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Whether it be through tactical ineptitude or players not following instructions, Melbourne Victory play their football with not enough emphasis on the most dangerous position on the park.
The central attacking midfield position has been criminally ignored all season by the A League’s most disappointing team.
Carlos Hernandez and before him Fred played this role to perfection under Ernie Merrick but the former has been out of form this season.
Coupled with this, Mehmet Durakovic was unable to get the team playing in a cohesive manner and problems persist with northern Irishman Jim Magilton now in charge.
During Saturday night’s nil all draw with Melbourne Heart the issue was glaringly prevalent. The numbingly defense minded central midfield combination of Leigh Broxham and Grant Brebner simply sat too close to their defence.
Further to this, Harry Kewell and Marco Rojas positioned themselves in wide positions whilst the strike partnership of Archie Thompson and Jean Carlos Solorzano opted to hang onto the last man of Heart’s defense.
A cavernous hole was present in the middle of the Victory’s formation. Rojas received the ball countless times from the back. He would set off on a marauding run, sometimes beat players but most of the time draw at least two.
What he needed was a player inside of him, manning the central attacking hole, to play the ball too. However he was forced to attempt miraculous crosses or simply keep bounding forward to no avail.
Kewell, who admittedly had a poor game, suffers from the same issue. He has developed a decent relationship on the left flank with full back Fabio and Melbourne look most potent when they are able to overlap each other and either one of them distribute the ball into the box.
Fabio also is skilled at intercepting and his timing allows him to occasionally sling shot into deep central attacking positions.
However when either of these two get into those spaces they have no other option than to attempt to play the strikers through. They would be better off having a player in the central attacking the position to bounce the ball of and create more unpredictable passes for the defense to try and deal with.
Victory’s main attacking arterial’s whilst being plundered by the Heart on Saturday night were to attempt chips over the top of the defense for Thompson and Solorzano to run onto or break through on the counter attack.
Both of these ploys are the polar opposite to current world footballing trends which focus on dynamic patient build up play and technical superiority of players in deep attacking positions.
Is the answer to deploy Kewell into such a position? I think it would be a good move. The Victory are now desperate and must try something different. But first and foremost they must actually show they can play the passing brand of football Magilton said he prefers when he came here.
Moreover they cannot play with Brebner and Broxham in the same team. Whilst the dynamic duo of Celeski and Ferreira are unavailable and Hernandez is out of form, Kewell should have his chance as Melbourne’s central attacking pivot.
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