Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat will be faced with a selection headache as the boys in navy blue prepare to take on Adelaide United tonight at Adelaide Oval in Round 2 of the Hyundai A-League.
Victory captain Mark Milligan missed out on last week’s 4-1 thrashing of Western Sydney due to international duties with the Socceroos but looks set to slot back into tonight’s line-up for his first game of the season.
Milligan’s possible return would mean Kevin Muscat would have to drop Carl Valeri or Leigh Broxham – the latter putting in a stand-out performance last round – to allow the returning skipper to line-up in the centre of the park against Josep Gombau’s Reds.
“[Milligan’s] the captain of our football club, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t punish him for going away with the national team – but it’s certainly a good headache to have,” the Victory boss said.
“He flew in last night, he didn’t play in the last game [against Qatar] – he’s fine, he’s healthy.
“He looked nice and sharp but a decision won’t be made until later on tonight or possibly even tomorrow morning,” Muscat told the media on Thursday.
READ MORE > Milligan: Fitness not an issue
Speaking on the possibility of Leigh Broxham losing his place in the starting XI after his excellent performance against Tony Popovic’s, Muscat said an intense competition for spots was something the Victory was aiming for.
“The aim was to try and create competition for places and that’s where we find ourselves – it’s a good problem to have but how we can try and pick an individual out of that last week is going to be pretty difficult,” he said.
Muscat is hoping his side will be able to improve on their strong showing last week and grab another three points early in the competition against an aggressive Adelaide United side that is also hungry for a win.
“The application from the team was spot on [against Western Sydney Wanderers] – mix that together with some great determination and great intensity and I thought it was a good game of football, an attacking game of football.
“Our perspective will be to go across there and try to match that and I dare say go one step further,” he said.
“We’re happy for teams to have a go at us and return fire immediately as well. We’ll back ourselves, we’ve done a lot of work and we feel very comfortable where we sit in terms of our physical condition to go punch for punch with them.”
Melbourne Victory will travel to Adelaide to face Josep Gombau’s Adelaide United with kick-off scheduled for 7:40 (AEST) on Friday night.