Perth defender Josh Mitchell says the Glory won’t be focussing any extra attention on Melbourne Heart danger man Eli Babalj when the two sides clash on Saturday night at nib Stadium.
Perth defender Josh Mitchell says the Glory won’t be focussing any extra attention on Melbourne Heart danger man Eli Babalj when the two sides clash on Saturday night at nib Stadium.
A former Glory National Youth League player, Babalj only has two goals to his name this season, but the towering 19-year-old is a key element in Heart coach John van ‘t Schip’s team.
This is because Babalj is Heart’s go-to man, taking possession from the middle before laying the ball off to the side’s running strikers like Alex Terra, Maycon and Mate Dugandzic.
Having played a role in both his side’s goals in their upset 2-1 victory over Brisbane Roar last week, Babalj is in some quality form, although Glory defender Mitchell says his side needs to keep an eye on all Heart’s forwards, not just one.
“He’s a big strong, young lad,” said Mitchell.
“He’s only 19 I think and he’s doing well. He scored a nice goal (against Brisbane) but I mean, he’s just another player, we’ll take him on his merits and try and make it as hard as we can for him.”
Mitchell has good reason to be wary of all Heart’s attacking threats after seeing the unlikely figure of Wellington defender Ben Sigmund pop up in the 85th minute last week to nod home the winner in a 1-0 result at Westpac Stadium last Saturday.
That loss has seen Glory drop to sixth on the Hyundai A-League table ahead of a tough schedule over the Christmas period where they play Heart (home), Central Coast (home), Newcastle (away) and Brisbane Roar (home) by January 4.
Glory goalkeeper Danny Vukovic was particularly disappointed Sigmund scored from a corner, but the 26-year-old believed that if Perth gets their positioning right at set pieces, then much of their defensive issues would be solved.
“It’s just a little lapse in concentration,” Vukovic said.
“(But) I’m very confident in our defence.”
“I think out of all the goalkeepers in the league, I’ve got the least saves and that’s got to do with the defenders in front of me.”
“Unfortunately we haven’t won every game but the games that we’ve dominated I haven’t had to make saves so I’m very confident in my defenders.”
“We know that if we keep clean sheets, we’ve got the players up front to score goals.”
“It’s our first time to have two home games in a row,” Vukovic added referring to Saturday’s clash with Heart and the December 23 game against Central Coast.
“So we’re looking to get six points from six and try to get back up to the front half of the table.”
“We don’t want to get too far behind the front couple of teams and we’re not that far behind at the moment, so a couple of positive results in the next couple of game, we’ll be right up there.”
