City set for soul searching after listless derby start

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City set for soul searching after listless derby start

Soul searching will begin early for Melbourne City as coach Aurelio Vidmar seeks a response to a “horrendous” 25-minute slump that delivered their derby defeat.

But he is adamant his charges already know where things went wrong in Saturday night’s 3-1 loss to Melbourne Victory, when a listless City fell 3-0 down by the 25th minute.

“Horrendous. We weren’t even close to the football for the first 20 minutes,” Vidmar said.

“If you can’t get up for a game like this, there’s something definitely wrong.”

In noting City’s improved second half, Vidmar added: “But *******, do we need to cop three goals before we actually turn up?

“So we have a little bit of work to do in that regard. I don’t want to see that again.”

When asked if much of City’s week would be spent figuring out what went wrong, Vidmar said: “I think they know”.

“For whatever reason, there was nothing leading up to this game to say that we were going to do that in the first 25 minutes.

“You have to be competitive. You are one per cent off your game, it doesn’t matter who you play, and the league is going to be like that.

“It’s going to be like that. It’s going to be very even. Everyone’s going to beat everyone.

“But you need to turn up. You don’t need any talent for that. You just need to compete. Compete first, get that right and generally your game follows.”

City hope to have Mathew Leckie back against Western ******* on Monday 4 November.

“He is gonna be a week-to-week proposition,” Vidmar said.

“He trained most of last week, we’re hoping to get him a full week again next week and then he should be up for selection.”

Vidmar backed young goalkeeper Patrick Beach after he blundered, getting charged down by Victory’s Ryan Teague for the third goal.

“He needs to jump back on the horse and keep getting there and just keep getting better, because that’s what the demands are going to be,” he said.

City’s ******** winger Yonatan Cohen was booed by sections of the Victory fans whenever he touched the ball.

“We’re gonna stick to football. That’s my concern – his football,” Vidmar said.

Vidmar expected Cohen to improve as he built fitness, while he didn’t expect the booing to faze him.

“He’s a hard nut, very hard nut,” he said.

“He’s a great guy, he’s got a great family. He’s absolutely loving life here in Melbourne.

“He absolutely loves the club, and it’s all part of whatever fans want to do. He can’t control that. What he can control is his football and he’s a super, super professional, very quiet, unassuming, just gets things done.

“So we’re rapt to have him.”

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