Top-six spot for Victory

Popovic to take his time in deciding future

Melbourne Victory coach Tony Popovic is in no rush to re-sign with the club despite the strong position it finds itself in heading into the A-League Men finals.

After their impressive 2-1 win over arch rivals Melbourne City on Saturday night, thirdplaced Victory sealed their spot in the top six and remain an outside chance of snatching a fourth Premier’s Plate.

They’re also in a strong position to at least guarantee themselves a home elimination final.

However, Popovic, who was reportedly linked with the

Western Sydney job recently, is content to wait until his team’s campaign finishes before worrying about where he’ll coach next season.

“I’m not concerned about my future,” Popovic said.

“My concern is this club, to put ourselves in a great position to try and win a title.

“I have great support here with the staff, with the board, with the fans. I’m enjoying it and let the focus be on just a great group of players.”

Popovic intimated that family considerations would be a key factor when deciding where he will coach in 2024-25.

“This result or last week doesn’t change anything for me,” he said.

“Obviously we’re more delighted that we’ve won the games recently but my personal situation, which is a lot more complex – not in terms of the football, but in terms of personally where my family is situated all over the world at the moment, so there are many things to consider.

“But definitely the results don’t change anything in terms of the process or plan that we have. We just want to keep winning … and keep pushing for that title.”

Victory have now gone four games unbeaten, including three wins, and Popovic hoped that was a sign that his side was hitting its straps at the right time of the campaign.

“We’ve shown a lot of these signs throughout the year, our expected goals, chances created, shots on goal, but we haven’t had consistent reward, hence why we had a lot of draws,” he said.

“But also the flip side to that is we haven’t fallen apart when it’s happened and we haven’t thrown away games.

“We’re becoming more consistent with the goalscoring. The chances, I feel, are getting clearer. The next step is that I anticipate, and hopefully, we can punish someone and put a game away a bit earlier.

“But it’s evolving, it’s improving and what a great game now to look forward to in Wellington.”

Victory’s clash with secondplaced Phoenix looms as a blockbuster and a win for Popovic’s team would not only keep their premiership ambitions alive, but would also strengthen their chances of a top-two finish.

But the Victory coach insisted the prospect of snatching the Premier’s Plate hasn’t been mentioned in team meetings.

Victory will have to close out their season without Ryan Teague, Nishan Velupillay and Jordi Valadon who are part of the Olyroos squad at the Under-23 Asian Cup which begins next week and doubles as a qualifier for this year’s Olympics. The top three teams will automatically book their place in Paris.