A devastated Ernie Merrick says his side must learn to convert their chances or continue to pay the price after Melbourne Victory lost 2-1 to the Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
After trailing 1-0 at the break, Melbourne made some strategic changes to the midfield and came back to dominate the second-frame, scoring in the 48th minute through Robbie Kruse, before conceding in the 77th minute against the run of play.
The loss ended Melbourne’s six-game undefeated run against Brisbane, and while Merrick acknowledged that the home-side had played out of their skins for the result, he clearly felt that his side had been their own worst enemy.
“I can’t keep saying we’re playing good football, because you’ve got to convert the good football into goals and wins,” he said.
“I’ve been saying also that at training we score goals, but the trick of coaching is going from training and producing that on match day.”
“With that much domination in their half in the second-half of the game you’ve got to score goals or you pay a price, and we paid the price.”
Brisbane were undoubtedly the better side in the first half, and heading into the break it would have been hard to believe that the Victory would finish with a right to feel hard done by, but the form reversal was stunning.
“At half time we had a chat about it and in the second-half Robbie scored really early, and we put ourselves in that position to win the game. “
“We dominated play, we had shot after shot – some went wide, some were really well saved by the goal keeper – and then to concede a goal by big Luke (DeVere), the centre back, going right through the middle, and then having a bit of a luck when ricochet fell to the player (Jean Carlos Solorzano), that was a bit of a heartbreaker,” he said.
But there were positives for the Victory coach to take from the game, and most pleasing was the growing understanding between attacking trio Kruse, Carlos Hernandez and Ricardinho, who are building one of the A-League’s most exciting combinations.
“I thought Robbie had an outstanding game. He told me he was going to score two; he scored one and just missed twice,” said Merrick
“I thought he put himself in a position to score goals for us, in fact, I’m really happy with the way he played.”
“We’re getting better and better, and Robbie, Carlos and Ricardinho are working really well together, but we’ve got to convert our chances.”
