To say that it’s been a difficult season for Melbourne Victory is almost an understatement. It has been catastrophic. Last weekend’s dysfunctional 90-minute display to bitter rival Sydney FC was a mere reflection of the campaign it has endured – sloppy, underwhelming and unacceptable.
Many have been quick to condemn the navy blues on their most recent performance, with former Manchester United goalkeeper Mark Bosnich describing Victory’s showing as “disgraceful” and the worst he had seen from an A-League outfit since his return from the UK three and a half years ago.
It’s difficult not to agree with his assessment.
While the blue half of Melbourne commenced the campaign with an array of optimism and self-belief – coinciding with the signing of Socceroos luminary Harry Kewell – it has failed miserably to reach the lofty heights many had envisaged.
Unfortunately for the Victory’s faithful band of supporters, their seemingly star-studded side, which was destined to take the league by storm, resembled a stockpile of obsolete goods.
While watching Melbourne lock horns with the Sky Blues, it was rather astonishing how poorly the team executed its skills, or lack thereof. Despite the scoreline only reading one-nil in favour of the home side, it was the manner Victory went about its game that perplexed the viewing audience.
There was no fluency, cohesion or vibrancy on the pitch at any stage throughout the match. Players, who are outwardly auditioning for new contracts, didn’t appear to encompass the attributes to play at the elite level in Australian football.
In all honestly, Victory resembled a team plying its trade in the Victorian Premier League, unequipped for the rigours of a professional football competition.
Often, we hear people defend youngsters who misfire, giving them leeway because of their age. However, in Victory’s case, it’s apparent that some of these younger players merely aren’t good enough to be selected.
It’s a simple solution for these players; play in the club’s National Youth League side, dominate the competition and enhance technically to adapt to a superior tactical game in the A-League. When this can be achieved, then these players should warrant selection in the first-team; it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Victory’s back four against Sydney– consisting of Matthew Foschini, Petar Franjic, Ubay Luzardo and Fabio – were consistently out of position, had zero composure on the ball, failed extraordinarily to play the ball out from the back and committed needless fouls. They resembled headless chooks, oblivious to their surroundings.
To many, it’s evident; Victory needs a mass overhaul of its playing squad. After Saturday night’s embarrassing display, interim coach Jim Magilton admitted that change was inevitable and that the side needed fixing, regardless of his future at the club.
“Yes, I think it’s apparent to anyone… that change is needed whether I’m here or not,” Magilton revealed.
“Obviously I recognise that the club have achieved great success with players that have done great things for the club… the club has been very loyal but I just think it needs freshening up.”
“It is quite evident tonight that there needs to be greater quality coming in, greater consistency in the approach to everything we do, and that has to come with a change of personnel, a different mindset. I think it needs to be done sooner rather than later.”
While the A-League can be assumed to still be in its infancy, overall the competition has vastly improved from a tactically and technical outlook over the last three seasons.
Since Victory’s second championship prize in 2009 – when it defeated Adelaide United in the final decider – it has manifestly failed to rejuvenate its squad, often clutching onto players who had won the club preceding accolades. Consequently, this hasn’t allowed the club to thrive on the pitch; instead it has remained stagnant, content with its current success.
While Victory fell at the last hurdle in 2010 – losing to Sydney FC on penalties – the club has slowly, but surely become a victim of its own naivety. In today’s professional sporting landscape, quite often this can be the recipe for disaster.
There are the odd exceptions, where clubs continue to persist with seasoned veterans with ripe success; Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are two which continue to defy the odds. Although loyal to its stalwarts the Red Devils know too well that player turnover is a constituent to its longevity of success.
In many ways, the trek across the border to Sydney was a cruel reality check. Yes, supporters were aware of the club’s downfalls, although we get the sense that reality hit home after Victory put on such an abject display from start to finish.
The football community, pundits and the Melbourne public were quick to ridicule Mehmet Durakovic when the chips were down under his tutorship – sacked days after Victory was humbled 2-0 by Central Coast Mariners in early January. On the contrary, Magilton has been given a minor slap on the wrist. When we compare their records at Victory, Durkovic’s is superior, with a winning ratio of 21 per cent, while Magilton languishes at a modest 10 per cent. That’s one triumph in 10 outings.
There are two primary reasons for these varied reactions.
Firstly, people have finally come to the realisation that the majority of Victory’s players don’t cut it at the elite level anymore.
Secondly Magilton’s ability to perform astutely in the media and have a sound knowledge of the team’s direction, as bad as it is, works in his favour. Meanwhile, Durakovic often struggled to articulate his sentiments in media conferences and didn’t seem to possess the hard-nosed figure that would reap the club success.
There’s no doubt about it; the two-time champions are in a transition of rebuilding.
A player exile will be conducted in the off-season. Who remains and who departs isn’t entirely decided yet, although the players on the wrong age of 30 – bar Archie Thompson and Kewell – will likely farewell the club in the coming fortnight.
Tommy Pondeljak, 36, is the first victim of restructure, released by mutual consent after a glittering career in both the A-League and the now defunct National Soccer League, accumulating 379 national league games.
The club has already commenced preparations for next season, with the signing of Ivorian left-back Adama Traore on a two-year contract from embattled A-League outfit Gold Coast United. His signature could well pave the way for full-backs Fabio – out of contract at season’s end – and Matthew Kemp – evidently out of favour and form – to bid farewell after this campaign.
Is Irish-born boss Magilton the man to lead Victory into a new era? It’s a complex scenario. If the club chooses to part ways, then it will certainly set the club months back in preparation for what will be a crucial eighth season.
Magilton was primarily brought in to rectify Victory’s floundering campaign, with the short-term objective of claiming a top-six berth. This hasn’t happened, and his record is nothing to brag about.
When we examine the other side of the scale, the personnel at his disposal were the work of Durakovic and his predecessor Ernie Merrick. Magilton does share a positive vision, and believes he can aid the change in personnel and culture, which in turn will help the club achieve its objectives.
The club is yet to make a formal announcement, although it is believed that the 42-year-old has been offered a two-year deal, allowing him to refurbish the playing stocks and mould a team in accordance to his game structure. Whatever the outcome is, season eight will bear little resemblance to the team which took the field in this campaign.
Courtesy of Goal Weekly
Follow Robbie on Twitter @RobertDiFabio
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
jb Given the development stage of MVFC I'd rather have a 30k football stadium like AAMI Park than a 50k stadium like Lang Park. I was one of the 11.2k at AAMI Park last night and, for me, the atmosphere generated was better than 40k at Docklands. Perhaps, MVFC will grow to the stage where we can have a weekly commitment of 40k sold seats to our games (i.e. 30k members, 5k sponsors, 5k casuals). But, right now, MVFC has committed sales of ~25k for every home game (18.6k members, 5k sponsors, 1-2k away/casuals). Note: many well-established & strongly supported football teams in England have stadiums below 40k despite the fact they could probably fill stadiums twice the size (e.g. Spurs, West Ham, Birmingham, Middlesbrough) Rather than trying to attract new customers/members, I would like MVFC to be 100% focused on keeping the current fan base and reducing churn (last year Member churn was 20%, which is good for a sporting club in Australia). Simply reducing churn to 10% would give us an extra 2k season tickets. To answer your questions about what the club should do in relation to on-field matters, it's already started. We have to rid the squad of players, who don't add value anymore - i.e. older non-performers and technically poor players. The main problem for us is our defence and we've already signed Traore (22 yr old, LB) and Sam Gallagher (20 yr old CB). There are strong rumours we are also close to signing Ben Halloran. Our problems this year, in my opinion, have been two fold: 1. technically inept defenders & defensive midfielders 2. poor ball transition & style of play Issue 1, is on the way to being resolved with new players. I have 100% faith that Jim Magilton has the coaching credentials to solve Issue 2. Other HAL clubs should enjoy the finals this year ... b/c MVFC will be back with a vengeance next year!
j binnie
Guest
Fuss. Don't get it? By my reckoning what you are trying to say is that 18.6 season tickets have sold. Great,so you work your average gate based on that figure. Fine I accept that.That still does not solve the problem the board has should it be shown that 40,000 want to attend.The fact that you do not have a suitable stadium in Melbourne to handle a football club crowd of that size is a HUGE problem is it not ,for should 40.000 (that is 13000 more than capacity) turn up at the gate hoping to get in then I would suggest you may well have a riot on your hands. As I said Fuss,rather than debate figures, I would much rather hear your views on where the club goes from here,for no one,me included, want to see a repeat performance of this season for what is one of our major clubs.jb ps, Don't like to point it out but using your figures it means that Victory's average crowd this season only consisted of 560 non-season ticket holders not a lot of "new" or "nosy" people over a season,another problem for the board to ponder,how to achieve more growth?. jb
Midfielder
Guest
Fuus & JB A bit off topic but ... Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Clive! http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mQn_Zhbi9gg/TUoiim0kz5I/AAAAAAAACXk/v2fgkywvkbU/s1600/hugemanatee_original.jpg
Midfielder
Guest
Thanks JB ... I like broad based stats like these...
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
jb MVFC would have a riot on its hands from Members if they ever decided to play more home games at Etihad Stadium. At a recent Members Forum - a show of hands revealed that every single Member attending the Forum wanted the Board to stop playing ANY games at Etihad. In comparison to AAMI Park, Etihad is an awful viewing experience and the players have voted it the worst surface in the HAL. By contrast, AAMI Park is voted by players as the best pitch in HAL To be honest, if the MVFC Board ever decided to play all its games at Docklands - for the sake of more money - I'd buy a Season Ticket but I would stop attending. I know of MVFC fans, who changed allegiance to Melbourne Heart last season b/c Heart were playing all games at AAMI Park. You still don't get it do you? 18.6k people have PAID for last night's game. So, why do you bring up financials for 11k? 11k is NOT the number of people, who PAID for tickets last night. At a minimum 18.6k people paid for tickets PLUS all the NIX away supporters (perhaps 500) PLUS casuals, who bought tickets from the box office. MVFC has 18.6k members, so regardless of how many people come to the ground 18.6k seats have been purchased.
jbinnie
Guest
After that dry statistcal analysis there may be some people out there who would like to know the following-. Last season after 126 matches had been played the HAL had drawn 1,035,006 fans through the gates. This season after 126 matches have been played (up to last night) 1.339,403 fans passed the gates. This represents an increase of 29.5% over last year and with some "big" matches to yet be played this percentage could increase before season's end. Teams to increase their average crowds - Victory x 4000,Roar x 4000,Jets x 4000,Syd. x 3500,CCM X 2000, Heart x 1000, Well x 500, GCU x 400, Teams whose average home gates have dropped-Adelaide x 1500, Perth x 300. Knowing Perth and Adelaide are quite capable of lifting their averages quite quickly these figures signify increased interest all around the country. Cheers jb
jbinnie
Guest
Fussball - A strange look at the facts. YOU seem to have a fixation with AAMI park crowds. Can I ask you a simple statistical question? If the Victory board knew that they could attract 40.000 people to every home game( the team playing well and sitting in the top two for instance) would they continue to play their home games at at AAMI Park,with it's crowd limitations.?. If you answer this in the affirmative then I would suggest Victory's problems are much deeper than I first thought. Fuss, come in off the grass,I was simply using Victory's figures to back up my discussion point on what the board has to decide at this point in time.They are still the best supported team in the HAL. Most thinkers know that it was the Kewell factor and the Emerton factor that drew the 80,000 people to the first 2 games,and yes I was aware of the 2 increased gates v Adelaide & Sydney but if you decide to chart the trend over their home games then it drops quite steadily from the 24,000 who watched Roar to the 11000 who saw them play their best game of the season.That is 12 home matches and using $25 as an average entry this represents quite a considerable drop in gate revenue.I would assume that would enter the boards thoughts. 40,000 gate @ $25 =$ 1,000,000. an 11,000 gate @ $25= $275,000, quite a considerable difference if multiplied by 14. Now can I be a bit mischievous and pose another question. Why did you not chart their average gate for the season? If you had you would have seen an almost straight "reducing "line which never at anytime showed an overall gain from the previous week so it is correct to say their "average crowd" was in decline week after week, and despite what you may think there are people who understand that there may be extraordinary events that could affect numbers (not the least of what was that FFA directive to make that ridiculous attempt at taking the game to the country that drew 5268 to Victory's "home" game). To finish,I ask again,where do Victory go from here,do they buy their way into the top grade (Like Man.City or Chelsea), do they raise their own players in an Academy which takes time to get results,or,and I must introduce this after last night's great display, do they stick with what they have? Give us your thoughts on these questions Fussball,much more interesting than dry stats. Cheers jb
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
jb You seem to have a fixation with MVFC's crowd numbers that I don't understand. Today's crowd was down - we have a F1 Grand Prix in town this week-end, MVFC is sitting 3rd from the bottom & had nothing to play for tonight except pride. I was not going to attend due to another social commitment but, the thought of it being Carlos's last game drew me to AAMI Park. Here are MVFC's crowds at AAMI Park: 16.5k, 14k, 14,9k, 21k, 20.1k, 14k, 12.5k & 11.2k I've plotted those figures on a graph and cannot see any trend - positive or negative.- that can be drawn from Game 1 - Game 8 at AAMI Park. Please don't compare 40k crowds at Docklands, with AAMI Park that only hold 30k. For every MVFC game at AAMI Park this year, only 7k tickets were available to the public and usually 1k minimum are set aside for away supporters. So, only 6k tix go on sale to the Melbourne public for each MVFC home game this year and, the majority of these tix are Category A or B, which cost around $40-$50.
jbinnie
Guest
Strange that Robbie and other Victory fans chose today to go into print with their overall take on Victory's season.I say strange for I have just watched them demolish a good Wellington team 3-0 and with just a little luck it could have been 7-0.This same Wellington team were being promoted as the wild card in the race to the grand final only 2 or 3 days ago by some of our more lauded pundits,and yet tonight they were made to look like also-rans. So what to do now for Victory?????? Some facts the board are going to have to look at is the continued drop in their attendance figures since the glory days of Harry's debut.That 40,000 crowd has steadily dropped at an almost continuous rate to that of tonight's attendance of 11,200.However the stats men will tell you they have increased their average over last season by over 4000 per match which could be construed as being healthy but the board would be foolish to accept that logic for although 40,000 does show the potential within the club's attraction the decline down to 11000 also points out that the fans are not going to be fooled for too long. Hence a question I asked a couple of days ago. Do Victory "purchase" their way out of trouble by signing tried and tested players or do they follow the "let's make our own" path. Both ways are fraught with different types of danger and the 14 guys who played tonight have just added another dimension to the argument,have they got what it takes to "do the job" next season.???????jb
TomC
Guest
That's interesting news about Rogic, and a possible blow for the Canberra bid, who would naturally have been very keen on him. Culina is an interesting idea. I certainly agree that a genuine CM who can provide cover in defence and generate opportunities for the attacker should be the main priority, and if fit, he would certainly fit the bill. I believe Vargas has been selected to play tonight, which might mean he's planning on announcing his retirement and getting a send off in the last home game of the season.
Robbie Di Fabio
Roar Guru
Thank you for the feedback, very much appreciated! In the taxing environment of professional sport, tough decisions need to be made. To be frank, they should have been prior to this season, although I think the board, in tandem with the football community have realised that change is imperative for this club to prosper. It is the end of an era for many of Victory’s seasoned veterans. Roddy Vargas – an influential stalwart in the club’s two championships and road en route to the 2010 final loss – will be fondly remembered by the supporters. While a player overhaul will manifestly be conducted throughout the closed-season, this week’s signings – Gold Coast full-back Adama Traore, defensive utility Sam Gallagher from the Mariners, while young gun Julius Davies has just been cleared and will play tonight – are a good starting point. TomC – Who should Victory target? Well I guess it depends on many factors, one is if Carlos Hernandez re-signs with the club. Although, if I had to pick one from left field, I’d be interested in signing Jason Culina – assuming he has recovered well from his knee surgery. At 31 years of age, he still has plenty to offer the game. A Socceroo, in excess of 50 caps and two World Cup ventures, could provide the impetus Victory is lacking through the centre. A versatile player, he was utilised as a holding midfielder for many years in the national team, while also encompassing the ability to play out wide and in behind the strikers. From reports, Mariners prodigy Tom Rogic is finalising details and will put pen to paper in the coming weeks. Despite a horrendous campaign, Victory supporters should feel optimistic for a much improved 2012-13 season.
Nelson
Guest
The game vs Sydney last week was by no means the worst MV has played - games against Perth, Heart, and others come to mind. It seemed like a typical MV sans-Carlos Hernandez performance to me.
TomC
Guest
Excellent article, Robbie. Do you have any thoughts on other A-league players the Victory might want to target?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Excellent analysis of the current situation, Robbie. The mainstream print & electronic media - with a few exceptions (e.g. Bozza) - seems unable to provide objective & honest assessment of MVFC & Magilton due to personal biases & agendas, so thank you for this. It's exactly how I - and every MVFC fan I know - assesses our current plight. Goodbyes are always sad and tonight will be an emotional event watching guys - particularly Carlos - playing for the last time in an MVFC shirt and, for Carlos it will be, most likely, the last time he'll play in Australia. A new era begins.
Ruddy
Guest
They do need a player clear out. Out with Covic, Vargas, Kemp, Brebner, Celeski, Solarzano, Broxham, Fabio, Luzardo. Sounds as if Hernandez is leaving as well as Tommy P. Have already signed Adama Traore from Gold Coast United. In my opinion should also sign Victorian product Jake Baker Daish and Michael Thwaite. Also need to look into youth development more at the club.