Melbourne Victory captain Adrian Leijer has claimed his side have genuine depth in their squad compared to their Hyundai A-League rivals.
Melbourne Victory captain Adrian Leijer has claimed his side have genuine depth in their squad compared to their Hyundai A-League rivals.
The last month of the lead-up to the 2012-13 Hyundai A-League season has understandably been focused on the resurgence of the marquee player concept, with Alessandro Del Piero and Emile Heskey joining Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets respectively, plus Michael Ballack being one of a list of names linked with a move to Australia.
But while Del Piero has taken the competition by storm, Victory have had their squad together since July, quietly getting prepared for the league’s eighth season and Leijer believes new head coach Ange Postecoglou has assembled the best group of players in Australia.
“I think everyone will say it, everyone says ‘we’ve got depth’…but genuinely here I think we do,” Leijer said.
“There’s quality players who will be missing out but it’s a matter of sort of sticking together and getting through and at the end of the day if a team succeeds, everyone succeeds.”
Just about every player in Melbourne’s squad could reasonably rate themselves as worthy of a first-team spot; something few other clubs could claim.
At Victory’s intra-club match on Sunday, the second-string side included Tando Velaphi, Petar Franjic, Sam Gallagher, Diogo Ferreira, James Jeggo, Theo Markelis, Julius Davies, Isaka Cernak and Danny Allsopp.
Allsopp has won two championships with Victory while Velaphi, Franjic, Ferreira, Jeggo and Cernak all have had decent stints playing first-team football in Australia.
Gallagher has moved to Melbourne from Central Coast Mariners to kick-start his career and is a highly-rated central defender, while Markelis and Davies have joined Victory after stints in the academies of big European clubs.
Such a strong squad could lead to disillusioned players but Leijer maintains every player at Victory is committed to doing whatever they can for the team.
“It’s not about keeping everyone happy,” Leijer said.
“We’ve spoken about it and we’re going in with the mentality where you want to be at a successful team, you could go somewhere else and maybe play every week but the thing that we’re doing is focusing on having success and to do that we need everybody on the same page.
“Ange is big on that and that’s what we’re trying to create here.”
Leijer has played in Melbourne’s past two pre-season games after struggling with a groin injury that he sustained last season and the 26-year-old captain has revealed he found it tough during his recovery.
“I took a long time; I was a bit doubtful for a long time there and sort of wondering what was going on and why I was doing everything and nothing was getting better,” Leijer said.
“But in the last three weeks I’ve improved massively and finally got some confidence in the body again.”
