- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Melbourne City have scratched out just one of the last available 12 points. They’ve scored just three goals in their last four games. In their last turn, they were overwhelmed by a Perth team missing two of its three best players, a team who were led to victory instead by a rambunctious 16-year-old winger.
Having begun the season with a four-game unbeaten streak, things have curdled.
Following the mutual termination of Michael Valkanis’s contract on Tuesday, a blunt piece of news flatly delivered by the club, it is tempting to start waving the crisis flag around, especially as it’s sure to flap pleasingly on the gusty rumours of Tim Cahill’s audible discontent. But to gleefully unfurl it at this point would be to underestimate the grit of Warren Joyce, as well as the level of commitment the club have to him and his methods.
It’s quite easy to forget that City are still a wounded animal; the impact of Bruno Fornaroli’s absence has been disguised by City’s strong start, as well as by the swift acquisition of Ross McCormack. McCormack has turned every City set piece within 25 metres into a genuine goal-scoring chance, but City have been conspicuously impotent in open play, impotent in exactly the kind of way Fornaroli’s sudden invention would help to reinvigorate.
The hot start of Bruce Kamau cooled off rather quickly, and no one – outside of McCormack – has stepped up since. It’s difficult, but final judgement over City’s attack – and Joyce’s ability to arrange it effectively – should really be withheld until Fornaroli returns.
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
With that said, it is still clear that City are at a tilting point. And when you’re trudging through a rough patch, every chink in the armour must be patched and hammered out in order to survive.
Although Valkanis’s departure was amicable, his termination was a decision made over an issue of compatibility, specifically with manager Joyce. Valkanis has been something of a City project over the last few years; the club has dedicated a lot to Valkanis’s development as a coach.
That process began as an assistant to John van’t Schip, was continued during a period working under Roy Hodgson and on development trips to Yokohama F. Marinos – another horse in the City Group’s stable – and culminated in his appointment to the head coaching role last season.
Even after he was overlooked as a long-term candidate for that role in favour of Joyce, he was retained as an assistant. City had a lot invested in Valkanis, and the fact his time at the club has been so abruptly concluded is a testament to the dedication City have to their manager. Furthermore, it illustrates just how resolutely Joyce is prepared to act to unify his team, to solidify focus and morale during a trying period.
This brings us to the Cahill issue. Cahill chose the crowning moment of Australia’s hugely tense World Cup qualification campaign as his platform to demand more playing time at club level. His words, spoken with millions of eyes and ears trained on him, were surely designed to put pressure on Joyce. How this will be digested by the City manager, we’ll have to wait to see, although Cahill again started on the bench against Perth.
Why did Cahill choose that moment to complain about club minutes? Let’s take a look at what has happened over the past few months: Cahill has started five of the last 13 Socceroos matches, both competitive and friendly. Just one of those games – the extra-time crunch win over Syria in the second play-off leg – saw Cahill play out the full match.
In eight of those 15 fixtures, Cahill has taken the field for 20 or fewer minutes, or not at all. At the national level, he appears to be an impact substitute that is then recruited into the starting XI for the biggest fixtures – the final Confederations Cup game against Chile, the Syria match in which he scored twice, and the ultimate game against Honduras.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
This is his role, one not quite as involved as other players, but a nonetheless important one set in stone under Ange Postecoglou.
That last point is crucial; Cahill has been an unwavering, dedicated lieutenant under Ange, publicly backing him even when the sentiment around his tenure was at its most caustic. He was loyal to Ange, and Ange was loyal to him.
Now, when Cahill made his comments in the aftermath the Honduras playoff victory, it was not publicly known that Postecoglou would resign from his position as national team manager, but it was suspected, and may well have been known to Cahill.
He might already have been thinking about life under a new Socceroos manager, a foreign one perhaps, a person who might not view Cahill as the squad stalwart that Postecoglou did. The soon-to-be 38-year-old, who would like to play at a fourth World Cup, decided then to make a power play, suddenly fearful that his role at City might not be sufficient to earn him re-selection under a new Socceroos regime.
The truth, however, is the manner in which Cahill has been used by Joyce at City isn’t that dissimilar to the way Ange utilised him. Cahill has appeared in five of City’s eight league games so far, missing three games thanks to national team commitments. Of those five appearances, four have been as a substitute, with only one of those a match in which Cahill appeared for more than 20 minutes.
What’s the one match Cahill has started? Well, it was the top-of-the-table clash with Sydney FC in October, a match that unfortunately saw Cahill crumple to the turf with an ankle injury after just 24 minutes. For City, Cahill is an impact-sub-cum-big-game-starter, just like he is for Australia.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Joyce doesn’t seem the type to bend under player pressure, even if the player in question is a national icon and Australia’s most beloved Socceroo.
His two-goal haul against Syria, his vigorous Confeds Cup effort against Chile, the resilience shown to come back from injury and contribute against Honduras; these are all compelling arguments for Cahill’s remaining inclusion in the national team selection conversation.
The 2017/18 A-League season is still young, with plenty of time to gather up the playing minutes before the finals. Cahill is trying to strong-arm a manager who enjoys the full backing of the club, who is trying to carry out his own mandate, and who just cut a long-time assistant without remorse.
At a time when, under duress, the club is trimming troublesome fat, Cahill does not want to be shorn off too.