Brebner laments Gestede’s decision-making after defensive brain fade costs Victory

Melbourne Victory boss Grant Brebner says Rudy Gestede will be disappointed with a wild challenge on Bernie Ibini which handed Western Sydney Wanderers a second-half penalty and sent them on their way to a 2-0 win at Bankwest Stadium.

The striker’s return from a three-match hiatus to face the Red and Black did not go to plan for Victory. Brebner turned to the Benin international from the bench with the scores locked at 0-0 only for Gestede to collect Ibini’s face with an attempted scissor-kick clearance in the box, which sent Graham Dorrans to the spot to give the Wanderers the lead with less than 20 minutes to play.

The result leaves Victory planted to the foot of the A-League table with just one win from six matches this season.

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“Rudy is going to be very disappointed with his decision-making there,” Brebner told FOX Sports post-match.

“He’s six foot three, the tallest player on the park, and I think everybody in the stadium can look at it and say ‘yes, he should have been going with his head’.

“But for whatever reason he’s made the decision to go with his feet, and we’ve been punished for it.”

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Gestede – one of Victory’s prized off-season arrivals – is goalless after a disjointed start to the 2020/21 campaign. A hamstring injury suffered against Adelaide United in Matchweek 5 sidelined the imposing striker for three matches leading to his return for the last half-hour of play against the Wanderers.

Defender Nick Ansell – who also returned to action for Victory in just his second appearance of the season – defended Gestede post-match, backing his willingness to commit himself to a piece of desperate defensive work.

“I think if you watch it, he was just wanting to get the ball out of there as quickly as possible, it was desperate defending and it didn’t come off,” Ansell said.

“I think he’ll look back on that one and probably regret the scissor kick, but I can’t blame him for being desperate in the box, so it’s okay.”

From their position at the foot of the A-League table Victory have nowhere to look but up, and with five successive home games beginning with their next game against Wellington Phoenix on Wednesday, February 17, Brebner says his side are currently down but not out – and have plenty of cause for optimism heading forward.

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“As I stand here now I’m obviously thoroughly disappointed in the result,” Brebner said.

“In isolation alone I thought we merited a draw out of the game.

“Of course it’s a sucker punch to lose it in the manner we did.

“We are battered and bruised, it’s been a tough start for us.

“I’m not going to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes; we’re in a position now where we’ve got five home games coming up, we’ve got players returning, Callum McManaman will be back for that game (against Wellington), and we’ve got players getting fitter.”

One of those players consistently improving in fitness is Robbie Kruse, who featured from the start before being substituted for Gestede with 30 minutes to play.

Kruse’s scathing reaction to being subbed off suggested the 32-year-old felt he had plenty left in the tank to help his side push for points, but Brebner reaffirmed post-match his intentions to continue his careful approach to bringing Kruse back up to full speed.

“Robbie’s a competitor; it doesn’t matter when you bring Robbie off, he’s obviously wanting to play the 90 minutes,” Brebner said.

“But in reality, Robbie can’t play for 90 minutes at the moment. Robbie’s got a good 60 minutes under his belt, that’s about where he is at the moment.

“After about 60 he does start to tire rapidly, so it’s in the best interest for him. If we leave him on any longer it runs the risk of him getting re-injured again.”

Brebner will hope his caution pays off when he deems Kruse fit enough to perform for 90 minutes in an attack that’s in desperate need of consistency and quality.

With just one goal scored between Kruse, Gestede, Marco Rojas and Callum McManaman throughout six A-League games to date Victory’s end product is in clear need of improvement, and Brebner hopes that improvement will come if his star-studded frontline begin to clock consistent minutes together in the final third.

“(The end product) needs to get better, it certainly needs to get better,” he said.

“It’s something that we’ve not had that fluidity of getting the same players on the park to start gelling up there.

“We’ve had (Kruse) for the last couple of games, Marco in and out, Rudy’s come in tonight, Callum we saw what he could do in the first game – then (he) went out, so it’s been a bit disjointed in terms of that front third.

“It will get better.”