Melbourne City boss John van `t Schip says change is on the agenda as he attempts to turn around his side’s rotten run of results.
City were belted 5-1 by Wellington Phoenix on Sunday to pile pressure on the underperforming coach and club.
The team arrived back in Melbourne after the horror show in New Zealand on Monday night, but face a sobering week on the training track.
Even van `t Schip wasn’t sure how he would do turning around the team’s fortunes.
“It’s hard work, but hard work is not enough,” he said.
“We have to really see what kinds of things we can change.
“Maybe in the way we’re playing, the personnel.
“It’s a mentality kind of thing now, and … you need results, that’s the best medicine.”
The results certainly haven’t come for the Dutchman since the off-season.
Inheriting a team bottom of the A-League at Christmas last year, then Melbourne Heart, they surged with six wins in seven matches under van `t Schip.
But the rubber hasn’t hit the road this season, with just one win in eight games.
For a team now controlled by the same owners as mega-rich Manchester City, it’s well short of expectations.
Former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Bosnich certainly agrees, saying the teams’s effort was not good enough.
“That was disgraceful as far as I’m concerned … they concede one goal and basically they collapsed like a house of cards,” he said on Fox Sports.
“A lot of the players are the same players we’ve seen in the last couple of seasons struggle, making the same exact same mistakes.
“If they keep performing like this, I think there will be changes in personnel and possibly even changes higher above.”
Fans are beginning to run out of patience with van `t Schip – with fans bombarding the club on social media calling for the end the Dutchman’s tenure.
The Dutch coach said they “served” Wellington their first goal and never recovered.
“Until their first goal we were playing well, we were controlling the game,” said van `t Schip.
“That was 1-0, after that we lost control.
“We had about 20 minutes including the first minutes after half-time when we were not there. We gave the game away.
The heavy loss dumped City out of the top six on goal difference and entrenched Wellington in the A-League’s group of high achievers.
A six point gap has emerged between fifth-placed Wellington and sixth-placed Central Coast.
The good news for City is the fixture list throws up a great opportunity to rebound on Sunday against Brisbane Roar at home.
The Roar are suffering a tremendous premiership hangover and are the only side City have beaten this season.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
I think it's time for MCFC to cut it's losses and abandon Schip (another thing i've always wanted to say ;-) )
j binnie
Guest
Fuss - I thought you would have picked up on the main theme of this article and compared it with what has been going on at Roar. JVS,the Canadian born,Dutch influenced (as a player and a coach) manager,appears hell-bent in pursuing change at City, while further to the North we have a management sacking a coach for ,according to them,daring to contemplate change.!!. The later reports coming out of the Roar camp suggests that the new man Thijssen is also contemplating change and even goes as far as suggesting new players with "new"????? instructions as to how he wants the game played, This is being greeted by a deathly silence from the board but the only clue we get re. this new style and personnel is "moving forward centre backs," "bombing on the flanks by wing backs" and when the head honcho,the CEO,mentions "Total Football" in his frequent statements,we are left to wonder.????? Now you would not have to be a cynic to put 2 and 2 together and come up with 5.Thijssen reached the peak of his playing career in England from 1979 to 83,so would have been a fan of the Dutch method of playing in World Cup Finals in 74 and 78. recognised by the media as "Total Football" So is this the method of play, being resurrected after 40 years, that we can expect to see being brought into existence at the "new" Roar.????? One minor problem. In both the World Cup Final games Holland only used 15 players (over a four year span!!!!) and between them those same players amassed a total of 690 caps (average 46/player) playing for their country so I think it could be said they were all of World Standard. Now to the question. Do the administrators of licensed identities in our HAL really expect our coaches to get our players play a system that actually requires "world class" players if it is to work successfully. Think about it for a mo. and you will realise the absurdity in the idea.Your mate jb.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Can you please explain how CFG is using the ownership of MelbCity to circumvent UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules? Maybe the UEFA compliance officers will read this blog & open an investigation.
Garcia
Guest
City Football Group don't care about results as long as they have their way to circumvent the Financial Fair Play rules in England/Europe they will be happy.
tommaso
Guest
Josh Kennedy cant arrive soon enough - he will replace Williams and/or Dugandzic and this should help the team big time !
Franko
Guest
Good luck JVS, at the moment some of those players are not looking interested. It is not a bad squad on paper but mentally they just don't seem right. The lineup against NIX was roughly: --------------------Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), Iain RAMSAY Rob WIELAERT, Erik PAARTALU , Patrick KISNORBO Damien DUFF, Aaron MOOY, Jacob MELLING, Ross ARCHIBALD --------------David WILLIAMS, Mate DUGANDZIC Perhaps time to blood some hungry yoof...?
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Hey JVS, did you look at the Nux lineup that Merrick put out? Krishna a Fijian, Riera a backpacker, hardworking, unfashionable stalwarts in Durante, Sigmund and Muscat, smart recruiting in Bonevacia, Burns and McClinchey. Looks like Merrick has fashioned a team on a budget and they went on to blow us out of the water. The problem JVS is that your recruiting was rubbish. What was the purpose of the trip to ManCity??? What did we get out of that? There have been gaping holes in our defence that have been evident since preseason but ignored. Poor Ramsay is not a defender but has been worked over by just about every team we have faced. And yet he remains on the pitch while others get substitued LOL!!!! In your combined stint in the A-league you have a win percentage of just under 30%. That's never gonna win silverware in any league I'm afraid. Can see the revolving door spin you out soon.