Brazil took to the MCG turf for the second time in a week, against Australia this time, having lost to Argentina in a friendly last Friday.
Ange Postecoglou made a number of changes in personnel, but the back-three formation remained.
We saw, here, what this formation looks like against a team that dominates possession. Australia tend to take the lead in that regard against Asian opponents, but Brazil had no intention of giving up their beloved plaything to the Roos.
We saw what having energetic, advanced wing-backs can offer when defending from the front. Matt Leckie and Aziz Behich offered up some nice moments of swiftly applied, advanced pressure multiple times, forcing Brazil to play back to their keeper, stifling at the source – for a short time, at least – progress down the flanks.
The problem is that for all of Leckie and Behich’s enthusiasm, Brazil were clearly good enough not to be flummoxed by this pressure for long, and to play around it with patience and precision. When they did squeeze their way through, the wing-backs were suddenly far too advanced to help the affect the situation defensively as it progressed toward the Socceroos’ goal.
Additionally, when the Brazilian full backs ventured forward, too often it was the centre backs who had to separate, coming out to meet them; Milos Degenek, a good defender to be sure, is still no match for Juve’s Alex Sandro.
Behich and Leckie were playing effectively as wingers, and their positioning broadcast as much. Simon Hill, calling the match, described Behich as playing as a “high wing-back”, a position that doesn’t actually exist outside of just being a winger that’s somewhat defensively-minded. In the first half, the spot that radiated most intensely in the Brazilian’s team-wide heatmap was the spot just ahead of the halfway line, on Behich’s flank.
Behich’s average first half position was ahead of the halfway line, in Brazil’s defensive half. By the end of the match, Behich’s average position had retreated only slightly.
(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
There were still moments of considerable defensive peril; most of them involved Brazil attacking down one flank, with yawning weak side-space calling out to be exploited on the other. Brazil would raid down Behich’s wing, and Leckie would be seen jogging some distance behind his man, with Degenek unsure whether to cover across or not.
Other moments – like Brazil’s first goal, after 12 seconds – saw our centre backs passing inaccurately out of defence, often straight to the opposition. Only Trent Sainsbury, really, has the ball-playing skills to pass ambitiously, and as he’s the central centre back. His ability to pass out to the wings is somewhat restricted.
David Luiz – perhaps the ideal centre back in the system Postecoglou is trying to propagate – functions almost exactly like Sainsbury is supposed to in Chelsea’s back-three formation. It must have made Ange green with envy. Luiz was playing as a defensive midfielder, creating and snuffing out attacks with equal relish; he is superbly versatile and gifted.
Luiz met a corner with a ferocious header in the second half, hitting the bar, and the chaos that ensued led to Brazil’s second goal.
There were a couple of promising moments for Australia, with Behich, taking advantage of his advanced starting spot, linking up well with both Mark Milligan – an excellent passer, crucial to both our defence and attack – and James Troisi. Troisi’s bustling, sudden turn-and-burn tendencies in possession startled the Selecao at times.
Troisi appears to shift straight into top gear from a standing start, and heavy touches and overrun lurches are a part of his game that will be difficult to shake if he can’t refine himself. But the injection of pure, aggressive directness he provides is an asset that, more often than not, helps rather than hinders the attack.
Behich crossed well – at least better than Brad Smith has in his appearances for the national team – and really ought to retain his spot throughout the Confederations Cup, especially considering Smith’s injury.
Almost all of Australia’s best attacking sequences involved dashing down the wings. Robbie Kruse was rarely seen taking the ball, under pressure or not, in the middle of the park, and Troisi’s accelerations usually began from deeper areas, with no space allowed in the areas traditionally the domain of a No.10. Luiz was making that area utterly uninhabitable.
All attempts in the second half to try and pass through the middle, into the Brazilian box, ended with some blue-shirted player striding out of defence with the ball. Ajdan Hrustic, on debut, managed the first Australian shot on target, with 20 minutes to go, a skidder from distance.
(AFP PHOTO/GLYN KIRK)
Brazil played within themselves, comfortably thrumming along in a lower gear, surely aware of what happened the Socceroos manager the last time they got the cane out of the cupboard in a friendly against Australia. Philippe Coutinho and Luiz, two of the Premier League’s best, were substituted for Willian and Fernandinho, two more of Premier League’s best.
Brazil scored a third, a wondrous team-goal that saw almost the entire midfield and attack combine in impossibly close quarters, with Paulinho’s back-heel setting up substitute Taison to slot home. A fourth goal was headed home too by Diego Souza, literally the last touch of the game.
Postecoglu was clearly testing out players before the tournament in Russia, but as Australia was only making any headway down the flanks, Jamie Maclaren was hardly going to soar in to nod home a Tim Cahill-esque stunner. He’d replaced Cahill, and is – to put it mildly – not the same aerial presence.
Moreover, if this was a time for experimentation, why not change the formation too, to see if anything else worked? When Leckie went off, Kruse slotted in to fill the gap at wing-back, a move almost reinforcing the stone in which this formation seems to be set.
This was a Brazil team shorn of many of its best players, playing at an intensity level similar to that of a particularly vigorous training match. Australia, too, embraced the casual spirit of the match, a friendly affair after all.
Ruminations over the validity of the Roos’ general tactical approach will continue, with this match offering little of substance to either side of the argument. But the quality that Brazil threatened, a deadly bite only hinted at with a snarling flash of the teeth, will be lethally inflicted by our Confederations Cup opponents Chile, Germany and Cameroon.
Whether we, in our current system, will survive it is still unclear.
Rudi
Guest
Hey guys just to say there is nothing guaranteed it's going to go into place in the future, we hope we see an improvement in Australia's technique. But it does sound encouraging, apparently some of these players have been selected for the upcoming Joeys team, so seeing them in action will interesting observing.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Actually the first goal was due to a poor pass, which as I said, had a player down the wing, and was easily intercepted. Our No. 8 just didn't look up to see the Brazilian player closing the passing lane... Breath easy, it wasn't your man Jedinak doing either the poor pass or not moving off the ball ;-) As BES has pointed out, our passing completion and turnover wasn't great first half. Working on off-ball movement might help the passing a little, but better decision making would also help.
Caltex Ten & SBS support Australian Football
Guest
The first goal by the Brazilians, was a perfect illustration of what we were not doing---reading the game and making the runs to close down or intercept a pass. We were marking space that night and since Jedinak, wasn't playing, this illustrates he is not alone in standing still and ball watching.
Chris
Guest
lol...he did have some good sayings. He also said of passive offside "If hes not interfering with play whats he doing on the pitch"
Cool N Cold
Guest
Of course Socceroos had not won 2 teams in a match. What I wanted to imply is that as good as England, they don't care about the result because of the nature of a friendly match. As such, they substituted many players in the second half. That was an analogy to exemplify the difference between a competition match and a friendly match. A friendly match serves some different purposes.
Ruudolfson
Guest
Well, he's hoping the FFA know what they are doing, they recently started these high-performance schools which are specifically designed to give players extra players but more about helping players in their profile positions and giving them the individual training needed. Apparently, a model used in Belgium and France a lot, maybe that's why they got rid of their centre of excellence in Canberra for this... The first generation of players through this curriculum right now would be 14 or 15 years old. But I agree If I the FFA I would champion futsal as a development tool for young kids to follow, maybe they can make Tom Rogic the poster boy in this regard? The players around play year round football and we need to find a method which would do this, and futsal along with their club football could be the key.
j binnie
Guest
Waz - This comment is getting close to the truth ,for there is not a player in the world who will come out and criticise the coach/sole selector of the team where he is playing. That would be tatamount to "suicide". Therefore we have to look at other areas,indefinable in their actual set up, to try and guage how a player feels as to what is going on. Body language is a good indicator and there are signs,both on and off the field ,that some players being used are not quite "au fait" with what is going on. This malaise is not sacrosanct to the national team,your own club Roar appear to have the same problem with one of their best players in recent years suddenly departing the side and being replaced by another player ,just as old and experienced. That brings us to another question,is the national team and our top competition the right place for young coaches to "cut their teeth and get experience".? Many pundits would argue these are not the times or places for such learning curves and because of the practice the standard of football being played does not improve as it should. Food for thought indeed. Cheers jb.
j binnie
Guest
Redondo- Careful my friend. Using your logic and time span figures, the 2006 Socceroo team learned their skills 20 years before and that takes them back to 1986. Don't know if you are aware but small sided games on small fields (the main feature of the present curriculum) was introduced into Australian coaching manuals around 1976/78. and after an initial impact was allowed by the then "fathers" of football to "wither on the vine". Usual excuse for the time----no money. The resultant "new curriculum" has cost millions of dollars to initiate and is now in it's 7th year of existence so somewhere one would expect to see huge improvement in the not so distant future. We can but hope. Cheers jb.
j binnie
Guest
NEMESIS - This statement signifies a flaw in your general comprehension of the "modern". game. Today it matters not where the ball is relative to the tactics being used it is the team that is in possession of the ball that is controlling the game. It matters not a whit as to where that "control" is being exercised it is still whoever has the ball that is controlling the "attack" function. On numerous occasions during this game you would have noted the Brazilians move forward and then go into "reverse" and take the ball back even as far as their own goalkeeper,in order to keep control of the game and mount attacks in a manner, where and when they wanted to. That is how possession football is played when played well and in fact it could be discussed that on the night in question Brazil's actual finishing was not on a par with the quality of their possession stats. Remember ,just a few days earlier this team,or near it, lost a game to Argentina and in doing so "failed to score". Does that stat tell us something about this Brazilian team? only time will tell. jb
punter
Guest
Thanks for the insight Ruudolfson, interesting times ahead. Too many expect too much too early!!!
punter
Guest
Brian Clough also said 'If God wanted to play football in the air, he would have put grass up there'.
Lionheart
Guest
having watched Couthino's development at Liverpool, I'd say he's learnt as much there as he did on the streets of Brazil.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Ruudolfson - that's great to hear. I can't wait to to see Oz football boom when we get our first Wayne Messi or Brian Bergkamp through the system.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Someone else commented that if you focus on Jedinak when he's playing for Aston Villa (instead of the game) you see how much he does for them. I know it's like confessing to being a trainspotter but I've done that because Jedinak keeps being picked and I wondered why. And I still can't understand - slow, easily rounded, poor passing, poor ball retention. It's everything you don't want in the shield in front of defence. He gets picked ahead of Milligan but almost every time Milligan plays he's one of the top performers. Can anyone explain?
Redondo
Roar Rookie
We were counting as well but it got too depressing and stopped.You're more resilient than we are! And we thought we'd toughened up by counting how many times Rooney loses the ball in a game for Manu - but the Socceroos pass completion rate is soooo much more depressing. That is saying something. So strange that the 'Roarcelona' coach should be running this mess!
Griffo
Roar Guru
Again I say more should be made of Rogić's path given his technical ability. I think the FFA have said this curriculum is the way we are going to do it, and not much else gets a look in, nor fine tuned. In some ways there is a growing base of technical ability in some parts, but we are losing a lot of individuality. 6-10 years is still a long time to wait for something that may not be the whole package before adjusting...
Griffo
Roar Guru
Given the three years since the Chile game in Brazil, it will be as good a game as any to see what has been improved in that time. Of course all could be undone by the wrong formation ;-) And why couldn't tactics be used to get a result against Germany?
Griffo
Roar Guru
Completely agree with (1) - the whole point was to get away from Osieck's penchant for picking non-form players (Neill playing while uncontracted after not playing was the worse). Unless depth isn't as deep as he'd hoped by now after all the work building caps across a broad group, I'd have hoped that some were chosen and included on form. Unless of course those in camps recently haven't performed as well to be included at this stage...
Ruudolfson
Guest
Before we go into another youth development bashing....Speaking to a current coach who has been involved in the system for quite awhile in another state and he told me since the new development system which started in 2010 and fully got implemented in 2012. He said the first generation to start at u6 (4v4) when small sided games since in 2008 are making their way through are 2003 born currently U14 and apparently are the strongest age group in terms of depth and quality in a very long time. They are the first generation to go through the entire curriculum stages from the discovery phase, SAP, and training phase and they are around 14 to 15 years old! So if that's anything to go by there might be some light at the end of the tunnel after all...
Ruudolfson
Guest
The technical class showed the two side which is no shame given Australia was up against a football powerhouse, in the end especially if Australia wants to a major player in football then they have a long way to go to get there. Johnny Warren was right why did Australia not go to the Brazilian technical direction, which plays a lot of emphasis on futsal and beach soccer, he did say I told you so...