Ahead of his side’s clash against Newcastle Jets on Sunday night, Melbourne City head coach Rado Vidosic believes the reigning Champions’ Westfield W-League 2019 Finals Series chances are ‘out of (their) hands’.
City are currently two points outside of an elusive top-four spot, however with two games remaining many consider them to be an outside chance of playing Finals football.
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Vidosic appeared to agree with these assessments, emphasising the importance of his side’s last two games against the Jets and Sydney FC, as well as the reliance on other results going their way.
“We need a few teams to drop points, we need to win,” said Vidosic.
“The way the W-League is unpredictable, anything is possible.
“But I think we are realistic about our chances and we know that it is out of our hands.
“Maybe now, keeping that in our minds, we might be a bit more composed in front of goal and the pressure will be off.”
City have had to contend with a number of injuries and balancing the loads of the Westfield Matildas, as seen in their Round 1 encounter against Canberra United where players such as 15-year-old Nia Stamatopoulos were given their Westfield W-League debuts.
In saying that, Vidosic was quick to praise the contribution of his international stars and their commitment to the club’s ambitions.
“We missed a few (players), Sydney missed one or two at the beginning of the season,” said Vidosic.
“But from my experience, I would say the players, the Matildas that we had here at our club, you could not say that they are saving themselves for the World Cup.
“They performed at training sessions as if there was nothing they were waiting for.
“They performed at the games admirably, they put their bodies on the line.
“(The Westfield Matildas) played with niggling injuries, so you could not say that any of them tried to save themselves for the World Cup.”
Despite the chance of City missing out on the Westfield W-League Finals Series for the first time in their history, Vidosic was resolute in his side’s progress thus far.
The side are owned by City Football Group, which has subsidiaries around the world including in England, the United States, Japan and Uruguay.
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In that context, Vidosic believed he had implemented a style that aligned with the goals of CFG’s wider football imprint.
“When I started, one of the jobs was to try to implement City Group’s football philosophy, and that was this aggressive, high pressure (football with quick) ball movement (and) ball speed,” said Vidosic.
“Take it to your opponents, keep the ball for longer periods of time, try to create a lot of chance — which I think we’ve done.
“We controlled most of the games, we had more than 60% of possession against every team that we’ve played so far.
“There were a few games where we dominated and we scored the goals, and we won quite comfortably, and then there a lot of games where we dominated but just could not score the goals.”
