After Saturday night’s dismal defeat at the hands of Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory boss Kevin Muscat has warned his team that no player is safe from paying the price for the club’s Queensland drubbing.
Despite appearing to settle early at Suncorp Stadium, Victory were hit with two quick goals either side of the 20-minute mark, sparking a Roar flurry that brought three more goals across the remainder of the 90 minutes.
With little room to dwell on the performance, Victory must pick themselves up off the canvas quickly for a crucial Asian Champions League home meeting with South Korean side Suwon Bluewings on Tuesday night.
A win would leave Victory with seven points from their opening three matches, leaving the reigning A-League champions on the brink of advancing to the group stage of Asia’s premier competition for the first time in five attempts.
Muscat made no secret of this match’s importance, forecasting changes for a quick fire turnaround he says is a blessing in disguise.
“I don’t think we could be anymore disappointed with our performance across in Brisbane, obviously with so much at stake as well,” Muscat said.
“Unfortunately we don’t get the opportunity to analyse that in depth … we’ve got to move on very very quickly. Tomorrow night’s an important game for us in terms of the standings of the group, it’s a home game. We look forward to that now.
“It is (a blessing in disguise) … but it’ll be a different group of players, it won’t be the same team naturally.
“There’s going to have to be a lot more application and a lot more effort … we’ll pick a team accordingly tomorrow night that’s going to reflect on those exact things: someone who is going to have that commitment and that effort to go out and perform well.
“Naturally, Kosta (Barbarouses) comes into the reckoning, Archie comes back into the reckoning. There’s a number of options: Nick Ansell, Daniel Georgievski.
“After Saturday night, everybody in the squad’s available. No one’s safe, no one’s certain.”
At least two of those changes will be forced, with Gui Finkler and Fahid Ben Khalfallah both ineligible.
Victory’s opponents Suwon sit bottom of Group G with just one point.
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