After Awer Mabil gave Melbourne City a taste of what they can expect from their new Socceroo, coach Aurelio Vidmar is already hungry for more.
Veteran attacker Mabil joined City on a three-year deal over the off-season, fresh off attending his second World Cup with the Socceroos.
The 31-year-old impressed with his drive, great touch and nifty footwork in Saturday's 1-1 derby draw with Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park and was arguably unlucky not to score from his four shots.
"He was excellent tonight," Vidmar said.
"He has a lot of smarts. He's fit, healthy, strong, gets past players, always around the goal, knows where the goals are.
"You see those shots that he hit in the first half. Generally, at training, you see them in the top corner. Unfortunately, he didn't hit the target.
"But he was excellent. And he can play a number of positions. At the end I threw him up front. He gives us something different again."
City are winless after losing to Auckland first up, then drawing with Victory.
"As disappointing as the last couple of weeks have been in terms of the number of points, I know we're there, but just bringing it all together," Vidmar said.
Vidmar is excited by how Mabil's quality can help take City and their plethora of young attackers, like Medin Memeti, Kavian Rahmani and Quinn MacNicol, forward after an elimination-final exit last season.
"Well, that's why we signed him. So he's an important player," Vidmar said.
"He's a great leader. He's a great communicator.
"He's really good within the group and also knows when he needs to put the foot down and stamp his authority, but also knows when the quiet chat needs to happen around the younger players and the senior players."
Vidmar was also excited to get more out of recruits and debutants Emiliano Marcondes and Julio Cascante, who both made an impact off the bench, while Mathew Leckie should keep building fitness.
City will still be without Max Caputo (hamstring) against Sydney at AAMI Park on Saturday and likely the following week against Western Sydney ahead of the international break.
Victory face a tight turnaround before facing Persib in their ACL2 clash in Indonesia on Wednesday before hosting Central Coast on Sunday.
Joshua Inserra (back) may struggle to travel after he was withdrawn in the second half on Saturday while coach Giovanni Savarese flagged heavy rotation for the midweek game.