How far must Brisbane Roar slide down the A-League ladder before coach Rado Vidosic acknowledges the power of motivation?
The Brisbane boss has long been lauded as one of the league’s finest tacticians, and his famed attention to detail played a huge part of the Roar’s unprecedented success of the previous two seasons.
But as they sit second from the bottom, cracks are beginning to show in the once all-conquering Queensland side, which suggests the team is desperately missing the motivation of Vidosic’s predecessor, Ange Postecoglou.
When the two-time championship-winning coach left the Roar for Melbourne Victory and was replaced by Vidosic in April, some Brisbane players seemed quite quick to downplay Postecoglou’s contribution as a mere motivational one.
Star midfielder Thomas Broich stirred up this sentiment again ahead of the two teams’ round two clash in October – a match in which the Roar destroyed the Victory 5-0.
“Rado is very analytical. You could call him the brain behind our success,” Broich said at the time.
Fiery striker Besart Berisha also spoke of Postecoglou’s skill as a motivator, but he acknowledged its true value.
“He taught me what a winning spirit means, and I think I was motivated at a maximum level and this is important,” he said in a Herald Sun interview just days after Postecoglou’s departure.
“The boys respected him more than 100 per cent and he respected the boys. I was having some problems but he protected me, and the way he protected me and all the players was very important for us.”
The passion with which the Albanian talks about his former mentor cannot be understated.
“Sometimes you cannot choose the people you love, but I love him,” Berisha said. “It was special and I never thought I could feel this for a coach after such a short time together.”
It was quite clear Postecoglou had all his players fired up to play for him, believing in themselves and believing in the game plan.
Tactics alone cannot account for the Roar’s simply incredible record of 36 games unbeaten. The streak had to also be fuelled by an insatiable lust for success.
Postecoglou’s mastery of the mental side of the game was also the reason Roar became known for their ability to come from behind in matches, often late in the game. This is because Postecoglou bred in the players a fighting spirit and determination, but most importantly, utmost belief in themselves.
But we are yet to see that from Vidosic, and this past round in particular showed the gulf he must make up in his motivational skills to return Brisbane back to its brilliant success.
While Postecoglou’s Victory showed immense discipline and determination in its stirring 2-0 win over Western Sydney with 10 men, Vidosic’s men never looked like mustering a late challenge, the likes of which they were renowned for, against Central Coast on Sunday.
Vidosic’s comments after the 2-1 loss in Gosford are important. “Players need to have a good look at themselves,” he said. “I can’t go out there. They have all got instructions about what they need to do and if I tell you to mark him that’s all that you need to do. You stay with him, you follow him… It’s simple as that.”
This insistence that the game is purely cerebral, played merely like a tactical chess battle, perhaps exposes Vidosic’s inexperience as a first-year head coach.
“We don’t drop back, we are not aggressive. We can defend when the ball is in front of us but the moment the ball goes behind us, or behind our first defensive line, people are walking.”
Rado, the players know what to do, but they’re not motivated to do it.
But it’s not as though Vidosic is blind to the lack of desire in his side. After their 4-1 round six loss to Melbourne Heart, he publicly lashed his charges for not having enough hunger.
“There was no heart in our play,” he said. “It was just the game that individuals didn’t want to play in, didn’t want to perform.”
Unfortunately, what Vidosic is blind to is the fact that it is his responsibility to inspire determination.
“This year it looks like it’s just not happening for whatever reason,” Vidosic said after the Heart defeat. “We are working exactly the same as we worked in the past. They are getting exactly the same information, the training sessions are exactly the same, everything is exactly the same apart from performances.”
Yes, they’re getting the same information, but they’re not getting the same motivation.
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