City still yet to find top A-League gear Melbourne City boss John van 't Schip knows how quickly the A-League's wheel of fortune spins. The Dutch coach experienced feast and famine in his first stint at the club. It took the (then) Heart 14 games before a first win last season - which van 't Schip quickly turned into five straight victories. With one win in seven matches ahead of Sunday's round-eight match with Wellington, van 't Schip said he was still tinkering with his best team and strategy. To help explain, he likened his work-in-progress side with a pit-lane crew. "It's like with a Formula One car," he said. The mechanics are every time, trying to fix things, little things, to just gain that second that can give them the pole position. It's the same with a team. You have to keep on thinking, working; it could be a player; it could be the approach to go on to the pitch. It was a well-meaning but unfortunate analogy, considering the last man to compare his side to a car was the now-sacked Mike Mulvey. The former Brisbane coach said his team was like a car putt-putting in the cold, unable to start up. He hoped his 4-0 win over Newcastle had the motor running - but a week later, Mulvey was left in a cloud of exhaust fumes. Thankfully for van 't Schip, new owners City Football Group don't have a track record of turfing out coaches when the chips are down. And in any case, the City boss expects things to improve. "These things can turn around very quickly - we've seen (that) last year," van 't Schip said. Look at Perth now, they're flying. We played them in pre-season and we thought they were struggling. Opponents Phoenix boast influential midfielder Michael McGlinchey again, the Kiwi international missing their 2-1 loss in Perth with the birth of his child. City still have a trio of midfielders unavailable: Robert Koren, Massimo Murdocca and Jonatan Germano are not making the trip across the Tasman. Van 't Schip said the club's Slovenian marquee Koren might not be seen until February. "Maybe he can be involved in the last games before the (Asian Cup) break," he said.