Melbourne Heart coach John van ‘t Schip is prepared to stick with his side for this week’s match against Wellington Phoenix despite their disparate performance last round.
Their 1-0 loss at the hands of the Newcastle Jets was the first in eight rounds, with the Dutchman admitting his side needs to start doing the basics right in order to start picking up points again.
“I think the lesson we learnt was that in the circumstance it was not easy, we knew that it was going to be a tough game,” van ‘t Schip said.
“But the lesson is that we should go back to the basics, and the basics is play possession, a lot of movement, try keep the ball longer and all those things weren’t not optimal in last game.
“We should try to every time work on that because if we work on that then I’m sure our game will improve more and more, and as a consequence the results will be better.”
Despite the result, van ‘t Schip has no temptation to hit the panic button and make wholesale changes, even though his side failed to register a shot on target at Hunter Stadium.
“I don’t think that we’re going to make that much changes because the team is doing well and if you lose one time it doesn’t mean that we have to throw over a lot of players,” he said.
“They did well, the confidence is there so it’s also good to have the same players maybe and show them that it was a game that was not the one that we wanted.”
With a full squad to work with this week, a rarity for the club, van ‘t Schip will be licking his lips at the prospect of getting back on the winning path against the side that they thrashed 5-0 a month ago.
He admits the task will be a lot harder this time round for his boys in red, but remains confident of a home result.
“It’s going to be a different game, we’re coming from a loss, they come from a good game, a draw.
“I think their confidence has grown as well after the game they played against us.
“They’re almost with their strongest line-up as well, Cunningham, Hernandez, they were both a little bit in doubt but they’re both playing, [as well as] Huysegems so they have their strongest line-up and that’s why its going to be a totally different game.”
Melbourne Heart are back at home as they look to reclaim a spot in the winners circle at Wellington’s expense. Kick-off at AAMI Park is scheduled for 4:00pm.