Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi believes his side have matured immensely of late and are now capable of beating any side in the competition.
Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi believes his side have matured immensely of late and are now capable of beating any side in the competition.
Heart picked up their sixth win of the campaign with an impressive 2-0 triumph over Adelaide United at AAMI Park on Friday night and now find themselves back in the A-League top six for the first time since October.
The victory came on the back of a disappointing 2-1 loss to Sydney FC last round where Aloisi’s side gave up two late goals and the Heart boss was extremely proud of the way his team bounced back.
“It was a good performance considering what happened last week,” Aloisi said after the match.
“The players were down, a lot of questions were asked about fitness, concentration and whether we were good enough.
“So I think the boys showed tonight against the team that is second top and two points away from the leaders that we can beat anyone in this league.”
Aloisi said confidence was growing among his group and that he still feels his side has plenty of improvement left in them.
“I think they realise now that they can play a good 90 minutes of football and be comfortable in a game,” he said.
“This will help the boys’ confidence because in the new year we have won three out of four games and we should have won in Sydney.
“I still believe we have got a good deal of improving to do and I still believe we will get stronger in the run home.”
The only piece of bad news was the quadricep injury to influential skipper Fred.
Fred picked up a knock and had to be substituted early in the second half and Aloisi has his fingers crossed that the injury is nothing major.
“I only spoke to him very briefly and he is still very upset,” Aloisi said.
“We will have to see with scans whether it is a tear or not
“It is disappointing because last week you saw the old Fred and now this has happened.”