Newly-appointed Melbourne City coach Erick Mombaerts intends to bring a more attacking and creative style of play to the A-League club within weeks rather than years.
Attacking flair and creativity will be the keys for new Melbourne City coach Erick Mombaerts, who has declared his intent to transform the A-League club's identity.
The experienced French mentor has been tasked with filling the vacancy left by Englishman Warren Joyce's departure.
Joyce led City to the finals in his two seasons at the helm, but his often pragmatic style led to a high player turnover, including a falling out with star striker Bruno Fornaroli that led to the Uruguayan's eventual exit.
Mombaerts linked up with his players for the first time on Monday and said he wanted to implement a more attacking playing style – and he's not looking to implement it in the long-term either.
"Immediately please. Immediately," he insisted. "Not after many years.
"I want change. I want to change a lot of things, maybe in a few months. But it's also the best way for us to win.
"The second goal is also to increase and improve our results. We want to win with this style. It is our priority.
"My job is to convince the players that they have to work maybe more, but maybe better, and make many efforts to set up and produce our style of play.
"Not physical effort but mental effort but also tactical effort. That for me is not the challenge - it is the job. I want to do this."
The former Toulouse boss said City had better facilities in Melbourne than he had in France.
"They don't have facilities like we have we have here in Melbourne City," he revealed. "We are very lucky to have all this facility."
He was groomed in the City Football Group's philosophy during his time with sister club Yokohama Marinos in Japan - now home to Ange Postecoglou.
"In the City Group, we think that the best quality for a player is tactical decision making," he said. "To play in well-timed movement is the most difficult.
"I'm very confident in the motivation of our players to set up this difficult style of play. We want to win with this style."
The 64-year-old Mombaerts' list of career achievements includes stints in charge of France's under-18s and under-21s, where he coached 2018 World Cup winners Raphael Varane and Antoine Griezmann.
While leading City to their first A-League title is an obvious goal, Mombaerts has set his sights on transforming the organisation starting at academy level.
"Objectively, I think the young players need to improve their level, first of all their tactical level," he said.
"That is the most difficult and maybe it is in this way that the young Australian players need to improve their level.
"To reach a high level, the player needs to have good tactical decision-making under pressure. They need to develop their capacity to have good emotional control.
"That's why they need to develop this kind of quality very early and also they need to have a good program to develop this.
"We want to score goals, we want to create opportunities, and to create opportunities, we need to have creative players."
Related Articles

Leckie seals new marquee deal as Good, Maclaren head to Asia
.jpeg&h=172&w=306&c=1&s=1)
Victory, City forced to settle for goalless ALM draw
