Victory set for A-League rebound, says Thompson

Melbourne Victory striker Archie Thompson has likened new coach Ange Postecoglou’s approach to the successful Ernie Merrick and is confident the good times are coming back to the A-League club.

Thompson said the former Brisbane Roar boss had already brought improvement to training sessions since taking control of the club just over a week ago.

The Victory will get their first taste of match-day under Postecoglou in a friendly against Greek champions Olympiakos at Etihad Stadium on May 19.

And Thompson is confident it won’t take long for the Victory to respond to Postecoglou’s plans.

He believes the attacking style Postecoglou demands is not dissimilar to that employed by foundation coach Merrick during the Victory’s dual championship heyday.

“He’s already given us little bits of how he wants us to play,” Thompson said on Wednesday.

“In a way, he kind of reminds me of Ernie Merrick because Ernie wanted us to play an attacking kind of football – when we got the ball, he always wanted us to look forward.

“We’ve been doing a lot of that in the last two weeks and you can see how much our training sessions have improved.

“He keeps it very simple. If we can get months of that (improvement) under our belt, then anything’s possible next season.”

As the Victory went through the most turbulent period in club history, Thompson found himself struggling through a late-season goal drought under previous boss Jim Magilton.

Yet, he had started the season as one of Victory’s best during the troubled reign of Mehmet Durakovic.

Thompson, who turns 34 this year, says he is more than capable of returning to his best goalscoring form.

And he is also confident Victory can put churning through four coaches in 13 months behind them once Postecoglou puts his polish on the squad – and adds some new faces to the quality already there.

“He’s very approachable, he likes to talk to the players and shake players’ hands before training sessions,” Thompson said.

“Everyone’s excited to have him at our club. We’ve seen what he’s done with Brisbane.

“Obviously, we haven’t had the success at our club last season but, hopefully, he can bring in some quality players and, with the players we have here, you can see a little bit next week (against Olympiakos).”

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