The Victory have played 25.9 per cent of their season, with only one win, leading to Kevin Muscat hosing down suggestions of a crisis at the Melbourne-based club.
Victory have not had the easiest start to the campaign, facing high-flying Sydney FC, crosstown rivals City, Adelaide, Western Sydney and Brisbane – consistently high-performing teams in recent memory.
However, in such a small and well-balanced league (a side effect of the love-hate salary cap), Victory should be in a position that is representative of one of the most supported clubs in the A-League.
Regardless, there appears to be a problem with consistency; one-week Victory can dismantle teams like Perth but in others must share the goods in the last few minutes, as shown against Brisbane.
Perhaps their problems stem from the players? Their most recent premiership win, in the 2014-15 season, had a devastating strike force with leading goal scorer Besart Berisha (18 goals), Archie Thompson, Kosta Barbarouses and Fahid Ben Khalfallah.
Even last season, despite losing Barbarouses and an ageing Thompson, the Victory still found goals in a reliable Berisha, James Troisi and Marco Rojas, and the club finished an admirable second place.
Fast forward to today and we see the club continuing to invest well, with Leroy George proving to be a valued player, and Barbarouses being snatched back from Wellington. Berisha, too, is consistently on the score sheet.
Yet the club has recorded the fewest goals (eight) in the league. Does this have anything to do with the calibre of opposition? Perhaps the past seven games have not been kind to the Victory but I raise the point that even consistently bottom-placed Newcastle are finding momentum to defeat Brisbane and Adelaide – teams Victory only drew to.
While Melbourne still have quality players, so does the rest of the league, and many have been claiming that Muscat’s men are simply unable to cope with the increasing talent from City and Sydney.
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I would argue that Victory are simply not performing as well as they used to, due to a simple decline in player quality.
Berisha is in decline in his 30s and Barbarouses is at his peak at 27 years of age. In addition, quality players from last season like Marco Rojas and Daniel Georgievski departing left Victory trying to break in new talent – a time-consuming and sometimes ineffective process.
In addition, the team has a discipline problem, with Carl Valeri and Rhys Williams holding the most yellow cards for the season, while Berisha’s suspension and Mitch Austin’s red card are still fresh.
Muscat may dismiss this as “referee consistency”, but so far Victory earn approximately three yellow cards per round, which is above average.
Naturally, yellow cards alone do not contribute to poor performances – and credit to the Victory for holding out for a 1-1 draw with ten men – but too many fouls cause a drop in competitiveness as players receive their marching orders and are forced to play for the point rather than the win.
Despite all this, it is still too early to want Muscat’s head.
In the 2015-16 season, we saw Adelaide United go eight rounds without a win and then claim the double. United had drawn three games and lost four – in contrast to Victory’s four losses, two draws and sole win. This was also accomplished with a new coach and an entirely new playstyle implemented by Guillermo Amor.
However, back-to-back titles could not be repeated, with United finishing ninth with only five recorded wins last season. This was due to a mass exodus of the 2015-16 squad, with Bruce Kamau, Bruce Dijite and Ruon Tongyik just a few who departed.
Comparing the Reds to Victory’s current position, with quality players like Marco Rojas and Daniel Georgievski leaving, we can infer that should Victory not be able to establish form following their performance against Perth, we may see history repeat itself.
So is there a crisis at Melbourne Victory? Not yet.
By Round 9 – 33 per cent of the season having been played – the most appropriate course of action will be clearer in order to ensure the remaining 66 per cent is still salvageable.
Without a solid start in anything – be it sport or life – then you will be playing catch up for as long as you can cope. While showing faith is fine and definitely encouraged, not thinking critically about the team’s faults, in the hopes that they will sort themselves out, is bluntly ineffective.
TK
Guest
Cmon waz fess up. All roar fans despise the jets cos everytime the visit suncorp they go home with the points!!
Onside
Guest
thanks spruce moose.
Nemesis
Guest
"If they knew their market, then they’d know holding it on a Tuesday is insane." I'd say they know the Sydney market extremely well. And they know that it won't make a significant difference when they held the event, the SydFC fans don't turn up to watch their team unless it's a Sydney Derby.
Nick
Roar Guru
18k for a final? SCORE! Let's break out the Champagne. If they knew their market, then they'd know holding it on a Tuesday is insane. Though, look who I'm talking to about insane. The poster child himself. The one who would actively want to search for a club sausage sizzle online...and attend it in the wet, so he could prove he's more committed than others.
Nick
Roar Guru
member card, guest card, 2 club cards. It's about how many people a member can bring into the members stand. Very popular marquee events only let you bring one guest. They obviously don't have high expectations tonight.
Lionheart
Guest
Berisha didn't choose Melbourne Victory - they chose him, and offered him a marquee wage to boot
Lionheart
Guest
members can use all 4 cards What does that mean? Serious, I'm lost.
Nemesis
Guest
"Holding the game on a Tuesday night is idi*tic." 2016 Final on Wed in Melb 2014 Final on Tue in Ade Both matches attracted strong support. Let's see if Sydney FC fans are committed enough to watch their team in a Final.
Midfielder
Guest
Clever
Gavin R
Guest
If anything, Victory showed they have the character within the squad to perform with their backs to the wall. Perhaps it'll get the best out of them? You've only got to scrape into the finals and find form in the back half of the season. A lot of sporting professionals in individual sports prime themselves for the big events as their body's can't sustain the elite level required year round. Teams go through slumps throughout the year but i can guarantee you, there are times during the season where they're trained differently, harder etc etc to peak late on or different stages of the season.
Square Nostrils
Guest
"Well may we say, God save Melbourne Victory, for nothing will save the rest of em".
Midfielder
Guest
If MV are in crisis god help the rest of us...
George K
Roar Pro
That is concerning, It's a shame the football higher ups won't market what could arguably be the best way to get future growth and interest in the A-league.
Nemesis
Guest
Absolute rubbish about Berisha. Ange left MVFC in October 2013. Berisha announced he was coming to MVFC in at the end on of January 2014. Ange was long gone. So, Berisha chose to come to MV knowing Kevin Muscat was the coach. From the Starting XI in the GF in 2015 Ange signed: Kosta Finkler Milligan That's it. The 5 I mentioned were signed by Muscat. The other 3: Thomas, Broxham, Ansell were at MV before Ange arrived. MV supporters would know all this. "Why is MV going backwards every year under Muscat?" That's a non sequitur proposition. Muscat as head coach Yr1: #4 (appointed after 3 matches) Yr2: #1 & won GF Yr3: #6 Yr4: #2 & runner up in GF after penalty shootout loss
Waz
Guest
Kangajets Seeing Jets succeed is not a negative for me?? Quite the opposite, and I think that’s so for many A League fans as well with maybe the exception of CCM understandably- the misery you guys have endured through poor ownership is quite frankly disgraceful and no one can begrudge you fans some success. Losing to SFC is not a disaster, nor will losing to Victory and even City after that - but I want you to be contenders this season not pretenders. After Roar I don’t care who wins the thing, but I’ve a soft spot for Adelaide, WSW and Jets - so if we’re not good enough, I’m hoping one of you three will be, would be nice to see Jets go all the way tbh
Nick
Roar Guru
It was your third line above that could easily be viewed as code warish, but thanks for clarifying. Yep, I share your bewilderment, the FFA shot themselves in the foot with the timing of the FFA cup final and have let thousands of fans down. It’s unfortunate that the game is the week after the Socceroos match, and everybody now views this as the weak denouement instead of the final fireworks. I mean, the fireworks literally were set off last week behind the bridge. FFA shouldn’t be blamed there, but they can be blamed for everything else. Holding the game on a Tuesday night is idiotic. Either on a weekend, or on Boxing Day. Adelaide fans were never going to come en masse on a weeknight, and thus having to rely on the casual fan to turn up on a Tuesday night post-Socceroos was just a bridge too far. A truly moronic decision by FFA. I’m going tonight cause I’m a stadium member, I like SFC and live close enough to the ground, but the fact that members can use all 4 cards means that the FFA, SFS and both clubs aren’t exactly expecting a full house. FFA need to be held to account.
Onside
Guest
Hey Spruce Goose, I hope my post didn't read as though I was having a crack at football. What really amazes me is that there is no mention on this site about the FFA Cup,nothing. The 'dont tell anybody' remark was me being cynical, well trying to be. I've failed cynicism . There's so much written about promoting football etc,and I have contributed on occasions. Tonight's the final of the biggest knock out competition in the country, and not a peeky boo. For me mate, bewildering.
Brian
Guest
revisionist history. Milligan, Finkler etc were just as critical as was the gameplan. Berisha announced after Ange left but its pretty obvious the discussions were before. Its all not relevant now though I agree, the question for muscat is why is Victory going backwards every year.
Richo
Guest
You’d think so but him and Sagey are best mates so I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to stick around.
Nemesis
Guest
Anyone who parrots the line "it was Ange's team" doesn't know enough about MVFC under Ange & MVFC under Kevin Muscat. The core players who formed the Starting XI when MVFC won all 3 trophies in 2015 were all recruited to the club by Kevin Muscat: Matthieu DelPierre Fahid Ben Kalfallah Carl Valeri Besart Berisha Danny Georgievski All recruited by Kevin Muscat; not Ange Postecoglou.