Vickerman reviews standards after United slide

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman made three starter changes for Sunday’s Throwdown, but it did not spark a turnaround.

Consecutive losses have seen United concede top spot, with Vickerman searching for answers after a flat return from the FIBA break.

While Vickerman was away coaching the Australian Boomers during the FIBA window, he felt confident that Melbourne’s plans would keep them at their usual level for two big games after the break.

It didn't happen. United fell behind 16 to 2 early in Perth on Thursday night, before a 12-point loss to the Wildcats. Vickerman then mixed up his starters for Sunday, looking for a response.

Chris Goulding, Milton Doyle and Jesse Edwards went to the bench, with Tanner Krebs, Tom Koppens and Fabijan Krslovic named in their place. By the end of the game, Vickerman felt many of the same concerns remained.

The South East Melbourne Phoenix delivered their biggest ever Throwdown win by 25 points. United slipped to a 13-4 record and now face a top of the table clash with the Adelaide 36ers on Friday.

"Some teams come out of the FIBA Break rejuvenated and with a different game plan, but right now on the two performances we've had you'd say it's been the opposite for us," Vickerman said.

"It felt like we're lacking some synergy on the floor, lacking some discipline in some areas and I thought the physicality of both Perth and South East, we weren’t up to that challenge.

"I thought we were in a good place as I left for the Boomers and the plan of how we were going to get better over the break was on point, and it was a mix of some people needing to catch a breath and get some rest."

"But we'll go back and really review it to say did we drop some standards through the window, and right before the window, and obviously we have, because we're not the same team coming out the other side.

"We'll go pick that up and rectify those things and in turn that should turn into us getting that greater synergy on the floor again."

Goulding was a clear change after he was so unwell in his scoreless outing in Perth. For Doyle and Edwards, Vickerman did not like aspects of how they started in that game.

Krebs was coming off a career-best performance and Vickerman knew the level of effort he would get from both Koppens and Krslovic.

"They were 16 to 16 and it was 16 to 2 the other night, so it was pretty positive," Vickerman said.

"Obviously CG was super sick in Perth and whether he should have played or not, but he's always put his hand up and tried to play, and Tanner had his best game of all time, so with CG still recovering we went with that one.

"We had some moments in that first quarter that were not who we wanted to be and it was just to say we were going to try some other guys to get started, and we want to move the basketball and play with these kind of things.

"Sometimes you just have to try some things to shake it up and I sat with Milt, Jesse and CG and talked about it, and we looked at some vision and we moved forward with the decision, and they all still played a lot of minutes."