Melbourne City forward David Williams has admitted the changes at City have invigorated the playing group, with the players starting pre-season in ominous fashion.
Williams revealed that the playing group have put in the hard yards off the back of last season, but the work is pointless unless they achieve the on-field success an expectant fan base is baying for.
“It’s just a totally different feeling that we’ve got with the club and it’s like we’ve all been rejuvenated. We’ve worked really hard in the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“It’s nice to be a part of this so far but until I win something then it’s not going to be mission accomplished.
“I came to [Melbourne] to win something and I really feel that we’re getting close to putting everything together to be a successful team. The way we’ve gone [in] the last couple of years, it’s definitely a breath of fresh air.”
There have been a number of changes at the club in the off-season with the obvious rebranding and change of kits (unveiled earlier this week), but the hiring of a new fitness coach and changes in the training program are helping to prime the Melbourne City players for on-field success this season.
“We’ve mixed it up a little bit here – we’re doing a couple more yoga sessions, we’re doing pool recovery but also some tougher [training] sessions,” Williams said.
“We’ve got a new fitness coach as well and he brings different varieties of training and we’re playing games earlier. After two weeks [of pre-season] we were playing games already against Ballarat and that was good for everyone to get involved.
Last season’s leading goalscorer acknowledged an increase in communication and constructive criticism between teammates, which has helped the players improve their mindset ahead of the 2014-15 A-League season.
“Everyone’s pushing each other this year, last year within the team we were quite quiet as a group and we’re all making sure that everyone’s communicating properly – constructive criticism is sometimes the best form of communication that we can get as players.
“We’ll be ready as well, our mindset is right.”
That ‘mindset’ was lacking for large portions of last season, and with the squad looking to atone for their poor outing, Williams has told the supporters to expect “big things” at Melbourne City.
“We just need to focus, put the history behind us and think about it in terms of ‘that’s not what we want again’ but it’s definitely looking up and I’m excited,” he said.
“I’m sure if people aren’t excited yet, I’m telling you be excited because there’s going to be big things happening at this club.”
With Melbourne ending the season passed in last place, the term ‘repay the faith’ looks to be on the forefront of the players minds as they look towards A-League success.
“We didn’t do too well and we still think about how poor a season it was. Those things happen in football and if we were to have some sort of success, we wouldn’t enjoy it as much as what we would have if we hadn’t had very low times,” he said.
“Hopefully we’ll be enjoying [success] with all our supporters and all of our fans and the people who follow us closely. It’s not just about the players on the field, it’s always about people who put their own time, effort and money into the club and we as players know we’ve got a big job to do this year.”
The 26 year-old was asked about the pending appearance of superstar David Villa and with a massive selection headache on the cards, Williams has revealed his intentions to line up alongside the Spaniard rather than make way for him.
“Hopefully I do get to line up next to [Villa] rather than him taking my place but either way, losing a spot to a player like that – I wouldn’t complain too much because it’s David Villa. I want to do my bit to play alongside him, to learn off him,” he said.
“I’m sure he’ll be assisting everyone and he will bring something to the team. If I can be there next to him playing, I’m sure I’ll be a better player for it.”