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Melbourne Victory aren’t good enough to win the A-League this season and would be better off concentrating on the AFC Champions League instead.
Just kidding Victory fans! You lot are the easiest supporters in the country to wind up.
And the reaction of Victory fans to any perceived slight is instructive.
We want the A-League to produce passion, and supporters don’t come any more passionate than Victory’s eternally demanding set of fans.
But what does the past week tell us about where Melbourne Victory are at?
Firstly, it tells us that they’re still alive in the AFC Champions League.
They may have ridden their luck against a Kawasaki Frontale side that remains one of the weakest J.League champions in recent memory, but a win’s a win and it puts them level on points with a similarly ordinary Ulsan Hyundai outfit.
Can Victory escape the group stage? Time will tell. But already their campaign is faring better than many pessimistic fans predicted.
As for yesterday’s 5-2 thumping of Central Coast Mariners, it came on the back of another Leroy George masterclass and a timely return to form – of sorts – for Besart Berisha.
The feisty Kosovo international barely celebrated any of his goals, and despite his hat-trick, he still looked out of sorts for long stretches of the one-sided clash.
Has Berisha lost his mojo? He’s certainly lost the ability to stay onside, judging by how frequently the assistant referees’ flag has gone up of late.
And while the club looks to move heaven and earth to re-sign the mercurial George, there are surely some niggling doubts in the back of Victory fans’ minds that Berisha is still the right man to lead the line going forward.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
But then you could probably say the same thing about Kevin Muscat.
In an era when sacking coaches is de rigueur, Victory have gone the other way and rewarded Muscat for his long-standing service by handing him a two-year contract extension.
Is it the right move? Or are the club blinded by their loyalty to one of Victory’s favourite sons?
Having won all that there is to win – domestically – as a manager, Muscat has surely earned the support of the Victory faithful.
Yet there’s a prevailing school of thought that the former Socceroos hard man is a tactically limited coach whose teams rely heavily on the individual brilliance of players like George and Berisha to get them over the line.
Still, with four rounds of the regular season remaining, that may be enough to make Victory genuine championship contenders.
Particularly if Sydney FC continue their recent poor run of form.
The Sky Blues probably could have nicked a point in their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Brisbane Roar on Saturday night, but that would have been harsh on the visitors.
Between Jamie Young’s late heroics and Matt Simon’s continuing inability to find the back of the net – in the A-League, at least – the Roar did just enough to see off their more fancied opponents.
But the signs were all there for anyone who cared to look, and ever since Suwon Bluewings did a number on Sydney FC in the ACL last month, the Sky Blues have clearly lost their aura of invincibility.
The question is whether anyone can step up and truly take the game to the defending champions in the finals series.
It’s unlikely to be Adelaide United or Melbourne City based on their showing on Friday night, which may well leave Melbourne Victory as the most likely challengers.
A few social media snarks were quick to suggest that Kosta Barbarouses repairing the net yesterday was symptomatic of the A-League’s lack of professionalism.
However, the truth is a bit more prosaic than that.
A-League clubs learned long ago to make do with what they’ve got. For Melbourne Victory, that may just be enough to launch a title challenge.