Melbourne Heart manager John Aloisi refused to criticise his team after they went down 3-0 to Brisbane Roar, saying they had put in a competitive showing.
Melbourne Heart manager John Aloisi refused to criticise his team after they went down 3-0 to Brisbane Roar, saying they had put in a competitive showing in spite of the final scoreline.
The former Socceroo also denied the Heart’s poor form away from home was becoming a psychological issue for the squad.
Aloisi’s team have not won in their last 16 matches outside Victoria, but the coach says it is not affecting the mental outlook of his players.
“Not at all, if you look at the players we had out there today, we had six new players from last season so they don’t even talk about the away factor,” he said.
“And the way we performed, it didn’t look like we were too nervous about the away factor.
“Even when we went 1-0 down we kept on trying, so that’s not going to play on our mind.
“This is a new season, fresh start. Out of the four games we’ve performed well in three, we’ve shown that we can compete with anyone, we’ve got players to come back in still, and if we keep on performing like that, then the results will come.
“You create chances, normally you’ll put more away.”
On the whole, the Heart are on the right track, according to Aloisi.
“Look, I was happy with the performance,” he said.
“I thought that we took the game right to Brisbane, especially in the first half, we created a lot of good chances and we stopped them from playing.
“We made it hard for them. When you come to Brisbane and you create probably five one-on-ones, you think you’re going to get more out of it.
“Little bit disappointed on our set pieces, because the second ball we come out and we leave our men, that’s probably the only thing I’m disappointed in my players today because other than that, the performance was good.
“You go 1-0 down and then you have to chase the game a little bit, and you leave it a bit open, but we hit the post after it went 1-0 and we had another one-on-one, so all in all, if we perform like that, more often than not we’ll win the game.
“So I can’t ask any more from my boys, the effort was great.”
