Melbourne Victory head coach Grant Brebener believes that the club, fans and staff need to stand as one starting with the upcoming game against Newcastle Jets.
The Melbourne-based outfit have had a struggling start to their A-League campaign after capitulating on four occasions in six games, and consequently sit at the bottom of the standings.
To make matters worse, the recent facial injury to attacking midfielder Marco Rojas in the 2-0 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers in Parramatta sees him out of action for the upcoming match against Newcastle.
But despite the difficult times, Brebner has striker Rudy Gestede back from injury as the Frenchman made a cameo appearance – albeit a disastrous one – against the Wanderers, while midfielder Callum McManaman has returned to full fitness following an injury sustained earlier in the campaign.
“We need to regroup. We need to come together as a squad, as staff, as a football club and as members and fans,” Brebner told the press.
“We have a great opportunity now with a number of home games coming up where we can actually do that.”
Melbourne Victory play host to a resurgent Newcastle Jets on Sunday, with home games against Wellington Phoenix and Western United scheduled to take place in the week ahead.
The Jets had a turbulent start to their campaign losing four on the trot, but have since come back to go on an unbeaten run of four matches.
Brebner added: “Like a lot of teams that are doing well at the moment Newcastle are running on confidence, they’re running on adrenaline and they’re working hard.
“That’s certainly something we need to get better at – comparing and showing that even though we’ve got a good team on paper, we’ve got to compete.
“If we compete with them, if we match them – which is the bare minimum – then our quality will shine through.”
