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Melbourne Victory manager Marco Kurz wants actions, not words, to define how they respond to last week's loss to Western United.

Talk is meaningless for Marco Kurz unless Melbourne Victory back it up in Sunday's A-League home game against Wellington Phoenix.

The Victory are reeling after blowing a two-goal lead last week and falling 3-2 to newcomers Western United.

It left one of the A-League's power clubs spluttering on a win and a draw after four games.

While the Victory coach is pleased with how his players dealt with the United loss, Kurz sees Sunday's AAMI Stadium clash as the only test that really counts.

"We have to perform and invest 90 minutes to get a win," he said.

"That's the clear message from the boys and also from my side to the boys; it was not enough against United.

"Hopefully we can show a reaction on Sunday.

"But we have to perform and not speak too much.

"It's good to show the reaction on Sunday, on the pitch and get a good result in our stadium."

Kurz said effort, not system, lay at the heart of what went wrong last weekend after they had shot to a 2-0 lead.

"We were not hungry enough to press them ... the defending, winning the ball, was not good enough," he said.

"Then we made it easy for them to come back in the game."

Kurz said Victory met the day after the game and went through what went wrong.

"They were really self-critical and they said it was not enough ... it was a big mistake," he said.

"The reaction during the week was good, the sessions were good and I think what we can do, it's to perform; not only in the first 20 minutes and the last 35 minutes."

Victory have plenty of injury problems and Kurz said they would retain the same squad for their meeting with the Phoenix

"We have to perform well with these players," he said.

But he would not be drawn on whether any changes will be made to the starting line-up.

Kurz warned against taking Wellington lightly, despite their 0-4 start to the season, noting they pushed Sydney FC last month in a 2-1 loss.

"Be careful with Phoenix, because they played well ... they were the better team against Sydney FC," he said.