21 Oct Joyce Adamant City Could Be Better

Melbourne City coach Warren Joyce conceded his side could be better, but is happy with the sluggish 1-0 win against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday night.

Joyce said the decision to take off Ross McCormack late in the game was to manage him, and admitted he hasn’t had the full pre-season most other players in the squad have.

“It was a difficult one with Ross, you try to manage him without breaking him down.”

Joyce admitted he was disappointed with the teams performance throughout the game, and that the possession was poor from all parts.

“I thought we were poor tonight in possession, there’s no beating around the bush and we can do better than that,” Joyce said.

“The fact that we showed a lot of grit and determination and kept another clean sheet, including the two friendly matches before round one, we’ve now kept four out of five clean sheets recently.”

The Englishman admits that City are taking every match one week at a time, and are not getting to swept up for the fact they currently sit top of the A-League ladder after round 3.

“You take every single game at a time. There’s highs and lows in football and you dust yourself down either way. You can be too high after three games and you can be too low at how bad we were against Sydney FC in the FFA Cup, you’ve got to be consistent and try and build the foundations along the way to create a successful football club”.

Melbourne City next face Adelaide United next Saturday night at Coopers Stadium, and will be a good homecoming for Iacopo La Rocca and Eugene Galekovic against their old side.