Melbourne City FC Head Coach John van’t Schip felt his side had a good opportunity to defeat the league leaders on Sunday, saying more should have been made of their dominant opening to the match.
The home side shared points with the league leaders for the second time this season and van’t Schip felt the opposition were more content with the result despite their dominance in the league this season.
“I think they were more happy with the point than we were,” van’t Schip said.
“We started well in the first 20 minutes, we created some good attacks and I think the chance for Josh from Kew’s cross was our best chance,
“I think the first 20-25 minutes they weren’t really in the game and then they came into it and we dropped off,
“Im happy with the clean sheet, we conceded a lot of goals in the first part of the season and we’re looking more difficult to break down,
“We have to continue that but we can’t say after two games now that that’s solved, it continues. We have to make the most of the chance that we get and convert them into goals.”
Australian marquee Josh Kennedy made his home debut for the Club on Sunday and the big striker impressed, finding himself in a range of positive positions on the field, but van’t Schip said it was only a matter of time before Kennedy would be firing.
“Josh is coming from a period where he wasn’t playing 90 minutes of football and last week we had to force him to play 90 mins because how the game went and the subs,” van’t Schip said.
“Today, we thought we’d give it a shot for him to play another 90. Of course we don’t want to use long balls to find him, thats not our game. I think that if Josh gets more minutes in his legs, he’s going to be a very big value for our team, and he is already, so we are very happy that he’s is back on the pitch.”
Sunday also saw the debut of Kew Jaliens and the former Newcastle Jets captain impressed at right-back, having played in that position with the Dutch national side.
“I was impressed with Kew,” van’t Schip said.
“Solid, stable, he was using his experience to be calm on the ball and in difficult moments, he was there to help the team and made sure that he was defending a way that they couldn’t score.”
van’t Schip’s difficult February schedule continues this Friday night against Adelaide United and the Dutchman once again reiterated the fact that his side have to beat the best to be the best.
“Next week is going to be a tough game,” van’t Schip said.
“Adelaide, I think are playing the best football in the league and coming here, it’s a great opportunity for us to show we are growing as a team and on the way to showing that we are a team that wants to play in the playoffs,
“It’s going to be a tough race to get into the playoffs but we know that, we brought ourselves into that position and that’s something we have to deal with,
“We played Wellington last week and Perth this week and in both games we’ve shown that we are as good as they are and the only thing that we need is getting the right score.”
Melbourne City FC face the Reds this Friday night at AAMI Park, kick-off 7:40pm. Secure your place at the match or pick up a Two-Game Flexi membership for the rest of the season.
