JVS calls for regular A-League timeslots

City have two Thursday night games this season beginning tomorrow night against Newcastle Jets and in late January at home to Central Coast.

As witnessed in different sports in Australia, weeknight timeslots (Thursday and Monday) have been tested while mid-week FFA Cup and AFC Asian Champions League (ACL) games have failed to attract big numbers.

Van’t Schip said having a sole night for each A-League club made sense for drawing crowds.

“I’d like to play games where if you have one set date for a team, I think that’s clear for everyone,” van’t Schip said.

“Let’s say Saturday evening, everybody knows we’re playing then and that’s for every club, let’s say those clubs have Sunday afternoon or Friday evening then it gives the fans clarity of when their home team is playing.

“Now we’ve been playing on a Thursday, a Friday, a Saturday, a Sunday… I don’t think it really helps in giving continuity to getting crowds coming every time to support.”

Van’t Schip also wanted flexibility in the fixtures, stating Champions League and FFA Cup games are examples of what would be the exception to the rule.

“I think everybody knows there’s always exceptions when you have a cup game before or after the very short turnaround three or four days.

“Saying ‘OK, there’s a cup game on a Wednesday, instead of Saturday evening when you normally play that game on Friday evening’ to have a little bit of a break.

“Those things they happen, then the schedule is easy to change, here it’s a bit difficult because it’s already locked in for the whole season.”

Van’t Schip joked “he was just the football coach” and was looking to make amends after City’s 1-0 loss to Brisbane Roar away last Friday night.

City have played two home games this season – a 3-2 loss to Perth Glory and a 2-1 win over Adelaide United sitting third on the table with nine points.

Midfielder Luke Brattan is a key absentee on duty with the Socceroos while Nicolas Colazo is still unavailable due to the head injury.

Van’t Schip said Tim Cahill “pulled up well” after 90 minutes against Roar last week adding his team will be strengthened by the return of experienced right-back Ivan Franjic.

The only win Newcastle have recorded this season was a 4-0 smashing of Brisbane.

The Dutchman said his troops needed to be more diligent in hurting its opponents.

“You have to try and break the lines of course and that’s something you can do in different ways. Do it with earlier crosses and go for the second ball, do it with forward runs, do it with moving the ball quicker,” he said.

“All those things we have to do better, so maybe get the ball quicker to our wingers and if they can’t make the one-on-one then make an overload with the fullback who goes around and those are things you can work on and mix-up.

“If we have a good combination and balance of that without losing of course the defensive mindset of when we’re attacking to make sure we’re in good positions we can have more variations in how to break the opponent when they defend.

“That’s up to us and I think it’s more difficult for the team that attacks of course and being creative than a team that just defends and so that’s why it’s a challenge and it’s good and we’ll be working at that, the boys are enjoying it, we feel also we’re getting better and better.”

Van’t Schip was wary of Brisbane coach John Aloisi and his counter-attacking tactics in the lead-up to the Roar game and City were unable to create any clear-cut chances despite maintaining the majority of the possession.

The mentor said he would encourage long distance shooting adding he expected the Jets to play a similar brand to Roar.

“We see it as a next step and challenge to improve that during the season, get that better,” Van’t Schip said.

“In the end we’re able to play against a team who defends more or that’s going to press us high and those are things we have to be looking at and work on.”