TheWomensGame | Womens Football | W-League

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.