Melbourne Victory boss Kevin Muscat believes a mid-week ‘challenge’ to his players provided the spark for his side’s impressive win over Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night.
A brace from Kosta Barbarouses and a strike from Besart Berisha handed Victory a comfortable 3-0 victory at ANZ Stadium.
But after last week’s patchy 3-2 win over Glory, Muscat admitted he was pleased with how his side responded against an in-form Wanderers outfit.
“Western Sydney have been on a fairly good run. The last four games undefeated and [they’re] becoming a real difficult team to beat,” Muscat told Fox Sports.
“[This week] we laid certain challenges to individuals, and groups and the whole unit. I thought that was the catalyst to go on and perform the way we did tonight because they certainly responded.
“We had some more chances and I think Matt Acton had to pull off one or two saves as well. In the end I think it’s a fair result.”
Victory were forced into a reshuffle with central defender Dino Djulbic departing the club this week, with the versatile Leigh Broxham deputizing alongside Rhys Williams.
And with Thomas Deng not risked due to a heavy workload and James Donachie still missing through injury, Muscat reserved special praise for his ‘makeshift’ back four.
“I thought we learned some lessons from previous games and defended really well,” Muscat said.
“Again, going forward, that sort of defence as a team allows us to perform at where we want to be.
“We want to be a team that’s on the front foot and asking questions.
“Leroy, Kosta, Terry and Bes tonight certainly asked a helluva lot of questions.
“It’s nice when you’re rewarded with a performance [and] the result goes your way.
“I thought we were good value for the three points tonight.”
