Kevin Muscat talks tactics with Ange Postecoglou on the Victory bench. Source: HeraldSun
IT HAS been a pretty unusual week.
Generally when coaches are to leave the club has a fair idea that it's going to happen because it's usually not for a good reason, whereas Ange has gone for positive reasons.
Normally the administration is able to put some processes in place to make sure that when a coach is moved on there is someone ready to step in to the role.
But in this sense, with Ange leaving to coach the Socceroos, it's been a bit of a unique situation because it all happened so quickly.
It was only really a week and a half after Holger Osieck got sacked that Ange was appointed so the club was a little bit unprepared for what was about to come and how quickly it all came about.
In one way it's been good that the club did their due diligence before they appointed anyone as coach, but the quicker that Musky was announced as coach was always going to be better for the players.
All times EDT.
- A-LEAGUE
- Friday: Western Sydney Wanderers v Adelaide, 7.30pm, Fox Sports 1 HD
- Saturday: Perth v Sydney FC, 5.30pm; Newcastle v Central Coast, 7.30pm; Fox Sports 1 HD
- Sunday: Brisbane v Melbourne Heart, 5pm, Fox Sports 1 HD
- Monday: Melbourne Victory v Wellington, 7.30pm, Fox Sports 1 HD
Kick Off, 6.30pm (EDT) Friday: Patrick Zwaanswijk joins Tara and Harps to preview the round.
Shootout, 7.05pm (EDT) Sunday: William Gallas gives his first television interview since signing with Perth Glory; Bruce Djite and Michael Bridges join Adam and Boz in the studio, and there will be a cross to the Mirror's Darren Lewis in England.
Saturday morning
- Barcelona v Espanyol, 6.55am, Fox Sports 2 HD
Saturday night/Sunday morning
- Chelsea v Newcastle, 11.35pm, Fox Sports 1 HD
- Fulham v Manchester United, 1.50am, Fox Sports 1 HD
- Viewers' Choice: West Bromwich Albion v Crystal Palace; West Ham v Aston Villa, Stoke City v Southampton, Manchester City v Norwich
- Hull v Sunderland, 1.50am, Fox Sports News
- Arsenal v Liverpool, 4.25am, Fox Sports 1HD
- Rayo Vallecano v Real Madrid, 5.55am, Fox Sports 3 HD
Sunday night/Monday morning
- Tottenham v Everton, 12.25am, Fox Sports 1 HD
- Cardiff v Swansea, 2.50am, Fox Sports 1 HD
The guys have been outstanding through the whole process. They all understand that it's a tough period at the moment - for Musky as well because it's been a little bit up in the air for him before it was all confirmed.
But training, as it was last week, has been very good, the boys have kept the two situations very separate.
Earlier in the week it was pretty much business as normal anyway because generally the beginning of the week had been under the guidance of Musky and Darren Davies anyway - Ange was always about, but it was always towards the back end of the week that he would really step in and get things prepared.
The real test will come a day or two out from the game against Wellington on Monday.
We're happy for Ange.
It's great for him and it's as much a reward for what he's done here so we all feel a part of it.
What he did at Brisbane obviously played a big part as well, but for our coach to be wanted by the national team I think is a good thing for the club and the people here - players included.
He's taught us a lot in the last year and a half and it's not just the players who have taken a lot from him but the coaching staff as well. They've worked extremely hard to learn the system to be able to pass it on to us and if they didn't believe in it then we wouldn't be where we are today.
Ange, even though he's moved on, has left a lot of good things behind for us to be able to continue to build.
It's been an unusual week in other ways too when you consider that we're in the middle of a 10-day break between our game against Brisbane last Friday night and the match against the Phoenix on Monday.
This is the biggest turnaround we'll have all year, but with the change of coach it's been very timely.
We were able to do our goodbyes with Ange after the Roar game and have the weekend to clear our minds to be able to come in on Monday fully focused and ready for the next chapter here at Victory.
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31 Oct, 2013
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Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/mark-milligan-good-to-get-life-back-to-normal-under-coach-kevin-muscat-after-unusual-week/story-e6frfkp9-1226750223256?from=public_rss
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