One with a decorated career in the Eredivisie, the top echelon of Dutch football. The other a midfield lynchpin, a regular bastion for the Socceroos in seasons past.
Yet despite these glowing credentials, Thomas Kristensen and Matt McKay of the Roar are a terrible burden on the club.
This is in no way the fault of these players. Rather, the lion’s share of the blame should go to Roar coach John Aloisi, who persists with using an ageing core of midfielders. It slows and hampers their play, and is a key reason for their recent lack of success.
Experienced veterans have their place. Bert Van Marwijk`s recent redeployment of an ageing Mark Milligan in central defence was a brilliant example. It masked Milligan’s increasing lack of pace while maximising his ball playing ability.
Socceroo stalwart Mile Jedinak’s similar conversion to centre back at Aston Villa is in the same vein.
Yet Aloisi’s brutal mismanagement of these players sees two 35-year-olds deployed in midfield. It is the worst of both worlds, exposing their lack of pace while hiding the assured composure veterans bring to the table.
As fine a coach as Aloisi is, his obsession with slow, ponderous attackers (Massimo Maccarone, Jade North, Kristensen and McKay) destroys the Roar’s attacking impetus.
Tuesday’s match against City was a case in point, with the Roar deploying Kristensen and McKay as wide players in a 4-3-3 formation. In fact, the surprise was that senior players like Eric Bautheac and Henrique didn’t refuse to play upon hearing the team sheet. It read like one that was chosen by City coach Warren Joyce.
This is hardly a new phenomenon. Remember last season, when the Roar played cross-town rivals Melbourne City?
Yes, the opening goal came from a Jake Hingert brain fart; a failed Cruyff turn on the edge of the box. The Roar lost possession, the ball was swept into the Roar box and City had an easy tap-in.
But yet the only reason this happened was that the Roar’s attack on that day was so slow and ponderous, an attack consisting of a 38-year-old Italian Massimo Maccarone, 37-year-old Melbourne Victory veteran Fahid Ben Kahlfallah and 32-year-old ‘Slippery Fish’ Henrique Andrade Silva.
(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)
This 107-year-old offence had experience aplenty but could barely move. This chronic lack of pace meant that the Roar could not counter when they won the ball back, which translated to a negligible attacking threat. This drained the belief from the Roar back four.
After all, what’s the point of winning the ball back if you couldn’t do anything with it? You couldn’t hurt the opposition and you couldn’t maintain possession. They were lambs to the slaughter. And City hotshot Bruno Fornaroli was all too happy to act as the butcher and deliver a coup de grace to Brisbane’s title aspirations.
At first, the lesson seemed to have been learned. Perth Glory striker Adam Taggart and Aussie wonderkid Stefan Mauk were brought in. They were a step in the right direction, an investment for the future.
Yet this illusion of long-term strategic planning evaporates when you realise that both players are on relatively short-term contracts. To compound the problem, the Roar was rumoured to be bringing in Mathieu Flamini as a marquee.
As good a player as Flamini is, his legs are gone and would represent a return to mistakes made last season.
Come on, John. You know better than this.
RF
Guest
Waz, if you look at the short players - and Messi is several centimetres taller than Caletti - at elite level level they invariably compensate for lack of physical presence with pace. Caletti notably lacks pace. In particular, he lacks acceleration over 5 to 10 metres. That is, I suggest, his glass ceiling.
Waz
Roar Rookie
jb I read the article of course but it’s not true, it’s a pr job for a club attempting to gain entry into the HAL and in need of the publicity. There was no real coaching taking place (they were a series of Miniroos’s type workshops and the modern administrators will have us believe this is not “coaching” anymore but “facilitators”) and it all ended after a few weeks. The cooperation between City and Roar is also quite extensive and not as hostile as some might think. I’ve seen Broich multiple times since this article and all bar one time he was wearing Roar kit, hardly the act of someone employed by another club right? And behind the scenes the President at BCFC also sits on Roars Advisory Board ... cooperation in football in this State is probably at its highest level for decades with this being one example amongst nest several with FQ, FB, Roar and most NPL clubs cooperating at various levels lately. No problem with the “match report”. What followed this game (including visual highlights and the written word) was extremely average imo. City (and Roar) looked very fit, even deep into injury time there was no evidence either side was tiring or in early preseason. But City looked physically very strong and I’d say they’ve spent a fair bit of time in the gym, and they threw their weight around, whether this is just a Joyce thing or club policy now I don’t know - but they reminded me of the old English Division Two sides (second division way back when) bring strong, fit, physical but not without skill. It will be interesting to see if this is the case when the season starts.
Waz
Roar Rookie
“He simply does not have the physical capabilities to cut it at this level“ ... yes he does - it’s wherher he has the footballing ability and whether the coaches can bring this combination out. We write too many players off over lack of size.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Obviously not?
jbinnie
Guest
Waz - Not like you to make such a glaring error in communication. I refer you to an article in the Courier Mail dated August 4th 2017 with the glaring heading - THOMAS BROICH-BRISBANE CITY COACH- BRISBANE ROAR LEGEND BEGINS HIS COACHING CAREER- The article also features some fine photographs featuring Thomas in a City track suit top in the company of 2 City officials one of whom is City chairman Robert Cavallucci. If that doesn't register "helping out" then I don't know what you would call it. It was after this that Thomas went back to Germany where ,at last reports, he wanted to gain his coaching credentials and no doubt bearing in mind he was no longer earning a wage from football as a player he landed a job with a German radio/ tv station. By the way thank you for the run down on the FFA Cup game,it was more instructive than the Fox coverage which centred around the game's only counter, the City goal.. Cheers jb.
Chen Yang
Roar Pro
I hear you RF. But to be fair head given debuts and game time to the likes of Rahmat Akbari and Daniel Leck, not to mention Joe caletti. Connor O toole's coming through as well. It's not fair to say that he didn't give youth a chance. Among the 4 players mentioned above I'd say only o toole looks a first xi player. My take is that the jury's still out on caletti and Akbari, while leck isn't quite ready for first team football, beyond the occasional cup game.
RF
Guest
LH, when I read that Ricky had started, I was utterly dismayed. This is a player, now well past his peak, who even at his best was a bench player for Brisbane. It showed me that Aloisi is - again - bereft of ideas, and without any intention of bringing younger players into the first team equation. It also gave me a very bad feeling about the coming season. If I was a betting man, I would not be putting money on Aloisi being at Brisbane by the middle of the season.
Waz
Roar Rookie
jb The cup performance did little to address any lingering questions with Roar tbh. Both sides looked very fit, especially for this early in the season. City looked strong/more muscular and attempted to push Roar out of the game but with little joy City never got close to the Roar goal but instead took long shots. Roar got close to the city goal on a few occasions but couldn’t get much on target. Mikkelsen impressed on the wing. Mauk more so but I think he’ll be gone this time next year. O’Toole at LB was okay but got schooled a few times, kept going to ground too soon. Suspect we might see Nigro starting at LB soon. Mackay looked fit but his touch was generally awful, might just be preseason but ...
RF
Guest
Except that he's even shorter and even slower. Waz, the talk around Caletti mystifies me. He simply does not have the physical capabilities to cut it at this level.
Waz
Roar Rookie
He didn’t pop up at Brisbane City to “help out” .. he got a job in German tv and ran ahandful of miniroo coaching workshops at City. Many ex-Roar players are active in local clubs, I’ve got two of them at mine.
RF
Guest
No. They couldn't keep up.
RF
Guest
Good lord, do you know how tall McKay is???
RF
Guest
"As fine a coach as Aloisi is..." And how on earth did you reach that conclusion, Chen? Particularly given that Aloisi clearly has 6-8 games to get this season right or he's out the door. Aloisi has been a dog's breakfast of a coach. This season is make or break. I hope he pulls his career out of the fire, but in the fire it certainly is.
Chen Yang
Roar Pro
In the a league or in the eredivisie?
jbinnie
Guest
Waz - Read the first sentence again ,I did say Thomas said the HAL had peaked 4 years ago, i was me who suggested he may have meant Roar.. While we are on the subject it has always been my opinion that there were deeper reasons why Broich suddenly hung up his boots and ,surprise surprise,popped up at Brisbane City "to help out". Strange way of demonstrating loyalty. Cheers jb.
jbinnie
Guest
Waz - So now I base my discussions on stats! The game you talk about was part of a montage of games in the FFA Cup and as you are aware the Roar v City game did not feature too well in that showing as they, Fox, concentrate on taking viewers to other grounds only when goals are scored, and in 119 minutes of football that did not happen at Dolphin,hence very poor coverage. To be honest my first thought when we finally did get to the Roar game was ---0-0, same old problem, but at least the defence appears to have been working. Don't know about you but I have just written to Lionheart in this column on the goal drought and the names of players who have come ---and gone -- in recent seasons almost beggars belief and one has to assume most of the imports were done in trying to solve the "goal drought" Cheers jb.
Chen Yang
Roar Pro
Hey guys thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it:) check out my other articles by clicking in my profile or via this link https://www.theroar.com.au/2018/08/15/chasing-dream-defence-bolt/
Chen Yang
Roar Pro
He hasn't really had a chance to play DM at Melbourne. Carl Valeri took up a spot and the young prospect in midfield was Rashid Mahazi a couple of seasons back and Josh Hope for the last season. So he hasn't really had a chance to show what he can do in DM. Has the technique for it though:)
Waz
Roar Rookie
“near misses” count exactly the same as “shots on target” in football jb, which is for nothing. The reason for mentioning the near misses was to provide some context for those that didn’t see the game. Bautheac, inside the 6 yard box, conspired to put the ball just over the bar with no defenders to beat and the keeper out of position. Meanwhile the stats record a long range timid shot on target from city ... Ricky also did something similar in the first half although he was sliding in to a low ball so probably not as easy a chance ..... but if you’re working off internet blog stats to evaluate this game your won’t get very far I’m afraid.
Waz
Roar Rookie
I’ve seen TK play CB, he was rubbish. So nah, it’s DM or nothing for me.