With the Melbourne Derby almost upon us, Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou appears to be waiting till the very last moment before finalising his squad.
Postecoglou was keeping his cards close this morning, explaining that he would make decisions regarding his line up after training at Etihad Stadium on Friday morning.
“We’ll have a look at it today and see how everyone trains,” he said.
“As I said early in the week we got a few options so we’ll see what it looks like today and make some following decisions.”
Ahead of his fourth derby as Victory’s coach, Postecoglou revealed that he would hand derby debuts to some of his new signings.
“You can safely assume Troisi, Nichols and Contreras will start. Obviously Babarouses wont be there [on international duty] but Rashid [Mahazi] is a chance. Maybe four, maybe three [Victory debutants] but from our perspective we’re really excited about those boys and also the development of some of our younger ones.”
Mitch Nichols is expected partner stand-in-skipper Leigh Broxham in the centre of midfield, but with Mark Milligan prematurely returning from international duty under an injury cloud and Gui Finkler lacking match fitness, Postecoglou explained that anyone of his midfielders is a chance to be selected.
“Rashid is an option; Mitch Nichols is an option; Jimmy Jeggo is an option. Scotty Galloway got back late yesterday so he missed training but he can play in there so we’ll have a look at a number of things and make a decision.”
Matches between the two arch rivals have produced some keenly contested physical encounters over the years, and Postecoglou is expecting much of the same tomorrow night.
“I think they were great games [last season], all three of them were pretty tight. They were both pretty frenetic affairs and expect tomorrow night to be the same,” he said.
“It’s a derby game, it’s the first game of the year. Not just my players but everyone around the league, they’ve been running around for four months itching to kick someone so I reckon they’ll be a few flying in for the first round.”
After losing last years round one clash in his first game in charge, Postecoglou expressed his disappointment starting off the season with a loss.
“Just an opportunity missed for us [round one last year]. Especially last year I though people…were just waiting to see what we’d look like after a couple disappointing seasons,” he said.
“I thought if we started really well we could get people on board from day one but we missed that opportunity. To be fair to us we probably weren’t good enough so that was the most disappointing thing.”
Having started off behind the eight ball last season, Postecoglou is seeking retribution and is hoping his side can display a fantastic performance in front of an expected crowd of 45 000.
“Like I said we’ve got an opportunity tomorrow night. Close to 21 000 members, a good performance tomorrow night and a win would everyone leaves the stadium happy. It’s another opportunity for us to grow the football club.”
Despite Heart announcing current captain and former Victory marquee Harry Kewell as a certainty to start tomorrow night’s derby, Postecoglou is solely focused on the roles and responsibilities of his own players.
“I have zero interests in what other players form other clubs are doing and we just worry about what our clubs doing. From my perspective we face heart tomorrow night. They are going to be a tough opposition.”