Aloisi wants more from sharp shooters

Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi says his team must develop a ‘killer instinct’ in front of goal as they look to arrest a poor away record.

Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi says his team must develop a ‘killer instinct’ in front of goal as they look to arrest a poor away record.

Heart head to Dunedin on Sunday to take on Wellington Phoenix hoping to break a six-match losing streak away from AAMI Park with an A-League finals berth still up for grabs for both teams.

Disregarding a win at Etihad Stadium in the opening Melbourne derby of the season, Heart have not claimed victory in an away match in this A-League campaign and Aloisi wants his players to focus on converting their goal-scoring opportunities.

“You want to punish the opposition and develop that killer instinct whenever you get a chance because if you create two or three great chances on the road that’s a lot,” Aloisi said on Wednesday.

“So out of the three, you should probably be putting away two.”

The Phoenix will host Heart at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium on Sunday in what will be caretaker manager Chris Greenacre’s second game in charge after former head coach Ricki Herbert quit on Tuesday.

Greenacre will lead Wellington against Newcastle Jets on Wednesday night in a rescheduled match and Aloisi is happy he will get one opportunity to watch the Phoenix play under their former assistant coach, although Heart’s manager does not expect too many changes.

“It’s a positive for us because, you know, we had it against Sydney FC when Frank Farina first took charge, we didn’t really know the way they were going to play … so when a new coach comes in you go into a game a bit unaware of what they could do but now that they’re going to play Newcastle, if they do make any changes, we can adjust,” Aloisi said.

Aloisi denied there were any issues with Heart captain Fred after the Brazilian veteran started on the bench in the past two games, having returned from a stint out with injury.

“Fred’s good, he was fit last week and I thought he did well last week when he came on and he’s looking in good shape and good spirits,” Aloisi said.