Mihajlovic: Eagle’s fledglings to stay grounded

by Jordan Lim 1

After witnessing his side concede an 89thminute winner, Springvale White Eagles coach Zlatko Mihajlovic has questioned the mental aspect of some of his younger brigade.

The coach called into question the motives that some of his team have for playing at the club, reminding them that they have yet to prove themselves at this level, let alone higher honours.

“Trialling for [National Youth League] is one thing and I’m very proud that three or four of my boys are being recognised, but until they get a contract, they are still a required player for the club, which means they still have to keep working hard and need to keep their head on their shoulders,” Mihajlovic said.

“We have a few great young players, but they need to prove themselves first that they can play and perform at this level before they get poached, because at the moment they are lacking consistency. Players have one good game then go missing in the next.

“They are still learning and if they want to progress to the next level they have to perform each week for the whole 90 minutes on a regular basis.

“The best way to let anyone know how good you are is to let your feet do the talking. It’s that simple, here’s the ground, play 90 minutes and you show how good you are on the park, forget about the talk off the park.”

Following on from the last-ditch loss, Mihajlovic also lamented the sloppy mistakes that ultimately led to their demise.

“We have a habit of giving away sloppy goals, I said that to the boys at the start of the game,” the White Eagles coach said.

“Today the first goal [Box Hill] scored, the ball was cut back between two players who were ball watching, the striker has a good first touch and then finished it.

“You’ve got to have that awareness to know what’s around you and then to react quickly to make sure you’re ready for situations like that. But we gave them too much space in areas where they penetrated and punished us.

“The last goal again, it’s the second time one of our midfielders has lazily lost the ball 20 metres from goal and this has cost us three points again.

“Until you fix that leaky tap, you will always be paying the water bill which costs you money, and in our case 3 points.”

The club is now winless in six games, but Mihajlovic admits it’s all about the long slog, with more effort and concentration on the training pitch the main concern for the faltering squad.

“I think [the players] need to understand what we do on the [training] track to prepare for the game, the intensity needs to be there at training. The way you train is the way you play and if you train 100%, then that’s how you play,” he said.

“But at the moment we have a few players that are not doing that at training and it clearly shows on the weekend.

“We have to just keep doing the same thing’s at training in regards to our methods and style of play, because the difference has just been the lapses in concentration.

“After all we have the youngest team by far in all NPL competitions so we have time for these players to develop. They are getting an opportunity to play senior football here, which is the best way to gain experience to build a team for the future.

“The boys have to keep believing and keep working hard.”