Melbourne Victory’s lethal front four of Besart Berisha, Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Gui Finkler and Kosta Barbarouses will have to manage without one major player again this week.

New Zealand Greek Kostas Barbarouses will sit out the match thanks to hamstring issues.

Coach Kevin Muscat had to make do without the impressive striker in Victory’s last match, but the team were able to carve out an easy 3-0 win against Western Sydney Wanderers.

He will at least have him by his side when a large chunk of players are poached by Ange Postecoglou for Socceroos duty.

Victory is set to lose Socceroo Mark Milligan, FYR Macedonia’s Daniel Georgievski and Olyroos trio Jason Geria, Scott Galloway and Connor Pain to international duty in the coming weeks.

Barbarouses wasn’t chosen for international duty for the All Whites and will remain with his team to fill the gaps.

Muscat is expecting to tread cautiously with their match against United, hoping to see what he will get on game day and adjust accordingly.

“We’ll be patient, albeit with a very attacking intent,” he said. “We’ll … wait for those moments, because we’ve certainly got the personnel throughout our team that can make a difference.”

United have had problems with concentration and a lack of focus, and it has cost them.

They were taken for a ride two weeks ago by Melbourne City, when they let three goals through.

Now playing for Adelaide United, former Victory player Jimmy Jeggo says the reds need to beat Victory if they are serious about winning the title.

“A lot of the boys are looking at it as an opportunity to really stamp our mark going into these last couple of rounds and into the finals … if you want to win the league, you need to win these types of games,” he said.

Melbourne Victory won the previous clash between the teams 3-2 in November but struggled to keep possession of the ball.

United managed to win their last match, but only just with Central Coast Mariners giving them a hard time with their 2-1 win.

Adelaide United take on Melbourne Victory at Coopers Stadium tonight at 7.30 pm (AEST).