HONG KONG : Melbourne City head coach Patrick Kisnorbo is refusing to panic after the reigning champions slipped to a 1-0 loss against Western United on Saturday to drop off the early A-League pace.
The defeat, which came courtesy of Dylan Wenzel-Hall’s 20th minute strike, was the club’s first in a campaign in which they have amassed four points from the opening three games of their title defence.
City secured the A-League title for the first time last season and are currently two points behind leaders Melbourne Victory, but could slip further adrift if their cross-city rivals win against Perth Glory on Sunday.
“We’ll see at the end of the season,” said Kisnorbo, when asked about his team’s sluggish start to the campaign.
“It is what it is. We move on. We need to improve in some areas.
“You’re not always perfect and that’s reality. It’s just a game that maybe could’ve worked out differently but didn’t. We just need to improve on a couple of things going into Wednesday.”
City take on Glory on Wednesday as the A-League season begins to ramp up and Kisnorbo wants to see his team put in a full game performance against Perth after improving in the second half during the loss to Western United.
“I don’t think it’s tactical, I don’t think it’s personnel,” he said.
“Sometimes you start well and sometimes you don’t and in the first half we didn’t. But in the second half we changed that, but we need to do it for 90 minutes. We can’t do it for 45.
“And even in the first half, when I talk about lack of intensity, it wasn’t the biggest issue it was just relevant to our standards, they were just below par for us at the start.
“I can’t predict or I can’t affect a result, I don’t control the result. In sports sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Unfortunately we lost tonight and that’s it. We need to be better and we need to start working towards Wednesday.”
(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Kim Coghill)
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