Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is hoping for a warm reception on his first return to Suncorp Stadium to face Brisbane on Saturday night despite some ‘tasteless’ remarks from Roar duo Besart Berisha and Thomas Broich.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou is hoping for a warm reception on his first return to Suncorp Stadium to face Brisbane on Saturday night despite some ‘tasteless’ remarks from Roar duo Besart Berisha and Thomas Broich.
A frustrated Postecoglou, largely regarded to be the mastermind behind the Roar’s back-to-back championship winning seasons in 2011 and 2012, labelled the pair’s comments, following his defection to Melbourne Victory, ‘a bit ridiculous’.
During the week Berisha, who has been embroiled in controversy before, vowed to send Postecoglou back to Melbourne a loser while Broich inferred new coach Rado Vidosic, Postecoglou’s right-hand man for both titles, had been ‘the brains’ behind Brisbane’s title successes.
“It wasn’t (the comments) to my taste,” Postecoglou said.
“It just got a bit ridiculous. I’m more than happy for people to have their opinion… but I’m not going to be used as anyone’s tool for motivation.
“From my point of view, I don’t understand it or why they needed to do it.”
Postecoglou said there was no ill-feeling towards Brisbane on his part and said nothing would diminish his memories and achievements during three record-breaking seasons at the club.
“Nothing will taint my time up there in terms of the memories but I just felt this week it got a bit out of control,” he said.
“I expected them to come and say that I wasn’t even living in Brisbane at the time, I was living in Melbourne.
“I was looking forward to the trip, I had some great times and some great memories there and the fans were fantastic to me and we went through some tough times as well as the good times.
“I’m sure for 90 minutes they (the fans) will want me to lose but hopefully either side of that I’ll get the chance to acknowledge them and them me.
Tellingly, Postecoglou will face his old side without three of his starting 11, who are away on international duty: Archie Thompson and Mark Milligan with the Socceroos, and Marco Rojas with New Zealand.
Striker Danny Allsopp will come in for Thompson in a straight swap while Theo Markelis and Spase Dilevski are expected to replace winger Rojas and defender Milligan respectively.
“Danny will come in. We’re missing three players this week which is not ideal from our point of view but that’s the price you pay for having quality players in your squad,” Postecoglou said.
“It gives the opportunity to some other guys, Danny’s worked really hard in the off-season and he deserves his chance.”
Both sides suffered defeat on the opening weekend of the season, Victory a 2-1 derby loss to Melbourne Heart and the Roar a 1-0 defeat in the grand final rematch with Perth Gory on the road.
But despite the bitterly disappointing loss to Heart, Postecoglou rubbished reports of a ‘punishing’ Tuesday training session and said his side will continue to focus on their own style rather than the opposition.
“We’re really trying to build our own style and our own structure… the emphasis has been more on us than the opposition.”
Asked about changes Vidosic had made to Brisbane’s approach, Postecoglou said he detected only minimal ones.
“There were some slight changes but they did have some different personnel.
“The basic elements of their game are the same, the players are the same and I think they will be a top side again this year challenging for the title.
“It’s an important game, a tough game. Whenever you go and face the champions, and Brisbane are back-to-back at their home turf, it’s going to be a challenge for us.”
