Melbourne City Head Coach Rado Vidosic was full of praise for his team’s second half efforts following their 4-1 win over Wellington Phoenix on Monday evening.
After heading into the break leading 1-0, City would go on to score a further three goals, with Jamie Maclaren and Marco Tilio both grabbing braces.
Speaking post-match, Vidosic credited his side’s ability to take lessons out of the first 45 minutes and implement them in the second half.
“I really liked our second half mindset,” Vidosic said.
“We corrected things from the first half and were more aggressive, we forced more turnovers and exposed their weaknesses at the back.”
Despite battling a long list of injury concerns, Vidosic said Monday’s performance was a sign of improvement, with plenty of big names still yet to return to the fold.
“This was our third game in a week, we have a few players that are not 100% so we were a little bit off but we are getting better,” he said.
“With our injured troops coming back, that will mean we can rotate players more and bring that quality on towards the end of the game and be in a good space for the Finals.”
Maclaren returned to the scoresheet after a few games without a goal and Vidosic was optimistic about his number 9 heading into the backend of the season.
“He (Maclaren) is a very calm person, there are not too many emotions in his performance as he knows what he needs to do and he arguably does it better than anyone in the history of this competition,” Vidosic said.
“As a coach you don’t need to doubt him if he hasn’t scored for one, two or three weeks.
“You just know he’s capable and especially now he’s fully fit, he’s going to be hard to stop.”
As for what lies ahead, Vidosic said the side is still taking it one game at a time and trusting in the process that has gotten them to where they are today.
“We’ve been top of the league for a long time and we deserve to be where we are, we have played some amazing football and have dealt with the setbacks perhaps better than some other teams.
“We just focus on the next game as that’s the most important one,” Vidosic said.
“If the process is right you will get rewarded more frequently, so it’s important we continue to work hard and play hard football.”
