Prior to the victory over Wellington, Melbourne City striker, Jamie Maclaren, last scored in a 3-2 win over Sydney FC on the 25th of February. Since then, he has been struggling for form whilst playing with a broken toe.
Melbourne City have failed to look like their dominant selves that we saw at the beginning of the season. Whilst suffering the broken toe, Melbourne City were also without star winger and Socceroo Mathew Leckie, and as a result, goals were hard to come by for the league leaders.
But with Maclaren picking up a brace and Marco Tilio adding two handy goals to the mix, it looks like Melbourne City are starting to show signs of progress as finals loom.
Melbourne City head coach Rado Vidosic said that Maclaren was fully able to go 100% in training for the first time in a long time.
“Yesterday was the first time in many, many, many weeks that he did a shooting session after the training. He has obviously been in a lot of pain with his broken toe, then he had a little bit of a problem with his groin,” said Vidosic.
“So he has not been himself, as sharp and as predatorial as he was in the past.
“I think today as I said yesterday was the first time that he felt really, really well, and you could see that today he was outstanding.
His movement was excellent, and his contribution in build-ups was very, very good. But his finishing was class.”
Maclaren is now three goals away from becoming the all-time highest ever scorer in A-League history. Maclaren will be hoping to break that record as soon as possible so he doesn’t have to have it hanging over his head during the finals.
On the eve of the Wellington fixture, Melbourne City announced that Leckie and Richard van der Venne were still a few weeks away, which would be perfect timing to bring them back into the team as finals get underway.
Leckie and van der Venne have been crucial parts of Melbourne City’s attack this season, with van der Venne having a combined ten goals and assists, and Leckie adding nine of his own.
If Melbourne City win their next game against the Central Coast Mariners they will officially wrap up their third consecutive premiership and will then look ahead to push for their second double trophy season as they aim to make up for last season’s grand final loss.
Feature Image Credit: Melbourne City FC
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