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Posted: 2017-04-03 07:42:31

A bad day at the office? Just one of those things that sometimes happens to even the best teams?

Or was Melbourne Victory's abject capitulation to Wellington Phoenix on Sunday a warning of deeper problems for coach Kevin Muscat as he looks to right the Victory ship ahead of the finals  later this month.

Rarely have Victory been as bad as they were at AAMI Park on Sunday  when they crashed 3-0 at home to a Phoenix side that is desperately battling  to sneak into the finals on the back of a late-season surge.

As the old cliche goes, this was a game in which Victory was lucky to get nil..

Had the Kiwis repeated their 5-0 scoreline of a week earlier, when they smashed the Newcastle Jets in Wellington, it would not have been a complete surprise such was their domination.

In a salary-capped league, with restrictions on foreign signings and all manner of regulations governing the selection of players the reality is that there is not a huge gulf between the standards of most  teams' squads.

Yes, a handful of the big city clubs can afford to buy more expensive marquee players and sign better-known names, but the squad of premiers Sydney, for example, would not be two or three times as good as that of the struggling champions Adelaide or cellar-dwellers Central Coast.

What differentiates the successful A-League teams from the also rans is the impact their top players have, how well coached they are and, crucially, their motivation.

Victory has historically got plenty out of  their big names. Besart Berisha has been the league's most  damaging striker for years. Marco Rojas has been excellent since returning, as has James Troisi in midfield.

Muscat has had his knockers over some of his tactics and selections. All coaches have.  But he has got the results, leading Victory to a premiership/championship double in 2015, to the finals in 2014 and 2016 and taking the club to the Asian Champions League knock-out stage for the first time in 2016. He knows what he is doing.

On Sunday what seemed to be lacking was motivation.

There are, of course, extenuating circumstances for Victory in these last few weeks of the season 

They have occupied second spot for some time  and it has been clear for several rounds that they will not catch Sydney nor drop to third.

It is understandable that players might not feel quite as desperate as Wellington's would: but if they have taken their foot off the pedal it is a dangerous game to play with the finals so close. Three defeats in their last four games suggest they have switched off a little too much.

Sunday's result also  illustrates how close the competition really is if one of the teams comfortably settled in a finals berth can be taken apart by side that simply wanted it more on the day. 

Muscat was asked whether he should have guarded against such complacency by shaking up the squad, playing more youngsters and fringe players to keep the regulars sharp and focussed.

His response was that he did just that the previous week when, ravaged by international call ups and missing four first-team players, Victory fielded several youngsters and squad men in their 1-0 loss to Brisbane.

The kids and back-ups played well enough, but he went back to using his tried-and-tested stars on Sunday and they simply lacked  the sparkle they had shown earlier in the season.

Muscat has been keen to use the run in to set his team up for the finals, especially with a difficult away game  to come against Western Sydney Wanderers next week 

"We've just let 90 minutes pass us by, 90 minutes that we could have used to prepare ourselves for finals," he said after the game.

"I've all the confidence that our performance will improve dramatically on that. "I can't remember the last time I've come here and been so disappointed in a performance."

Muscat knows, as both a top player and a coach, that form cannot be turned on and off at whim.

"You can't get to the finals coasting and flick a switch and then you perform well. You might do it for 10 minutes, you might do it for a half. If you're lucky, you might do it for a game. But it won't last.

"That's the biggest challenge for me and the group. To make sure, we've had a good season, to not just coast our way to the finals and then expect to perform well in them."

He has plenty of work to do on the evidence of the past few weeks.

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