The Newcastle Jets made 291 passes in their F3 Derby win at home to the Central Coast Mariners, 156 fewer passes than their visiting F3 rivals.
What options do the Jets have at home against Melbourne Victory this week, who made 559 passes to defeat Adelaide United?
Coach Gary van Egmond’s Jets, in his first stint with the club, were renowned for passing and playing out from the back.
The high tempo, passing game was very much the mantra on his return for a second tour, and after rebuilding the club heavily during the 2012 preseason, the signs were good for his vision to come to life on the pitch.
Having conceded that the Jets didn’t control the game against the Mariners, van Egmond has been concentrating this week on controlling the game along with ball circulation and positioning.
Van Egmond also concedes that the team is still working out how to use Emile Heskey while retaining their philosophy of patient possession.
“We’ve been doing it the whole preseason, but with Emile getting here later, they’ve tended to look at that as an outlet a little bit too soon and we haven’t got that balance right as such,” he said via the Jets website.
“We’re not going to become a team that’s looking to play direct and play off the second ball.
“We are going to play direct at times, but it’s going to be calculated when we play direct and it’s going to be a case of looking to ensure we control the game through our ball circulation.”
With James Brown still recovering from ankle surgery and Scott Neville needing more recovery from a groin injury, van Egmond will need to call on his more technical players to retain possession throughout the lines.
For this reason, I think that Josh Brillante and Bernardo Ribeiro are firming for the starting squad.
Van Egmond is tossing up between Brillante or Ruben Zadkovich as the right fullback with Kantarovski as a holding midfielder.
However, if Ribeiro starts as the number 10 that either leaves Zadkovich on the bench or as right fullback.
I think that with Brillante being a capable holding midfielder, you could play Zadkovich at right fullback and still have Ribeiro directing play out wide to either Craig Goodwin or Ryan Griffiths, or on the deck to Heskey as the sole striker.
This would leave Kantarovski to sub on for, say Zadkovich and move Brillante into the fullback position as an option later in the game.
With so many attacking options in the squad it may seem that Virgili may come off the bench as an impact player later in the game after a standout performance last week.
Van Egmond should have the players at his disposal to play out from the back, retain possession, circulate the ball into the front third to strike with venom and effectively control the game.
Van Egmond has identified the front four of Flores, Thompson, Finkler and Rojas as being the most testing for the Jets defence, while Mark Milligan will get special attention to stifle some of the moves from the Victory’s back line.
But with 67 passes last week, Traore may be an alternate avenue.
Van Egmond was the bogey coach against the Victory during his first stint, but against Ange Postecoglou he is behind in wins 2-1.
If the Jets are to win they’re going to have to pressure the Victory defence, keep possession, and use the ball effectively in midfield and the front third.
The Victory are going to have to disrupt the Jets movement on the flanks and attack though the middle if they are going to win for the first time in Newcastle since 2009.
Newcastle Jets versus Melbourne Victory, possible lineup:
Birigietti
Zadkovich Calvano Mitchell Ritter
Brillante Wheelhouse (c)
Griffiths Ribeiro Goodwin
Heskey
Subs Taggart, Virgili, Kantarovski, Duncan
Jets Squad:
1. Ben KENNEDY (gk), 3. Tiago CALVANO, 4. Josh MITCHELL, 5. Dominik RITTER, 6. Ben KANTAROVSKI, 8. Ruben ZADKOVICH, 9. Emile HESKEY, 10. Bernardo RIBEIRO, 12. Josh BRILLANTE, 14. Taylor REGAN, 15. Craig GOODWIN, 16. Jobe WHEELHOUSE (c), 17. James VIRGILI, 19. Michael BRIDGES, 20. Mark BIRIGHItime trialI (gk), 22. Adam TAGGART, 23. Ryan GRIFFITHS, 30. Jack DUNCAN (gk).
In: Ribeiro, Bridges, Duncan
Out: –
Unavailable: James Brown (ankle), Scott Neville (groin)
Griffo
Roar Guru
For those still subscribing to this article, some quick stats of the match. Score 2 : 1 (Jets : Victory) Passing total (510 : 533) Passing Accuracy (83.53% : 80.86%) Accuracy Forward (230 : 284) Accuracy backward (196 : 147) Top three passers - Jets (No. Of passes) Wheelhouse (81), Tiago (79), Mitchell (72) Top three passers - Victory (No. Of passes) Bru (79), Foschini (70), Traore (53) Shots - Jets (Open : On target : Off target : Goals) (9 : 3: 4: 2) Shots - Victory (Open : On target : Off target : Goals) (9 :5 :3 : 1) Top three no of attempts - Jets (total shots) Heskey (3), Griffiths (3), Taggart (1) Top three no of attempts - Victory (total shots) Thompson (3), Rojas (3), Traore (2) Fouls-Yellow-Red 12-1-0 : 9-2-0
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Thanks Griffo, looks like a heap of data there. Pity Guiherme isn't playing this week, Some one is going to have to pick up a heap of work. Cheers, Philip BTW, the ball actually hit the crossbar twice. Deflected off defender onto crossbar, rebound was headed by Rojas onto upright (or crossbar, cant be sure right now) and then that rebound kicked into goal by Rojas
Griffo
Roar Guru
This is true Bondy - van Egmond has mentioned that there has been talk about making Hunter Stadium a fortress so no team enjoys making the trip. Could that be said about any home team though? I think the yardstick for the Jets, to be a force for the Premiereship if not the Championship, will have to travel better away this year. Perth and Wellington are never good hunting grounds for the Jets, while Victory and Roar can be good value for points.
Bondy.
Guest
The Jets will be expected to beat the Victory unlike the Mariners,that will be interesting to see this season if the Jets can win the expected wins at home which they tripped up a bit with last year, the Jets are an enjoyable team to watch.
Nathan of Perth
Roar Rookie
I do recall a pretty over the top flop from Kewell last year on one of their away games to Perth that made even the MV faithful on their forum avert their eyes and cringe. It does happen here and there; even in Glory's game against Heart Dodd had an instance of fairly tamely leaving his feet, albeit not in the box.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Some ONCE Football stats for you Phil: MV Passing 552 passes (oops, I misread that by 7), 486 accurate passes at 88.02% efficiency Accurate: 286 forward, 200 backwards Inaccurate: 61 forward, 5 backward for 66 inaccurate passes total Top players by total passes made: Traore, 67 Celeski, 65 Guilherme, 64 Foschini, 57 Milligan, 55 Franjic, 54 Thompson, 47 Leister, 44 Flores, 38 Bru, 22 11 shots total, 6 off target, 2 on target, 2 goals (and one off the woodwork? 1 showing as hitting crossbar left side facing goals but didnt see game to confirm...) Possession for 53.34% of the match with 49'33" total possession of which 30.48% was active possession for 20'19" of the match (39'49" ball out of the match) Top 3 Player possession rankings: Thompson at 95secs (11% total) for most possession for the match Guilherme, 79secs (9%) Milligan, 73secs (8%) Free kicks 16 - Guilherme 4 Corners 4 - Guilherme 4 Sustained fouls 13 (2 yellow cards to AU) - Flores, Markelis, Rojas 2 Fouls made 17 (3 yellow cards to MV) - Guilherme 4 Offsides 4 - Rojas 2 (Guilherme a key player for MV by any chance? ;-) ) - who did what, when, to who, with pics I would upload if I had time to do so now... There's more but enjoy ;-)
Griffo
Roar Guru
Free ONCE Football app with $4.49 Fan Account upgrade (unlocks 100 games of your choice but only basic stuff like overall passing and percentages so a bit disappointed as I wanted to write some pieces with a bit more information behind me. Have to get media accounts to get the juicy, detailed individual player stats and I'm not in media so don't qualify :-( ). At least I could see all Victory's 559 passes at 88% efficiency combined on the field ;-) - 'detailed' analysis through a day or two post game. Anyway, Google 'ONCE football' and links to iTunes and website for more details for iPad and iPhone. Also check ONCE twitter account @OnceFootball as there is some other screenshots the Fan account doesn't have for the Victory vs Adelaide game if you're interested...drool worthy if you like that sort of thing. Kate Cohen is using for some of her pieces...
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Griffo, where did you get your stats on the passes made last week. I havent been able to find them anywhere. Cheers, Philip
Griffo
Roar Guru
My bad - Griffiths has some neck issue and sat out of the training session. Also from report van Egmond is keeping the team up to speed with 4-3-3 and a 3-4-3 variation, so expect the unexpected. 4-3-3 to defend against Victory's front four and attack with speed? Or a 3-4-3 to press and control midfield but open to the counter? A tasty game brewing tomorrow night.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Trojan, I dont like diving at all regardless of the team and I'll call it as I see it. For what it's worth i don't think Berisha dived in the GF but I do think he and Broich regularly push the boundaries and have conned the ref on numerous occasions. Harry was the biggest whinger to wear Victory colours and yes, he dived. I also agree Flores has a habit of throwing himself a little too easily (like Berisha and Broich) and I don't like it. I'm not sure Flores' fall last week deserved a penalty but i do think there was contact. Contact can happen all over the field and isnt an automatic free kick or yelllow card if you fall, sometime it's just play on and that is what I think should have happened in the Flores case.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Records are meant to be broken but Victory can keep their loss record in Newcastle a little while longer if you please :-D
trojan
Guest
PC - is diving and diving a different story when its melbourne victory? honestly some MV fans on other forums thought flores was rolling around a bit much in the first game of the season and he got a penalty against brisbane roar just outside the box for a fall. he got booked for it last week. if its theatrics and diving as you call it for brisbane roar then its the same for victory. as i recall kewell admitted to diving last year while at MV. though i agree - if Zadkovich wipes out Flores the referee won't know what to do but they both may end up out of action for a short spell.
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
The herocamsters have both been on loosing sides so far so it looks like bad luck for the Jets in this match!
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
Yesterday they were still waiting for his clearance to come through apparently, but if the paperwork is sorted I can only think he would be a certain starter. He wasn't brought in on a three year deal to act as back up to Thomas or Velaphi and he's been training with the team this week so he knows what is expected.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Didn't see the first post go through (due to double link) but couldn't remove this one either :-(
Griffo
Roar Guru
It seems Emile Heskey is the next to get the FoxSports HeroCam treatment. Check out the following address at kick-off tomorrow night online for a dedicated view of the Jets Marquee player: http://www.foxsports.com.au/herocam
Dave
Guest
Cheers Griffo! Yeah that's probably a good call. Teams are definitely looking a lot smarter this year, or at least look like they're 'trying' to be smarter about their defensive tactics. I haven't seen anyone press as effectively as Heart did that first game though. In saying that Victory were pretty bad and may well have contributed to making Heart look good. Perth look extremely organised and solid defensively, and really shut down the space fast. Unfortunately I also find games they're involved in incredibly boring to watch, including that first one vs Brisbane which everyone else seemed to think was a great game (Sorry Perth fans! haha). So anyway lets all hope Perth have a shocker this weekend as Homebush is a long drive for me...
Griffo
Roar Guru
Any Victory fans know if Nathan Coe will start in goals? http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-victory-is-set-to-play-its-third-goalkeeper-in-four-weeks-after-signing-nathan-coe/story-e6frfg8x-1226502639812
Griffo
Roar Guru
Dave, I believe you have contributed ;-) One thing I noticed this year so far for most teams is that they are choosing when to press high more so than pressing for the whole or majority of the 90 minutes. Realisation that you can't press for the whole game or opponent teams better at holding the ball/pressing themselves for longer periods? Best of luck to Sydney FC!
Griffo
Roar Guru
One thing I forgot to comment on about Flores was that he was looking fairly lean. If he is building up match fitness it certainly isn't because he is carrying any excess weight...