A-League 2020: Caged lion Berisha set to explode against his former club

Time in quarantine hasn’t gone down well with Besart Berisha, who is primed to take out his anger on Melbourne Victory.

Besart Berisha (right) and his former Victory teammate Leigh Broxham will cross paths on Saturday night. Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

Besart Berisha’s renowned competitive juices are flowing feeling in quarantine and he’s ready to explode against his former club Melbourne Victory.

Western United’s deadly marksman has been doing his best to hold it together while in isolation in a Greater Western Sydney region hotel, but his frustrations have occasionally got the better of him.

And that most likely spells bad news for the Victory at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday night.

“If he’s angry or frustrated he’ll show you – there have been a couple of moments,” Western United coach said.

“There were a couple of days we got locked down and we had to stay in our rooms ... (but)

he’s been great.”

Western United striker Besart Berisha is ready to fire against his former club Melbourne Victory. Photo: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

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“Mini World Cups” in table tennis, bocce and darts have been part of United’s time in quarantine, with Berisha at the forefront of proceedings.

“Bes made the (table tennis) semi-final with his partner Stevie Lustica only to lose to Max Burgess and Oskar Dillon, so he was happy while he was winning but he lost unfortunately last night so that frustrates him,” Rudan said.

“(But) he’s been really good.”

Rudan said Berisha, who turns 35 next week, and the rest of United’s squad were looking forward to “normality” returning when they moved to Sydney beachside suburb Coogee when their quarantine period ended on Saturday.

“A lot of players will be happy to smell the sea breeze and just be free and do what normal human beings are allowed to do apart from unfortunately our fellow Melburnians down in Victoria,” the United coach said.

“Going to Coogee will mean the world to the players and their mental well-being. We continue to talk about the wellness of the players.

“Physically it’s part of their job and that’s what they do – they’re elite athletes. The other side is just as important as far as we’re concerned, the mentality of the players and making sure we can protect them as much as we can, and look over them, and look after them.

“Moving into our second hub in Coogee I hope will do the trick for the players.”

United are three points outside the top six but have more regular season matches remaining - six - than any other club.

“We know that we are still in control of our destiny. Other teams have played more game than us,” Rudan said.

The 10th-placed Victory have five matches left and are a somewhat of an unknown quantity under new interim coach Grant Brebner following the departure of Carlos Salvachua.

“We can only by the coaching staff and we know who the coaching staff is,” said Rudan, whose son plays for the Victory’s under 16 team.

“He know what Grant Brebner does in his training sessions so it’s good to get a little bit of insight.”

Originally published as A-League 2020: Caged lion Berisha set to explode against his former club