Melbourne Victory caretaker coach Mehmet Durakovic says he has inherited a team lacking the fitness to play the mobile style he wants.
The Victory fell 2-1 to classier South Korean opponents Jeju United on Tuesday night, three days after two-time A-League championship coach Ernie Merrick was sacked.
It left them with little hope of progressing to the knockout rounds of the Asian Champions League, after Merrick oversaw a 5-1 loss to Gamba Osaka in their first group match.
Durakovic, who has coached Victory’s youth team and wants the senior job permanently, is after greater width of play than under Merrick and wants his players to move the ball with short, quick passes.
Jeju showed them up on both fronts.
Durakovic said his players needed more time to adapt to his style and gain the fitness needed to carry it out.
“We’ll work on our fitness, we’ll work on our sharpness and the structure I want to play – short sharp passes,” he said.
“The boys just have to be fit and these guys (Jeju) are super fit and they love to play and move.
“That’s the way I like to do it as well.”
Melbourne have three weeks until their next match, against Tianjin Teda, in China.
Durakovic expects to be boosted for that game by being able to start skilful Costa Rican midfielder Carlos Hernandez.
Hernandez’s clever passing to strikers Danny Allsopp and Archie Thompson made a huge difference when he entered Tuesday night’s match in the second half.
Durakovic said Hernandez was Victory’s “X-factor”, but needed to lift his fitness in the lead-up to the next match.
Star striker Robbie Kruse should also return, after missing the Jeju game with a hamstring injury.
Tianjin beat Gamba 2-1 on Tuesday night, to go to six points, with Jeju and Gamba both on three, leaving Victory on the bottom, with no points.
Australia’s other ACL representative, Sydney FC, were scheduled to play on Wednesday night, but their clash with Kashima Antlers was postponed, along with all other matches in Japan, after that country’s huge earthquake.
Kashima is 200km from the quake-hit Fukushima No.1 power plant, causing fear of radioactive fallout.
Their stadium has also been damaged.
A planned Tuesday night match between Australian striker Josh Kennedy’s Nagoya Grampus and United Arab Emirates’ Al Ain was also postponed.
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