Structural Destruction

By: Marcus | October 15th, 2009

Well wasn’t that a let down?
Melbourne Victory’s 100th game…Check
Ernie Merrick’s 100th game…Check
Centre piece of the month…Check
Full media coverage due to all other codes finishing…Check
30,000 supporters in the stadium…Check
The team…AHH SHIT

Archie and Cole

Melbourne Victory: 0
Sydney FC: 3 (Brosque 14, Bridge 15, 19)
Crowd: 30,668 at Etihad Stadium

I’m not going to write about the match highlights, I think I might just stick to a postmortem, mainly do to the fact that other than Sydney’s 3 goals in that 5 minute period there was nothing else really to note as a positive for the game. For all the Sydney fans goals below.

Let’s start this postmortem!

Goalkeeper: I personally felt as though there wasn’t a lot Moss could have done with any of the goals, the defence left him high and dry on all three occasions.

Defence: This is the problem of the team. It’s simple a solid defence wins you games, for example, look at Australia Vs. Oman or the Netherlander’s, in both match’s the Aussie defence not only keep a clean sheet but provided much of the attacking drive. The Melbourne defence does neither. I’m not saying that our defence has to be world class but they should at least do there job and hold there position (I’m looking at you Kemp).

We have the equal second worst defensive record in the league conceding 15 goals in 10 match’s, the only team that have conceded more are North Queensland with 18. We are the only team in the top half of the league to have a negative goal difference, and we have only kept 2 clean sheets this season.

Some may blame Moss, but I don’t. The serial offender is Matthew Kemp. He is constantly getting out of position giving away cheap balls and not closing down players when he should be. Think back to Newcastle, his sloppy defending let Elrich through who set up the equalizer, for those of you who watched the Sydney match, you would have seen at the start of the match he decided to play in left midfield leaving this fellow defenders with a mountain to climb. Make no mistake, the 3-0 defeat to Sydney was not all his fault, Surat was also playing higher than usual (but I think that was his role for the match) and Vargas didn’t have his best match (note his marking for the second goal). The problem with Kemp playing out of position is when he goes forward it leaves a massive hole in the back line, once that hole is covered another one is created, usually by a central defender which leaves the middle open. Surat should not have been playing as high as he was but that was due to midfield issues.

Midfield: The midfield is shocking, there either too defensive or too attacking. Against Sydney we only played with 2 real midfielders, Hernandez and Broxham. I know some people think Leigh is useless, but he isn’t, he’s a great young player who has to take on all midfield duties by himself. On the weekend he was being overrun by Sydney’s midfield, none of his fellow team members helped him out. Everyone knows Carlos is quality, he is creative and is capable of scoring goals. other than this our midfield is rubbish, that is excluding Nicky Ward and Celeski. On the weekend Kruse and Surat were deployed along side Broxham. Surat was clearly uncomfortable as he was out of position, and Kruse is a winger, he can’t track back. So Broxham is left in a 4 on 1. Brebner is Brebner, he can’t play with Brox, Pondeljak is getting old (he’s 33 now), against Sydney he came on as a sub and made some terrible errors.

Forwards: Both great players but I don’t think they can co-exist. Archie and Allsopp’s partnership worked so well because Archie would get the ball and Danny would create the space, he would move around and make himself available. Archie and Fabiano’s partnership doesn’t work because Fabiano can’t complement Archie. Fabiano is a target man, get him in the box and give him the ball, that is not how Melbourne play though.

What are the possible solutions I hear you ask!

Goalkeepers: You can put Langerak on but I don’t think it will make much difference, the defence doesn’t protect the goal well enough.

Defence: Well what can you do? The closest things that resembles a defender on the bench/reserves are Berger and Fochini, Pace is pub football quality. Merrick has to re-jig the defence, I’m not sure how though. Does he leave it with 3 centre backs or take one of them out and play with a back 4? I don’t know but I’d prefer to see Berger start over Kemp. It’s a pity all our squad spots are taken so we can’t add some defensive steel.

Midfield: Should be built around Broxham and Hernandez until Ward and Celeski return. Kruse can’t play in the centre, Pondeljak is not influential enough. Maybe Mate Dugandzic should get some more game time, he has looked half decent when he’s been on the park. I would also really like to see what Matthew Theodore can do, he was the captain of the youth team, played well last year and he plays centrally. Should also be interesting to see what Sutee and Angulo can do once they get there VISA’s.

Forward: In the media Sutee has been touted as a striker so he might be given a shot as Archie’s partner. I really want Nathan Elasi to get some time on the pitch. He’s just come back from the Under 20’s World Cup where he played a bit, he plays along the like of Mooy and Danning so he’d have to be half decent. Maybe Archie will be pushed back and Fabiano played as a lone striker.

If I were coach I would do: 4-1-2-1-2

————–Moss————
–Surat–Muscat–Vargas–Leijer–
—————Brox————
——Kruse/Mate—Berger———-
—————-Carlos————-
———Archie—-Sutee/Fab/Elasi—

That way everyone in defence stays in there position, Berger can help out Brox when needed and Mate/Kruse can go a bit more centrally when needed as well, though Kruse would be more dangerous roaming forward.

Whats everyone’s thoughts on all this ey?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
In other news its been misery all round for Melbourne. The girls and Youth both lost all 3 points towards the death.
The woman’s team pushed defending champions Brisbane all the way before the conceded in the 83rd minute.
The youth team dominated the match against Sydney’s youth with Berger, Dugandzic and Langerak all featuring, but in the 87th the cruelly conceded and lost all 3 points. (reports here and here)