Can Brisbane Roar mount a strong A-League defence?
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New coach, different approach, same attitude. Long-time assistant Rado Vidosic officially took the reins of A-League champions Brisbane Roar for the first time on Monday, vowing to be a hands-on head coach while sounding like hard-nosed predecessor Ange Postecoglou.
“We know that we’ve been front-runners in the A-League for the past two seasons and we want to make sure the gap between us and the rest is getting even wider,” Vidosic said at the end of their first pre-season training session.
Despite Postecoglou now at the Melbourne Victory and plotting to bring Brisbane down, Vidosic, a loyal lieutenant since the club’s 2005 inception, is supremely confident the defending champions can continue their dominance.
He cited the main difference as his close-contact approach to coaching, rather than becoming a more detached manager, something his senior players want.
“Seven years as an assistant coach and I was much closer to players than the head coach so I don’t need to change that,” Vidosic said. “I still want to be as close to players as I was before.
“I need to see how it will go and sometimes I think I’ll have to show my dark side as well – we’ll see.”
Working in favour of the Croatia-born former schoolteacher is the Roar have retained all but one of their starting 11 from this year’s 2-1 grand final victory over Perth Glory.
A the start of last season, Postecoglou had to steer a ship missing skipper Matt McKay, Luke DeVere, Kosta Barbarouses, Jean Carlos Solorzano and Milan Susak.
Only Bahraini international Mohamed Adnan failed to return to training, deciding to return to his extended family in the Middle East and opening the door for Matt Jurman to regain a start in central defence.
While Adnan’s departure is a blow, the Roar have received an unexpected boost with creative midfielder Mitch Nichols back on deck after a trial with newly-promoted Danish club Randers.
“That’s a very good thing,” Vidosic said. “He trained four times with them and apparently the coach liked him but there were some problems internally so for us it’s a good solution.”
As well as Adnan, the Roar have farewelled Canadian Issey Nakajima-Farran to leave them with two foreign visa spots to fill beside Thomas Broich, Besart Berisha and Henrique.
They also lost reserve goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne to Melbourne and released fringe defender Matt Mundy but bolstered their squad, which currently sits at 19, with exciting Gold Coast youngster Ben Halloran.
© AAP 2013
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The Crowd Says (16) | Page 1 of Comments
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- A-League, Ange Postecoglou, Brisbane Roar, football
July 10th 2012 @ 8:00am
jbinnie said | July 10th 2012 @ 8:00am | Report comment
It is going to be very interesting to see how Rado imposes his own ideas on to a squad that has remained almost intact.The fact that he was the ‘assistant” for so long can also be used as a measure of two diametrically opposed factors,one being how much influence he had on how the team has played these last two years,the second being a measure of just how much,if at all, AP depended on the opinions of others in the management ” team”.
Rado’s right, he has to ensure the perceived gap between his team and others remains constant and that, although easily said, is not so easy to accomplish.Despite the huge amount of good press the Roar enjoyed over these two years,the learned observer knows that the team never actually reached it’s optimum performance over 90 minutes but did on many occasions demonstrate that they were capable of playing a level of football that was breathtaking in it’s application.However there were also times that the team fell into a lethargic litany of “square passing” that took them nowhere fast and actually caused many breaches in their defensive structure.
There is work to be done and it will be in this area that Rado will be judged for if he can raise the overall performance to nearer that optimim shown, he will have done a very good job.It is going to be an interesting journey. jb
July 10th 2012 @ 8:38am
Futbanous said | July 10th 2012 @ 8:38am | Report comment
Hard to judge as jbinnie states on how much input/influence Rado has had on the Roars success over the last 2 years.
Being the main man now we’ll soon find out.
The fact that he has been to FC Tokyo to learn a trick or two is a good sign for me that his football brain is not standing still.
It was noted by Foz when dissecting the performances of The Roar & FC Tokyo when they played in the ACL, that FC Tokyo played as he called it vertical football rather than the square passing mentioned.
If Rado is going to be working on this I would be confident we are heading in the right direction.
July 10th 2012 @ 10:25am
philipcoates said | July 10th 2012 @ 10:25am | Report comment
In my opinion we will not know this season if Rado is a success – we will only know if he is a failure.
If Brisbane are successful it will be very easy to say that they did it with a basically unchanged side from last year (not a luxury that occurs very often) and with players that Ange brought to the club and moulded. We will not know this year what is Rado’s influence and what is carry-over success from Ange’s time. On the other hand if Bris have a bad year, Rado will cop the blame having failed with a title winning squad.
Until Rado is tested with a squad substantially different to the one he has now, or if he plays a completely different game plan (unlikely), he will not be able to succeed in his own right.
July 10th 2012 @ 10:43am
Futbanous said | July 10th 2012 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Damned if he does damned if he dont.
Its debatable whether Ange brought players like Berisha & Broich to the club. Many attribute Rado with recruiting them due to his son Dario playing in Germany.
Personally as a fan I dont care about the semantics, if we continue to dominate the rest of the league the club is the winner. Coaches as Ange has shown come & go,unless your Sir Alex.
July 10th 2012 @ 11:04am
jbinnie said | July 10th 2012 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Philip – As a “pro” your answer surprises me. Last year,with a growing recognition among some clubs as how to stifle the type of football played by the Roar it became more & more evident to the knowlegeable observer there were certain areas in the Roar’s game,& personnel, that needed to be improved if the optimum football they were capable of playing was to be maintained for more than 45 mins. (I refer to the devastaing 2 halves of football they had against Perth & Adelaide as a yardstick). There was also a definitive weakness in their defensive set up that saw an amazing similarity in the way goals were scored against them.
So there are two areas where Rado,if in fact he had little impact on final selection of personnel & tactics, will be able to make definitive changes that will allow an improvement on the team’s overall play. If on the other hand he DID have input it will be equally interesting to see if he has learned &, as he says, can improve, in order to stay ahead of the field.
There are many like myself who think that for a GF winning team the Roar needed a strengthening of their squad & this is an area that to this point in time is slightly worrying for with the departure of a cultured player like Adnan & an excellent “deputy ” in Redmayne ,there is only the young Halloran signed so far to offset those losses.While they were chasing him I for one would have considered signing Thwaite as a multi -purpose defender for it is that area the squad was vulnerable & is still a bit thin on personnel.
Roar are entering an interesting phase of their development & there is little doubt in my mind that Rado’s performance in this area is going to make very interesting viewing.I think he HAS to change the game plan,not the philosophy, but the plan, not drastically, but in order to get the team up to it’s optimum performance, for that to some was an Achilles heel of AP’s,his refusal to recognise a very apparent weakness at the back of his defence & changing things,or people, to fill that gap. Bring it on. Cheers again. jb
July 12th 2012 @ 8:17am
The Bush said | July 12th 2012 @ 8:17am | Report comment
I’m also a little concerned at the lack of recruiting that has gone on. The Roar are not a young side developing, so for me this squad can only stay the same or get worse and to be frank, if they stay the same they won’t be champions (or premiers) at the end of the season.
I would have liked some recruiting in the midfield, remembering how tough we had it without Broich, and obviously we need to shore up the back now.
Still, this is sport, you can’t win forever!
July 16th 2012 @ 3:12pm
JamesJackson said | July 16th 2012 @ 3:12pm | Report comment
I agree and disagree at the same time. Yes, we need an experienced head in the back line that can stop us from gifting goals, but in that same sense then I think Paartalu needs to get on track and not give away possession in dangerous positions.
But when you say a not a ‘developing’ squad, I tend to lean towards disagreeing. The spine is not young and developing (Theo, Smith, Broich), but the supporting act definitely is. I’m excited to see how Halloran and Proia (who looks like a good talent with growth in him) go, and even guys like Franjic (24), Paartalu (26), Berisha (26) have yet to reach their peak hopefully, then the young brigade of Nichols (23), Hingert (21), Brattan (22), Halloran (20), Fitzgerald (20) and Jurman (22, and if he can be more consistent and energised), as well as up and comers Donachie and Proia, and I’d say the Roar do indeed have a young and developing squad. Just my .02
July 10th 2012 @ 11:49am
wisey_9 said | July 10th 2012 @ 11:49am | Report comment
The Roar have the cash to bring in an experienced international defender. It’ll be interesting to see who they go out and get.
I’m looking forward to seeing Ben Halloran slot into this side. He showed glimpses of genuine class last year, and will hopefully develop further when surrounded by this champion team.
July 11th 2012 @ 12:12pm
Chips Rafferty said | July 11th 2012 @ 12:12pm | Report comment
How long you been playing sockah son? Or carrying the clipboard?
No half decent international defender is gonna come to the Z league.
Halloran runs around like a headless chook.
Under a half decent clipboard carrier, like me, he’d develop into a decent footballer.
July 10th 2012 @ 11:51am
philipcoates said | July 10th 2012 @ 11:51am | Report comment
jb, as Rado has the same squad at his disposal I’m not sure he can play significantly differently (Berisha in goal would be interesting if only to watch his aggression coming out of crosses, ouch!), although Rado was on Fox Sport this morning saying they would play with ”a more direct style of football”. I agree Roar were great last year and yet far from perfect so there is room for improvement, but unless Rado makes a noticeable change we’ll still be watching the team that Ange once managed. Time will tell.
July 10th 2012 @ 2:53pm
Baz said | July 10th 2012 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
One of the away games I did last season was the Hearts game. AAMI park..rocks. Anyways, I was on the same flight as the Roar boys the next morning by chance. Rado and Matt Smith were having a coffee and had the laptop open looking over the goal the Heart scored and Rado was brilliant with Smith. The thing is, Matt Smith listened. Rado was animated and annoyed but at the same time was able to get Matt Smith to pinpoint where the issues were with the goal. It didn’t stop there, on the plane, he (smith) then approached Rado and looked over the goal again. The players around Rado were also looking and talking about it. The guys genuinely respect this guy and the way he was discussing how to improve, I was really impressed by Rado’s football brain.
The loss of Mo is big and his cover for Smith was massive in some big games. Whilst he was rubbish in ACL, I think alot of that came down to the fact he wanted to go home. I hope that the Bakeri’s will splash the cash and bring in two quality OS players and look at signing the likes of Spiranovic as a replacement. They guy is looking for a new club and wants Holger to look at him. There is our marquee spot and still gives us an opportunity to get two more players maybe a striker and another attacking MF. Henrique is also getting close to Citizenship as well, thus we possibly could have three spots available.
July 10th 2012 @ 3:01pm
MV Dave said | July 10th 2012 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
The first 2 games of the season may tell a story…away to PG in the GF rematch then home to MV. If they get 4 points they are well on the way to another good season. However 2 losses and the season may well become a long one…
July 11th 2012 @ 8:50am
Bondy said | July 11th 2012 @ 8:50am | Report comment
Good article I was thinking the same recently,that apart from the cocnsistency of the Mariners I cant really see any challengers to thier crown where in which worse case scenario would be for Rado possibly third.
July 11th 2012 @ 12:44pm
Sports Candy said | July 11th 2012 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
The Mariners are surely the most consistent A-League club and have the Premiers Plate but no Golden Toilet Seat.
Can they do it this season or proudly, but sullenly, wear the bridemaid’s veil once again.
July 11th 2012 @ 8:55am
O Pondios said | July 11th 2012 @ 8:55am | Report comment
I think Rado’s credentials as a coach are beyond question. The big question is ,is he a man manager?
Sometimes the manager has to be a bad cop in the dressing room and impose a discipline on the squad.
That’s the only question remaiming in my mind. Ange kept a professional distance from his players allowing him
to jump and dump on anyone not pulling their weight, will Rodo be able to do the same?
Time will tell.
July 11th 2012 @ 12:49pm
Sports Candy said | July 11th 2012 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
I don’t think Rado is in the same class as Ange and the Roar will fall about 4-6 places in the league this year. They’ll only pick up a couple of points in the first few games and start pointing fingers at each other.
MV and AU will bounce back to the top 2 this year and SFC will round out the top 3.
Having said that, the Roar has some very good players and they have a point to prove, as much as the coach does. Those Euro egos need to be travelling super good to keep the inner fires stoked, otherwise they have excuses ready made to use.