Victory must take responsibility: Muscat
Nov 23, 2017 - 4:35 PM Kevin Muscat has demanded Melbourne Victory take responsibility for their "self-inflicted" 4-1 A-League hiding in Newcastle and fix their mental approach to games.Muscat admitted 10-man Victory were second best against the Jets on Thursday, in what is becoming the story of the heavyweight club's season bar last Sunday's breakthrough 2-0 win in Perth.
It comes as Mark Milligan faces a nervous wait for the match review panel after being sent off for attempting to headbutt Daniel Georgievski before grabbing his former Victory teammate by the throat.
"Such a disappointing night," Muscat said.
"We started really well, (Kosta Barbarouses) scored a really good goal, and then obviously after that it was nowhere near good enough.
"We've got to take responsibility because tonight was compounded by ourselves.
"We didn't really give ourselves a chance after being so bright and so sharp early on.
"We were nowhere near good enough and it was self-inflicted."
Muscat said the four-day turnaround and travel from Perth had not helped Victory's cause, but was loath to use it as an excuse.
Going down to 10 men after 28 minutes also gave his team a "huge mountain to climb".
Muscat said he had only seen the Milligan incident as it happened and had not yet spoken to his player to hear his explanation.
"From where I was the referee was pretty quick to pull his card out so whatever he was seeing he was sure of," he said.
Compounding Milligan's suspension for next Sunday's trip to Wellington is the injury to Rhys Williams, with both coming just as Victory, ravaged by the international windows, finally regained a near-full compliment.
Muscat said Williams's withdrawal for an issue "higher up near his glute" was precautionary, but the injury-prone defender will still be under a cloud despite the 10-day turnaround.
As Victory contemplate sliding out of the top six before the round's end, he said the central focus must be mental.
"It's got to be between the ears because physically you see, even with 10 men after a shorter turnaround and being on the other side of the country, the work rate and effort was there," Muscat said.
"But mentally we've got to make sure we give ourselves a chance."
Source: AAP
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