THE City Football Group’s heavies were in attendance at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night and one wonders what they thought at the final whistle.

Melbourne City’s 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Melbourne Victory should set off alarm bells, but plenty of tweaks can be made before they start wielding the axe.

Their Manchester City track record suggests that they’re patient, but not scared to make hard calls if necessary.

Now is not the time to panic regarding the football department, but they need to make urgent adjustments off the field to support them.

The club is clearly struggling in transitioning from battlers on a shoestring budget, to A-League princes with deep pockets.

Heart ran on the smell of an oily rag, but the club remains under resourced and requires strong off-field leadership.

How does this affect the football department?

The tardy PR strategy around David Villa’s guest stint has van’t Schip constantly addressing an issue that should’ve been knocked on the head weeks ago.

And the Manchester City-esque lockdown - players and officials are less accessible to the media than they were in previous seasons, and far less accessible than neighbours Melbourne Victory _ is a strategy fit for the English Premier League, but not the A-League.

This again places more pressure on van’t Schip to be the club spokesman, and the strain has shown in recent weeks.

It’s putting undue pressure on the Dutchman, nor is he suited to being the mouthpiece.

It’s been a big change for the club and, it’s unchartered territory for all involved.

Van’t Schip has by far his best squad available, but what matters just as much is how he man-manages squad players 12-23 as David Villa, Damien Duff and Koren.

While van’t Schip was right about the players’ second half concentration levels or lack thereof, the same must be asked of his teamsheet.

It was a curious derby substitutes bench, made up of raw trio Jacob Melling, Paolo Retre and Marc Marino, players who were long shots of making an impact.

Surely Stefan Mauk, who just returned from Young Socceroos duty, and Nick Kalmar, who played all pre-season as the no.6, were better suited for the occasion.

With Connor Chapman, Ben Garuccio and Jonatan Germano edging closer to full fitness and marquee Robert Koren plus last season’s top scorer David Williams to return, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Not to mention the imminent arrival of Australian marquee Josh Kennedy.