City ready to match it with red-hot Wanderers
Western Sydney Wanderers are increasingly firing on all cylinders and breathing fire. But Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar is confident his side can take the heat and fire back on Saturday.
All of a sudden, heading into Western Sydney and trying to take something off the Wanderers has become one of the most daunting tasks in the A-League Men; those in red and black up and about when it comes to both results and spirit. But tasked with orchestrating the next attempt to do so on Saturday, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar is confident his side has the fire to match their hosts.
Welcoming then-second-placed Western United to town, Alex Gersbach’s first-ever A-League Men goal and an own-goal from opposition goalkeeper Matt Sutton ensured Alen Stajcic’s side secured a 2-0 win last Sunday, making it nine games without defeat. Six of the Wanderers during that run have been wins, with the three points they earned in their most recent victory all but ensuring their return to the finals by moving them six clear of seventh-placed Adelaide with just three games remaining.
Taking advantage of United’s slip-up, City used a 3-2 come-from-behind win to vault their Melbourne rivals up into second, moving to within four points of league leaders Auckland FC, who must make the trip to face Melbourne Victory this weekend.
But now they, too, must head to Western Sydney Stadium on Saturday, and taking something from Parramatta has proven easier said than done as of late. After losing five of their first eight home games this season compared to just two wins, last weekend’s win over United saw the Wanderers take hold of the third-best home record in the league this season, with only Auckland FC and Melbourne Victory having taken more than their 19 points from home fixtures. Their 52 goals are the most in the competition, and there has been a raised level of intensity from the squad, exemplified by Anthony Pantazopoulos celebrating a clearance in last week’s win over United like he’d won a World Cup.
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City, however, will make the trip to New South Wales with a few omens of their own. Heading into their last game on the road this season, Vidmar’s side possesses the fourth-best record away from home this campaign -- losing four games at AAMI Park compared to three elsewhere -- and has won their last two games as visitors. Further, while the Wanderers may be free scoring and nine games unbeaten, Vidmar’s side have shipped just 22 goals this season, the fewest in the league, and have picked up more points than their weekend opponents across the past six weeks – their five wins bringing in 15 points to not only keep them in contention for an unlikely premiership but also outpace the 14 the Wanderers have attained during this stretch.
And while the likes of Scott Jamison no longer prowl the park for City, the former skipper now serving as an assistant coach, Vidmar is confident his side has what it takes to match the intensity of their opponents.
“I think we’ve got a couple [that will fly the flag], to be honest,” said the coach. “Aziz is always the first one to be mixing it with anyone that comes around him, or is standing up for the team. Nate [Atkinson] did that a couple of weeks ago; [Marco] Tilio got kicked savagely a couple of weeks ago against Central Coast, and Nate was the first one in there to support his teammate. We’ve got [Germán] Ferreyra and Kai [Trewin], he's another one.
“So we've got quite a few that are not going to take us a backward step; I think that's important.
“But you've got to do that in a way where it's controlled because you can fly off the handle pretty easily. And what's important for us is that we can control those moments, be aggressive but in a controlled fashion. Because it's very easy these days to cop a yellow card and a red card very quickly. I'm never going to say, go out there, take it easy and be careful, because that doesn't exist in competitive sport. So we still have to be at it. We still have to be very, very aggressive, but there has to be controlled aggression.”
Any result City secures this weekend, though, will have to come without the services of Samuel Souprayen and Mat Leckie.
Absent from City’s win over the Roar, Souprayen will once again be absent with a calf injury and after initially starting Behich at centre back in the win over Brisbane – the veteran Socceroo inadvertently playing Asumah Abubakar onside for the Roar’s early go-ahead goal – Vidmar will perform a defensive reshuffle for the trip to Wanderland.
“We [previously] started Aziz centrally against Perth and he did really well,” said Vidmar. “We thought that with his experience, to slot him in for the odd game, he can do a very, very good job for us there.
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“And it was fine [against the Roar], but we were having issues with our full-backs rather than our central defenders. So we just adjusted that and put Aziz back to the left back. We know that's his best position and where he's best suited. So he'll start out there again on Saturday night.”
Leckie, meanwhile, will miss his 13th game of the season after experiencing hamstring awareness after playing 18 minutes off the bench against the Roar, which itself marked his return from a two-week absence with a calf complaint. The veteran Socceroo attacker has already missed eight games this season due to issues with his hamstring and has been restricted to just five starts in part due to efforts to manage his loading, helping to prevent him from registering a goal or assist so far in 2024-25.
Vidmar batted away the notion of shutting down the 34-year-old with an eye on next season but, at the same time, acknowledged his side had needed to learn to cope without him.
“It's frustrating for him, especially,” said the coach. “Obviously for us, too.
“It's little things that just happen out of normal actions, that's the frustrating part. He was only just stretching for a ball when he came on, and he felt something. Although he ran the rest of the game out and, to me, looked fine, it was only when we chatted at the end of the night that he said that he had a bit of awareness and a bit of soreness in the bottom of the hamstring.
“So it is what it is. As much as we love to have him, we've coped without him through the course of the season, and we'll need to continue to do that.”
Header Image: Melbourne City