Mombaerts: City’s progress ahead of schedule

He’s only two weeks into pre-season training but Erick Mombaerts feels his Melbourne City rebuild is already tracking ahead of schedule.

The Frenchman signed a three-year deal to be City’s boss last month, charged with both bringing Hyundai A-League glory to the club as well as re-shaping their style of play.

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And ahead of his first match in charge against Victorian NPL outfit Oakleigh Cannons on Tuesday night, the former PSG boss says the players are buying into his vision.

“I’m really impressed about the attitude of the players and also they willing to help us to set up the City style of play,” 64-year-old Mombaerts told reporters on Monday.

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“It’s a very good feeling with the level of the team. It’s a good start for me.

“If I compare with my last experience in Japan [coaching Yokohama F. Marinos], I think we are in advance, physically but more tactically about the City style of play we want to set up.

“[The players] understand well. My expectation was the same [at Yokohama] but I think my expectation should be improved [at City].”

Mombaerts revealed the clash against Oakleigh would comprise of 40-minute thirds at Jack Edwards Reserve.


With City’s FFA Cup 2019 Round of 32 clash against Campbelltown City on July 31, he plans to use his strongest line-up for around 80 minutes against the Cannons.

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“We have worked a lot about some game principles, more offensively than defensively so I want to see what is the level of understanding about what we have set up,” Mombaerts said about his expectation in Tuesday night’s match.

“It’s about the offensive game principles, about positioning, about a lot of new things and they now have to put them on the field against an opponent.

“It’s different when we play between us [in training], now we have to organise our City style of play against an opponent.”

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This article was originally published on the Hyundai A-League website.
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