‘Tis with a sweet feeling of vindication that these words are so eloquently put to page. Sweatily pouring over the scribbling of my last column, I paused to reflect on the first and only salient point made and smiled.
Clearly, Melbourne Victory’s coach, Mehmet Durakovic, read my observation at the time and has determined it to be truth.
That is to play Carlos Hernandez deeper and let him have the ball.
This weekend’s result against Wellington Phoenix demonstrated the importance of giving the ball to Carlos at every opportunity available. His vision and range of passing was integral to nearly every Victory attack.
Hernandez wanted the ball at his feet. He hovered in front of the back four, demanding the ball, eager to pull the strings on yet another forward thrust. It was telling that Hernandez was spotted shouting angrily at Matthew Foschini and Lee Broxham throughout the match for opting to pass the ball back to Covic, rather than use Hernandez as an outlet.
Hernandez controlled the match, playing Archie Thompson and Harry Kewell in behind the Wellington defense on numerous occasions with superb passes. His ability, with a flick of his hips, to find a modicum of space and thread the ball to a teammate is outstanding.
As significant as that was, it was just as significant that any semblance of creative spark was quickly extinguished when Hernandez was subbed off.
While I could sit here and espouse rhetorically on how good I think the former Johnny Warren Medalist is, another player that caught my eye, for a very different reason, was Billy Celeski.
The knee injury in 2009 had seemed to curtail the growth of the promising Celeski. His recovery and subsequent return has left a large portion of the Victory faithful, myself included, feeling as if his best was behind him.
For Celeski, this season has been one of renewed promise with a tinge of inconsistency. His performance against Wellington highlighted his importance to the Victory side. Not so much for his creative efforts, but for the shielding presence he provided for Hernandez.
So what was it that Celeski did exactly? Sure, there were some neat turns, some short, crisp passing, some ordinary tackling but these aren’t the things I’m thinking of. Celeski ran. And ran and ran and ran.
Now the football purists won’t see this as something worth talking about. The “we need to produce footballers not athletes” mantra will be chanted till John Kosmina gets another coaching job. Oh.
Celeski’s running on Sunday was as vital to Victory’s win, as Carlos’ passing was. It wasn’t simply running for the sake of it, it was running to close down the opposition and provide Hernandez with room to sneak into. It was running into space to receive the ball, often from the Costa Rican, and then more running, once he’d passed the ball again.
Pass and move, I believe it’s called.
In tandem, Hernandez and Celeski worked and worked well. One created space for the other but in very different ways; Hernandez with a little shimmy, Celeski with an intelligent run.
The trick for Durakovic and his staff now is to find a replacement to do what Celeski can, for what is proves to be a fascinating Melbourne derby.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Phillip Agree on all points - mind you, it has been such an indifferent start to the season, the bar for best performance is not too high!! :)
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
You are right Cattery that Victory didn't control the game after the 40 min mark. They played a mixed second half doing most of their attacking on the break and in fact they completely lost shape in the last 20 minutes when the substitutions were happening. I think this might also be a fitness issue as I am sure the stats show that Victory have conceded many more goals in the second half than in the first half this year. That said, it was Victory's best performance by far this season and if they can show a little further improvement this weekend we are in for a great derby.
Benzema23
Guest
Actually Marcos Flores is the most gifted footballer to have played in the A-League...
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Dean only saw it on TV, and to me it looked like Carlos stopped collecting from deep soon after the 3 goal buffer was created, whereas earlier on, it was far more noticeable - I gave three other reasons as to why this might have happened. Either way, the Victory did not control this game from around the 40 min mark onwards.
Dean
Guest
Cattery, I'm sorry but it's impossible to assess any footballer's work-rate by watching the game on TV. You are absolutely wrong about Carlos's "running out of puff" when we were 3-0 up. His work rate was phenomenal right until he was subbed in the 71'. In fact, Carlos not only worked deep in MVFC's own half to distribute the ball, he also ran 1/2 the length of the field to create a beautiful 1-on-1 with the Nix GK and (inexplicably) put the ball wide. If there's one player in the HAL i would normally back 100% in a 1-on-1 it is Carlos. You should come to an MVFC game if you live in Melbourne and you will see just how much hard Carlos works when he doesn't have the ball.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
When the game was there for the taking early on, it was quite noticeable that Carlos was dropping deep, deeper than I've ever seen him, sometimes taking the ball off the toes of Leijer, and it worked, he could turn around in space, and pick his passes with ease, and it was noticeable that the Nix were happy to let him drop deep. Once the Victory got 3 goals in front, Carlos stopped coming deep for balls, either: 1. he had already run out of puff; 2. his marker started following him forward, so there was less value in Carlos making the effort; 3. once in front, he allowed Broxham to do the honours while he took up his normal position; and/or 4. with Nix now forced to chase the game, it made sense that he take up a more usual media punta role, because the gaps were going to open up. It has to be said that the Nix started getting on top at this point, from around late in the first half. They didn't really have the werewithal to make it count at the pointy end, but it would be a grave mistake to believe that the Victory controlled this game till the end - they didn't.
evukovic
Roar Rookie
I mentioned the same thing to a friend of mine the other day. If you're not going to play Carlos deeper, you could try Harry. However, I think Harry is best suited up forward with Archie.
evukovic
Roar Rookie
Thanks mate. Appreciate it. I
Los Oso
Guest
Excellent piece mate
Titus
Guest
FF--its "Hernandez" not "Henandez" : )
Philip
Guest
Nice piece, evukovic. For the first 30 minutes of so of each half on Sunday, Carlos looked as keen as he has been for some time to get on the ball and build the play. Watching him collect the ball of Leijer and start the attacks from defence was great to see. And as you say Celeski did a lot of running and covering. I said on another page somewhere that I would like to see Kewell playing the deeper role and feeding the ball to Carlos/Archie. Like Carlos, Kewell has superb passing skills and can read the play and he is wasted up front if no one is getting the ball to him (admittedly he got a load of it on the weekend). Perhaps they should rotate the two players or do a switch on the 25-30 minute mark when Carlos seems to run out of puff. As for Celeski, both yellow cards were soft but both were justified. He should be kicking himself - and Mehm should be kicking him too - for a stupid arm across the Nix player which was obvious, pointless, and down right annoying to see, as it rules him out of the derby when he has been in pretty good form over recent weeks.
evukovic
Roar Rookie
Thanks for pointing that out. I also noticed a transition of thought mistake in the last sentence regarding "proves to be". Perhaps I need to spend more time reviewing and editing before submitting my blatherings.
SVB
Guest
Dean I think with Brisbance it is more a lack of confidence than anything else. I actually am puzzled as to why they are playing so badly without Broich. The others players in the squad are more than capable. The one thing that MV can take heart from is that Celeski is playing well, and a young player like Diogo Fererra is coming through nicely. If Kewell starts to hit form and Rojas starts playing with the potential he has than they will be a lot more dangerous side. On Kewell does anyone notice that his ball control and first touch is what is causing him all his problems. Victory should play him up front as a striker alongside or just behind Archie where he is running onto balls and hitting shots or putting in headers.. This is when he is most dangerous. Putting him out on the wing where he is tightly marked and then having to beat defenders one on one is making him look average. Even I can read what he is going to do from my TV set.
French Fries
Guest
poring not pouring. Sorry to be anal but as a writer you might like to get your words correct - especially if you want to write eloquently. :-) Yes you're right, Henandez needs to be the fulcrum of MVFC and anything else is squandering a big talent. There looks to be a good partnership developing with him & Kewell.
Roger
Guest
Agree, except that the last 3 games have been pretty good.
mahony
Guest
+3
Roger
Guest
+2
Wotdoo
Guest
+1
Wotdoo
Guest
Victory have been playing terrible football throughout the year yet we are still only 1 win from 3rd place heart who have been playing some great football. Once they click look out
Dean
Guest
SVB, you could say the same about many teams. With Thomas Broich, Brisbane Roar did not lose for 35 consecutive games; without Thomas Broich, Brisbane has not won the past 4 games and only managed to score 2 goals in those 4 games. Is that pure coincidence or is there a connection? Far more likely that : "without Thomas Broich Brisbane would be closer to the bottom of the table". For, MVFC the effort is not so concentrated. Carlos & Archie have been vital for MVFC and I would add Ante Covic to that list. So, MVFC has 3 players - i.e. 30% of the team - who are very important. Sounds about right to me. But, unlike Brisbane's reliance on Broich, it's worth noting that Archie, Carlos & Ante have been missing from the MVFC team at various stages this season and MVFC has not lost a single game when these players were missing. And, I totally agree with everything written in this article. Carlos is, without doubt, the most gifted footballer ever to have played in the HAL. He has everything: strong on the ball, deadly from free-kicks, scores in open play on the run, exquisite passing skills, excellent vision and, against GCU, he showed us he is able to score in the air. No other player can boast such a diverse range of attributes.