JOYCE SLEEPING WELL
City coach denies he’s under pressure
FOOTBALL: Defiant Melbourne City coach Warren Joyce has declared he is under no more pressure than he was on his first day at the A-League club 18 months ago.
A horror stretch of one win in seven games leaves City in fifth, eight points adrift of the top three, and has prompted internal talks about the future of Joyce, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
But on the eve of the third and final Melbourne derby of the season, at Marvel Stadium tonight, Joyce was comfortable with his position.
“There’s no more pressure than the first day I arrived in the room,’’ he said yesterday. “No I didn’t (have talks with the club about his future).
“If you put standards in place and you’re consistent with your decisions, you’re not upsetting people.
“If you know the truth yourself on matters, you’re comfortable living with it, you can go to sleep at night, you can put your head on the pillow, you’re not looking at narratives or excuses or how things are portrayed.
“You’re just looking for consistency in your decisions and if you win, or you don’t win or you fail, at least you can live with yourself.”
Joyce said City had been very unlucky in recent times.
“We looked at the fixtures early December and thought it was going to be a tough time,” he said.
“The players have done exceptionally well during the run of games where we had a lot of games fast and furious.
“If you analyse the games individually and analyse performances and opportunities to win the game, we could have a helluva lot more points than we do.
“Credit for the effort of the players in that time.
“There’s not been a string of poor performances – there’s certainly winnable games and crucial times where the turning points and we’ve got to move on from that. Great game tomorrow to be involved in (against Melbourne Victory).”
While one half of Melbourne’s A-League divide sweats on a possibly tide-turning derby result, it’s business as usual for the champions.
Down the road at Victory there’s a calmness that comes from strong performances and the return of key players.
Coach Kevin Muscat all but guaranteed Keisuke Honda’s first start in two months after a solid block of training and two substitute appearances for the Japanese star.
“We’ve managed to get some good minutes into him in the last few weeks. It’s pretty likely that he’ll start,” Muscat said yesterday.
“He’s at the point where he feels he can contribute more than he has been in terms of minutes.”
There’s also a growing confidence Ola Toivonen, missing for the past three weeks after copping a knock at training, could appear from the bench.
“Everybody is available bar Carl Valeri, who is very close. He’s at the back end of his rehab,” Muscat said.
“We’ve got a healthy list to chose from.
“Training has been a breath of fresh air. The intensity lifts with competition for places.”