Disorganised. Unpassionate. Insipid. Those are the words used by former Adelaide United and Sydney FC coach, and Fox Sports pundit John Kosmina to describe the Western Sydney Wanderers.
The three-time grand finalists suffered their second straight loss on the weekend going down 2-0 to Brisbane Roar. They are also winless in seven matches after starting the season with a 2-1 win over Perth Glory. But how bad have they been this season?
Josep Gombau’s men currently sit in ninth place and that is reflected in the below stats where they rank around the lowest in the league in many areas.
-Their nine goals scored is the fewest in the league
-Their 93 shots at goal is the second least as is their conversion rate which is at 13 per cent
-They have the least amount of shots on target (28)
-They are one of two teams yet to keep a clean sheet
-They have made the least amount of tackles (91)
-They have won the least amount of duels (441)
Things just haven’t gone their way this season. After a mostly disappointing 2016-17 campaign, the club played out its annual pre-season high turnover with ten players coming in and 14 players departing. Inaugural coach Tony Popovic also departed the club days out from the opening match of the season against Perth to join Turkish club Karabükspor.
This left Hayden Foxe to be named as interim coach, his first gig as a Head Coach.
With Popovic leaving on the eve of the campaign, Foxe coming in for a short time before signing Spaniard and former Adelaide United gaffer Josep Gombau, it has been a crazy couple of months for the club. Not to mention having their Round 7 match against Wellington Phoenix postponed due to the poor surface at Spotless Stadium.
It has obviously affected the team who have scored the opening goal on five occasions but have only won one of those matches.
They have now gone over 200 minutes without a goal dating back to their Round 6 clash with Melbourne City on November 12, and leading goal scorer Oriol Riera hasn’t exactly had the best start with his relationship with Gombau.
He made his emotions known when he was substituted in that match against City and again was subbed off inside the first 20 minutes in their 2-0 loss against Brisbane without acknowledging Gombau.
Western Sydney have changed the league since joining in 2012, and we’ve all seen the atmosphere their fans bring to the league. We’ve all seen how good the Wanderers look red hot when they are in form. We’re not seeing that at the moment and a lot of work needs to go in to change their fortunes.
Starting this week with the second Sydney Derby of the season. The Wanderers inflicted their cross-town rivals’ lone defeat of the 2016-17 campaign at ANZ Stadium and they were close to defeating them when they meet earlier this season at Allianz. They need to find that form if they are to get anything out of the game.
If it’s any consolation Wanderers fans can take solace in knowing that this isn’t their longest winless streak. They started the 2014-15 season without a win in 15 matches so there’s still a bit to go before we get there.
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