Melbourne City head coach Aurelio Vidmar has lavished praise upon his side following their 2-0 win over an in-form Western United which moved them into second spot on the ladder.
Goals from Harry Politidis and Benjamin Mazzeo either side of the break secured the points for Vidmar’s side who got the job done in spite of not having a whole host of first team experience to call upon.
Among those unavailable for the clash at AAMI Park due to injury were senior stars Mathew Leckie, Andreas Kuen, Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout, Yonatan Cohen and James Jeggo while young striker Max Caputo also remains sidelined.
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“We are super resilient at the moment,” said Vidmar when discussing the win in his post-game press conference. “We’ve had to be with all the injuries we’ve had and the young boys have had to step up.
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“Tonight wasn’t a great game for us, we didn’t really control a lot of it. It was a little bit of a different game, we probably created a lot more chances than we normally do and didn’t play the type of football that I’d really like.
“But understanding that, that was our third game in seven days and we don’t have a deep squad to do a lot of rotations.
“But they’re super resilient, I’ve got to take my hat off to them.”
A theme of their season so far, Vidmar’s City once again had to rely upon a whole host of young talent to compliment their available senior players.
In addition to fielding Mazzeo, 19, and Politidis, 22, City also fielded 19-year-old attacker Arion Sulemani through the middle whilst also giving a debut to academy graduate Lawrence Wong who at 17, became the first player to have progressed through the club’s Player Development Pathway.
“Yeah, a little,” said Vidmar when asked if the side is exceeding his expectations. “Because you just never know how it’s all going to pan out with such little experience that we have on the pitch.
“I think our senior guys are doing an incredible job to keep it all together and the young kids are just growing week-by-week.
“I think I said it in the past (but) the more they play the better they’re going to get. Right now, the way it is, they’re getting more minutes than they either thought would be possible so we’re taking points, it’s important.
“I think the belief is always there but it’s a bit like the Liquorice AllSorts – you just don’t know what you’re going to get sometimes with the kids!
He added: “But so far, superb. I can’t fault them. Third game in seven days, they really had to dig deep tonight.
“The guys who have played a lot of minutes really suffered but you could see they were just gritting their teeth and pushing their way through.”
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17-year-old midfielder Wong got through 51-minutes on debut before being replaced by 19-year-old Zane Schreiber and Vidmar believes the experience will prove to be invaluable for the teenager.
“We think he (Wong) has got a bright future. (His) first senior game, didn’t wear the right boots so was slipping over! So all those little things, they’re going to learn from these experiences and they’ll just get better as time goes on.
“We think he (Wong) has got a bright future. (His) first senior game, didn’t wear the right boots so was slipping over! So all those little things, they’re going to learn from these experiences and they’ll just get better as time goes on.
He went on to say: “He’s had a background with futsal so you can see his silky skills but he’s getting used to the physical demands of senior football and it’s completely different.
“So he’s going to get better, he’s going to grow, you could see some of the nice touches. Yes, he was a bit off with a couple of passes but he has that creative edge that we don’t a hell of a lot of.
He continued: “You take an Andreas (Kuen) out of the picture and obviously Lecks (Leckie) and Tils (Tilio) for example – we don’t have a lot of creativity in there and he has that in his game.
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“So we thought instead of having the same midfield let’s change it up a little bit and see how he goes. Obviously not playing senior football, not playing football for a long time – obviously the NPL is out of competition, so he ended up getting cramps.
“But very serviceable and he should get better.”
Next up for City is a home clash against bottom side Brisbane Roar on Saturday evening at AAMI Park.
Still without a win this season the Roar head to Victoria having most recently been defeated 1-0 by Newcastle Jets at Suncorp Stadium on Tuesday night.
