By Tony Tannous
August 7th 2009 @ 2:14am
Related coverage
A victory for one manager, a template for eight others
While the Central Coast Mariners had a touch of fortune with both their goals in last night’s A-League opener, this was a victory for a simple but effective strategy from Lawrie McKinna. Eight other managers are now likely to use it as a template when visiting the champions.
Too often in past seasons the Mariners have been guilty of coming to Docklands, defending high and giving up far too much space in behind.
Invariably they have been carved up by the pace of the Allsopp-Thompson axis.
This time though McKinna came with a plan to sit deep, on the 18 yard box, and not allow any space in-behind.
Having the experienced talker Chris Doig alongside skipper Alex Wilkinson provided the organisation, with Doig dictating the position of the line.
In front of them, McKinna used twin screeners in Pedj Bojic and John Hutchinson. Bojic, in particular, was outstanding with his defensive work.
The plan was to frustrate the Victory, get in the back of Carlos Hernandez and deny him any space to turn and play, and cut off the supply to the strikers.
Michael McGlinchey, playing in front of Bojic and Hutchinson, did a very good defensive job, putting pressure on Leigh Broxham and Grant Brebner and helping the tireless Matt Simon defend from the front.
Simon’s battle with Kevin Muscat was a show on its own.
The other effective McKinna tactic was to put two athletic players in the wing positions.
Ernie Merrick likes his fullbacks to provide the width and penetration from deep, and, if allowed to run unchecked, Matt Kemp and Evan Berger are hard to contain.
But in Adam Kwasnik and Brad Porter, McKinna had two men willing to track the runs.
Particularly on the right, they were able to usher Berger into cul-de-sacs.
In attack, the plan was to get the ball forward quickly, and early on the Mariners transition was good. The second goal came from one such early outlet ball.
The early goals provided the confidence and comfort to stick with their strategy, and there was no need to deviate from it, despite Melbourne having a real crack in the second period.
Naturally, at some point, and especially at home, McKinna’s men will need to come out and play a bit more, and we will see if McGlinchey can influence the play in a more offensive sense.
But the early signs are excellent, and McKinna looks to have acquired three good signings; an experienced central defender and two hunger midfield buzzers (Nicky Travis came on for McGlinchey and clipped one delightful ball in behind).
For a team that didn’t win its first 11 games of 2009, that’s now five straight undefeated games when you factor in the four pre-season matches against A-League sides.
As for Melbourne, there were some eyebrows raised when the team was announced with Brebner and Broxham starting, and last year’s grand finalists, Billy Celeski and Nicky Ward on the bench.
The word is Celeski isn’t yet fully fit after off-season surgery, but even then the midfield shape looked unnecessarily defensive. Ward made an impression late.
And as if the two goal loss wasn’t enough. Muscat’s hamstring injury now exposes an area that has been the talk of Melbourne’s pre-season, the lack of central defensive cover.
Names mentioned include Kemp, Steven Pace and Surat Sukha, but another that might come into calculations is Brebner, unless of course Merrick goes shopping.
With all the pre-season attention on those north, west and east, the benchmark setting southerns have escaped the questions, but Muscat’s injury, the loss and the below-average attendance will spice things up a touch.
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Ben of Phnom Penh said | August 7th 2009 @ 2:40am | Report comment
It is an interesting result, Tony. I’m unsure if it was due to clever tactics or the fact that the lack of player movement in the Melbourne side has made them a little predictable for the early stages of the season.
All I know for sure is that the league has become just a little more interesting.
AndyRoo said | August 7th 2009 @ 9:07am | Report comment
Did Surat Sukha feature?
Very interested too see how he goes.
I think the defending deep tactic is most effective at the start of the season, once the teams get into their grove they should be able to punish you for giving them that possession
Art Sapphire said | August 7th 2009 @ 9:19am | Report comment
I said this on Jesse’s post but I will repeat it here.
Merrick is the worst manager to ever win 2 championships. If Merrick persists with Brebner and Broxham in midfield again I will personally take my 5 year membership card and make him swallow it whole.
There is no template to beat Melbourne. Victory can beat themselves. They did it last night. I saw Season 3 flash before my eyes last night. The Mariners are still a rubbish team and they will not make the finals.
The worrying sign is that most squads have improved and we have remained static. We have no defensive cover and it will be interesting to see how the team plays without Muscat for the next month.
Merrick better pull his finger out because a repeat of season 3 will be the best thing that can happen to the 2nd melbourne team in regards to attracting fans who want to see good football.
whiskeymac said | August 7th 2009 @ 9:54am | Report comment
well done Mariners. great result and although only one game in it has given some indication as to the qulaity of the three signings they made, signings which many derided but which added greatly to them taking three points off, at home, the best attacking team in the comp, and also managing to score 2 of their own. it’s a longer season than before and am sure MV will get their act together but as some have already posted it’s ultimatley better for the comp that there are no early runaways and some “unpredictible” results.
as you point out Tony it will be interesting to see how the Mariners perform at home – especially McGlinchley and Travis – and to asee if they cant build on this great start and beat all those gloomy buggers who predicted them to have ahandle ont he wooden spoon.
albatross said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Are you counting Nicky Travis as one of those three?
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:02am | Report comment
“With all the pre-season attention on those north, west and east, the benchmark setting southerns have escaped the questions, but Muscat’s injury, the loss and the below-average attendance will spice things up a touch. ”
That’s an understatement.
Here is another question for everyone – can the league truly afford the Mariners being a top two proposition on the back of horrible, ugly football like last night’s effort??
Albal said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:10am | Report comment
I agree that Ernie Merrick is a very poor coach. He has been lucky with recruiting but tactically he is pretty poor. The Victory have always played a very disjointed formation with plenty of space between the strikers and the defence. Australian teams only found it difficult to play them due to their quick counter attacking play.
I think we should give some credit to the Mariners, it seems that they might have learnt something from playing in Asia – Australian teams need a lot of space to play in.
Cut the space and you have won the game.
I don’t think it is only an away game strategy for the Mariners – i think they will play higher up the park when at home, but will use a similar tactic of cutting space to the opposition defence so they can’t start adequate build-up play from midfield.
I think this is a sign that the A-league standard is progressing.
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Learned something from Asia?
Maybe – but I think we are attributing far too much tactical nous to the Mariners than they deserve. When a team has only 36% of possession (and much of that of extremely low quality), we can hardly be talking about technical brilliance of any description.
It’s all about lots of bodies behind the ball, and plenty of fouls to slow down the opposition via robust play (to put it mildly).
It’s got nothing to do with Asia, and everything to do with what won the Mariners a premiership two years ago.
There’s nothing new happening here.
DiCanio said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:33am | Report comment
@Pippinu
I wouldn’t exactly call Central Coast’s football ugly in comparision to the general A-league standard (excluding Heffernan who is like a newborn foal). Besides thy only had about 1/3rd possession, not enough to even display ugly or pretty.
I would call their performance neccessary. Sure if it was a home game or midway through the season then I think the criticism fair, but the level of discipline, fitness and off the ball work that CCM put in was heartening considering the high levels of ball watching that usually proliferate an a-league match.
Anyway as a neutral I think Victory were unlucky not to grab a goal but that is football. CCM worked hard and took their chances. Congrats to them and their supporters
Tony Tannous said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:41am | Report comment
Pippinu, the Mariners came with a game plan, and while they got fortunate with the early goals, which allowed them to bed-down their strategy, I thought it was fantastic to see a bit of tactical nous come into the A-League.
Hasn’t been enough of that to my mind..
I agree it wasn’t pretty and not something we want to see on a weekly basis (heaven forbid if that’s the quality they dish up all season), but for a team that hasn’t being doing much right lately, one has to pay credit.
Adam said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Lawrie McKinna is officially Sam Allardyce v2.0. Though at least Fat Sam is creative in his recruitment and actually looks outside of Scotland
FIsher Price said | August 7th 2009 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
I’m not sure Lawrie sends his players out to maim the opposition.
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 3:48pm | Report comment
not sure about that
Peter Kandy said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:50am | Report comment
Well done Tony, i totally agree! In my book you are the best football analyst in the country!!! Thats exactly what I was telling people after the game too, they sat very deep and did not allow Archie/Danny the chance to break away. And when they had 2-0 lead they put 11 players in their half, particularly in the 2nd.
Keep up the good work Tony. Great to read someone’s analysis with a tactical touch.
AndyRoo said | August 7th 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment
Mariners wont win the comp playing that type of Football.
It works now while teams are still geling and the fields are still chopped up because the AFL and League are ongoing. But come January the roar will score 6 against any team that gives away 67% possession and you wont be scoring passed Moore and Co….ok maybe Reddy will give you 1.
Rusty0256 said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:14am | Report comment
Not mentioned yet but Moss looked very shakey in the Melbourne goal. He wasn’t responsible for either goal but made a series of schoolboy errors in the 2nd half that nearly gifted CCM another goal and also led to the mixup that got Muscat injured.
Except in patches, Victory were rubbish whilst CCM, in doing just enogh of what they had to do were only slightly less rubbish.
Kazama said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:20am | Report comment
Yeah, I agree Moss had a poor game last night – I am a big fan but he’ll want to put that one behind him. He was suffering first game nerves perhaps, and to cop two early goals wouldn’t have done his confidence any good either. Regardless, he was hardly alone in having a bad game for the Victory last night.
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment
Hey Kaz
“he’ll want to put that one behind him”
You’re sounding like FM!!!
Kazama said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:47am | Report comment
Lol
Muscat will have to take the blame for that goal. He missed his interception and Simon made him pay.
I’m surprised the Mariners were able to win this one. The two teams are quite similar and I think the loss will have hurt Melbourne.
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
Pippinu said | August 7th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment
The Mariners won’t win silverware playing like that?
But I’m saying that’s precisely what happened two years ago!!
AndyRoo said | August 7th 2009 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
Yes, but I think the league has matured around them as the other teams are getting better each year and without Jedi I cant see that strategy working out for them. It could be enough to make the top 4 if they maintain intensity for the full 27 rounds though, but that would be as far as they would go.
Melbourne were sluggish and ordinary, if Hernandez was in form it would have been a different result.
On a good pitch I cant imagine them keeping Cullina, Smeltz and Porter to nil…. but Melbourne with an out of sorts playmaker and two 30 year old strikers in round 1 on a bumpy pitch, different story.
It worked 2 seasons ago because
Newcastle Jets – Were the best by far
Roar – unlucky and a bit to young
Sydney FC – coaching dramas
Adelaide – quite defensive, Vidmars first year and the 6 goal loss hangover
Melbourne – shocking year
Perth – shocking 4 years
Nix- enough said
Kazama said | August 7th 2009 @ 3:42pm | Report comment
We (AU) weren’t defensive two seasons ago! We were the top scorers that year!!!
chook said | August 7th 2009 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
Courier Mail in Brisbane result made page 8, back page had a former Broncos nephew making is first grade debut in league
Australian , 1/2 page spread on the game back page…..
Dont tell me that the Courier Mail doesnt hate football
that aside well done CCM!!!!! cost me a tip
eh said | August 7th 2009 @ 1:06pm | Report comment
andyroo – plus they had been written off by everyone esle and some of their underperforming players finally scored goals (ie Simon)