After earning just two draws after six rounds, Melbourne Heart sit bottom of the league. The pressure is piling up on under fire coach John Aloisi as a result.
As a Melbourne Victory supporter, it’s a lovely sight to watch as the cross town rivals continue to spiral out of control in search of an identity they can call their own. But even so, the bigwigs at the Heart should stick by their heavily criticised coach.
Their place on the ladder comes down to one simple factor – injuries.
The Heart have been ravaged by injuries. The great Harry Kewell hasn’t played a full game yet, while marquee signing Orlando Engelaar hasn’t even played a single competitive minute and won’t until January.
But that is only the beginning of the Heart’s injury woes, and until Aloisi can play his best 11 consistently he needs to be given a little slack.
Sure, Aloisi hasn’t delivered on his ‘youth policy’. But if he did field a team of youngsters and got the same results, here we would be having the exact same discussion about Aloisi not delivering since he took over from Van’t Schip.
In reality, Van’t Schip left him with little to begin with. Van’t Schip had one mediocre season where the Heart finished sixth but were as high as third.
The only time the Heart ever looked dangerous that season was when Fred was running around. Fred, however, would suffer an injury, then be rushed back into the side only to suffer another injury.
The bar wasn’t set very high. While Aloisi might not have measured up to the bar yet, until he gets his desired first team out on the park on a consistent basis the suits at the Heart have to stick by their coach.
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