Melbourne City head coach Patrick Kisnorbo. (Photo: Melbourne City/Twitter)
Facing a Perth Glory side on a short week and with the team stuttering in front of goal, City boss Patrick Kisnorbo is confident his front three will gel in due time.
Melbourne City faces Perth Glory on the back of its first league defeat of the season. City was second best in a first half that saw Western United go ahead thanks to a Dylan Wenzel-Halls strike. A much improved second half did not result in an equaliser as Western held on for a hard-fought win.
As the team gears up for their midweek clash, Kisnorbo spoke to media on Tuesday and stated that City’s front three will need time to gel.
He cited that midweek games are something the club is going to face all season long, while reaffirming that every squad member is available for Wednesday night’s game.
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“Everyone’s available,” Kisnorbo stated.
“It’s just something we are going to have to deal with through the whole year, but we just have to adapt. Obviously, some players might need rest at some time, I am fully aware of that, but everyone is available, and everyone is ready to push for a start tomorrow.”
Fans will have to wait for Pucciarelli starting debut
There has not been much rotation so far in City’s season. New signing Manuel Pucciarelli has only seen minutes in one FFA Cup match. Fans who are expecting to see the 30-year-old Italian start soon will have to wait a little longer.
“I still think he needs some time, he has only been out [in Australia] for six weeks,” Kisnorbo said.
“He’s picked up a bit of a niggle in his groin, so it’s us giving Manuel the best possible opportunity to play his best football. At the moment, I just think he just needs a bit more time.
“We are working on that, he’s been fantastic in training so I can’t fault anything from his end.”
City’s much-vaunted front three of Andrew Nabbout, Jamie Maclaren, and Mathew Leckie has not hit the ground running thus far, but Kisnorbo has called for patience regarding the cohesion of the star Socceroos.
He stated that just because they are all talented, does not mean it will work from the outset.
“The problem people think is that because you have it, that its automatic success, it’s not real,” Kisnorbo said.
“There is no expectation on the front three at all from me. All I expect is for them to train hard, things take time, sometimes you need to be patient. I can’t give the answer on what’s going to happen next.
“All we can do is to keep training to put the players in positions where they might have a chance. All I know is we have quality players. They’re good guys, they train hard, and end of the day who knows what will happen.
“I think just because when you think of the front three of Andy [Nabbout], Macca [Maclaren] and Lecks [Leckie] things just click.
“Just because we know them as they are good players, that it is automatically going to happen, it doesn’t work like that. In the end, we have to be patient.”
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