The New Year celebrations must of been a frustrating time for fans of Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC as they ended 2011 half way through a season blighted by inconsistency.
After signing high-profile Socceroos in the offseason to complement already strong squads – Harry Kewell heading south of the border and Brett Emerton north – anticipation was unsurprisingly high for the league’s two most demanding clubs.
Yet both the Sky Blues and Victory have had to watch as their smaller neighbours the Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Heart set the pace at the top of the standings.
With both clubs and their marquees struggling to find a high level of consistency in their performances, one question getting a lot of air time is how can the A-League’s two most successful sides get the most out of their million dollar men?
Calls for the two marquees to “stand-up” and carry their team-mates are misguided and so the answer, in a way, is to simply disregard them. (http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/time-has-come-for-sydney-fcs-brett-emerton-to-produce-form-he-was-recruited-for-robbie-slater-says/story-e6frf4gl-1226234396729)
The issue for Sydney and Melbourne is not how can they get the two highest paid players on their wage bill firing but the squad in general.
The A-League has evolved beyond a one-man squad – in fact it never really was at such a undeveloped level – and so neither player alone will solve their club’s problems.
Instead both clubs require a functioning squad, albeit one that is set up to maximise its players best features.
Barcelona’s tactical maestro Pep Guardiola made this very point recently in an interview with FIFA.com.
“People talk about tactics, but when you look at it, tactics are just players,” he said.
“You change things so that the team can get the most out of the skills they have to offer, but you don’t go any further than that.”
Former Chelsea and AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, who has just taken charge of Paris St German, is another tactician who’s greatest strength lies in this very point.
While Ancelotti can be prone to struggling when faced with a difficult tactical problem, what he will provide his new club though is someone who can set his team up to get the best out of his players’ abilities and strengths.
Just like he did at Chelsea, he’ll bring them to a certain level.
So the first step for Victory and Sydney to take advantage of their two marquees players is to get their squad functioning somewhere near their true capabilities.
The question then is can Viteslav Lavicka at Sydney and Mehmet Durakovic at Melbourne achieve this and just as importantly if not is there anyone available who actually could?
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