After having strung together an Australian sporting record 36 games without a loss, Brisbane has lost top spot on the A-League ladder after suffering four straight defeats.
The Roar's latest failure - a 2-1 loss to Central Coast at Lang Park on Saturday night - highlighted a handful of key reasons why the side is struggling.
There are players who are made by the system and players who make the system work. The latter definitely applies to Thomas Broich and Matt Smith.
Ange Postecoglou deservedly received plaudits for setting the 36-game unbeaten record in such style despite losing key players along the way such as Kosta Barbarouses and Matt McKay.
The two key constants in this run were the rock at the back and the playmaker.
Football can be a simple science: when you can't stop goals and can't create chances, you lose.
Replicating Broich's vision is undoubtedly difficult but there is no reason there should have been such a chasm between his set piece delivery and those who stepped into the breach on Saturday who too often afforded opposition keeper Matthew Ryan gentle catching practise.
The return of these two to the side will ensure Brisbane makes the playoffs but if either is injured or loses form the Roar will not retain their title.
"I don't think we were vulnerable," Postecoglou told ABC Grandstand after the game.
Brisbane fans, like Arsenal's, don't mind their manager sticking to his principles. Supporters revel in any opportunity to feel superior to rivals.
What they will mind is their manager being blind to obvious defensive frailties and refusing to address them.
Postecoglou's defence of his players is stout. His defence's offside trap over the last two games has been anything but.
The key to centre back pairings is communication.
Against Central Coast, Matthew Jurman and Sayed Mohamed Adnan must have been communicating through smoke signals - quite possibly those emanating from the former's backside as he chased Bernie Ibini around Lang Park.
The Mariners' lack of ambition in the second half, something Graham Arnold bemoaned at full time, was the chief reason Brisbane's defence was more comfortable after the break.
Smith returning will address these issues, but whoever his centre back partner is needs to up his game enormously.
In the absence of German talisman Broich, Brisbane needed Issey Nakajima-Farran to step up. He showed in the closing stages when he fired against the bar and just wide that he has the ability to do this.
In the first half he was hardly seen. This is a reflection on him, the tactics employed and his team-mates.
He needed to create space and others needed to drown him with the ball. Instead in the first half the team seemed to be over-compensating, attempting too many low percentage balls. This was epitomised by Massimo Murdocca in Broich's spot on the left making 'no look' passes which, in fairness, were little more wayward than the rest of the midfield's distribution.
In the second half, the trademark ball retention was back but with no killer instinct until Kofi Danning's introduction. Which brings us to...
Danning is popular with Brisbane fans partly for the same reason he must exasperate Postecoglou - his unpredictability.
He does not easily fit into the Roar system of ball retention. Danning is ordinary when static in possession as was seen in Wellington mid-week.
On Saturday though he lifted the whole stadium with his electric pace and attacking threat and has the ability to provide the goalscoring threat from the flanks that the likes of Andrei Kanchelskis and Freddie Ljungberg used to specialise in.
In consecutive home games he has almost resurrected points from lost causes. Though far from the finished article in the business end of the season, with his options limited, Postecoglou may have to live his flaws and find a place for him in the first XI.
Tags: a-league, soccer, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia First posted December 19, 2011 08:49:55
No comments:
Post a Comment