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Those of you at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday, or watching on Fox Sports, will have seen the influence a pair of creative attacking minded players can have in liberating an attack. Sydney FC went into the match against AEK with a flat line of four across the midfield and very little creative presence centrally.
And they paid for it in a big way as AEK took complete control, with influential performances from playmakers Nikos Liberopoulos and Ignaccio Scocco.
How Sydney missed its own creator, marquee Nicky Carle.
Even Dimitri Petratos, who has been filling in for Sydney’s injured schemer for much of the pre-season, and been doing an admirable job for one so young, was missed against AEK (he was in Vietnam scoring for the Young Socceroos against South Korea), as Sydney lacked a connection between the midfield and front two.
Earlier in the pre-season we saw the influence another diminutive number 10 in Marcelo Canete had for Boca Juniors, both against the Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix.
It is refreshing, therefore, to hear that the Central Coast Mariners, under new manager Graham Arnold, will be relying on a 168 centimetre (5’5’’ in the old scale) creative type for the upcoming season.
The hope is 25 year old Argentine Patricio Perez (pictured above on the weekend in his first hit-out, against the Melbourne Victory), who will be playing at the head of Arnold’s midfield diamond, in behind two strikers, sets the A-League alight.
In eight days time, when the sixth season of this under-appreciated competition kicks-off at a new stadium, with a new team in the Melbourne Heart and two new managers in the dug-out, as many eyes will invariably be on the Mariners’ new playmaker.
Perez is exactly the type of player this developing league needs, and needs to do well, the type capable, if he gets going, of putting bums on seats, whether for his dribbling, link-up play or work at the set piece.
Arnold made no secret, when he took on the role, of his desire to sign a number 10, someone he described at the time as being “a bit like Lionel Messi”.
Not many of them around, you would suggest.
Anyway, he at least found a kid who was a teammate of Messi’s at the 2005 Under 20s World Cup in Holland, which Argentina won, with Messi starring.
While Perez didn’t make it off the bench throughout the tournament, he did don the number 10 jersey. Just a pity that he had to compete with the likes of Messi and Sergio Aguero for minutes.
Since then, it’s fair to say, Perez’s career hasn’t quite taken off in the manner of his two compatriots. After being loaned out to a few clubs by Velez Sarsfield, last season he was at second division Defensa y Justicia where he bagged five goals in 28 appearances.
Here’s Arnold; “I’ve seen Patricio play live on several occasions in Argentina and I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen, so we’re hopeful he will live up to that expectation and be a hit in the A-League. On the occasions I saw him play he scored two great goals and created plenty more chances for his strikers. He is an attacking midfielder who scores goals, has a great work rate and is also very creative. He is only small in stature but is so strong both on and off the ball, has wonderful vision and will bring plenty of excitement to the fans at Bluetongue Stadium, which is something I have set out to achieve from day one.”
It’s some endorsement.
Perez apparently had offers from Portugal and Greece, but was impressed by the attention Arnold put into getting his signature. He has signed for two seasons.
While his English is said to be on the improve, thanks in part to the translation work of goalkeeping coach John Crawley and Dutch recruit Patrick Zwaanswijk, both of whom speak Spanish, he is said to be loving life on the Central Coast, and gelling well with the squad.
The Mariners, and Arnold in particular, are to be commended for their enterprise.
The club have copped some criticism over the past few years for their rough and rugged style, but there is little doubt the manager is trying to address the style by introducing of some quality technical players in Perez and young Australian Oliver Bozanic, back on the Central Coast after a stint in the UK.
In many ways, Arnold is simply carrying on the good work started by Lawrie McKinna in the transfer market about this time last year.
Many will remember he brought in two crafty British midfielders in Michael McGlinchey and Nicky Travis. The latter was a very smooth operator but appeared to have a falling out with McKinna after an error gifted the Brisbane Roar a crucial win at Bluetongue late in the season. He’s barely been sighted since.
McGlinchey, though, is still around, and, having been to the World Cup with New Zealand, will be looking to take his game to another level. This season looks set to be deployed on the right side of Arnold’s midfield diamond.
The word is he and Perez complimented each other well during the weekend’s scoreless draw with the Victory in Launceston, a game the Mariners are said to be unlucky not to have won.
Perez got 70 odd minutes, his first hit-out since May, and is said to have done very well, setting up a disallowed goal with a free kick.
While I’ve yet to see Perez in flesh, I got a taste of what we might expect to see from Arnold this season in a recent warm-up game against Sydney FC at the Sydney Showground, and while it finished 2-2, I felt the Mariners were the better side.
Arnold is set to play with a 4-4-2, with a midfield diamond. The experienced John Hutchinson looks set to start at the base, there to sit, keep the shape and knock the ball around. You won’t see him driving forward too often, it seems.
That day Arnold had impressive 17 year old Mustafa Amini, a pick up from the AIS, at the head of his diamond, in the Perez role, with McGlinchey to the right and Oliver Bozanic to the left.
The latter two tucked in, allowing space for the fullbacks, Brad Porter on the right, and Joshua Rose on the left, to get forward.
The 21 year old Bozanic, with his lovely first touch and movement, caught the eye that evening, and looks a great get, another young Australian technical player with heaps of potential. Hopefully Arnold can nurture it.
His combination with Rose, the former New Zealand Knights player, who looks to have refined his game with a stint in Romania, was good.
To the right of Rose, in the centre of defence, was the experienced Zwaanswijk. While he only had 45 minutes that night, he looked composed, and a good user of the ball.
Arnold, it seems, wants to get the ball down and play out, understandable when you have ball-players of the ilk of McGlinchey, Perez and Bozanic in midfield.
Up front is where he might do with more subtlety. Here he partnered Matt Simon with Adam Kwasnik, and that seems to be his first choice. Kwasnik has been in excellent pre-season form.
Also available up front are Daniel McBreen and Nik Mrdja, and with Perez feeding the lot of them, the Mariners might be among the goals.
Elsewhere, the manager has brought in a bevy of youngsters, with Amini and Bozanic complimented by the likes of Trent Sainsbury and Marc Warren. Between the sticks comes in another local, Jess Vanstratten.
It’s been an impressive off-season in Gosford, and if Perez is a success at pulling the strings, anything is possible.
The Mariners 4-4-2 diamond formation;
————————————Jess Vanstrattan—————————-
————————————————————————————
Brad Porter—–Alex Wilkinson——Patrick Zwaanswijk—-Joshua Rose
————————————————————————————-
———————————–John Hutchinson———————————
————Michael McGlinchey——————Oliver Bozanic————–
————————————Patricio Perez———————————-
—————————————————————————————
————————–Matt Simon———Adam Kwasnik——————-
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