Head Coach John van ‘t Schip has earmarked Eli Babalj as a potential solution to Melbourne Heart FC’s scoring woes after the youngster snared the winner in the National Youth League match in Adelaide on Saturday.
Head Coach John van ‘t Schip has earmarked Eli Babalj as a potential solution to Melbourne Heart FC-s scoring woes after the youngster snared the winner in the National Youth League match in Adelaide on Saturday.
Heart was left to rue its profligacy in front of goal as the side emerged with a solitary point from its Friday night match with Adelaide United despite dominating proceedings.
A distinct lack of cutting edge in front of goal hampered the away side, leaving van ‘t Schip to identify an attacking solution.
While van ‘t Schip praised David Williams- performance as a makeshift number nine, the Dutchman indicated Babalj could be in contention to assume the role as Heart-s attacking lynchpin.
“We tried again with Alex (as our centre forward against Adelaide), and we switched quite fast to put David there,” he said.
“Actually in the last period of the first half, David showed coming out of the number nine position and getting the ball, we created more play, and Alex felt more comfortable from the left as well. But he had to do a lot of defending, and that isn-t one of his strongest qualities.
“Eli is coming back and hopefully he can help us score some goals. The chances we create are still there, which is a positive sign. We still create more and more, playing better, and now three games in a row, we didn-t lose, if you can see it that way.”
