Tuesday 14 September
Q and A with John van ‘t Schip
Head Coach John van ‘t Schip discusses Friday night’s loss to the Central Coast Mariners and the upcoming clash against the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday at AAMI Park.
MHFC: What were your thoughts on Friday’s match?
Van ‘t Schip: In Friday’s match, we started ok, until the moment Michael Beauchamp went out with the problems with his nose, which then wouldn’t stop bleeding. We were forced to change and Michael Marrone had to drop back, as did Matt Thompson, who we initially had planned to play more around Gerald Sibon. So we were already playing with 10 men for around 15 minutes of the first half, which was very disruptive and that didn’t help us with our game plan. And of course in the second half, Michael was sent off after 52 minutes, so in total we played nearly an hour with 10 men, which was of course, not in our favour.
What were the key lessons learned from the Mariners match?
I think you have to keep on reminding and working on the things we started with because if you don’t do that, you easily go back to your old habits. If you want to have a team structure and vision we should try to stick to that even in times which are not going well. Of course, there are always moments where because of injuries, because of the type of game, you maybe have to change a little bit. That’s one of the things you have to think about. If you want to play with wingers, but you don’t have them, then you have to change something in your formation. We have to see at the end of the week how everybody is physically, and then we will make a decision on which team we are going to play with.
Are there any players who will potentially return from injury this week?
It is important now we get a lot of players back. Josip Skoko is looking good and hopefully Alex Terra and Rutger Worm are going to be available for the game, so we have got more choice. John Aloisi is coming back slowly too. He has twice come onto the pitch as a substitute and every week he is looking stronger and sharper. So I think he is going to complete the squad as well as an experienced player. With all that, I think it’s important as well to confront the game of Wellington as they did very well last year, and have started this year well too.
What are your thoughts on the challenge posed by Wellington Phoenix?
Most of the players know Wellington very well. They haven’t changed that much from last season, except for a few new players in the squad. They have a new goalkeeper in Danny Vukovic, Nick Ward from Victory recently came into the team, and in the defence, maybe Jade North will be playing this week as well. It was already a very solid team, but I think they have become stronger. They have a very attacking way of playing as well and are tough in the midfield.
Do you think the team will be able to bounce back against Wellington?
I think so because although we lost on Friday, we managed to win our last game at AAMI Park. That was very important for the confidence. At home, we played a very good game against Perth, especially the first half. Against the Central Coast in the first game we were a little bit unlucky, but we played more or less the way we would like to. But now we are talking about a home game against Wellington. I think they are a strong team, they have players with World Cup experience also, so it’s going to be a big challenge on Sunday.
Q and A with John van ‘t Schip
Head Coach John van ‘t Schip discusses Friday night’s loss to the Central Coast Mariners and the upcoming clash against the Wellington Phoenix on Sunday at AAMI Park.
MHFC: What were your thoughts on Friday’s match?
Van ‘t Schip: In Friday’s match, we started ok, until the moment Michael Beauchamp went out with the problems with his nose, which then wouldn’t stop bleeding. We were forced to change and Michael Marrone had to drop back, as did Matt Thompson, who we initially had planned to play more around Gerald Sibon. So we were already playing with 10 men for around 15 minutes of the first half, which was very disruptive and that didn’t help us with our game plan. And of course in the second half, Michael was sent off after 52 minutes, so in total we played nearly an hour with 10 men, which was of course, not in our favour.
What were the key lessons learned from the Mariners match?
I think you have to keep on reminding and working on the things we started with because if you don’t do that, you easily go back to your old habits. If you want to have a team structure and vision we should try to stick to that even in times which are not going well. Of course, there are always moments where because of injuries, because of the type of game, you maybe have to change a little bit. That’s one of the things you have to think about. If you want to play with wingers, but you don’t have them, then you have to change something in your formation. We have to see at the end of the week how everybody is physically, and then we will make a decision on which team we are going to play with.
Are there any players who will potentially return from injury this week?
It is important now we get a lot of players back. Josip Skoko is looking good and hopefully Alex Terra and Rutger Worm are going to be available for the game, so we have got more choice. John Aloisi is coming back slowly too. He has twice come onto the pitch as a substitute and every week he is looking stronger and sharper. So I think he is going to complete the squad as well as an experienced player. With all that, I think it’s important as well to confront the game of Wellington as they did very well last year, and have started this year well too.
What are your thoughts on the challenge posed by Wellington Phoenix?
Most of the players know Wellington very well. They haven’t changed that much from last season, except for a few new players in the squad. They have a new goalkeeper in Danny Vukovic, Nick Ward from Victory recently came into the team, and in the defence, maybe Jade North will be playing this week as well. It was already a very solid team, but I think they have become stronger. They have a very attacking way of playing as well and are tough in the midfield.
Do you think the team will be able to bounce back against Wellington?
I think so because although we lost on Friday, we managed to win our last game at AAMI Park. That was very important for the confidence. At home, we played a very good game against Perth, especially the first half. Against the Central Coast in the first game we were a little bit unlucky, but we played more or less the way we would like to. But now we are talking about a home game against Wellington. I think they are a strong team, they have players with World Cup experience also, so it’s going to be a big challenge on Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.