Melbourne coach John van ‘t Schip admits he is in two minds on how to cover the absence of Gerald Sibon in this Sunday’s clash with Wellington at Westpac Stadium, while there is no guarantee returning skipper Simon Colosimo will get his defensive spot back.
Sibon received a two-match ban for a stomp on the foot of Victory midfielder Grant Brebner in last week’s 2-1 derby success, leaving the fledging side without one of their most experienced players for what has become the toughest away trip in the Hyundai A-League.
Wellington have not lost in 23 games at Westpac Stadium, but van ‘t Schip is adamant that statistic alone won-t change his approach even if he isn-t yet sure on the precise line-up of his side.
“It-s not going to be an easy game that’s for sure, but it-s a great challenge to try to be the first team who can get a good result there for a long time,” he said. “I have some ideas (about replacing Sibon). There are different kind of options.”
“There are things you have to take with you before you make any decisions. There are a few options we can leave it like that, or we can also try to replace Gerald by doing it different. There are a few things we need to work out.”
There will be clearly some alteration in Van ‘t Schip’s defence with Dean Heffernan to come in for the suspended Aziz Behich and Colosimo also available. But so impressed was the Dutchman with the win over Victory, he feels reluctant to make change for the sake of change.
“There are good things about the game we played about the Victory. I think we should keep them in mind,” he said.
“There are some logical things you could do but there are also things you could say well, why change the team and put only two different players in the positions that we were missing against the Victory. We still are not are not completely decided.”
Colosimo has proven he has recovered enough from his neck injury to take his place in the starting XI, but Van ‘t Schip is undecided on how to integrate him back in the team given Matt Thompson’s impressive performance in a central defensive role last week.
“Simon’s back. His neck injury is ok to play. He’s ruled out that it’s a big risk for him to play. He has trained very well this week, he’s back in the squad,” he said,
“(Leaving Thompson in defence) could be one of the possibilities, because he was one of the reasons that we played a very good game against Victory. If things go good, you should also have a good thought about why it went good. Sometimes there are decisions you have to make which aren-t easy.”
