Melbourne City’s NPL 1 manager Joe Montemurro gave a straightforward answer when asked how he will manage his young squad over the coming weeks: rotation.
Following his team’s 7-1 trashing of Nunawading City on Sunday, the 45-year-old said that after coming out of a successful season in the National Youth League, the key was to ensure that the team enjoyed some rest and remained fresh going forward.
“We’re rotating the team a lot at the moment now because a lot of these boys came out of a NYL season and need some rest,” Montemurro said.
“They had a successful season in the NYL, and it’s only natural that they would start feeling the pinch. They’ve jumped from one season to the next without much of a break.
“We’ve been pretty prudent in the first ten weeks in making sure we keep everyone fresh for the run home [in the NPL] and build up for the next NYL season.”
City has made a respectable start to its NPL 1 life with three wins in its opening six games, and currently sit fourth in the West Conference, three points behind league leaders Bulleen Lions.
They suffered their first defeat against the Lions a fortnight ago, but bounced back in supreme fashion with a six-goal thrashing over cellar-dwellers Nunawading.
Montemurro was impressed with his team’s response, citing their professional attitude and hard work in training helping rectify their tactical issues.
“It’s just good to be able to bounce back and keep our professionalism. It was a good result and credit to the boys, who kept at it,” he said.
“There were a few structural things that we had to fix up [after the loss to Bulleen]. I think we know we had to shorten our distances a bit better, as we were a bit too longer against them and they were able to play through us.”
“All credit to the boys, who did what they had to do.”
On Marc Marino’s performance, who netted four of the seven goals, the coach laughed that he “didn’t keep count” of his tally, but reserved praise for the striker’s commitment over the 90 minutes.
“You’re telling me he got four, but he missed about seven so you know, we’ll give him the credit on that!”
City next face Melbourne Victory at CB Reserve on Saturday afternoon in the first Melbourne derby of the NPL era.
Photo: Stocky’s Scribbles