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Season Three was a breakout one for the Melbourne Victory. After falling agonising short the previous two, the Victorian side finally made the finals, although the ending was not one to remember.
Back for her second year in the competition, Vicki Linton will once again lead a new look squad Victory squad and is under no illusions that making the finals will be an easy task.
“I know as a player and as a coach that second year that there is some problems with that,” she said. “A little bit of complacency or different expectations.”
“Our goal again is to make the Top 4 but I am certainly in no doubt that that is going to be a difficult task with 7 teams in the League again and the strength of the players in those teams.”
It is a new look squad with the biggest omission former Victory captain Melissa Barbieri. In a bold move, the Matildas captain was moved on to make way for emerging talent Brianna Davey. Davey’s elevation is indicative of Linton’s promotion of youth with the goalkeeper, Stephanie Catley and Caitlin Friend joined by their national teammates Rebekah Stott and Katrina Gorry. League Golden Boot and Player of the Year Laura Spiranovic has been added as well as proven goalscorer Steph Tanti and NTC forward Georgie Koutrouvelis.
“I am looking forward on seeing how we go building on from last year. I think we really achieved something last year with the young squad we had.”
“I think in fact that we have a stronger squad this year. We are better prepared and just the depth of squad is better.”
The Strength
For Season Four, Vicki Linton has assembled a very good Melbourne Victory squad. While they have lost some impact players, the gains definitely outweigh the losses. Linton has added depth with Stott, Gorry, Spiranovic and Johnson. The team has the right mixture of pace, maturity and steel in all the crucial areas.
The Challenge
While making their first finals appearance was a big achievement for the Melbourne Victory, the next question is whether they can take the next step. In that semi-final, the Victorians were outclassed by Sydney FC with their northern neighbours highlighting the gulf between the top two sides. Linton has gone a ways to addressing those areas but can they make enough of an improvement to more than just make up the numbers. |
