After Melbourne Victory put their goalscoring drought behind them in scintillating fashion, coach Tony Popovic believes the best is yet to come from his star-studded attack - and especially marquee Nani.
Victory ended their three-game A-League Men goalless run with a 4-0 defeat of Newcastle on Friday night at Melbourne's AAMI Park.
Nani turned in clearly his best performance in Victory colours, including winning a penalty, and Popovic felt his star man was growing in confidence after a limited pre-season.
"He's not one for excuses but Luis didn't train for a month before the season started and if you do that to any player it's difficult," Popovic said.
"When you're trying to settle into a new league and new country, new conditions, we're happy he's got through each game, his contributions are getting better and better and I envisage this improving - in particular, the second half of the year."
Former Manchester United luminary Nani, who is still yet to score in the ALM, trained by himself early in pre-season before being gradually integrated into the group.
"He's 35 years of age and there was a few things that we were just holding him back from training," Popovic said of the 112-times capped Portugal international.
"He's extremely professional, so he's not a player that isn't working twice a day and doing his own training, obviously, monitored through the club.
"He wants to work and he wants to play but it's natural that you can't hit the heights and hit the ground running so quickly."
Nick D'Agostino and Chris Ikonomidis both scored lovely goals from open play and recruit Bruno Fornaroli scored a late spot-kick.
"It's nice for the players to get rewarded for the good football that they're playing," Popovic said.
"Today confirms a lot for the players that it is possible, that we can score goals in any moment.
"But the players have shown the last two games that you still have to be disciplined, you still have to defend well.
"When you make it hard for your opponent to score, your quality players have an opportunity to shine."
Veteran striker Tomi Juric was absent after suffering an injury in Thursday's light session.
"It was a bit of a knock on his shin. We thought it was nothing and then we checked him this morning and he was still in some pain," Popovic said.
"He's had X-rays and it's nothing serious but obviously it was uncomfortable with it being a day before a match, so he wasn't in the squad."
Victory will face Adelaide away before the World Cup break.
