City swoop on Portuguese defender but focus on attack v Western

Though City coach Patrick Kisnorbo and director of football Michael Petrillo did not name Reis during a member's forum on Wednesday night, they detailed why they had signed the player.

"We think he's a player who really suits the way we want to play … he's had a great career in Europe with some really good clubs, represented his country at all underage levels," Petrillo said.

As a younger player Reis was on the books at Portuguese giant Sporting Lisbon but never ended up making a senior appearance for them between 2010 and 2015.

He did, however, have a successful two-year loan stint in Belgium's top flight with Cercle Brugge, helped French side Metz win promotion to Ligue 1 in 2015-16 and was a key part of Greek club Panathinaikos in 2016 to 2018.

Most recently he has played in Bulgaria's First League with Levski Sofia.

While Reis would provide more competition for places at the back, City's focus against Western United on Saturday will be on goals. Last season's beaten grand finalists have only scored one in their two matches this season and that came from midfielder Connor Metcalfe in the away win over Brisbane Roar.

Last year City's Socceroo frontman Jamie Maclaren won the A-League golden boot and he is confident that he can continue in a similar vein this time around.

But while individual accolades are important they are not everything, and the striker says he is much more focused on leading the team to the title than winning any individual awards this season.

"I just want to be a consistent goalscorer and at the end of the season be proud of what we achieved, he said.

"I think last year I set my sights on the golden boot and second to that was getting to a grand final.

"This year it's more team focused for me. I am not going to be less selfish, but in the sense that I am still hurt from the grand final.

"When you win the golden boot the next morning you forget about the feeling. It's great but not as good probably as the feeling you get winning the championship.

"I know I will score goals. I am not stressed about that."

The A-League's stop-start program has caused problems for all players and coaches and City are no exception.

Kisnorbo's team played twice in five days over the New Year period but has had a near two-week break between losing to Adelaide on January 3 and facing Western at AAMI Park this Saturday night.

"We are dealing with things daily, we are finding out schedules at the minute, it's not ideal, I am speaking on behalf of Melbourne City but I am sure other teams would want rhythm.

"Post Western United we don't know what our fixtures are. It's not easy as a player, but we are just rolling with it.

"We were going to have five or six games in this period, we have only played two. We have got to get the minutes in our legs somewhere else, and that's basically doing sessions and extra runs post session.

"It's probably a bit of a blessing in disguise that we can just focus on one game, Western United is our pure focus and we go to Saturday. I couldn't tell you who we have after them."