Finkler claims Victory's X-factor separates it from the rest

The key at Melbourne Victory as it tries to find the competitive edge that can give you a championship is improvisation. How do we know? Gui Finkler, one of the hottest players in the A-League, said so.

Gui Finkler aims to keep opponents on their toes (Getty) Source: Getty Images

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Some might call it spontaneity but they all get it. The surprise element - that bit of sudden brilliance the opposition isn't expecting - and which could win a match.

Everyone knows Victory has a host of brilliant attacking players, including Besart Berisha, Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Kosta Barbarouses, Archie Thompson and Finkler, who can all do incredible things with the ball at their feet.

But the opposition is also as well prepared as it can be for the challenge of trying to stop them, so the answer, Finkler said, is to try to keep coming up with something different to shock them - and hopefully manufacture a goal.

Finkler couldn't have followed the rule any more closely than he did against Central Coast Mariners last weekend, when twice he received the ball in a position from which many other players would have tried to set up a teammate, but instead he took it upon himself to have a shot.

And each time the ball went in, Finkler opening his body up and brilliantly curling it around goalkeeper Liam Reddy. The result was a 2-1 win to Victory.

The Mariners looked like they weren't expecting Finkler to be so daring as to try his luck with the type of shot he was going to have, to get exactly right for it to be a chance of going in.

Finkler told The World Game every Victory player was on the same page when it came to knowing the team had to keep changing things up in a bid to surprise its opponents and get a step ahead of them going into the finals.

And, he added, it could be any one of a host of players who does it in Sunday's game against Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium - if Victory is on its game.

"You know the opposition is going to put a lot of pressure on you with their defence and you have to manage that pressure," Finkler said.

"They've been watching our games, as we do them, and we have to change every game, try to bring something new so that we can improvise in the game.

"That's what football is about, because everyone knows how we play and we know how they play, so it's good sometimes to surprise them.

"We have to be able to do that. We have to improvise sometimes just to surprise them. That can lead to one player deciding the game for us and we have a number of players who can do that."

TWG asked Finkler if that was something Victory could actively practice at training or whether it ultimately came down to a combination of belief and awareness, backed by the courage to pull the trigger at the risk of failure  as well as the possibility you might come out looking like a genius.

He replied: "I think it's very clear we have to keep our structure as much as we can, but at the same time we have the freedom to do whatever we can do.

"It's hard to train it, so sometimes it's something that just comes in your mind that you try to do to help the team and I think we've got a lot of players who can do that.

"We have a lot of players  who have been on the score-sheet many times. We've got a lot of players who can decide a game.

"For example, we get situations where Archie wasn't playing regularly and then he scores in two games in a row, including an important goal late in the game against Adelaide to get a draw in a tough match.

"We have this strength and hopefully it can decide things for us in the finals. Everyone knows we have the sort of players who can decide a game."

Wellington leads the competition by one point from second-placed Victory, which has a game in hand on Phoenix and each of the other three teams in the tightly-packed top five.

Four rounds back, Victory had the chance to go top of the table by beating then leader Perth Glory, but it could only draw. Finkler says the team is very keen to make this second chance count.

"We focus on the game, but we can't hide it from ourselves that we can go top of the table by winning this game," he said.

"But we need to be disciplined, because we weren't the last time we had this chance. We're going there to perform and hopefully win, but Wellington are top of the table and the team to beat, so we need to be at our best."