A-League: Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says team moving past Phoenix loss to concentrate on Wanderers clash

KEVIN Muscat says he won’t bother to review Saturday’s debacle in Auckland too deeply this week as his Melbourne Victory side prepares for a showdown with Western Sydney.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 27: Carl Valeri of the Victory looks on during a Melbourne Victory A-League training session at AAMI Park on November 27, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

KEVIN Muscat says he won’t bother to review Saturday’s debacle in Auckland too deeply this week as his Melbourne Victory side prepares for a top-of-the-table showdown with Western Sydney.

Vice-captain Leigh Broxham said the Pirtek Stadium blockbuster on Saturday night would be the perfect way to put the weekend’s 2-0 loss to Wellington behind them, a match that was marred by a substandard pitch at QBE Stadium and a bizarre clash strip that made the teams hard to tell apart.

Muscat also confirmed that captain Carl Valeri would return for the Wanderers game, after the midfielder missed the trip across the ditch because of a viral infection.

The bobbling pitch made it hard to find a groove for a Victory side that likes to move the ball along the deck with speed.

Victory previously had a 78 per cent successful pass rate this season, but went at 68.9 on Saturday.

Wellington had a pass success rate of 73.5 per cent before the game, but went at a staggeringly low 52.3 per cent in Auckland.

“It’s hard to analyse that,” Muscat said.

“If you really want to analyse that as a football game then you have to go and get the stats and look at pass percentages.

“Their successful pass rate was way down, way down, ours was at about 69 per cent and that’s down on our average too.

“It’s no coincidence that that was the case because of the state of the surface.

“The game became more of a fight than a football contest and unfortunately we didn’t come to grips with that before we conceded.”

Broxham, who was acting captain in Valeri’s absence, said the team would be “anxious” to put the Phoenix nightmare behind them and make amends against the Wanderers.

Tony Popovic’s men went clear at the top of the table with a 2-1 home win over Brisbane later on Saturday.

“Pirtek Stadium is always a difficult place to play and they’re doing really well,” Broxham said.

“Popa has got them back to the kind of form that they had 12 months ago when they won the Asian Champions League, so that makes it a very interesting match-up.

“We want to prove ourselves and they’re doing well so they want to prove themselves too.

“I think this season they’re going to be right in the mix so it should be a good game.”

On Valeri, Muscat said the club’s medical staff adopted a no-risk approach.

“He was suffering from a viral infection late on Wednesday,” Muscat said.

“He was fine leading up to that, but with the travel, coming all the way over to New Zealand, we thought he’d struggle to cope with that so we decided not to risk him.”

Originally published as A-League: Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says team moving past Phoenix loss to concentrate on Wanderers clash