Building a base gives Jets, Heart, Glory and Phoenix fans hope

What we are seeing in the early part of the A-League season is that many of the teams that struggled last term are looking to build into this one from a solid defensive base.

I speak in particular of the Newcastle Jets, Melbourne Heart, Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory.

No doubt looking at the success that last season’s best two defensive teams, the Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers had, this quartet are clearly working to get the defensive structure right first.

While it might make for some conservative football in the early going, from a technical perspective, given where these teams have come, the want to be competitive first makes sense.

Even the standard bearers of last season, the Mariners and Wanderers, have had a measured beginning, needing three weeks to notch a first win.

Aloisi sitting deep and reacting
In particular, there has been a noticeable shift in the way the Heart are shaping up early, with a clear emphasis on sitting deeper, absorbing through the experienced quartet of Rob Wielaert, Patrick Kisnorbo, Andrea Migliorini and Mass Murdocca, and hitting through the likes of Golgol Mebrahtu, Iain Ramsey and David Williams.

While there is still work to do to get things right, particularly down Jason Hoffman’s right-hand side, the Heart have looked more solid, even if they did slip up, quite literally, in Perth.

Undoubtedly John Aloisi will look to build from this base, and getting Harry Kewell back, and Michael Mifsud in tune, will help.

Encouraging is that Williams and Mebrahtu have shown some good signs, but the Heart season will depend on how fruitful Kewell and Mifsud are.

Workhorse anchors for Merrick
The Phoenix and Glory, too, have already shown their early mode is to react from a defensive base that features twin screeners in work-horses Vince Lia and Manny Muscat for the Nix and Jacob Burns and Steve McGarry for the Glory.

They very much resemble the Mateo Poljak – Iacopo La Rocca axis often used by Tony Popovic and the John Hutchinson – Nick Montgomery default  pairing at Bluetongue.

Ahead of Muscat andamp; Lia, the Phoenix have a handy pick-up in Carlos Hernandez, and he looks set to flourish feeding the ever dangerous Jeremy Brockie, or striking from afar.

If Ernie Merrick can also get consistently strong contributions from Stein Huysegems, Paul Ifill and Kenny Cunningham, Wellington have enough in attack to be a competitive.

But the importance of the Lia, Muscat, Ben Sigmund and Andrew Durante defensive spine can’t be underestimated.

Early conservatism from Edwards
While Perth under Alastair Edwards are likely to build to a more attacking possession-based game based on their work in the final third of last season,  at the moment it seems he is happy enough to keep clean sheets and ensure the team remains compact and hits through the flanks, particularly down the left through the impressive Sidnei Sciola.

Witness the use of his son Ryan Edwards as a combative number 10 behind a player, in Jamie Maclaren, who is more suited to that role.

On Sunday against the Heart it was evident that Edwards didn’t get too advanced in support of Maclaren.  

While this might be a temporary move while he waits for Shane Smeltz, the fact he is using Ryan Edwards ahead of Daniel de Silva earlier in the season tells a tale.

As Smeltz returns, its more likely that Maclaren will slot into the 10 role, where he can be expected to drive forward and support Smeltz. As the season unfolds, De Silva should see more time as well.

But like so many of the other teams, as I pointed out in my season technical preview, Edwards has recruited an experienced European central defender in William Gallas, recognising that all the possession in the world means nothing if you can’t keep tight.

Van Egmond takes a leaf out of Merrick at Wanderland
Conservatism has been the early vogue for many of these managers and Gary van Egmond went down the same route in Napier on Sunday.

There he did to Merrick what the Nix manager had done to Popovic on the road a week earlier.

While van Egmond rightly copped a bit after a meek first round showing at the SFS, he deserves some credit for the way he has responded in the past fortnight, and particularly against Wellington.

Away from home, he decided to stiffen his midfield by sacrificing one of his front four to go with a three-man defensive-minded midfield.

While he had used a 4-2-3-1 in the opening two rounds, here he went with a 4-3-3, bringing Ben Kantarovski andamp; Josh Brillante into his midfield to partner skipper Ruben Zadkovich.

Kantarovski sat just behind the other two, with the lightweights Zenon Caravella and Michael Bridges left on the bench.

As well there was a gig in the front three for Andrew Hoole in place of Craig Goodwin, who had been inverted a week earlier onto the right flank.

What the stiffening of the midfield was designed to do was compete with the very physical Lia and Muscat.

Perhaps van Egmond thought he might be cancelling out a three man Phoenix middle.

A week earlier, at Wanderland, Merrick had made a change half an hour in by bringing on midfielder Jason Hicks for striker Huysegems, designed to give his side a little bit of midfield equilibrium after being dominated in the opening exchanges.

That move and some clever high pressing of the Wanderers worked a treat for the Phoenix, and it appears van Egmond was watching.    

The reality of the Jets first away game in Sydney is that the midfield of Zadkovich and Caravella had been out-numbered and out-muscled by Nick Carle, Ali Abbas and Matt Thompson, not a great look when you consider how Frank Farina’s midfield has melted since.

Something had to change after the Jets were only slightly better in the scoreless home draw against the Glory.

While stiffening his midfield was a conservative move, the instructions were obviously to take a proactive approach to their pressing, often taking high positions to pressure Muscat and Lia.

While the Jets only had three up front, in Hoole, Adam Taggart and Nathan Burns, they offered more of a threat than the opening two rounds.

Burns has looked very sharp in the opening three rounds and the goals don’t look far away, but van Egmond will need others around him to lift. Emile Heskey’s imminent return may help here.

So far van Egmond has been patient and calculated by his usual tinkering standards, making only one personnel change between Round 1 and two, and three for the Nix match.

Most telling, he has stuck with his back four in all three games and been rewarded with two clean sheets on the spin.

Kew Jailens and Connor Chapman are already showing some promise together.

Meanwhile, with Kantarovski allowing Zadkovich and Brilliante to run around, pressing and chasing second balls, he looks to have found a solid strategy at least for the odd away game.

It mightn’t have been easy on the eye, but it was at least a sign of improvement, and a rare tick on the tactical battle front for van Egmond.

Whether it was a one-off or he can produce the same sort of detail for the rest of the season, or even in the F3 derby this weekend, remains to be seen, but at least it’s a glimmer of something for Jets fans considering writing off the campaign.

The test for van Egmond, Aloisi, Edwards and Merrick, as the season unfolds, is to ensure they not only consolidate their defensive structures, but build a consistently effective attack.  

Popovic showed the way forward last season in how to build into a season, so perhaps it’s no huge surprise to see many others adopting a similar approach.