After what was a huge win against Adelaide last weekend, fans hope this may spark some momentum as we start to head into the back half of the season alongside some promising players returning to action.
Here are the biggest talking points heading into our clash with Perth Glory away from home later tonight:
It’s all about confidence
It would be very rude of me not to acknowledge the elephant in the room; our star boy Marco Tilio is finally returning home after an unfortunate yet, for some, predictable failure during his time with Celtic. Tilio will rejoin the City Blue once the Socceroos’ Asian Cup campaign is over.
If you thought that was the only thing we were going to hear this week. Mat Leckie is back in the squad tonight after a period full of injury and uncertainty. I’m drooling at the possibility of seeing J-Mac, Leckie, Nabbout and Tilio back together again.
All this excitement and promise must lead to confidence within the playing group knowing that the service Leckie provides going forward is back and is hopefully here to stay. Tonight’s game is a good opportunity to display that confidence due to Perth’s form which, while it has been exciting to watch, hasn’t seen results go their way. Our City boys can’t lack confidence in the 90 minutes or else it could prove a fatal error and fans begging the question yet again: ‘How do we get out of this slump that never seems to end?’
The Leckie Effect
More on Leckie as he is the biggest protagonist in the lead-up to this fixture over the past few days. He has been sorely missed from the matchday squad not only for his creativity but his experience. It’s been a breath of fresh air to see Ben Mazzeo come into the squad and to see him mould into his own unique professional footballer but Leckie’s vision and sheer stature within the playing group has stood out as a feature that’s needed to win games. Leckie’s run of injuries has been an unlucky one after recovering from a knee injury sustained in international duty to then come back and cop a hamstring strain straight after would’ve been a huge blow to not only the playing group but to Leckie himself. You can tell he is one of those footballers that just itches to get onto the field and let the football do the talking and when that’s taken away from you, looking from afar may be the toughest part about sustaining an injury.
Nonetheless, hopefully we will see Leckie on the park tonight whether it be for 90 minutes or 10.
Individual battles in defence
To be able to handle Perth’s brand of football, which has shaped into a very entertaining style under Alen Stajcic, is going to be one of the toughest challenges we will have to face this season as three points at any given point moving forward is a big result.
Despite an underwhelming season so far from both Callum Talbot and Scott Galloway, the pair will need to be solid in defence after Aziz Behich was announced to be headed to Al-Nassr on loan til the end of the season. Competition for their spots is almost nearly eliminated which means they really to step up because if I’m completely honest it really worries me not having Behich in defence for the rest of the season. The battle between former City cult figure Stef Colakovski and our full-backs is one I’ll be keeping a close eye on for the duration of the game.
For me City take the 3 points back to Melbourne with a 4-1 win
