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For much of the season they have looked just about unstoppable, but, over the past fortnight, Adelaide United and the Western Sydney Wanderers have highlighted the chink in Melbourne Victory’s game – taking on an opposition with a more robust approach.
It’s not the first time this season it’s happened, but it’s certainly first time it’s happened on consecutive weekends.
Using varying degrees of tactical force, Adelaide and the Wanderers have proved that if you can disrupt the Victory by pressing as a unit, congesting the midfield, and getting in the back of their two speedy wide-men you can suffocate them and deny goal-scoring opportunities.
Much of Postecoglou’s game-plan is build around getting bodies and ball in motion, and channelling it through the middle of the park.
Once there, you will inevitably see a crafty ball-player like Marcos Flores or Billy Celeski, or Gui Finkler in the past, play an incisive pass in behind the opponent’s defence, where speedsters Archie Thompson and Marco Rojas inevitably pounce.
Postecoglou likes them to go quickly and expose teams that have not transitioned swiftly into defence and set their defensive structure up.
Thompson and Rojas often take a gamble defensively, happy to let their opposition fullbacks go forward, waiting for the play to break down.
Occasionally, when an opponent has decided to drop off and sit on the edge of the 18 yard box, the Victory have shown they have enough quality and creativity to play in front of a defence, either scoring from distance or playing through them.
Space is Melbourne’s best friend, and if you give it to them, either in behind or in front of the defensive line, you’ll get punished.
In the past fortnight we have seen both Mike Valkanis and Tony Popovic deny them the space and opportunities through a more combative and calculated approach.
Adelaide played right on the edge in round 20 at Hindmarsh, deciding to intimidate a Victory side missing its most physical midfielder, Mark Milligan, who was away with the Socceroos.
Valkanis did a couple of things tactically different that night, making a surprise choice at right back in Osama Malik. He did a great job pushing high on Victory’s wide men.
What Valkanis also did though was flip his midfield triangle around, leaving Jon McKain alone at the base and having Dario Vidosic and Marcelo Carrusca higher, as attacking midfielders.
What this did was allow Adelaide to press Melbourne higher. Jeronimo Neumann, Evan Kostopoulos and Iain Ramsey worked with Vidosic and Carrusca to really get in the face of the Victory and not let them build through the first wall.
They did this by placing pressure on holders Francisco Stella and Jonathan Bru whenever they went looking for the ball.
They weren’t afraid to concede fouls either, sharing them around, playing right on the edge.
Indeed, five yellow cards to nil in the first half told its own tale.
On the few occasions Victory were able to play through the first line, Adelaide remained compact, not playing too high or too deep.
It was perfectly executed and reminded me much of the way Popovic had disrupted the Victory back on New Year’s Day at Parramatta Stadium.
Having been totally outplayed by a ten-man Victory a few weeks earlier at Wanderland, Popovic showed he is nothing if not a quick learner.
Primarily he realised that you have to stop the supply to the two wide men by pressing high, giving them no space in the middle and then having your fullbacks tight on Thompson and Rojas, or whoever steps in their place.
Earlier, in round eight, the Wanderers had been guilty of giving Finkler too much space in the middle and dropping off whenever the ball got to the wide men.
By round 14 Popovic had made some tactical changes. Iacopo La Rocca was now partnering Mateo Poljak in one of the most physically intimidating midfields in the league.
It is a tactic the Wanderers manager has used in a number of occasions this season, primarily when he feels he needs a more robust and defensive approach.
The idea, quite simply, is that the Wanderers refuse to be intimidated by anyone.
When they need to play, Aaron Mooy will partner Poljak. When they need to be more solid, La Rocca will slot in.
When both were missing from the midfield against the Central Coast Mariners five days later, it was no huge surprise to find Daniel McBreen riding roughshod over a midfield featuring Mooy, Shinji Ono and Jason Trifiro.
So, in the blockbuster at AAMI Park on Saturday night, it was perhaps no surprise to find La Rocca and Poljak partnered up again, especially with Michael Beauchamp back in defence.
It suffocated the Victory, who were rarely able to pick up any loose ball in the midfield, while Flores was often ambushed when he ventured into Poljak and La Rocca’s world.
Winning the physical and tactical battle first appears to be the Wanderers motto.
This then allows the likes of Ono, Mark Bridge and Youssouf Hersi to shine and create higher up.
If all are on deck at Bluetongue in a fortnight, we should be in for an almighty arm-wrestle that could go a long way to deciding the Premier’s Plate.
But before then the Mariners host the Victory this week knowing that if they can rattle and unsettle them physically, they have every chance of winning and remaining atop the league.
Graham Arnold hasn’t always got it right tactically, particularly against the Victory.
Only in their most recent outing in Tasmania, last month, he made the almost fatal decision of dropping off and not applying any real press in the first half.
Only poor finishing and lots of luck spared him that night.
It will need to be a different approach on Saturday night, and he can learn much from the way Valkanis and Popovic have gone about it.
One option might be to start Mitchell Duke up front and play McBreen as physical number 10, as he did in the 2-0 win at Parramatta.
Certainly, Postecoglou will be looking for a solution to problems of the past two weeks.
Whatever transpires in the run-in to the finals, the past fortnight has thrown up another fascinating twist in the title race.
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