Despite putting contract talks off until the end of the season, Alex Wilkinson says he fantasises about wearing the Melbourne City jersey in next year’s AFC Champions league.
To do it realistically, the team will have to push to finish in the top two on the table with six games remaining. Western Sydney is currently at the summit on 38 points, with Adelaide United behind them with 36. City currently sit fourth on 32 points.
Despite being on a short-term contract deal, Wilkinson made reference to Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat and Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold’s words in recent weeks, saying he wanted to replicate it at City.
POPULAR ARTICLES
ACL – What We Learned – Gamba Osaka 1 Melbourne Victory 1
ACL – What We Learned – Sydney FC 2 Guangzhou Evergrande 1
Is the salary cap hurting the A-League’s Asian growth?
Wilkinson has Asian Champions League experience already, playing for South Korean side Jeonbuk Motors.
“It’s obviously a goal, the start of every season you want to finish at the top two, if you can, you get the spot in the ACL,” Wilkinson said.
“You hear Musky and Arnie saying they’re in the position all the clubs want to be, although it’s difficult logistically, as a player that’s what you want to be doing, testing yourself against the best in the region.”
Melbourne City fell 2-1 to Wellington Phoenix away last Friday night and conceded two goals in the first 15 minutes, however, only managed to pull one back. Ironically, they looked the better side for the majority of the match.
Wind was also a key factor in the game, with dead balls constantly rolling away due to the strong breeze. The 31-year-old elected to reflect on the positives in Wellington, adamant on coming back strong after a deflating loss.
“We dominated most of the game, just conceded two goals early on and after that they didn’t have many chances at all,” he said.
“We just got to be aware to stop sloppy goals, more often than not we’re going to score the record the club’s got this year is fantastic. If we can tighten up at the back a bit and stop the goals.
“It was a difficult place to go, the conditions made it very hard as a lot of you saw on TV. The performance wasn’t too bad.”
City take on dwindling Sydney FC on Saturday night, the Sky Blues pulled off a 2-1 upset in the Champions League against Guangzhou Evergrande FC, yet have been floundering in the league in recent weeks.
Sydney travel to Melbourne with a vastly weakened squad. Seb Ryall, Jacques Faty, David Carney and Rhyan Grant are all suspended, while Alex Brosque will miss out due to a hamstring injury.
“We don’t really look at that stuff, it’s not really we worry too much about,” Wilkinson said.
“We’re more concerned about how we’re going to play and we respect the opposition and the strengths they have but it’s more about how we’re going to play and how we’re going to setup and those outs won’t be a huge thing.”
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
