Kevin Muscat is of the opinion that goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas has to work much harder in order to win back his place in the first team. The number one goalkeeper, who has held this position since the 2016-17 campaign, was recently replaced by Matt Acton.Muscat took this brave decision in the match against Brisbane and Melbourne Victory ended up winning the game 2-1. After having spent majority of the time at Melbourne Victory as the understudy to Lawrence Thomas,Actongave in a decent performance. So far, Thomas has been a regular first-team player for the Victory team with appearances in all games of the campaign – including the Asian Champions League.

However, Acton seems to have disorder this opportunity and the manager did not waste any time in leading his feelings known just after the match. The game also witnessed Muscat showing his authority on the squad by pulling off Ola Toivonen, who is the Swedish international, after an ineffective performance in the first half. This is despiteToivonen being the best player for Melbourne Victory so far this season. After the game, Muscat claimed that he made the proper selection for the match and admitted that Thomas had to do work in order to win his place back in the team.

"“We need better from Lawrence and he has got to fight for his place.I selected Matt Acton.The decision was more about Matt Acton. I selected him based on everything that we have seen. He was in our opinion the right choice to give us the best chance of success.Your definition of it is whatever you want.I picked a team to win a game of football and Matt Acton was in that team," said Kevin Muscat after the game. The win over Brisbane was the first victory for Melbourne “Victory in seven matches.