Melbourne Victory are expecting Perth Glory to come at them on Friday night, with Big V coach Kevin Muscat praising the attacking riches at Kenny Lowe’s disposal.
Victory (3rd) face Glory (5th) on Harvey Norman Friday Night Football at AAMI Park with the WA outfit desperate to get their season back on track.
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“Perth have some good attacking threats so I don’t think it’ll be in their nature just to sit and hope not to lose,” Muscat told reporters.
“They’ll come here with some good players in their front third.”
That Glory front third has been shorn of Spanish star and reigning Johnny Warren Medalist Diego Castro, as well as attacking right back Josh Risdon.
But with Andy Keogh, Chris Harold and Adam Taggart, not to mention the set piece danger of Nebo Marinkovic, there’ll still be plenty of firepower to call on.
Muscat emphasised the importance of patience in games where teams sit back, like the Jets last week, and use their pace on the counter.
“I don’t know what Kenny [Lowe] is planning but if that is the case we’re well prepared because I thought we were relatively patient last week and that patience rewarded us with quite a few opportunities.
“We’ve come off the back of a good result and performance last week and we want to improve on that. Improve on the performance and take three points.”
With City (2nd) facing Roar (4th) 24 hours later at the same venue, this will be a pivotal couple of days as the first third of the season comes around this weekend.
Victory have won their last two games without conceding, and could sit second if they win on Friday night, potentially leapfrogging City before Saturday’s clash with Roar, also at AAMI.
Victory have been ticking along nicely in the last month thanks in large part to striking sensation Marco Rojas, who destroyed Jets last weekend.
“We want to improve on that [result],” Muscat told reporters.
“Perth have been inconsistent … their good is very good, and last week they were disrupted in the game [with injuries, including losing Josh Risdon in the warm up).
“But we’ll treat them with respect. They’ve assembled a very good squad this season and we’ll show them that respect and worry about what we do.
“The ultimate respect we can pay any opposition is worrying about ourselves and make sure we’re right.”
