullo believing he may prove to be crucial to their title chances, patching things up at the back.
“Defensively it’s always been a problem for us, for me as a defender we want to rectify the amount of goals we’ve been conceding,” he said.
“[Wilkinson] he’s a top signing for us, I think he’s going to go a long way to provide leadership on and off the field as well as the quality as well at the back.
“Whether he plays this weekend I have no idea, but when he does play he’ll contribute strongly.”
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