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Sydney FC reared up last year, head and shoulders above the rest of the league, and in doing so made a meaty target of their own head.
A steely march to a dominant premiership-and-championship double is a difficult thing to repeat the next season, even with their key stars re-signed, and with more shipped in. The methods that flummoxed the rest of the league last season have been marinating in the enemy managers’ minds, and they’ve all – to one degree or another – spent the off-season furiously filing away at a key that will unlock the Sky Blue fortress and bring the empire crumbling to the ground.
But there has been no breach in 2017-18, not yet at least. Sydney are still the best team in the league, with the best goal difference and meanest defence, with more wins and fewer losses than every other A-League team.
Their dominance has not been clearly eroded, and it’s as much due to the way they manage their opponents in-game – and by extension the season generally- as it is the shortcomings of their rivals. Sydney know they are the prize heavyweight every other contender wants to knock off, and they are prepared not just to receive their enemies’ best hay-maker, but parry it, and riposte.
Sydney allow a clear rhythm to form, one that has been present in most of their matches this season. Graham Arnold’s faith in his defence is totally justified, and it’s upon them he heaps responsibility at the start of matches.
The 4-4-2 that Sydney slide into when defending as a team is the formation they take up when greeting the early energy thrown at them by the opponent; Milos Ninkovic and Adrian Mierzejewski play as defence-minded wingers, keeping quite wide, protecting and assisting the full-backs.
The central pair, Josh Brillante and Brandon O’Neill, are combative and diligent, and refrain from risky, ambitious passes. Alex Brosque presses from the front, and harries defenders who step into the midfield. Naturally, too, there are fewer Jordy Buijs dalliances into the attacking third.
It is a superbly designed defensive structure, with no obvious weak spots and, more often than not, it can resist just about anything thrown at it.
But what it does do is – on the surface at least, and this is often confirmed by the fairly superficial musings of the match-call team – give the impression that Sydney are struggling, that the opponent is applying telling pressure, pinning them back, shoving their will right down Sydney’s throat.
Over Christmas, in conversation with a close relative of mine who has attended every Sydney home game for the past five or so seasons – an extremely astute observer of the game who articulated this particular rhythm to me – he told me that, in the recent Sydney win over Melbourne City, a friend of his was hand-wringingly anxious after City had opened the scoring, convinced that Sydney were on the verge of some pitiful collapse that would hand the contest to the visitors.
My relative had to reassure him that – although conceding wasn’t exactly part of the plan – Sydney were not as dazed and punch-drunk as they perhaps seemed. In other words, the switch had not yet been flicked.
(AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
Having seen Luke Brattan open the scoring in the 37th minute, Sydney promptly scored twice and were in front by halftime. This is where the rhythm suddenly quickens, and the defensive formation reshapes itself: Ninkovic and Miezejewski are suddenly seen sliding in to the interior, collecting the ball off the centre backs or slipping forward into a No. 10 position, and now the full-backs are surging forward, filling the vacated wide areas, running onto Buijs’s lofted diagonals that are now being hit.
The central pairing are suddenly taking more risks, drawing out defenders and passing ambitiously, instead of patiently keeping possession. The passes are being woven through the tight midfield spaces, and a cutting through an opponent that, until now, thought they were firmly in control.
It was, though, a false sense of security, a blanket Sydney allowed them to wrap themselves in, and are now suddenly stripping from their warm, tender bodies. Usually, this switch is flicked as the first half rolls into its last 15 minutes.
This is all an eye-test assessment, but it’s supported by the fact Sydney have scored inside the opening 15 minutes in just three of their 12 matches this season, and have scored eight of their 27 total goals – just under a third – within 15 minutes of the halftime break.
It might also explain why they tend to concede more at home than on the road – a surprising statistical fact, with an average of 1.17 goals conceded at home, to 0.50 conceded away. Perhaps it’s less tolerable to begin the game so defensively when at home; certainly it’s more appropriate to do it on the road.
Additionally, there are psychological benefits to cultivating this type of first-half rhythm. A team, fired up to play the champions, has no doubt been reminded by their manager of the need to impress with early aggression, to catch a smug superior team resting on their laurels.
If, having done just that, pinning back Sydney, perhaps even scoring first, they then fall victim to a ruthless reversal, a sudden parry-and-riposte, and go into the break trailing, the psychological wound that leaves can keep a team limping through the remainder of the match. They served up what they though was their best, and it was generously humoured for a time by Sydney, before being callously undressed.
The suddenness with which the transition occurs also disguises its mechanisms from the opponent, and keeps them from immediately identifying where their own approach might be improved; it’s given an artificial, temporary buff by Sydney’s initial defensive-mindedness.
How often have you seen a Sydney game – this season and last – that has gone this way? Where the opponent looks great in the first half an hour, and then Sydney turn it on and finish the half firmly on top? This is deliberate, and it’s working, not just in individual matches, but in the larger context of the last season-and-a-half.
(AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)
There are risks – Central Coast showed in their 2-0 win that meeting Sydney, at home, with a counter-attacking strategy, can be rewarding. The Mariners are second in the league in average possession, but were well below their normal percentage in that game, despite being at home.
Their counter-attacking, with moments of superlative, high-speed incision, cut through the Sydney defence with startling ease, and their struggles since have, in a way, shown how rare that kind of attacking fluidity is.
But largely – and especially against the more offensively potent teams in the league – it has proven a nigh-unbeatable strategy for Sydney, and Arnold must be credited for it. Crucially, it’s the sort of versatility seen in players like Ninkovic – the best attacker in the league who is also more than capable of grinding in defence – or Buijs – a centre back who enjoys nothing more than making a defence-splitting pass – that makes this system viable; the transition could not happen without them.
It also relies heavily on the Sydney defence, which has consistently shouldered the responsibility. The next time you watch a Sydney FC match, see if you can detect it; that’s the sound of a dominant team keeping their championship rhythm ticking.