Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip blames a fear of failure stemming from last week’s dramas in Newcastle for Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip blames a fear of failure stemming from last week’s dramas in Newcastle for Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Perth Glory at AAMI Park.
Van ‘t Schip believes his players, including stand-in keeper Nikola Roganovic, were still shell shocked from their last-gasp 3-2 loss to the Jets.
“We should be concerned after today seeing how we played,” said van ‘t Schip of the Heart who are anchored to the foot of the Hyundai A-League table and the only side without a point after two rounds.
“During the first half there was a kind of fear in the team, not expressing themselves and feeling free to play and we all know that when you have fear you can’t perform.”
“So I said, ‘Get rid of that’, and it certainly went better in the second half, but it was not enough.”
“Maybe it has something to do with last week, the way that we played and the goals that we conceded.”
The understudy for Clint Bolton who’s likely to miss the first month of the new season with a groin injury, Roganovic spilled several crosses and corners in Sunday’s clash.
He conceded the first of two goals to Shane Smeltz after opting to remain on his line rather than attempting to intercept a cross from Perth midfielder Liam Miller.
“It’s difficult for Nikola coming in and having problems with how we are playing,” said van ‘t Schip.
“I’m not blaming him, but the way that we play doesn’t help him as well.”
Van ‘t Schip said the Heart generally lacked urgency and creativity and, to compound their problems, may be without skipper Fred for next Saturday’s Melbourne derby against the Victory.
Fred experienced hamstring tightness in the warm-up on Sunday and was subbed off after 35 minutes.
Jason Hoffman was a late withdrawal because of food poisoning.
Van ‘t Schip said he was keeping an open mind about Simon Colosimo’s derby prospects after the veteran defender played 60 minutes for the Heart’s youth team on Saturday.
The coach said he was happy to persevere with Matt Thompson in a key defensive role despite Thompson’s loose back pass which opened the door for Smeltz’s decisive second goal.
“If you make a mistake like that you will be punished,” said van ‘t Schip.
“All the other things he did today were not that bad, but you get judged by a mistake like that and it was not good.”
“But overall he’s doing very well in that position and there’s no reason to change that.”
Asked whether his players would be too fearful to perform at their best in next week’s derby, van ‘t Schip said: “The lesson of today is that it’s not going to help.”
“Instead of having nightmares, I would prefer that they would enjoy the atmosphere and play free and try to make a good game of it.”
