The Wellington Phoenix believe “one positive result will change the season” as they endeavour to bounce back from their disappointing derby defeat.
The Phoenix play host to Melbourne City on Friday night, six days after the 6-1 loss at Auckland FC.
Head coach Giancarlo Italiano says the whole playing group was gutted but they have to turn their attentions to City.
“It’s probably more about making sure that there’s not an overreaction, because a lot of these things can become very emotional,” Italiano told media before training on Thursday.
“Everyone’s upset, fans – so they should be, everyone that’s involved with the club, but I try to focus out and look at the bigger picture.
“If I felt as though there was a lack of will or trying on the players’ part I would have been absolutely on top of them, but the players know.
“This week’s more about steadying the ship, refocusing on all of the good things that we’ve been doing throughout the season and make sure the focus is on City and nothing else.”
Italiano concedes he’s “the worst loser” but he and the playing group are now “fine”.
“Even when I lose friendly matches in pre-season it bites me.
“I don’t process things until the week, so I get more angry as the week goes on even when we’re winning. There are a lot of things that I just process later.
“[But] the boys are in a good mood. We’ve had a couple of chats as a collective, more about a refocus.
“There’s a belief in the group that one positive result will change the season.
“When you go through a bit of a form slump [and] confidence is low sometimes it’s easy to forget how good a team you are.
“That’s more about the group galvanising themselves, working hard and making sure they stick to their principles and so on.”
The Nix believe it will “take just one moment” to turn their season around and they hope their fortunes start changing.
“That game against Auckland there were so many talking points that could have turned the game very quickly, and it didn’t.
“It seems to be a running theme over the last three or four weeks that everything is kind of going against us, but one of those moments change and then our season changes as well.”
And Giancarlo Italiano and the team still believe they can make the top six, despite entering the round nine points behind sixth-placed City.
“Yes 100%. We’re on 19 points. We need seven wins.
“There are nine games left so we can win seven. We could win all our games.”
Italiano has a near full-strength squad to pick from but is having to manage minutes for a few key players.
Club captain Alex Rufer is edging closer to returning to the starting XI having made two appearances off the bench after recovering from glandular fever.
“We’ll have to see how he recovers from training today. It’s been a process with him.
“I don’t want him to relapse. There’s a bit of a risk that if we don’t manage him well that he could go backwards, and for us he’s a vital player.
“I’d love him to start…but that’s a management issue.”
He is also treating Marco Rojas in a similar way. The experienced forward made his return off the bench last week after two months on the sidelines.
“Starting him would be high risk. I want to give him as much time as he can, but I also have to worry about his overall health.
“I think if we can build him to 30-35 and then the next week I can give him a little bit more and then hopefully after the international break even more time.”
And new signing Chico Geraldes is also having to be managed after playing the full 90 minutes of the derby, 45 more than he was supposed to play.
“You saw his quality. I didn’t want to take him off because he was still looking for the ball at 4-1, 5-1.
“He was still running and still working hard and is a really good player to have.
“It’s just a matter of now getting everyone working around him, finding combinations and cohesion with some other players and hopefully he can start providing Kosta [Barbarouses] and the other forwards some valuable service.”
Midfielder Paulo Retre is in line to return to the matchday squad after being a late withdrawal from last week’s derby with a calf injury, while fullback Sam Sutton is back from suspension.
The round 21 Isuzu UTE A-League match between the Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne City is scheduled to kick-off at Sky Stadium at 7:30pm Friday and will be broadcast free-to air on Sky Open in New Zealand and LIVE on Sky Sport 2 in New Zealand and on Paramount+ in Australia.
Most recent meeting: 3 January 2025 – Melbourne City 2 Wellington Phoenix 0
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 12W, City 20W & 8D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (two to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 3. Corban PIPER, 4. Scott WOOTTON, 6. Tim PAYNE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 12. Chico GERALDES, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 15. Isaac HUGHES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 21. Marco ROJAS, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER.
Unavailable: 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES (injured).
Melbourne City squad (two to be omitted): 2. Callum TALBOT, 7. Mathew LECKIE, 13. Nathaniel ATKINSON, 16. Aziz BEHICH (c), 17. Max CAPUTO, 19. Zane SCHREIBER, 22. Germán FERREYRA, 23. Marco TILIO, 26. Samuel SOUPRAYEN, 27. Kai TREWIN, 30. Andreas KUEN, 33. Patrick BEACH (gk), 36. Harry SHILLINGTON, 38. Harry POLITIDIS, 39. Emin DURAKOVIC, 40. James NIEUWENHUIZEN (GK), 41. Lawrence WONG, 46. Ben MAZZEO, 47. Kavian RAHMANI, 50. Mikey GHOSSAINI.
Unavailable: 6. Steven UGARKOVIC (injured), 8. Jimmy JEGGO (injured), 10. Yonatan COHEN (injured), 15. Andrew NABBOUT (injured), 34. Jayden NECOVSKI (injured), 35. Medin MEMETI (international duty).
Main image: Cam McIntosh/Photomac.
