They have a star-studded forward line and one of the most functional defences in the A-League, but Mehmet Durakovic’s Melbourne Victory is sorely missing the connection in the middle of the park.
After clinching their first home victory last Sunday the Victory appeared to have shrugged off the offensive problems that had besieged them in the early stages but they were spoon fed a dose of reality on Saturday night.
In fairness, had referee Jared Gillett done his job and awarded a penalty for Nikolai Topor-Stanley’s unbecoming lunge on Archie Thompson the match would likely have finished 2-2, and the story far different.
But the truth is a draw would simply have continued to mask a problem that has been festering since early October, and shows no signs of abating.
Both with and without the ball Melbourne have a gaping hole in the middle of the park and if Durakovic can’t find a way to plug it, his side will be going nowhere.
Not that the coach himself thought there was an issue on Saturday night.
“In patches we played some really good football,” Durakovic said after the match.
“The short, sharp passing that we tried to play at training to try and implement in the game, I thought we did that.”
Short, sharp passing? Really?
Admittedly the Carlos Hernandez goal came on the back of a neat interchange with Harry Kewell, albeit aided by Newcastle’s back four gifting Hernandez two yards of space on the edge of the area.
The goal was somewhat against the run of play – although that would be giving the Jets, who were only marginally better, more credit than they deserve.
Apart from that, the Victory struggled to get a foothold in the first half and it was the bald-headed trio of Wheelhouse, Wehrman and Zadkovich who won the midfield battle and directed traffic as they saw fit.
The problem as I see it lies with their deep-lying midfield position, filled by Leigh Broxham in the first half and Grant Brebner in the second, after Broxham shifted to right back.
What Durakovic needs from this position is a player who can simply keeping the ball ticking over and when possible, find the more-advanced Hernandez to then release the likes of Kewell and Thompson.
Neither Brebner nor Broxham, two relics of the more-direct Merrick era, seem capable of fulfilling this role.
In a side who seem to be top-heavy higher up the pitch they become swamped by 2 v 1 midfield situations when it is Melbourne’s turn to defend and it’s creating too much pressure for the back four to handle.
Unfortunately for Durakovic no ready-made remedy seems available to fill this role, and we know that time is most certainly not on his side.
What might be the most suitable short-term solution is moving to a more conventional formation and having an extra midfielder slot in to the middle of the park and reducing the cavernous gap that often seems to exist between the midfielders and strikers.
With Carlos Hernandez appearing on the cusp of returning to the form that has made him one of the best players in the competition, a simple re-jig behind him might be all that this team needs to start firing.
Four goals masked what was in reality a relatively poor contest between two sides struggling for answers on Saturday night.
If Mehmet genuinely believes that his side “played the game we wanted to play” and blames the non-call on Thompson for his side’s demise, he really can’t see the forest for the trees.
Ultimately, it will cost him job if it isn’t rectified soon.
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