Melbourne City FC Women’s Head Coach Rado Vidosic says he can draw a lot of positives from his side’s Round 3 performance, despite going down 2-0 to cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park.
City, who were missing a host of players, controlled possession throughout the 90 minutes, but were ultimately undone by an Elise Kellond-Knight own goal and a second-half strike from Matildas attacker Emily Gielnik.
Following the match, Vidosic conceded that his team lacked composure in the attacking third, despite controlling possession.
“It was a funny game,” he said. “I thought we controlled the game quite well, we had our game plan but unfortunately the first goal was an own goal, which ultimately came down to our weakness – height.”
“We were a little bit undisciplined in the first-half, we didn’t stick to our structure, we didn’t stick to our positions. I thought in the second-half we were much better, we kept possession much better, but we didn’t drive the ball and commit opponents in the attacking third.
“I thought we played the ball into the middle a lot, which is where their strengths lie,” he added.
With a host of stars missing from the match-day squad, including Steph Catley, Kyah Simon, Jodie Taylor, Helen Caceres, Chelsea Blissett and Rebekah Stott, Vidosic commended his team’s efforts.
“It’s a process, we have a lot of young girls,” Vidosic explained. “We are missing five players from our starting XI, but I thought our ball control and our pressing was quite positive.”
“A red card last week cost us another defender, so today we were playing without three defenders, which I don’t think any W-League team missing three defenders would be able to compete as well as we did.
“At the end, it is what it is and I’m very positive that we are going to be more competitive, how we progress and how we learn to play a certain way, once our full squad returns.”
City will be determined to return to the winner’s list when they travel to nib Stadium to face second-placed Perth Glory on Sunday night.
With Glory possessing two of the most in-form attackers in the W-League, in Sam Kerr and Rachel Hill, Vidosic says that his team will need to be smarter in possession to nullify their influence.
“We just need to be a little bit smarter, our attacking control needs to be a little bit better so that we can avoid those transition moments.”
City face Perth Glory at nib Stadium on Sunday 25 November, kick-off 9:45pm (AEDT).
