Melbourne Victory head coach Kevin Muscat has described his sides performance against Sydney FC as ‘bordering on embarrassing’ after succumbing to a second 5-0 defeat in as many weeks.
Goals to Del Piero (two), Despotovic, Carle and former Victory player Seb Ryall were enough to see off a hapless Victory outfit.
Muscat was far from happy with the performance, with the manager taking exception to the endeavour shown by his players.
“Certainly no excuses, we simply just didn’t turn up,” he said.
“A big crowd turns out here today, it’s a big occasion and obviously each and every one of us have got to have a serious look at ourselves because to dish up something like that, to say it’s unacceptable is an understatement.
“[To] give away goals as cheaply as we gave away goals, individual errors gave ourselves a mountain to climb.
“Obviously after that it just seems to sap any confidence we’ve got in us, and in the end it was bordering on embarrassing here in front of our own fans.”
There were an abundance of individual errors, which Muscat admitted cost his side dearly.
“The way they set up, they made it hard for us to get the balls into James [Troisi] and Archie [Thompson] in the first half.
“It was nowhere near good enough in retaining possession, and then individual errors to concede goals; the first one individual error, second one a penalty, and the third one Sebastian [Ryall] runs from half way without anyone laying a glove on him.”
Amidst the coach’s frustrations, he admitted there was plenty of work to do on the training ground, as well as a frank assessment of the mental aspect of the playing group.
“From here on in we’ve got to get back to AAMI Park and Gosch’s Paddock and find out who actually really wants to play and who wans to represent this football club,” Muscat said.
“It’s a proud football club and from my perspective it’s nowhere near good enough in our desire and our application to win a football game.
“We can talk about systems and structures – but if you don’t have the desire and the belief to go out play football and work hard, everything else is irrelevant.”
He did however refrain from stating that there would be personnel changes in the starting line-up for Victory’s next match against Perth.
“We’ve got a weeks training, we’ve got 3-4 sessions and then that’ll indicate to me [whether changes are due], so at this time I’m not going to stick my neck out and say anything in relation to selection, but there has to be a reaction in terms of our application.”