Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat is embracing the challenge of travelling interstate and missing players through international duty and suspension this weekend.
Victory has seven players unavailable for Saturday’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final rematch against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium – its third trip away from home this season.
“We are pressed with a different challenge this week, but that’s great,” Muscat said on Friday.
“We are going to be challenged in terms of personnel, and it’s our third trip interstate in five league games, so it’s a great challenge.
“The fact that it has come so soon after (winning the Westfield FFA Cup) last weekend is great because it is easy to focus when you’ve got a nice challenge ahead of you.”
Winger Kosta Barbarouses will fly to Sydney from the Middle East, where he was ruled out of New Zealand’s friendly against Oman on Thursday night (Friday morning AEDT) due to an abductor injury.
Muscat said a final decision would be made on whether Barbarouses plays as late as possible on Saturday.
“He’ll travel to Sydney as per the program and I’ll have our people assess him and I’ll make a decision from there,” Muscat said.
“I’ll decide if he is injured or not based on what our medical team decides when he lands in Sydney the morning of the game.
“If he’s OK, he’ll be involved and if he’s not, he won’t be.”
Responding to comments from Sydney media, and the opposition, regarding the importance of the clash between two of Australia’s biggest clubs, Muscat said Victory will look to gain further notoriety by simply performing on the ground.
“We didn’t really get too much credit previously but we seem to be getting a lot of credit from across the border this time around,” Muscat said.
“We feel a great responsibility to play for this football club, to go and play in the right manner and to excite our members and fans and nothing will change tomorrow night.
“Everyone has got their own way of wanting to win and ours is certainly to attack, entertain and be exciting.
“We won’t die wondering tomorrow night, that’s for sure. We’ll have a good crack at them and see where it takes us.”
