New Melbourne Victory head coach Tony Popovic is bullish that his side can quickly rebound from a disastrous season.
The Victory endured its toughest A-League season to date in 2020/21, finishing bottom of the standings for the first time, with just five wins and four draws from 26 matches with a goal difference of minus 29.
Ahead of the new campaign, which kicks off this weekend against Western United, Popovic gave some insight into the players his club has signed over the off-season in a bid to revive their flailing fortunes.
“A lot of new faces, a lot of established Australian players,” he said on SEN Breakfast as to how the Victory can turns things around.
“Chris Ikonomidis, a Socceroo, Josh Brillante, who we’ve appointed as captain, has been in the Socceroos and has the ambition to get back in there.
“We bought some foreign players who are unknown to Australian fans at the moment.
“Roderick Miranda is a fantastic centre-back with a great pedigree playing in Portugal and the top flight in Turkey. Our fans will enjoy seeing him play.
“We have Rai Marchan - a Spanish midfielder - a really good ball-playing number six.
“Up front we’ve brought in Francesco Margiotta. An Italian who has arrived a little bit late and still needs some work with his conditioning after missing four months of training, but he’s a very good player and he’s getting better and better.
“We look forward to getting them all out there.”
How will the Victory be seen by their expectant supporters after such a poor run?
Popovic possesses too much experience to deliver throwaway lines about what to expect, but he did outline the attributes of his team.
“It’s easy at the start to say what you will do and how you will play,” he added.
“What the people will see will be a team that’s ready to start, that will fight for each other, they’ll be very dynamic on the field, an exciting team and we will build as we go along.
“We feel we’re ready to start. Of course with a new group as the games go by we’ll get stronger and become more cohesive, the connections will build amongst then players on the field.
“I’m sure they (the fans) will enjoy watching us play in Round 1.”
The former Australian centre-back and Crystal Palace, Western Sydney Wanderers and Perth Glory coach has learnt a lot about the three-time A-League champions since taking the reins in April.
He is well aware of the club’s rich history and hopes to tap into that to give back some joy to the loyal Victory fans.
“It’s a fantastic football club with a wonderful history,” Popovic said further.
“Obviously we’re all very well aware of the last few years not getting the results it needs.
“Just coming here I feel it, I feel it around the city how big Melbourne Victory is. We’ve got our members pushing on 20,000 ready to come back and support the team again.
“There’ll all living in anticipation with a lot of optimism, as we all are. The players have worked extremely hard to give ourselves a good opportunity to start the season well.”
The Victory kick off their 2021/22 campaign against Western United at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night.
Listen to our Western United v Melbourne Victory call this Saturday night from 7pm AEDT, all on the SEN app.
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