Throughout the team’s history, Melbourne City (nee Heart) have struggled to score. Remembering the likes of Josh Kennedy, Harry Kewell, Josip Tadic and Michael Mifsud is sure to make City fans cringe, with none of those players able to provide the goal-scoring power for which they were brought in.
Yet City entered the 2015-16 season optimistic that the frontline of Harry Novillo, Aaron Mooy, David Williams and Stefan Mauk, along with new signings Bruno Fornaroli, Corey Gameiro, Steve Kuzmanovski and Stefan Zinni could finally turn their scoring troubles around.
That pre-season optimism has turned into mid-season brilliance, with Melbourne the A-League’s best attacking team at the season’s quarter mark.
After nine games, City lead the entire league in goals scored with 23, a mark that is miles ahead of the rest of the league – the Brisbane Roar, Melbourne Victory, Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanders are all tied second for goals scored with 14. This means if City don’t score for their next nine games, while the second-placed teams score just one goal a game, they would only tie with Melbourne for goals scored.
City also lead the league in total shots (129), goal conversion (21%) and assists (18).
City have been criticised in the past for attempting to walk the ball into the net, trying to find the perfect goal, but that hasn’t been the case this season. Melbourne are spreading defences out when they attack, the passes have been crisp and sharp, and the shots just as good. When City gets on the counter attack, look out, as the team are also one of the league’s most potent in cross accuracy (22.2%) and pass accuracy (77.3%).
Brisbane hold the all-time A-League record for most goals scored in a season, with 58 in their 2010-11 championship-winning season. But as good as that record is, City are on pace to smash it.
If you spilt the A-League season into three parts – the first nine, the middle nine and the last nine games – it gives a projection of how many goals City could score. They scored 23 in their first nine, so the simplest prediction would be to treble that number. If that occurs, Melbourne would finish the season with 69 goals.
From another perspective, City are averaging 2.5 goals per game this season, which includes a zero-goal stinker against the Wanders back in Round 6. If they maintain that average over their final 18 games, it would give them 45 goals in 18 games. Add their current 23 goals onto the projected 45 and it gives them 68 total goals for the season, which would once again make the Roar’s 58 look pedestrian.
City are also on pace to break club goal-scoring records. In their first season, Melbourne managed only 30 goals, and the numbers for the seasons after that – 35, 31, 36 and 36 – don’t jump off the page either. The aforementioned goal predictions for this season would absolutely shatter previous years.
While it has been a team effort to turn City into a goal-scoring machine, one man deserves a lot of the credit – Fornaroli. The Uruguayan is on pace to break individual A-League records this season; having already scored seven goals in nine games, which ties the number of goals Tadic, Mifsud and Kennedy scored combined in 48 appearances.
If we use the same projections for Fornaroli’s goals scored this season as we did for the team’s, he will finish with 21 goals for the season. That would almost double the record for most goals scored by a player in one season in club history, which is 12, set by Williams in the 2013-14 season. It would also break the all-time A-League record for most goals scored by a player in a single season, which is a record shared by Shane Smeltz and Besart Berisha, who have both managed to score 19.
City have completely changed their identity this season, becoming a goal-scoring machine. After years of struggling to score consistently – both as a team and from individual players – Melbourne have discovered the magic formula for putting the ball into the back of the net this season.
If they continue to score at this pace, they will break multiple A-League records.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
Mathew Leckie played a pivotal part in Melbourne City claiming an 8-nil win; playing a role in several of his team's goals.
The loser of the Sydney Derby will be under immense pressure entering the final three matches of the season.
Anthony Caceres is a player with immense talent and has a fantastic work rate, broke the deadlock against the Mariners in the 74th minute.
Under-pressure Western Sydney coach Marko Rudan has failed to front up for his post-match press conference after a 7-0 thrashing from Melbourne City, the…
Round 19 was an interesting weekend of football with no draws, 19 goals in six matches, two five-goal games on Sunday and for the…
