An early assessment of all the A-League teams

 
Tony Tannous Columnist

By , 1 Sep 2009 Tony Tannous is a Roar Expert

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Melbourne Victory's Tomislav Pondeljak tackles Brisbane Roar's Charlie Miller, during round 2 of the A-League Season, played at the Ethihad stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, August 15, 2009. After full time, Victory drew with Brisbane Roar 3-3. AAP Image/Joe Castro

Melbourne Victory's Tomislav Pondeljak tackles Brisbane Roar's Charlie Miller, during round 2 of the A-League Season, played at the Ethihad stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, August 15, 2009. After full time, Victory drew with Brisbane Roar 3-3. AAP Image/Joe Castro

It’s early days, and while crowds remain an obvious concern, as the game struggles to get a word in in the lead up to the NRL and AFL finals, here’s a whip around the clubs to see how each is fairing, including a rating out of 10.

North Queensland Fury, 4.5
Finally showing signs they can mix it at this level, their performance in Adelaide was excellent. With Talay now pulling the strings and Fowler, Steffanuto and McBreen picking it up a notch or two, they finished all over the Reds. Henderson remains a concern (surely Pasfield to come in) behind a makeshift defence that has conceded too many soft goals, but at least the overall attitude was right on Friday.

Adelaide United, 5
Under the gun financially, under the watchful eye of the FFA, the pressure has been building on all at the club, and it is showing. Very fortunate to sneak a point against the Fury, they are especially weak in central midfield, where they are missing Salley, Barbiero and Diego. The defence looked solid enough, until Gold Coast came to town, prompting Vidmar to draft in Rudan and go to a back three, but that proved to be an error. Stick to a back four, go to two up front and get Reid and Barbiero paired-up in central midfield asap.

Melbourne Victory, 5
While almost everything went Ernie Merrick’s way last season, allowing him to keep a stable squad together, things have been falling apart this season, with the injuries accumulating. Muscat set the ball rolling, Berger joined him and on Friday Thompson and Hernandez were seen seeking treatment. Thankfully, a wonderful piece of business nabbed Leijer, but Merrick continues to make some strange selections, such as Brebner and Broxham starting the season in the holding roles, Ward at right back, Kemp in central defence and Broxham at left back on Friday. While they have shown some good signs, particularly in the second half against Brisbane and first half in Perth, it’s all a bit hit and miss at the moment.

Wellington, 5.5
Have conceded too many soft goals and struggled to control games via their central midfield, but the front third has a lovely balance. Bertos has been phenomenal, while the two Brits, Greenacre and Ifill have been chipping in with strong work-rates and the odd goal. Need to tighten up at the back and get Diego fit and into a more central position.

Perth Glory, 6
Promising to bring the good times back to ME Bank Stadium, the Glory has been doing well at home the past fortnight. Predictably, with so many coming in late, they started slow, but Srhroj has made a made a massive difference pulling the strings, and Coyne, Todd and Burns are starting to settle in nicely. Even Sterjovski showed good signs against Melbourne, while the two fullbacks, Neville and Sekulovski, a weakness on paper, have been doing well. Sikora is a bundle of energy and sets an upbeat tempo, while Jelic can be relied upon to pick up scraps inside the box. Plenty of improvement still to come.

Brisbane Roar, 6
Finally got a win on Saturday, but even then they made tough work of it. Must be frustrating supporting this crew, for they tend to go from the sublime to the very average, witnessed by their second half meltdowns against Melbourne and Wellington. Henrique has been the star to date, with able support from Tiatto, Miller and van Dijk. But the Roar, like Melbourne, appear beset by niggly injuries to the likes of Tiatto, Packer and now McKay. Another little worry was the poor start by Nichols.

Central Coast Mariners, 6
Have only conceded two goals, but have only scored three, two of them coming in the opening round upset in Melbourne. In truth, they should have had two more points after they all but knocked out Sydney in round three, but they followed that up with a disappointing performance in Brisbane. Defensively they are going ok, but Lawrie McKinna is struggling to find a functioning front third, evidenced by his chopping and changing. Simon, especially, is struggling to get chances. McGlinchey has looked good in the hole in front of a combative holding duo of Bojic and Hutchinson, but a lack of quality ball-players means this side struggles to control games.

Newcastle Jets, 6.5
A bit hot and cold, they have relied on some excellent tactical work from Branko Culina, especially in Sunday’s game against Gold Coast and at half time in their round two F3 derby draw, when he went man for man and wrestled the ascendancy from McKinna. While Song, Milicevic, D’Apuzzo and Kennedy have been the stand-outs, Culina is also getting handy contributions from the likes of Hoffman, Rooney, Topor-Stanley and a few others. Building a nice little fortress at home.

Sydney, 7.5
Very solid defensively, there is still much improvement, despite heading the table and being undefeated in 13 pre-season games and four regular season games. Despite playing a ridiculous amount of long balls in round three, Keller has fitted in seamlessly alongside Colosimo, while Byn has been solid at left back. Even Cole has been doing well the past couple of weeks, while Bolton has grabbed his chance since getting the nod ahead of Necevski. In attack, Sydney has shown some wonderful transition, getting me forward quickly, but they are still lacking fluency. Danning started the season on fire, but has been beaten the past couple of weeks, while Bridge, Aloisi, Brosque and Corica have been up and down. The energy from Kisel and McFlynn in central midfield has been high, but the passing, at times, has been astray.

Gold Coast, 8
Untouchable for three rounds, they came back to field in a big way on Sunday, having their colours lowered by some sound Branko Culina strategies and perhaps a bit of belief in their own publicity. Kaka and Messi for the past fortnight, suddenly the likes of Caravella and Fitzsimmons were human again, while van den Brink’s lack of pace brought back memories of the Pasha Bulker for some locals. Up until then they had been great, playing a beautiful brand of pass and move. Thwaite was the obvious exception on Sunday, while Anderson did ok off the bench.

Tony’s team of round 4 (4-4-2, manager of the week, Branko Culina)

—————–Galekovic————-

———————————————-

DeVere—–Todd—Thwaite —–Byun

———————————————

———– ——Talay——————-

——————Srhoj——————-

Bertos ————————– Henrique

———————————————

————McBreen—-Fowler———

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