Melbourne Victory’s ability to capitalise on its opportunities in the final third was one of the most pleasing aspects of Friday night’s 4-0 win over Brisbane, according to Kevin Muscat.
During a lean period of results over the past six weeks, Victory still created enough chances but failed to make it count on the scoreboard.
Against the Roar, who had won four straight games leading into the Round 15 clash at AAMI Park, Victory’s attackers were clinical with their finishing.
“If we look back at games, we’ve had opportunities to break away, and [against Brisbane] we were ruthless in that front third,” Muscat said.
“As a group we give that opportunity to our front third to apply that sort of pressure, in terms of chances and goals.
“When our attitude’s right and we’re structured and disciplined, they get those opportunities because of the structure of the team.
“There have been other games when we’ve created a number of chances that just haven’t gone our way, so hopefully now they’ll come in droves.”
Muscat praised his team for maintaining a high level for the entire game and not for shorter periods, as has been the case in recent weeks.
“We’ve been asking for a performance, and we’ve been searching for a performance, for longer than fits and spurts, and we got that,” he said.
“I’m pleased for the group. I know what the group’s capable of. Our attitude was spot on. Our application to adhere to a structure and some tactics was superb.
“That’s the type of performances, when we combine all those things, that we can produce.
“Having said all that, it’s one game. It’s gone. As per usual, we’ll recover, we’ll analyse it as a group, and we’ll move on to find way to find that consistency from now until the end of the season.
“The attitude I’ve seen in the last couple of days, and the attitude we saw there for 90 minutes to control the game against the league leaders was superb. But we’ve got to maintain that consistency.”
