19 Mar Why Melbourne Victory find it “difficult to compete” in Asia

Melbourne Victory CEO Trent Jacobs says the club’s struggles in the Asian Champions League are due to their inability to compete financially with rival teams on the continent.

Kevin Muscat’s side sit last in Group B and look unlikely to qualify for the Round of 16 after back-to-back defeats to South Korean club Daegu FC and Japanese outfit Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

The Victory have qualified for the knock-out stages just once in six previous attempts in Asia’s elite club competition.

“As much as we’ve tried to improve, the other clubs continue to improve too, there’s no doubt about it,” Jacobs told SEN’s Whateley.

“Reflecting on the Hiroshima trip with Kevin (Muscat), he was clear that Hiroshima didn’t play their absolute benchmark J-League team.

“They still had players that came off the bench late in the game; their captain came off the bench late in the game, their starting foreign player didn’t play in the game.

“Their squads are deeper, their roster spend is much bigger than ours and it is difficult to compete.

“That said, we have done everything we can to build a roster that we felt could be competitive – that includes an Asian player as a plus one – so we’ve got four foreigners for the first time in the competition.”

The reigning A-League champions travel to China to face Guangzhou Evergrande on April 10 as they look to keep their Asian Champions League campaign alive.

Guangzhou are coached by Italian World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro.

Listen to Trent Jacobs’ chat on SEN’s Whateley with Gerard Whateley in the player below