City played their third game in seven days defeating Adelaide United 2-1 at AAMI Park on Friday night, rising to second on the table.

The Dutchman made four changes to the team which defeated crosstown rival Melbourne Victory 2-0 in the FFA Cup semi-final on Tuesday.

Michael Jakobsen was rested due to soreness and similarly with Tim Cahill who watched from the stands with an Achilles problem.

Van’t Schip expects the squad to be fit next Friday night when they fly to Suncorp Stadium to take on Brisbane Roar and believes City's performance against United was an indication of flexibility within his squad.

“It was a good sign we showed, we are a squad and not only Tim,” van’t Schip said.

“We have players who can step in, It’s not always players drop because they didn’t perform well, sometimes you want freshness, or you think you’re playing a bit different, we need that kind of player.

“It worked, I can talk here now because if it didn’t work you’d get the other side of the story, so we had to do it because Tim, Jakobsen didn’t really pull up well after the game against Victory. This game arrived quickly, but hopefully they’ll be okay next week.”

Van’t Schip also said the plan heading into the game was to build momentum and elected to play with the back four with Osama Malik and Conor Chapman given the absence of Jakobsen.

“The stress and the fatigue was of course there, but the mindset was very strong and that’s what we said from the start,” he said.

“We have to go full again and not go into the game by saying ‘we played two games and we’ll approach this in a different way’, we approached it in the way we did on Tuesday and I think we played some very good football in the first 30 minutes.

“We lost our momentum a little bit in the game and Adelaide came into the game as well. Overall I think the boys, you couldn’t see they were having a third game in seven days, I think they were outstanding, work rate, attitude and pressing. So a big compliment for the whole team.”

The City boss also said Dean Bouzanis who was formerly second-choice goalkeeper would now be in favour over Thomas Sorensen.

The Dane was sent off in the opening match of the season against Wellington Phoenix which required Bouzanis to take field and impressed in the following game against Victory to earn a regular spot.

“He did well in the derby, he deserved an opportunity and had a very good preseason,” van’t Schip said.

“The competition was on with Thomas, his distance between him and Thomas was not there, they’re two different type of goalkeepers.

“He got the opportunity and he deserved in our opinion to continue, but as I said like every player and also Dean he has to keep on focused and keep on working hard, make sure he stays number one.”