Melbourne City happy to play ‘anti-football’ if it means a fifth consecutive A-League game

MELBOURNE City will happily resort to “anti-football” against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium if it guarantees them a fifth successive A-League win.

Ivan Fanjic and Thomas Broich. Brisbane Roar Vs Melbourne City at Suncorp Stadium. Pic Jono Searle.

MELBOURNE City will happily resort to “anti-football” against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium if it guarantees them a fifth successive A-League win.

City are the A-League’s form team, having picked up 12 points and 16 goals in their past four matches.

It is a far cry from the spoiling performance they produced in a 1-1 draw Brisbane on November 20.

Roar coach John Aloisi was scathing of City’s “cynical” tactics in that game, calling the display “anti-football”.

But City’s former Roar striker David Williams has made no apologies for his side’s performance that night and suggested the visitors will again do whatever is necessary to win.

“I’d like to see the proper stats from that night to see if anything was backed up, but that’s just the way the game went and you’ve got to play to the feeling of the game,” Williams said.

“We were away from home, we didn’t need to impress anyone and we came away with a point. “Any team at home would be frustrated to be held to a draw.

“You’re not always going to stick to football tactics. We’ve got other things to worry about that come into the game throughout the 90 minutes.

“Every game we want to win. Sometimes you have to fight for it and sometimes the football will go out the window. No team’s perfect.”

Brisbane Roar training at Suncorp Stadium.

That might be the case but Aloisi described City’s attacking arsenal, which includes the season’s leading goalscorer Bruno Fornaroli, as “the best in the league”.

“They can score at will, but we also know that they can counter very well,” the Roar coach said.

How free-flowing the attack is from both sides could depend on the state of the playing surface, which has been relaid following two concerts at the Milton venue in recent weeks.

The second-placed Roar, aiming for a hat-trick of wins, trained at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, with Aloisi confident the surface will not prove a hindrance.

“It will hold up well. It digs up a little bit (but) the surface is flat, there’s a lot of grass so it should be nice,” he said.

“We haven’t been here for four weeks so we want to try to make (the Roar fans) happy by putting on a good performance.

“We’re not really looking at the table so much. We’re just making sure that we’re focused on this game.”

Originally published as Melbourne City happy to play ‘anti-football’ if it means a fifth consecutive A-League game