Steph Catley says Melbourne City’s defence is the best in the league and their ability to keep clean sheets will be key to their Westfield W-League Championship tilt.
City’s stringent defence have conceded just three goals in eight games. They have kept four clean sheets in a row and, in a dangerous omen for their opponents, have just recently found their scoring groove.
Depending on City’s system Catley is deployed as a left full-back or wing-back in Rado Vidosic’s elite backline, and from her position in defence Catley sees everything coming together at the right time for the league leaders.
“At the moment things are going really well,” Catley told reporters on Thursday.
“Not conceding is massive, I think that’s the key to winning a Championship, not conceding goals.
TALKING POINTS: Premiers Plate a three-horse race?
SATURDAY PREVIEW: Melbourne City v Newcastle Jets
“I think last week we started to score goals as well and that was really important for us because we were struggling with that.
“We’re really taking it game by game and trying not to concede every game.
“Rado [Vidosic] has brought in a few different systems to ensure going into the later part of the season we’ve got different plans.
“If we need to rearrange things because of personnel or whatever it is then we’re organised and know what to do in those situations.
“If you look across our backline at the experience that is there is like no other in the league.
“It’s probably our strongest asset and something we definitely can improve on but something that’s really strong for us.
“Those different formations leading into the later part of the season will be really important.”
Through the early stages of the season City were getting by on their resolute defence alone.
It took until Round 8 for them to notch a win by more than one goal and they consolidated that effort with a 4-0 thrashing of Canberra United in Round 9.
Catley says she is not sure what took her side so long to click in attack, but now that they have City are sure to strike fear into their opponents for the remainder of the season.
“I’m not entirely sure exactly what it is,” Catley said.
“We haven’t changed much but sometimes the more time you spend with people on the field the better things get
“I think it was that last piece of the puzzle missing; the finishing.
“The amount of chances we were creating, it was going to happen at some stage.
“At times we were a bit unlucky and at times we just weren’t good enough in front of goal.
“That clicked for us against Canberra the other night, we were able to finish our chances and hopefully it can keep going from here.”
TEAM NEWS: Westfield W-League Ins and Outs – Round 10
ROUND 10: How to watch the upcoming round of Westfield W-League
Click here to buy tickets
Melbourne City v Newcastle Jets
Saturday, 18 January 2020
Kick-off: 5pm AEDT
Venue: AAMI Park
Broadcast: FOX Sports
Stream: MyFootball Live App, Kayo Sports
ROUND 10: How to watch the upcoming round of Westfield W-League
ROUND 9: Westfield W-League Team of the Week
