You know when you were a kid or if you are a politician you often live by the adages of "If I can't see it, it can't see me" or "If I didn't see it, therefore it didn't happen". As a Melbourne Victory supporter that's the way I would have liked to treat their current ACL campaign this year but unfortunately I am a sucker for my team and I ended up watching four and a half of the five games that so far have comprised our now defunct effort.

It was a campaign that was basically over before it started, then stuttered briefly into life and then was finally put out of its misery a game early after one of the tamest home performances that I ever witnessed. Therefore I thought it was an opportune time to pick over the still warm carcass and have a look as to where it all went wrong along, highlight some positives and note where we will need to improve for next year's campaign.

It is often best to get bad things out of the way first, so a look at where it all went wrong is where I'll begin. In a group consisting of the runners-up of both the K-League and the J-League and the champions of China it was always going to be a tough task to get out of the group but when you combine that with Melbourne's arduous start to the campaign that task became all the more harder.

Whilst not the sole reason for Melbourne's disappointing effort you cannot really discount its impact on some of those earlier performances. Having to front up on two occasions within 72 hours of finals football, with one of those being away from home, was hardly the ideal preparation.

This is definitely an area that the FFA (because we all know that the AFC won't budge) needs to look at especially taking into account the limited squads of A-League teams. Solutions include scrapping the finals altogether or moving them to a later date. Although based on Ben Buckley's recent comments we can't really expect any changes anytime soon.

As I alluded to earlier, the scheduling wasn't the sole reason for Melbourne's disappointing effort and when you only score one goal in five matches there is obviously other factors at play, one of them being injuries to key personnel, namely those to Matthew Kemp and Archie Thompson. Along with this, Robbie Kruse was often playing with injury and was well below his best.

These things aside, one must also question some of the team selection policies of Ernie Merrick. Chief amongst these was the constant selection of Nick Ward who has become the new boo-boy of Melbourne Victory fans. Ward, who has been sadly out of form for the best part of the A-League season somehow managed to keep players of ilk of Marvin Angulo and Mate Dugandzic out of the starting XI. My preference would have been to see Angulo make more starts than the youngster as he offers a bit more at this stage of his career.

Whilst his signing caused much controversy, Nik Mrdja's limited impact during the ACL campaign really brings into question as to why he was signed in the first place. He was not well-suited to Melbourne's style of play and looked sadly out of his depth at ACL level and Merrick could have better off signing someone more suitable. His signing will definitely not go down as one of Merrick's best.

Whilst there were many negatives to talk about there were also a few positives with the form of Mitchell Langerak being key amongst them. Of particular note were his efforts against Kawasaki Frontale, which in small part ensured that Melbourne would walk away with its first points of the campaign. Whilst his contribution wasn't as noticeable as that of Langerak, an honourable mention must go to Matthew Foschini who has more than held his own at right back and here's hoping he continues that form into next season as we look to cover the loss of Matthew Kemp for most of it.

As we look forward to next season and another ACL campaign, there are a numbers of key areas that Ernie Merrick & Co. will need to remedy in order for Melbourne to maintain their high standards of recent seasons. With the absence of Archie Thompson for most of next season it's paramount that at least two strikers are signed as Kruse, who is not a natural striker, cannot alone shoulder the task.

You would expect that as Kevin Muscat will hang up his studs sooner or later, central defensive cover is another area in need of bolstering. Leijer, who has been immense since his return, has been a rock but Vargas was inconsistent to say the least and Muscat was often exposed for pace, especially in our ACL matches.

Whilst our second ACL campaign has been nothing short of disastrous, hopefully the lessons learnt will put us in good stead for next year's attempt - because quite frankly I'm sick of the ridicule from opposition fans.