Head Coach John van’t Schip says his side have done enough hard work to bounce back from Jets loss.
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van-t Schip believes his side has done enough hard work in 2014 to be able to rebound quickly from their first loss in eight games.
The 1-0 loss to Newcastle Jets at Hunter Stadium last Saturday was only the club-s second for the year and brought to an end a stunning run of five straight wins.
The Dutchman says the confidence and rhythm built up in that period along with lessons learnt from last week-s loss means his players should be able to rebound this week back in front of our home support.
“I think if you look at the whole season it was a good run we had,” said van-t Schip.
“Now we have to start over again in preparing, we knew that a loss would come and we tried to avoid it, but maybe it is good to have that.
“I think the lesson we learned, with the circumstances that were not easy we knew it was going to be a tough game.
Click play on the video below to watch the full press conference with John van’t Schip.
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“The lesson is to go back to the basics and that is play possession, a lot of movement…. those things were not optimal in the last game.
“We should try every time to work on that because if we work on that then I am sure our game will improve more and more and as consequence the results will be better.”
Part of that run came just four rounds ago when Melbourne Heart recorded their biggest ever win by defeating the Phoenix 5-0 in Wellington. Despite the huge result, van-t Schip knows it will be different this time around when the teams clash again at AAMI Park.
“It is going to be a different game, we are coming from a loss and they-re coming from a good draw and I think their confidence has grown as well after the game that they played against us,” said van-t Schip.
“They-re almost with the strongest lineup as well…(Kenny) Cunningham, (Carlos) Hernandez and (Stein) Huysegems are all playing.
“It is going to be a totally different game; everything went our way when we played there.
“It will be a tough because they will be coming here and wanting to make something good after the game that we played there a few weeks ago when we won with a big result.”
Van-t Schip has the luxury of a full squad of fit players to choose from for this weekend which he believes adds to the confidence and sharpness of his side, not withstanding the selection dilemmas it creates for him.
While the loss and performance against the Jets was disappointing for the club, the coach says he is unlikely to make any significant changes to his line-up.
“Everybody is fit so everybody is in competition for being in the squad and being in the line up,” explained the Dutchman.
“I don-t think we are going to make that many changes because the team is doing well, if you lose one time it doesn-t mean that we have to throw over a lot of players.
“They did well, the confidence is there so it is also good to maybe have the same players and show them it was a game that we did not want to have but they will show that they can have a good game again at the weekend.”
Details
Melbourne Heart FC vs Wellington Phoenix
Sunday 16 March 2014, AAMI Park
Kick-off: 4pm
