Really I don’t think players have regressed much. Zullo/Grant are the same and will always have trouble coming back quick enough because they are told to push up so much, brilliante is the same with the usual give the ball away, Wilko is probably a little slower but much the same, brosque O’Neill retre are all better than last year.
If anything it is just unfortunate with recruitment:
Alf = Bobo
Jop does not equal Buijs
De Jong is no where near Adrian’s level at the moment.
Buhagiar was improving but got injured
Retre and Brosque, sure, but I’d dispute O’Neill. He was stopping everything for the last two seasons, while also contributing a lot to kicking off counter attacks. This season he isn’t imposing himself on play as much and is often passing sideways instead of forwards.
Our defence needs someone to organise it. We have seen signs of this in recent games, but it was laid absolutely bare on Wednesday: our defence lacks leadership. Alex Wilkinson has been able to organise the defence since he arrived, but for some reason he just isn’t providing what Aaron Calver needs. Similarly, Andrew Redmayne isn’t communicating enough with his central defenders and this has seen Calver play the ball at times where the keeper could easily have claimed it. Without any sort of leadership we are going to continue to leak soft goals caused by miscommunication.
The De Jong and Retre right side is very vulnerable. While he is obviously good with the ball, Siem De Jong doesn’t provide much in the way of pressing and his tackling ability is not great either. This means that he can’t provide much cover to whoever is playing at right back. When we have Rhyan Grant behind him, Grant is able to make up for that with his speed and engine. Paulo Retre, however, just isn’t as pacey as Grant nor as skilled in defence. This means that when De Jong and Retre are played together, our right side just looks very vulnerable. We saw this in particular with the first goal where Davidson was able to play his way down the left basically unchallenged and put in the cross which lead to the goal.
A change of formation might freshen things up. As stated, when De Silva and Anthony came on we switched to a 4-2-3-1 with De Silva central, Ninkovic on the left and Caceres on the right. This allowed us to be much more creative and provide a great linkup between our two central midfielders and the attacking third. Certainly, the flat 4-4-2 we have played all season has left us looking short on ideas and it was nice to see that change. Alex Brosque could probably do with a rest in the next game and so it might be worth trying this out for something a bit different and to see if it solves some of the problems we have been having.
Post-match Statistics
The last time Perth Glory defeated Sydney FC before this game was on 13/02/16.
Perth Glory last scored three or more goals against Sydney FC a massive 31 games ago, back on 21/12/08 in a 4-1 victory in Sydney.
On a positive note, Sydney FC have scored in each of their last 18 competitive games (going back to the Semi Final last season). This is equal to the club record of 18 games between 24/02/17 and 3/11/17.
This game was Aaron Calver ’s 49th appearance for the club, meaning that our next game will most likely see him bring up his 50th.
Note: Appearances and goals only include league games, finals, FFA Cup, OFC and AFC Champions League and Club World Cup.
Nice one. To add to that, considering A-League only, we’re on a club record streak of scoring in 24 consecutive matches (beating the 21 match streak from Jan-Nov 2006), and have scored in our last 28 home A-League matches, which is a league-wide record.
I think I like this.
The current system isn’t working, and isn’t close to getting the best out of our best players. Milos is looking sharp, but still getting the ball so deep and away from the box - we need him to be creating chances directly for ALF, and getting on the score sheet himself. SdJ is another we’re not getting the best of, but that’s on him (and his injury stuff) as much as it’s on the system.
If we could get some sort of variation of a 343 going, it could help all parties.