With six rounds completed in this A-League season, things do not seem to be going as smoothly as we thought they would. All the glitz and glamour of the arrival of Harry Kewell, and pre season hype about our embarrassment of riches up front hasn’t exactly come to fruition.

The report card isn’t exactly glowing for anyone really, when you only have one win to your name you have to have a close look at how things are running and see where you can improve. But I will say that I have been impressed with our defensive game. While we have not been lighting up the scoresheet, we have made it extremely hard for opposition to score against us. This is mostly down to our recent signing in Ante Covic in goals, who has been (besides that red card against Bris Vegas) probably our best and most consistent performer. I also like the shifts that Foschini, Vargas and Leijer have put in, while I have changed my opinions numerous times about Fabio. Currently I rate him highly after his fabulous performance against Brisbane in that epic game at Etihad.

It isn’t all doom and gloom though for Melbourne Victory, and while you could possibly argue that a few of those draws could have easily been losses, the team does have a type of resolve, almost an aura about itself that is promising. But we do need to see the team take the next step and convert some of those draws into victories (pun intended)!

One of the telling factors in this Durakovic era is the constant chopping and changing of the starting XI, whether that is personnel or formations, the side lacks any real consistency. And while we have heard time and time again that “the boys have been working extremely hard at training” we have failed to really see this on match day. It is almost as if the team walk out scared to lose, rather than wanting to win.

Because of the size, aura, crowd and success of our club; we will always have teams that will push that little harder to beat us. It’s part and parcel with being such a big club. Other teams almost welcome the challenge of travelling to Melbourne and playing in front of crowd numbers that they would only dream about back home in their own stadiums. I am not questioning the determination and mindset of our boys, but it may be something they have to think about before matches, and almost attack each match with a ‘cup final’ attitude.

What we have seen of late is the return to form of Archie Thompson. While the records will show he only has three goals to his name, we all know he was “10 metres” onside in that game against Wellington. But it was the quality of the goals against Brisbane that really stood out for me. I have watched them on replay over and over again and they still never get boring. The classy chip for the first, and then the audacity to ‘sell candy’ not once, but twice before slotting home his second is something you do not see every day in the A-League. While we may have the new ‘big ticket’ marquee in Kewell, Archie has not wasted any time reminding the public he is still around.

I just hope that come this Sunday, all the fans come out in support of our club against the Glory as this may already be the ‘make-or-break’ time of our season. While I may have sounded a little doom-and-gloom in this article, I have only pointed out my opinion on some of the hurdles we have encountered. You can guarantee that I will be there come rain, hail or shine this weekend cheering on the boys because you can never write off Melbourne Victory!