Springvale White Eagles coach Zlatko Mihajlovic is concerned with his side’s effort and consistency following their third straight loss to commence the NPL 1 season.
In particular, the White Eagles coach is troubled by lapses in concentration every week that are costing the team frustrating goals against the run of play, undoing their hard build-up work in the process.
After conceding another three goals at home against North Geelong on Saturday, Mihajlovic questioned his team’s match day attitude.
“It’s a game of two halves and we’re just consistently not good to play 90 minutes,” Mihajlovic said.
“You can do everything during the week [in training], but once you cross the line you tell them what to do and they don’t do it.
“It’s a team that doesn’t want to help themselves first, which means it’s difficult for me to help them.”
Mihajlovic said the higher standard of competition had provided a reality check for last season’s State League Two promotion winners, and conceded that any good showing on the pitch has come in patches.
“Forget about what we’ve done last year, now it goes to show we haven’t improved on a lot of things. It’s disappointing,” he said.
“Just playing out the ball from the back, there’s no pressure and they still make mistakes.
“You can work on a million things, we’ve done it all during pre-season, but only done it in patches on the pitch.”
Mihajlovic has bemoaned the quick implementation of the NPL in Victoria and its associated costs, claiming it has prevented the club from being able to strengthen its squad to cover for injuries and create competition for spots in the team.
“We’ve got two sixteen year old kids on the bench. It’s going to continue week in, week out,” he said.
“There’s no competition for places because we don’t have a big squad, and we don’t have the finances for big players to cover spots.
“The players can become complacent knowing they can’t get dragged.”
Springvale’s quest for a first win will be made all the more difficult with four away games in a row, starting against Dandenong City on Saturday. Kick-off at Frank Holohan Soccer Complex is scheduled for 3:00pm.