31 Jan Nabbout hails impact of new Victory coach following historic result

Andrew Nabbout has hailed the impact of new Melbourne Victory coach Carlos Salvachua in the short time he has been at the helm.

Salvachua, who replaced Marco Kurz earlier this month having worked under the German as an assistant, masterminded the Victory’s first away win in Asia; a 1-0 win over Kashima Antlers to secure their spot in the Asian Champions League group stage.

While they are yet to win an A-League game under the Spaniard, Nabbout feels the win in Japan – where he scored the decisive goal – could revive their faltering domestic campaign.

“We played a little bit of a different style, especially against the Japanese team, just knowing they were going to have a lot more possession,” the Socceroos attacker told SEN Breakfast.

“Carlos is really good. He was one of the assistant coaches when Marco was in charge and it was good from the club to put him charge because he’s familiar with the boys already.

“We know exactly what he wants from us … his game plan obviously worked in Japan and we executed it perfectly.

“When there’s a change of coach it’s always difficult because you don’t want to come in and completely change everything at once because you might end off worse off than before.

“He’s done really well in transitioning us to the style of play that he wants to play.”

Next up for Nabbout and the eighth-place Victory is a trip to Perth to face the in-form Glory on Saturday night.

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Listen to Andrew Nabbout’s chat on SEN Breakfast in the player below