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In amongst the flow of the Brisbane Roar and stuttering of the Melbourne Victory, perhaps the A-League’s most consistent side goes about its business in a quiet, productive manner, continuing to build into its season.
I’m talking of course about the Central Coast Mariners, who moved into second place after their most impressive effort of the season away to Sydney FC on Saturday night.
Graham Arnold might not like hear it, preferring to sneak about unnoticed while others perish or prosper, but his team are already looking a tough nut to crack, improving by the week, with, I sense, much more to come.
After an average start to the campaign, which saw them pick up only one point from the opening three games, the team is now four games into an unbeaten run.
While the return of captain Alex Wilkinson, playing with his right arm heavily strapped, has been a key to turning things around, the work of Arnold in steadying the ship and getting it back on the right path hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Nor did his less auspicious work in the opening three rounds.
For example, Arnold’s decision to use Brad Porter in the centre of defence, while Wilkinson was recovering from injury, is one he’ll want to forget.
Indeed, it was undoubtedly Porter’s error in the F3 Derby, giving up the ball as he tried to play out, that forced Arnold to bring Wilkinson back in, perhaps ahead of plan.
Central defence wasn’t his only problem. In the opening three games he chopped and changed Matt Simon’s partner in the front line, with Michael Baird, Adam Kwasnik and Daniel McBreen each getting a crack, and not taking it.
Arnold also had a problem in behind the strikers.
Deploying one of his major off-season recruits, Adriano Pellegrino, in the number 10 role, his hope was that the former Glory flanker, who had previously shown an inclination to duck infield and influence the play centrally, could fill the void of the now departed Patricio Perez, and add support to Mustafa Amini.
The logic was that Amini was being nursed into the season after apparently coming back from international youth team duty a “mess”, suffering from osteitis pubis, which Arnold put down to a heavy workload.
Pellegrino, the theory went, would offer both the experience and craft while Amini’s body was managed carefully. By most accounts, he had a major influence on the Mariners preseason. It seemed a sensible call.
But it didn’t play-out that way, Pellegrino struggling to adapt to the lack of space and movement required to play in the middle.
By round four, struggling at the bottom and needing a result against the Glory, it was time for a re-think.
Wilkinson was back in alongside Patrick Zwaanswijk, powerful striker McBreen was deployed into the number 10 “playmaker” role, and Simon was given his fourth partner in as many weeks, with Bernie Ibini-Isei introduced to telling effect.
There was instant impact, particularly from Ibini, who added that little bit of subtlety in attack that the Mariners had hitherto missed, playing a part in the first, scoring the second.
While the next couple of weeks, featuring an away win at Wellington and a home draw to Melbourne Victory, were more about the Mariners ability to grind out a result, there were a few telling signs that their game was trending in the right direction.
The first was their ruthless defending. There’s no doubt Arnold went back to basics after the opening three rounds, ensuring the house was in order at the back.
Secondly, with McBreen at the head of the diamond, there emerged a real physicality about the Mariners, especially with a spine featuring Simon, McBreen, Rostyn Griffiths, Zwaanswijk and Wilkinson.
Against the Victory, the long and short of it was that McBreen and Griffiths were up against Leigh Broxham and Marco Rojas respectively in the centre of midfield.
Most of the time Rojas didn’t even bother jumping, he had no hope.
Apart from the general competitiveness across the pitch, what this physicality has provided is a concrete threat at just about every set piece, with Zwaanswijk, Griffiths, McBreen and Simon all monster targets.
It is something Arnold has clearly been working on.
Once again this physicality came to the fore against Sydney.
In the first half, as Terry McFlynn competed for everything, Sydney was right in the battle, even controlling proceedings at one point.
But when Vitezslav Lavicka withdrew McFlynn at the break for Bruno Cazarine, shifting Terry Antonis to the holding role and Nicky Carle to the head of his diamond, the momentum shifted.
But it wasn’t the way Lavicka had planned it. Instead of Sydney wrestling the control, it was the Mariners who got on top, as Antonis, in particular, struggled to cope with the defensive burden of dealing with McBreen, then a pumped up Amini.
The latter looked primed, dishing up a fantastic cameo, giving the Mariners more of a cutting edge than McBreen. Always looking forward, it was Amini’s best performance in months, the Young Socceroos included.
On the evidence of this half-hour, Arnold’s patient man-management of Amini could bear fruit for the Mariners, and Borussia Dortmund. He admitted after that he was close to starting him, but waited for the sting to go from the game. The move proved telling.
Another real positive against Sydney was the growing influence in the second half of his fullbacks, evidenced by the wonderful heads up cut-back by Pedj Bojic to tee up Michael McGlinchey.
Arguably the key part of their attack last season, the work of the fullbacks in forward motion had hitherto been poor this season, so Arnold will have been pleased by the influence here.
Having scored only five goals in the opening six games, he will have been pleased to bag three against Sydney, and, with the likes of Simon, McGlinchey and Amini finding some form, and Troy Hearfield and Pellegrino adding front third depth, he’ll hope for more improvement in the coming weeks.
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