Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip believes every match is a must win for his side as it seeks to secure a place in the Hyundai A-League Finals Series
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip believes every match is a must win for his side as it seeks to secure a place in the Hyundai A-League Finals Series.
After three wins in succession, Heart is looking to extend its winning streak against Perth Glory on Saturday night at nib Stadium.
But having been held to draws in the clubs- two previous encounters, van ‘t Schip said Perth is likely to pose a significant challenge.
“Perth had two difficult away games and performed very well. They are a quality team. We have played two times and drawn both, so we know it-s a difficult team to beat,” he said.
“For us, it-s important we win, we know the situation we are in and we need the points very much. If you want to play in the finals, every mistake we make now is really critical. It-s going to be a very difficult game which we have to approach with a lot of concentration and perform as a team.”
The Glory match will be the first of three in seven days for Heart, with the Club also set to face Gold Coast United and Victory next week.
While Van ‘t Schip conceded the schedule may prove taxing on some players, he is hopeful last week-s break allowed the team to sufficiently recover before the upcoming run of matches.
“We have to see after every game how players recover. We-ve seen in the past that some players have problems playing three games in a row with the travel,” he said.
“We are at the end of the season so a lot of players may have a little more tiredness, which is why it was good to give them a little break last week.
“Hopefully it-s going to help us, but we have to look at each game on its own, then after have a look at which players are fit.”
Van ‘t Schip though is confident that should he have to look to his bench in the coming weeks, the Heart squad has the necessary depth to provide more than sufficient cover.
“The good thing is we have good players on the bench, and even good players not on the bench; we are leaving Kristian Sarkies and Jason Hoffman in Melbourne and others who played earlier in the season like Brendan Hamill,” he said.
“Everybody has to be prepared that they are going to play in these last few games.”
