Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip has blamed a lack of self-discipline for the catalogue of yellow cards that’s earned midfielder Wayne Srhoj a two-match suspension.
Srhoj will miss Sunday’s clash with Gold Coast and the game against Newcastle the following Wednesday after attracting his eighth yellow card for the season against Sydney United last Saturday.
It’s bad timing for the Heart who need to find a replacement also for Srhoj’s partner in the centre of midfield Josip Skoko who’ll be sidelined for at least a fortnight with an adductor strain.
“It’s too much,” said a frustrated van ‘t Schip after training at Latrobe University on Wednesday.
“We had talks with Wayne, he knows.”
“At the end, if (his replacement) starts playing well then you punish yourself as well in that way.”
Asked whether Srhoj’s offences had been undisciplined, van ‘t Schip replied: “A few of them are.”
“A lot of his yellow cards were not really for a foul but maybe for talking, but he knows he has to work on it.”
“He’s playing very well so on one side we’re very happy with him but, on the other side, he’s most frustrated himself about it and he’s getting too easy his yellow cards.”
“That’s why he has situations that he thinks are not that bad but the referee thinks it’s bad enough to give him yellow.”
“Hopefully for him when he comes back he can try to get his way of playing a little bit more defensively than what he’s used to.”
Srhoj will be available to tackle the Victory on Saturday week but van ‘t Schip isn’t prepared to speculate about how the 28-year-old will cope with the extra pressure and hothouse atmosphere of a Melbourne derby.
“We’ve got Gold Coast and then Newcastle and after Newcastle we’ll talk about Victory,” he said.
“We have to take the games as they come.”
“It’s for other people important but if we don’t think about the first two games then it becomes difficult.”
