Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip is adamant last Sunday’s loss to Brisbane won’t take the momentum out of his side’s season and that the Heart remain energised heading into Friday’s clash with Adelaide at AAMI Park.
The Heart had been unbeaten in six matches before losing 2-1 to the Roar last week, progressing up to fifth on the ladder. Van ‘t Schip said Sunday’s performance was a marked improvement on his side’s 4-0 loss to Brisbane seven weeks ago and he is confident his side would continue to improve.
“The last game we played (against Brisbane) showed there was a big difference to the game we played away and the steps we have made as a team. That’s the most important thing. We were very disappointed about the loss, but there were many positive points,” he said on Wednesday.
Van ‘t Schip is far from satisfied at where the A-League’s new boys find themselves at the moment, but the progress is strong enough to suggest they will have a better second half of the season than first half.
“We certainly want to pick more points up because we had a slow start. We’re coming more into our rhythm now, the boys are getting to know each other better so we should get more points over the next 15 games and we take that with us,” he said.
“We never should be satisfied with the first half of the season. In my opinion we must start now and it’s important we keep our fitness and good attitude we have now.”
The Dutchman has given his players a light week on the training track to recuperate from a tight schedule which saw them play in Perth, Townsville and Melbourne in an 11-day stretch.
“We had to (ease off). You could see in the second half against Brisbane, we had the toughest schedule over the last three weeks. We gladly did well and got good results, but it cost us a lot of energy and we can blame that a little bit. We need to give the players a rest,” he said.
But Van ‘t Schip said he won’t be making too many changes to his side ahead of the clash against the second-placed Reds
“Everybody is looking good and looking sharp. We’ll have to see what we will do, but I don’t think we’ll change too many. We may change to see how can refresh the team a little but that’s something we have to discuss,” he said.
