Melbourne Heart FC coach John van’t Schip has urged his players to continue to improve, despite praising their efforts in the aftermath of the 2-1 victory over the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
By Dejan Kalinic
Melbourne Heart FC coach John van-t Schip has urged his players to continue to improve, despite praising their efforts in the aftermath of the 2-1 victory over the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday.
Second half goals from attacking duo John Aloisi and Alex Terra was enough to hold out the Phoenix, despite midfielder Tim Brown pulling a goal back to ensure a tense finish.
The Dutch boss was happy with his team-s performance, particularly during the first 20 minutes of the second half, but he insisted they needed to continue to improve.
“You always have periods in a game and I think that was a very good period of us,” van-t Schip said.
“We were playing some good football and some nice things for the people to see as well but at the end you have to make the goals and we had a few good chances.”
The coach praised the performances of reshuffled central defensive pairing Simon Colosimo and Matt Thompson.
Vice-captain Thompson was forced to drop back after youngster Brendan Hamill limped off on 19 minutes.
Despite giving his players a “big compliment about their performance”, van-t Schip said he was looking for his team to continue to progress.
“We kept on working on things that we thought we have to bring in the team and even after today, there-s still a lot of work to be done because we want to get this constant better,” he said.
“After a performance that is good, it’s more a reason to believe in it and to work even harder to get to the next level and the next level will be to have more games that you can play this kind of football.”
Van-t Schip pointed to the number of changes made to the team – including Thompson-s move into defence – as the reason his team struggled with their cohesion in the opening period.
He was pleased with the performance of Gerald Sibon, who played a different role behind the forwards.
The coach said the players needed time to put the system into place more often.
“[In the second half], there was much more a flow of just doing your thing and without thinking too much and that actually is what you have to do – just go onto the pitch, don-t think too much what you do during the week,” he said.
“It has to become a natural thing and that-s going to cost some time.”
