A month ago, Perth Glory secured victory over Wellington Phoenix, then travelled to Brisbane five days later and won 2-1, putting them in the A-League top six.
This past weekend, Kosta Barbarouses scored in stoppage time to consign Kenny Lowe’s side to their fourth consecutive defeat, a result that has intensified the discussion about the team’s direction.
This has been previously discussed, yet many of the issues that have been raised over Lowe’s four-year tenure remain unanswered. The biggest question, and probably the key consideration when assessing coaches, is whether they improve their teams. Does Lowe?
Broadly speaking, Perth’s strengths are their counter attacking and the quality of individual players in the front third, but it’s arguable these are related; counter attacking teams have the ball less often than possession teams, but the attacking moments are generally more productive because you attack into more space and against overloaded defences. As a result, better players tend to stand out when they have more space to attack in.
It is possible to argue that Perth aren’t that good at counter-attacking, but if you accept that they are, is it because of Lowe’s coaching or because of the type of players they have?
[latest_videos_strip category=”football” name=”Football”]
Perth don’t score many, and they concede a lot, too – the most in the competition this season. This is down to the lack of a settled back four, the lack of protection from central midfielders (particularly when Mitch Nichols is used in a deeper role), and a general lack of defensive compactness from front to back.
Lowe tends to use a 4-4-2, and when he does, the front two don’t work particularly hard to stay connected with the midfield four. Therefore, when opponents play past the first line of pressure, the central midfielders are drawn forward to apply pressure on the ball, leaving gaps in front of the back four that are exposed by clever attackers.
Even when Perth do defend compactly, gaps still appear. In the 6-0 mauling at the hands of Sydney FC in the New Year, for example, the wide players were asked to track Sydney’s full-backs, even into deep positions, to prevent them from receiving the ball in time and space in wide areas.
The problem was, both Luke Wilkshire and Michael Zullo simply pushed up as far as they could go, so that Diego Castro and Chris Harold ended up almost as part of Perth’s back four, creating a back six. This then caused problems for the central midfield pair, who suddenly had gaps on either side of them that could be exploited by Milos Ninkovic and Adrian Mierzejewski.
The same pattern proved problematic in the same fixture earlier this season, when VAR controversy overshadowed a fairly straightforward 2-0 win for Sydney. Again, Lowe asked his wingers to track the full-backs, and again, space opened up in the pockets either side of the midfield duo.
Incredibly though, in spite of these problems when defending, Perth had even bigger problems in attack.
In the 6-0 thrashing, Sydney’s opening goal came from a three-pass move on the counter, where Mierzejewski was able to break beyond the central midfielders and carry the ball into the vacant 40 metres of space between Perth’s midfield and defence. Similarly, against Adelaide United, the opening goal came from a turnover wherein Adelaide’s front three could directly attack against Perth’s exposed centre-backs.
Perth have their moments, but they always feel as a consequence of the quality of individual players rather than a collective gameplan. Diego Castro is brilliant in one-on-ones and can create something out of nothing, Jacob Italiano has been a revelation for similar reasons, and Andy Keogh is one of the league’s better strikers.
AAP Image/Joe Castro
Beyond that though, Lowe has not moulded the squad into a harmonious attacking unit. There is a lot of pace and hard running from the likes of Chris Harold, Joel Chianese and Mitch Nichols, but little evidence of combination plays or cohesive attacking patterns to break down opponents.
If the coach’s job is to improve his team, then it is hard to see how Lowe has genuinely progressed over the last four years.
From a tactical perspective, Perth epitomise the league’s current malaise, but more concerningly, they simply are not very good. It feels like there is no big picture to their game plan – how do they want to play? – and no small details within it – where do the midfielders stand to stop counterattacks?
Altogether, it points to a lack of direction.
Freddie
Guest
And also by definition, the worst AFL competition in the world.
Kanga Pinocchio
Guest
Full time for Kenny Lowe maybe Brisbane 3-0-18 v Perth 2-0-12
Kanga Pinocchio
Guest
AR. Are u answering yourself below as grobs
Kanga Pinocchio
Guest
P. Like the above 2 the tenacity of the elite players in the native footy code cannot be denied, just the skills lack refining . I Enjoy the story about Kenny Lowe .
punter
Guest
Amazingly in competes with the highest elite level of AFL. The No 1 competition in the world
Kanga
Guest
Seagulls fighting over chips
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
Too high a number or too high up the list?
Kanga Boogard
Guest
Considering I’ve played in the 74 th best oz rulz comp in the world . The crowds or standard were nowhere near as good as the A league. Long live the A league Cheers AR
AR
Guest
Hmmm. 74th in the world? I dunno...seems a little high.
Lionheart
Guest
Kanga, you must spend a fortune on passports.
Nemesis
Guest
It is what it is. If Australia was the only nation on the planet to play football at the professional level, the ALeague would boast that it is the Best in the World and the players are the best athletes in the world. But, we are football. We benchmark ourselves against every nation on this planet. We know we're not the best. I watch ALeague because it's Australia's premier football competition and all the other professional sports competitions played in Australia are absolutely rubbish.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
The Glory is a middling club in a middling league - what are people expecting? That's not to denigrate either the Glory or the A-League, it's a pure statement of fact. The latest league rankings are in, and as we would expect, we have objective confirmation of being a middling league in world terms: https://iffhs.de/the-strongest-national-league-of-the-world-spains-primera-division-again/ We are ahead of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicuragua, Zambia and even the European powerhouse, Iceland. We are behind notable footballing countries such as Cameroon, Angola, Qatar and Uzbekistan. If our league is struggling to keep up with Angola and Qatar, then that tells us a fair bit, although I can live with having the Cameroons and Uzbekis as our yardstick.
mattq
Guest
you're bang on Tim about no plan or direction. This is exactly how it felt being an Adelaide United supporter prior to Gombau. Every year was the same, just with different cr@ppy players. Perth need an identity and a philosophy for how they want to play the game. I hope they haven't decided on it already!
mattq
Guest
it still is the 1990s in Perth isn't it?
punter
Guest
'Far & away the best & most successful coach in the A-league' is not saying he is a good coach, which he is no doubt.
Kanga ugarchovic
Guest
Sorry copied to wrong article.
That A-League Fan
Roar Guru
Well, I don't know who's the top scorer for Perth. 17 goals (well it's 2nd joint lowest) An average of around one goal a game. True it's currently not be the lowest, (Central Coast, Brisbane Roar). Not to mention the second least amount of shots. So, one of the attackers need to step up a notch. And where's the Adam Taggart who won the golden boot when he was 20? 5 years later he's only scored 3 and over half the season's gone! Someone (Liam Reddy) has let an average of 2 goals per game, 33 in total (lowest) , and dropping an easy catch to give Johan Absalonsen an open goal. I would have thought that Lowe would have learned his lesson with Reddy's solo run last season in Round 27. Apparently not. That means Perth have a -16 goal difference, followed by Wellington with -10. And they have the joint least amount of clean sheets. And lost their last four games in a row. Even if a striker found top form, or Reddy was replaced in goal Perth still have a long way to go if they want to play in the finals. I'm surprised they aren't lower than they already are (7th).
Roger Smith
Guest
They will stick with Kenny because there is absolutely no one else they can get or afford. Honestly, I fail to see how Kenny has ANY game-plan aside from a completely defensive one that leaves gaps, like this article points out, which then makes it easier for other teams to score. He has a standard 'plan' that doesn't change during games, and more importantly, doesn't change depending on who Perth Glory are playing. I honestly doubt he watches the oppositions previous games that they are coming up against, otherwise there would be some kind of order out there, and a specific order aimed at stopping and attacking the other team. He did start to seem like he could coach a little while back, after a terrible start, but now he is like a poker playing on tilt.
Roger Smith
Guest
Kenny Lowe chose not to sign De Silva. Jack Clisby and O'Neill never got game time under Kenny. Griffiths was useless for us. Oh, don't forget what's his name. The right back that got in the Socceroos squad. That was a money thing. The players that left did so because in a better team, they had a better chance of playing well.
Graham
Guest
Fadida - well said. Looks like you actually watch the game. There's too much histrionics from the local newspaper and the commentators. Lowe is doing well with what he has got and I see promise in the youngsters coming through - if they can keep them on A-league wages.