Melbourne Victory are set to go unchanged into Saturday night’s clash with Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium, with coach Ernie Merrick believing he has finally got the balance right after a rollercoaster start to the A-League season.
Victory’s starting line-up has chopped and changed this season due to fluctuations in form as well as injuries to key players. But after comfortably accounting for defending champions Sydney FC 3-0 at home last week with a revamped formation featuring a back three, Merrick is confident he has found the right combination.
“We played against Sydney and it was quite outstanding. It’s about continuity now, so I don’t think we’ll change our starting XI. We are playing such good football,” he said.
Defender Surat Sukha has recovered from the back injury which kept him out of the success over the Sky Blues. However, Merrick said it’s a measure of the form the team that the Thai international can not force his way back into the side.
“Surat has recovered from his injury and he’ll be back in the squad, but Surat’s been one of our best players this year. He’s not in the first XI and that’s the sort of competition we want for first XI spots,” he said.
As opposed to last week’s opponent, who are yet to win a game this season, Roar come into this contest in imperious form having not lost since these teams met five weeks ago, Brisbane’s only loss for the season.
They easily accounted for Central Coast 2-0 on Wednesday and Merrick feels the short back-up will not be an issue for Ange Postecoglou’s side.
“Brisbane are playing really good football. I thought they really demolished the Mariners. It will make for a very exciting game because we beat them at home but they are obviously a different proposition up in Brisbane. I think it will be a very exciting game,” he said.
“Ok they’ve had a three or four day break, but we’ve all had to contend with that. They are a young team which means they have got a level of fitness which is very good. But we are ready to go.”
It shapes as a tough match to predict given Roar currently occupy second spot on the table and are unbeaten in six games at home this season, while they have not defeated Victory in over two years, with Melbourne boasting five wins and a draw in matches across that period.
However, history does not interest Merrick, who believes that neither his team nor the Roar will care what has gone before.
“History doesn’t make a great deal of difference but it’s good to know that we can play well at home and away from home against a team like Brisbane. Everything is new when the whistle goes,” he said.
“It’s the media and the spectators to decide who the underdogs are. There is always pressure on us to take three points and we like it that way and no-one will apply more pressure to ourselves than ourselves.”
