Tony Popovic concedes Melbourne Victory will need to conduct a thorough review to get to the bottom of their dramatic Isuzu UTE A-League fall from grace but believes he retains the club’s support.
Last season, Popovic’s first at the helm, Victory finished second on the table, made the semi-finals and won the Australia Cup.
Victory are now sitting bottom and are nine points off the finals places with six games to go.
Head coach Popovic is adamant Victory had the “template” to succeed but have been hurt by a succession of injuries and a drop-off in confidence.
“There’s a whole range of things. It would be wrong to just pinpoint one thing, we have to at the end of the season assess everything from start to finish,” he said.
“We have had unfortunately key personnel out throughout the whole year, senior players with injuries that are not soft-tissue – they’ve been all long-term injuries.
“Like our front three, Nick (D’Agostino’s) not there, Jake (Brimmer’s) not there, Marco Rojas is not there. That was our three that played regularly last year, we don’t have that.
“So there have been a lot of changes, a lot of injuries that we can’t control. But we have to assess everything.
“The template is there but confidence as well affects players. When you go in front, confidence builds. When you’re playing well and you go behind again it’s another test.
“At the moment with results, I don’t think the performances have been poor, but with results we’re going through a difficult period and we’ve just got to keep working and go again on Sunday (against Central Coast).”
Popovic is in the second year of a three-season contract at Victory and was adamant he hadn’t felt any shift in the club’s support.
“I don’t feel any different,” he said.
“In the end if the club decides that I’m not the person for the job then that’s for them to decide, but I don’t feel any of that.”
Victory enjoyed fine wins over Wellington and Melbourne City last month.
Despite going winless in their past three, Popovic was confident there was still enough quality and effort in his squad to recapture form.
“The team’s not performing poorly, particularly since the Wellington game,” he said.
“So we’re not performing poorly but we’re not taking advantage of the moments when we’re on top and in both boxes, clearly we haven’t been good enough.
“It’s not about effort or commitment from the group. The group’s giving their heart and soul.
“But we have to find a little bit more than that and that’s key moments and maybe calmness and clarity in those moments.”