Is it possible that when Marcus Aurelius said “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it,” he was somehow verbalising some augury of the 2018-19 Central Coast Mariners?
No, probably not.
The Mariners have had five managers in the past five years, and with that flux in leadership it feels as though the foundations of the club have turned crumbly, rendered unsure, a cakey slab upon which it seems nearly impossible to erect anything stable.
It is rarely seen as good practice in football to change managers at the same rate Australia does prime ministers, and so it can hardly come as a shock that this season the Mariners seem to be, again, a bad team.
The Mariners lost 2-0 to the Western Sydney Wanderers on Friday night but began the game brightly, fizzing vertical passes to one another to create some promising bullrushes into the Wanderers penalty area.
Connor Pain and Matthew Millar are both positive dribblers and bustling runners, and on either side of the pitch they matched each other’s searing sojourns into the attacking third.
But that early fizz quickly went flat. From about the 15-minute mark the Mariners became the reactive team looking for sporadic counter-attacks, allowing the Wanderers to assume control of possession and begin applying thin layers of pressure.
Often, once the ball was won back by Central Coast, the outlet pass of choice was a long punt toward Matt Simon. As much as Simon is a ferocious aerial presence, more an airborne elbow than he is a man, this is not a particularly good way of alleviating pressure. If the aerial skirmish isn’t won, the ball comes right back at the Mariners defence.
Occasionally they’d work their way out more terrestrially, and in these cases the counter-attack was almost always more promising. But the whole concept of a counter-attacking team depends on that team being able to absorb pressure – invite it, even – so as to lure their opponents into even more over-extended postures, making them all the more vulnerable to a sudden riposte.
The Mariners set up here with Antony Golec, a centre back, as their left full back. Kalifa Cisse and Kye Rowles were the centre backs, and Jake McGing was the right back. Now, at the best of times this defence isn’t particularly formidable; heading into this match the Mariners had conceded 14 goals over the first six games this season, the league’s worst defensive record by a distance. Cisse looks a solid player – certainly they would have conceded more goals if not for him – but he in isolation cannot drag this team to defensive competency.
(AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
Goalkeeper Ben Kennedy must also be included in the defensive assessment, and to borrow the words of Humphrey Appleby, selecting Kennedy as your first-choice keeper is indeed a brave and courageous decision for a manager to make. Kennedy did not cover himself in glory during the Wanderers’ second goal, palming a shot he might have held or diverted over the byline right into the path of Jaushua Sotirio, who slotted the rebound through the keeper’s legs.
In assessing Central Coast, one cannot just erase the last four years of abject foundering. It’s been that long since they’ve finished above eighth place, but to expedite the exercise, let’s just take last season’s woes and how they affect what the Mariners are doing this year.
Under Paul Okon, who oversaw the bulk of last season, the Mariners were one of the most possession-hungry teams in the division, finishing the season ranked third for average possession held.
Mariners games were astonishing, exemplary displays of exactly how little the possession and passes completed stats matter as far as being necessary indicators for a team’s offensive or indeed defensive acumen. They would knock the ball around endlessly and yet couldn’t score.
But even though it didn’t work, even though it led them to a historically bad season finish and even though Paul Okon departed as a result, it was at least a plan. A bad one, but one with blueprints, instructions and intentions. The work it must have taken to install would have been considerable.
This season the Mariners are the lowest-ranked team as far as average possession held is concerned. Only the Wellington Phoenix have attempted fewer passes than the Mariners. They play fewer sideways passes as a percentage of their total passes than any other team. And again, only the Phoenix play more long balls. This is as different a style to Okon’s as can be imagined.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, knowing how terrible the Mariners were under Okon, but the fact a tactical face-lift this dramatic has taken place might explain in part why they’ve started so badly. And it’s not just your run-of-the-mill bad start; the Mariners’ two points from an available 21 to start this season is the worst start in A-League history.
Mike Mulvey saw 15 players leave this off-season and recruited 17 new ones, perhaps the most extreme incidence of player turnover seen in the A-League. Tommy Oar, Ross McCormack, Corey Gamiero and Jordan Murray are all nice attackers. All four were injured against the Wanderers. There are caveats.
(AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
“We just need a win,” Mulvey said after the game. “We’ve got a little system working for us that seems to suit us, the players that we’ve got,” Mulvey added, “Obviously we’ve got some players who are not available at the moment, which would add competition.
“But we just need a break, we just need to win a game,” Mulvey ended, a little exasperated and with a small smile laced delicately with weariness.
If you see ambitious passing football, in love with possession, allergic to the instinctual hoof, as being the preferred style, then Mulvey has put the Mariners through a sudden retrogression.
If you agree that their current style better fits their players, then the process is more an abandoning of a damaging, pompous ideal. Either way, the Mariners are still terrible, and if they don’t improve, the reset button may be hit in panic. Again.
TM
Guest
Yeah you get the impression dds is a spoilt kid, and tries to cut corners to the top. I noticed Hiriaj played for the youth team, i thought that was strange. I reckon he should be made captain, not Simon the dirty foot stamper
Rowdy
Guest
Our best player .... Tom Hiriaj is being "Fornaroli'd" by Mulvey. Start playing the Dutchman firstly, but more importantly as a number #10 BECAUSE we actually don't have an out'n'out #10, the one we had in Daddy'sboy Da Silva sooked off to SydFC because he thought CCM were beneath him, in regards to getting back overseas. "I wanna go to SydFC, they're The Champions !!" The reality for DDS is that for him to get back OS he needs to be playing & PLAYING WELL ! Fact Check : - you cant watch a player sitting on a bench ! ..."how's that working out for you Danny ?" Whereas IF he stayed with us, he'd be STARTING every week. Dumb arse who, despite being contracted to CCM for next season as well .... the majority of fans would rather NOT see him back at the club for turning his back on us. "The badge on the front of the shirt IS MORE IMPORTANT than the name on the back" Hope that sheds some light on the previous commentor asking about this pea-heart of a player and his transfer status.
TM
Guest
Many if the players signed spoke about "Mikes plan" , "when he spoke of his plan" etc. What was his plan? I also don't see any particular style of play
James
Guest
The problem is (and will be until he leaves) our owner. He simply refuses to invest in the team to a competitive level and under his ownership we've won 18 games since Phil Moss left (April 2014). You could get a triumvirate of Ferguson, Bielsa and Guardiola and they wouldn't lift this dross we call a squad above 9th. There's simply too much deadwood that would barely make a mid-table NPL team drifting around and it shows.
Old Greg
Guest
De Silva started at Glory. Mariners could use him, Corica probably won't give him game time with the system SFC is currently using.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Yep. West bulldogs have one cup , so there less successful then ccm Mariners have been very successful before and I hope they turn it around
Fadida
Guest
Oops! That was an accidental oversight Punter!
Waz
Roar Rookie
Good point kangas. Not sure how relegation would work tbh and, although I’m a supporter in principle, in practice it’s at least a decade or more away. Expansion and a second division first.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Get where you’re coming from jim, I’m not sure what club commits players to long-term contracts though, Mauk at Roar was signed for 4 years being the longest I can recall of late. But I take your point, the mariners have suffered a high turnover and while it’s tempting to judge Mulvey on this season it is unfair. But on the general cap system (which I think has to go still) the cap on salary is the mechanism to stop clubs bs reaching financial ruin but I do think there has to be a better way? The second cap restriction, on the number of players, is what I was referring too though. A club doesn’t want to get itself locked down with players who may lose form or youngsters that don’t continue their development; so they sign players to short term contract knowing that if you keep an eye on your competitors squads some players will excel but the host club will not be able to keep them. The cap just encourages short-termism and it’s not helping anyone.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Point of clarification, Eerstedivisie means literally "first division", even if it represents the 2nd tier of Dutch football. In the days when we still used newspapers, I actually used to get a Dutch newspaper delivered to my home. They now have this thing called the internet. Nou lees ik geen krant. I'm amazed that you, of all people, would accuse keen watchers of the A-League to be leading dull, boring lives. Van mijn leven heb ik zoiets niet gezien.
Kdog
Guest
The fact you mention north sydney shows you have no understanding of sydney, there is money in north sydney, no support though, just look at spirit, also NSO is a cricket pitch.
jbinnie
Guest
Waz - I think we are at 2 different views in your reply. Maximum wages to individuals have to be set at the behest of the manager and the club's financial advisors. We have all witnessed the other problem created by increased salaries just by viewing the EPL where hugely inflated sums are being paid for players of limited talent,a talent obviously recognised by the club manager when advising his board, but not always widely apparent to onlookers. An example of this type of spending has a glaring example at the present CCM, where the marquee player,Ross McCormack is playing (for an undisclosed wage) and when one views his career in English football some $26 million (minimum)has been spent on his transfers and yet we have people in these columns criticising his contribution to the team effort. What I was talking about was the obvious falling away of "standards " at CCM, a club which only a few years ago,were regarded as top performers in the HAL with a whole group of locally born and bred players,many who have been named above by Punter. Today we see an excess of players who have been tried and tested at other HAL clubs and to be brutally honest,appear to be struggling under the load. CCM are not alone in this problem,there are others who are signing players with HAL experience at 2 or 3 clubs and to be realistic these clubs obviously think they can improve their new acquisition's overall play. As I said, coaches are not magicians, we are only encouraged to think they are. Cheers jb.
Nemesis
Guest
The more worldly members of the Australian football community realise that football, like life, has moments of euphoria, moments of utter boredom, moments of nothingness. Sometimes for a whole 90 minutes life can be filled with nothingness. Many people's jobs are like this. I presume people who are active on multiple sports websites, talking about multiple sports, have pretty mundane life. It was Friday night - in December, mind you. If you're sitting through a football match not involving your team & that you dull, you must lead an incredibly dull existence. Hope you find a real person to engage with over Christmas. I'm keen to know where you watch Serie C matches & Netherlands Div 2? Or is this another hallucination? Seek help.
Punter
Roar Rookie
Niko!!!!
Punter
Roar Rookie
I agree the Mariners will get relegated, but lets not forget that in the current/recently Socceroos squad, they have produced 6 players, Ryan, Vukovic, Sainsbury (who was captain), Duke, Rogic & Amini & lets not forget Jedinak, another Mariners great, has captained Australia to 2 world cups. How many Western Bulldogs have represented at the World cup, didn't they win their first premiership in 100 years after finishing 7th, work that out.
Waz
Roar Rookie
If you don’t think Cairns is a regional town then you’re s nutjob
Waz
Roar Rookie
Yeah agreed, there were large chunks of the game where these sides looked quite poor and bereft of confidence. But quality does not equal entertainment. The efforts of these two sides was entertaining enough for me but yes - a moment or two of quality aside, there wasn’t much to write home about.
Fadida
Guest
And Baumjohann of course
Fadida
Guest
Two words summed up both teams; final pass. For CCM it was Pain, Hoole when he came on, Golec, and then Clisby. For WSW it was Risdon (as usual), Sortirio (I've never seen such a poor final end product/decision making). In fact it's endemic across the league. Victory (Honda), Glory (Ikonimidis, Castro) and Roar (Bautheac, Lopez), AU (Goodwin) are arguably the exceptions. It remains the problem for the NT too. Kruse, Risdon, Behich, Rogic all have a terrible final ball. The league has a real paucity of quality strikers too. At best most clubs have one good one. Most have no back up for that one either.
Fadida
Guest
Agree