Melbourne Victory striker Besart Berisha is in good form, but despite the team recently showing little trouble finding the back of the net when needed this season, it seems if the Albanian striker was taken out of equation, Victory all of a sudden would have trouble scoring.
Without Berisha, Victory would have to resort to the likes of Kosta Barbarouses, Connor Pain and George Howard centrally. Barbarouses has been used predominantly on the right and Pain on the left, leaving Howard, who has little experience at professional level.
Victory coach Kevin Muscat says he has no concerns for the amount of depth in his team’s forward half, even if theoretically speaking, Berisha would be absent for a game.
“Not at all (concerned), if you look back, and know the recent history, we’ve got goals from all over the park and at this point in time we’re comfortable,” Muscat said.
“We can’t worry about things we can’t control, but what we will do is, as the boys come back, we won’t take any risks with any individual.
“It’s not something we’re focusing too much on.”
Muscat, who was not getting drawn into any hypothetical, had nothing but praise for Berisha after his recent run of form in the last two weeks: two goals against Wellington two weeks ago, a goal in the FFA Cup final against Perth and a double against Sydney FC on the weekend.
The Victory boss still wanted to stress the importance of a team game as well as Berisha’s importance to leave other players open.
“He was good, I don’t particularly like going on about an individual because, without his teammates he wouldn’t have been able do what he did against Sydney,” he said.
“He’s enjoying his football, it may not look like it and he’s working ever so hard for his team. He brings that threat, let alone in the box, whenever he’s on that park, he’s a threat to score goals.”
“Teams start paying a lot more attention to him, it opens space up for other players, we’re very fortunate to have him at this football club.”
The blue and white of Melbourne take on Central Coast Mariners tomorrow night at AAMI Park.
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