Are Victory on the way?
Foxsports commentators are not happy with what they are seeing this year in the A-League, or so they tell us every week.
Are you?
The thing is there have been some good games Sydney v Adelaide, Adelaide Newcastle, Wellington Adelaide, Wellington Victory, Adelaide Victory, Sydney Mariners.
the list actually goes on, but all the focus is on the poor games.
And this can become self-fulfilling as people seem to have realised our salary caps limits player quality, and the new players coming in are unlikely to match the quality that leave like Fred, Carle, Vidosic and others.
Last night Melbourne Victory were woeful in the first-half and the commentators told us time and time again in case you didn't know it.
Queensland on the other hand, in the first half played well. Chased, probed but couldn't get the breakthrough.
Any fan, any coach would be happy with their first half performance away in the Dome. So maybe the commentators need to focus on that side of the game when the home side aren't sparkling.
And Victory weren't. The long ball release To Archie and co. is last season's trick and overdone particularly in the first half, plus it's hardly sophisticated is it?
Also the Victory's midfield in Brebner and Muscat are way too deep to be an effective attacking force.
Maybe Merrick want's to tighten up from last year's home defeats. Who could blame him? But it won't be pretty not in the first half.
Chances are to throw in a Caceres or Patafta early on means more space for teams like the Roar and with Victory's shaky defence a goal wouldn't be too hard to come by.
Fans have been saying where's the Fred spark, but maybe goals against are just as important and Adrian Leijer's departure may count for some of this.
No goals conceded allows the team to attack with more confidence.
Leandro Love was clearly poorly deployed in the first half. Playng at times in a three man straight line attack. So far away from the slowing Muscat and Brebner that the long ball is all Victory had.
With Craig Moore at the back, it's not too difficult to stop.
Victory have to entertain. The team with the biggest crowd in any league just do.
Merrick has to get the balance right, and maybe he will as the season goes on.
But I suspect that given the nature of the players on view, and the quality in the final third it will be away teams what will prosper, much as Victory did last year, and therefore the likelihood of draws or away wins is higher.
How do you get a creative player with the current salary cap?
The pace of the game is good. So the skills need to be higher to create that extra spark. In football you get mainly what you pay for and that perhaps is what we are seeing this season.
Can Sydney earn a home win tonight. Certainly with Juninho back they should create chances,and I for one wish to see them rewarded for their attempt to bring in some creativity, real proven creativity into this league.
So, tonight I say go Sydney and to Victory, well Ernie you have a long way to go but a win's a win as they say.
And maybe, just maybe, you're on the way.
3 comments:
Excellent questions Eamonn, and timely.
I haven't really come to any firm conclusions. Although I've quickly become quite a nut, I've only really been at this football thing for about a year and don't feel I have my head around the game's possibilities yet, but I've been thinking a lot about these questions.
The woman's football I've watched recently has influenced my thinking a lot. With them, you can't just say, "Oh yeah, but that's the European game - Barcelona or something - the best in the World." They're not. They're mostly amateurs or lowly paid professionals in fledgling leagues. But in my mind the football they produce is infinitely more entertaining than the A-League. What's the answer?
The closest to an answer I can find is that provided by Tony the Round Ball Analyst, in QA; it's time to slow down. Again, I haven't come to firm opinions, and I'm thinking aloud here, but it's the best explanation I can find for why European games and the international woman's games are so much better to watch.
Speed, fitness and commitment are great, but they are just the infrastructure, not the superstructure of good football. In brilliant football there is a bit of zen, patience and tactical care. When, for example, the ball is sent into the box and it becomes a pinball machine of four attackers and five defenders in a 3 meter space, there's no point in just continuing the manic pinball pokes hoping for fortune. Pass it back again for God's sake - the attack has failed. Pass it around again and look for a new weakness.
Just thinking aloud. Love your work Eamonn.
Eamonn,
you've hit the amil on the head there with Victory.
Midfield is too deep to provide much attacking and the attacking minded players are being pushed back on team orders. Last night Broxham and Keenan did nicely when they went forward. But, it was really clear that they weren't allowed to go forward and so the long ball was all we had.
Leandro Love looked good when he got the ball. But, the long high ball to him didn't work once. He just got moved underneath it and the QLD defenders had an easy time heading away from him.
There's also this wierd thing going on where Victory players head the ball straight back to the other team, even when they're unmarked and could easily bring it to ground. I just don't get it.
Last night QLD really should have won and by a fair margin. To quote my Dad's Russian about Victory's performance, "It happens that a team plays worse...but only very rarely."
We were lucky.
There were brighter moments too though. Once Caceres came on, the team orders seemed to change and the attack minded players did seem to get forward more. It also seemed that there were a few five minute passages when Victory passed and moved quite well. In those passages they looked quite good. I'd like to see more of that. Here's hoping we can for the Sydney game.
Nathan
Hamish
if Carle Beauchamp Vidosic Dilevski Fred Yorke Carney Ceccoli Ward Leijer Williams Rodriquez and others had all stayed we would have the class on the field.
but who can affored to keep them.
the pace of the game is a good thing I believe, coz the top clubs in the world can clearly run as fast if not faster than A-League guys, plus they can play at higher level more often
Yorke and Beckham were often top of the United pre-season fitness drills..and despite Sydney FC criticisms of Yorke his ability to control and run around the A-League midfeid and win the title should make some critics revisit their thoughts on him.
so reducing the speed, allows for more skilful players, as Alex Tobin says they recruit fitness and skill but never just skill, the player has to be fit and ideally able to play a number of positions
Tobin recognises the lazy guy like say a John Markosvski in the old NSL great great skill but couldn't run so would have no place today.
similarly seems no team can affored to give a Jardel a run or Romario even though they may score a goal
the modern game is too fast, tactics too strong these days
this is good as it shows me any weakness is quickly exposed by coahces tactics and players tactics on the park
so where will the skill come from?
Well Zullo clearly has it, and will be good for a year or two..and then gone, Burns and Djite will go.
but the Zullo's take a couple of years to get to Burns state of influence and Vidosic never got there not really and he was still whisked away
The agents are smart, %50,000 in Oz may be okay for a kid but any Euro side can match and add that so a player goes and like Vidosic and Carney never play!!
Do we want more Marcinho's Freds Allessandro's...not really coz if they are any good they give us a year and are gone, or like Reinaldo..okay so stay and frustrate us to hell!!
We need to pay the Aussies more. The younger guys should be paid more than some of these Brazilian guys coming in.
Maybe Vidosic would have stayed 2 more years, but maybe not.
Limit the foreign players I say, 1 per continent:) and 3 max..why not it would give us an Asia Sth American and African in every side, and if not then more Aussies get a go.
the standard may not be the best but if it's not going to be the best, than at least make sure it's Australian and Australian players who are not giving us the flair.
Carlos H couple of the guys in NZ, Marcinho, Lynch, Reinaldo, Wedau, Seo, Allessandro, Claudinho, Enfield, Patrick, what have these guys given us..really?
bits and pieces...I say limit the quantity of imports and give more Aussies more money and more Aussies a go.
Surely it would work for the longer term, plus the younger guys may stay longer if they got more dosh and more game time.
No simple solution but worth exploration as the season goes on and Lynch Reinaldo and Marcinho frustrate the Roar fans:)
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