The Dutchman, speaking before City host Roar in a high-profile Saturday night clash at AAMI Park, accused his counterpart of being a "childish whinger" who should worry more about his own team, which, he said, is now a counter-attacking defensive side who favoured "parking the bus".

Aloisi, whose Brisbane team beat City 1-0 in a round-five game at Suncorp Stadium, attacked City's up-and-at-them style in comments he made on the Fox Sports website on Thursday. "We saw in the first five, 10 minutes of the cup final, big tackles going in and aggressive tackles. They're probably the most aggressive side in the league.

"We don't want that in our game. We don't want people diving, and we don't want people injuring someone."

Aloisi was particularly critical of Bruno Fornaroli, City's skipper, who he accused of diving and trying to con referees and also of standing over injured players.

Van 't Schip, who has had plenty of previous verbal stoushes with Aloisi, felt angry enough to bring the issue up at a pre-match press conference.

"He is always having a go at us," van 't Schip said. "I think he has to worry more about his own team and his own style and not about us.

"It's getting a bit childish, he is whingeing like a baby.

"He has to stay away from our players, criticising them, and focus on his own team.

"It's enough, it's the third time, instead of congratulating us with the win, and the team that gave him the opportunity to be a head coach, but it's surely not his style."

There is no doubt City has this season shifted up several gears in the way they press opponents at every opportunity by closing down spaces, putting pressure on opposing defenders and midfielders and trying to play the game in their opponents half.

But they are only doing what several successful foreign teams have done in recent seasons. Tottenham almost won the English Premier League last season with an aggressive, high-pressing game, Liverpool are chasing the title this year playing in a similar fashion, while Chile, under coach Jorge Sampaoli, developed the high-tempo game initiated by his predecessor, Marcelo Bielsa, to win the Copa America in 2015.

Van 't Schip said all his players had come out of the FFA Cup final well and had trained in the days after, including Tim Cahill, the scorer of the winning goal who limped off and missed the last half hour of the win over Sydney.

"It's all good, the team pulled up well, we came in together, the group was training ... I can have a pick from a very healthy group. Tim looks good as well.

"We know how important that game was. We know that winning the cup was our first target, but there are bigger things to come, the league is very young, the game against Brisbane is massive and important, the boys are focused, we have been talking about it this morning.

"Getting a record crowd shows that there is a lot of people interested and willing to come and watch big games and if you play at the top of the league it attracts more fans. So, for us, it's important to continue, it all comes together to getting more fans for the club."

Brisbane, van 't Schip said, had changed their philosophy under Aloisi and were now far more defensively oriented than they had been under Ange Postecoglou, when they won titles and set new standards in the Australian club game.

"They had success in the game that we played there. John has changed the attacking style from Ange into a defensive, park-the-bus kind of team, with players that are quick on the break."