Melbourne Victory midfielder Mitch Nichols says he’s looking forward to coming up against his old club on Friday night, and that should coach Ange Postecoglou leave for the Socceroos that the club will be fine.
Having started his career at Brisbane Roar, this is the first time Nichols will be facing his old club in a competitive fixture, and his old teammates have already started the banter.
“It’s going to be a bit of fun,” Nichols said.
“I’ve already copped a few text messages. I’m really looking forward to it and it’ll be a big game.
“[Brisbane’s] going to come out and play which is going to be good for us and it’s going to be exciting for the fans. If we put in the second half performance [we had against Adelaide] we can get the three points this weekend.”
Having had two games under his belt for his new club, he is now starting to feel like he belongs.
“I think it’s been a good two games. There’s a long way to go but I feel I’ve played my part for the team and I think if we keep working the way we have then it’ll be a rewarding season,” he said.
One of the key figures in bringing Nichols to Melbourne was ex-Brisbane coach Ange Postecoglou, and with speculation that the latter is about to be appointed the new Socceroos boss, Nichols maintains it was a good decision.
“It’ll be a weird feeling. I had him in Brisbane and then he left, and then he comes here and he might leave again,” he said.
“[Postecoglou] was probably the main reason for me. I knew what he was about in Brissy and what he can do for me so I thought it was the best decision for me as I needed a change.”
Should Postecoglou take the top job with the national team, Nichols feels his departure won’t disrupt the club too much.
“It will be a massive blow but I think the club’s got a structure in place with Musky (Kevin Muscat) and Daz (Darren Davies) the youth team coach so I don’t think much will change if they do take on the role – I think all the boys have been working at it a year and a half now so if he does leave I think not much will change,” he said.
“We’ve done too much work already for Musky to step into the role [and change things]. It’ll be like starting from scratch again.
“I think we’ve done too much work so we’ll just carry on and everyone knows the positions in and out so if Musky does take over we’ll just keep on going forward.”
Nichols was also full of praise for everything that Postecoglou has implemented not just at Melbourne Victory, but also what he did in his time at Brisbane Roar.
“He’s come in and he does what he wants to do and he’ll bring the players in that he wants, play the style of football he wants and he won’t stop at that. You can see by what he did in Brisbane and what he’s doing here that nothing changes week in week out,” he said.
“He’s driven to play his own style of football and get that across, and play attractive football because I don’t think anyone can argue with the way we played at Brisbane and what we’ve done here – it excites the crowd.
“He puts his structure in place and if you follow that, he shows that you’ll play good football and get good results. And he’s helped some people move on to bigger and better things.”
With his mentor odds on favourite to lead Australia to the World Cup, there has been of talk of Nichols getting a Socceroos call up but the playmaker looks to have his feet firmly grounded.
“The boys have been joking that I’ll be the first on the plane to the World Cup. But for me for the Socceroos, if I’m playing well whoever the coach is, if I’m doing the right thing for my club then I can get picked but it all comes down to the coach,” he said.
Even with everything that is going on, Nichols insists the squad are not distracted by what is happening and are solely focused on beating Brisbane on Friday night.
“We just joke about it and we see as much as what you put out there so really we’re just focusing on Friday night against Brisbane and like I said getting the first three points of the year and getting a good performance in front of our home crowd,” he said.
Melbourne Victory face Brisbane Roar at Etihad Stadium on Friday night, with kickoff scheduled at 7:30pm.
[youtube id=”7I_NtB403no” width=”620″ height=”360″]