Stats don't stack up for Melbourne Victory's title hopes Victory striker Archie Thompson's absence has hurt his team at the other end this year. MELBOURNE Victory will have to defy A-League history and a poor defensive record if it is to win this year's title. Victory has already conceded more goals than any champion in the league's eight-year history. It has conceded 38 goals in 22 games at an average of 1.73 a game. Only three times has a title winner conceded more than a goal a game on average: Brisbane in 2011-12 (1.04), Victory in 2008-09 (1.29) and Sydney FC in 2005-06 (1.33). Sydney FC championship-winning defender Mark Rudan says instability at the back is haunting Victory's quest for consistency, while former Socceroo defender Steve Horvat says the absence of Archie Thompson and Marcos Flores has hurt the team defensively as well as in attack. Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has used 31 players this season, 10 of them in defensive positions. Rudan said Saturday night's 6-2 thumping by the Central Coast Mariners wasn't solely the fault of the back four. "But you need stability back there," he said yesterday. That creates fluency and continuity and players become aware of each other and their roles and also what their strengths and weaknesses are. If you look at that back four of Melbourne Victory on Saturday night, how many times has that back four actually played together? That's key to the back four problem. Horvat agreed, but said Thompson and Flores' injury troubles had hurt the team's ability to defend. "When they were flying a few weeks ago, they were really dominating teams and really pegging the opposition back," Horvat said. Horvat, who has 32 Socceroo caps, said the physicality of teams such as Western Sydney and Adelaide had worried Victory, as had the ball-moving ability of the Wanderers and Mariners. "They seem to struggle when they play opposing teams that move the ball well," Horvat said. I still feel their positioning is not great and it's something that's obviously a work in progress. Rudan praised Postecoglou for having refreshed Victory's list this season, but said consistency was always going to be an issue when so many young players were in the team at any one time.