Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip has emphasised the importance of his side converting its chances in front of goal as the Club seeks to return to the Hyundai A-League winners list.
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John van ‘t Schip has emphasised the importance of his side converting its chances in front of goal as the Club seeks to return to the Hyundai A-League winners list.
While van ‘t Schip acknowledged the fact his side continue to create scoring opportunities is pleasing, he said Heart is making life difficult for itself by failing to take advantage in the attacking third of the park.
“It makes it a lot easier of you take your chances. We have to keep faith in that. We’re creating chances and today we had one or two very big ones that didn’t go in,” he said.
“Overall, we had the better chances, but sometimes you need a little luck and luck is not with us at the moment.”
Despite the absence of Matt Thompson against Sydney FC, Heart was able to maintain a clean sheet as Club Captain Simon Colosimo carried out his duties at the back with aplomb, pressing his claims to remain in Heart-s starting eleven.
Van ‘t Schip revealed he was pleased with Colosimo-s performance in the Socceroo veteran-s return to first team action.
“We kept it to nil, Simon is back and we’re happy about that, and his performance was good today,” van ‘t Schip said.
However, van ‘t Schip revealed he was unsatisfied with the overall result, and will be looking for improvement against Gold Coast.
“We’re not here for a draw. We have to go onto the pitch to win. Every game we go into we want to win,” he said.
With Heart-s inaugural squad proving itself to boast extraordinary depth, the battle for places each week is fierce.
Colosimo said this level of competition has helped spur the playing group to greater heights.
“I think everyone of us have to prove a point every week. If there’s one thing we’ve seen here at Melbourne Heart it is that if anyone plays well, they keep their spot. We’ve seen it pretty much for the start of season,” he said.
“Adrian Zahra is one of them, he keeps playing because he keeps doing what’s asked of him. It’s a case of everyone looking over their shoulder.
“I think that’s why everyone is going out, like we did tonight. We gave everything because we know that as a team we want to achieve and get results and as individuals we need to keep our positions.”
