Melbourne City’s development coach Joe Palatsides has praised his side’s ability to create chances, having found the net four times in a narrow 4-3 NYL victory over Brisbane Roar on Saturday afternoon.
Having finished up on the wrong end of a nine-goal thriller against Melbourne Victory, Palatsides was happy to have secured a reverse result this time out, although he conceded his side were guilty of the occasional fade of concentration.
“Yes, the right end of a goal-fest this week, the wrong end last week. As a spectacle, it’s nice to great to see lots of goals and exciting football, but both these teams did play exciting football,” Palatsides said.
“It was great to see not only the goals, but the chances as well; Brisbane even hit the bar at the end. There were chances at both ends, we missed a couple as well. What we have to work on is to not conceded those chances and those goals.
“We worked hard this week on certain aspects of our game, playing out in particular and I thought that worked really well in the first half. I think the heat got to the players and the mindset – we weren’t quite switched on and we let them back into the game.
All in all, a very entertaining game, a lot of good talent on display and a good result for us at the end.”
Palatsides was also pleased to see his side carving out so many clear cut opportunities, something which he believes stems from the more positive outlook from the City defence, but admits they need to work harder in order to limit the opportunities afforded to their opposition.
“Like I said, it wasn’t just the goals but it was also the chances created by both teams. We probably created as many chances as we wanted to last week – where we didn’t get into the right positions,” he said.
“This week, it was a different story; we played it better from out the back, which gave our midfielders a chance and meant better delivery to the strikers and the wingers. That was one area we improved on, but that’s an ongoing work in progress.
“But now we’ve got to look at our defensive structure and see why we’re conceding as many goals as we are. Three this week, five last weeks; the NYL is a learning tool for us but we’ve still got to get better at little things like that.”
There was a wealth of young talent on display across both sides, with the match up arguably a showcase of the two best Youth League sides in the nation.
Palatsides agreed with that sentiment, and believed the talent on offer across both the City and Brisbane line-up’s played a large part in the attacking blowout in the scoreline.
“We always believe in our young boys and watching them play through the senior team and getting an opportunity early on, we’re excited about that,” he said.
“So we know there’s good young players coming through; Denis Genreau came on as a substitute, he’s a 16-year-old. At the moment we’ve got that chain of players coming through the whole academy, which is a great result for our football club and signs of things we can expect in the future.
“As for Brisbane, we looked at them on video and they’re an exciting young team. Credit to their coaching staff as they’ve done a good job. That’s probably why the score blows out, because they’re such an attacking minded team.
“That’s what Australian football wants and that’s what they’re getting, so it’s a good result all round really.”