Western surge born from pre-season derbies
THE chance to play champions Melbourne City three times in the pre-season is paying dividends for a Western United team enjoying a revival under John Aloisi.
United barely rated a mention in predictions for the 2021-22 season, with all the talk – particularly in Victoria – being about cashed-up City’s bid for back-to-back titles and the likelihood of a Melbourne Victory resurgence under master coach Tony Popovic.
However, Aloisi’s men have defied the odds to be taking part in a top-of-the-table derby against City at AAMI Park on
Saturday. While City is in first place on goal difference, United has played two fewer games than the champions.
A United victory would give Aloisi’s team a clean sweep of wins over City this season.
It was a different story in the pre-season, with United failing to beat City in the three occasions they met.
However, losing twice to City and drawing once in those trials gave Aloisi a true indication of what United required to bounce back from a dismal finish to last season – including eight successive losses – under previous coach Mark Rudan.
“We just made sure that we were believing in what we were trying to do and where we were trying to head,” Aloisi said.
“What helped us was having those three pre-season friendlies against Melbourne City because we got to see where they were at, where we were at and what we needed to do to improve to get to a level where we can compete with Melbourne City.
“That really helped us a lot. We had that belief from the word go that we’d be very competitive, but we weren’t looking too far ahead, either.”
Aloisi said while Saturday’s derby wasn’t “season-defining”, it was “important” for United’s title campaign.