A-League Round 5 talking points: Wanderers dismantled, Roos hopefuls stake claim and champions floundering

It’s been another busy weekend of football action, with 26 goals scored across the six matches. Western Sydney were handled their first loss of the campaign, World Cup hopefuls did their best to impress Graham Arnold, and Sydney’s defence was comically bad.

Here are your A-League Round 5 talking points.

Champions’ title defence goes from bad to abhorrent

Claiming just one point in four games, including last week’s capitulation at Central Coast Stadium, a win this evening against Adelaide United would’ve been just what the doctor ordered for Western United. However, the Reds had different ideas, grabbing their second straight win in a good performance away from home.

Fourteen goals against in five games is the worst in the league. The argument could be made that today and last week were aberrations defensively, but the backline is certainly cause for concern. You could put the Benny Hill theme song over clips of the defending today. The form of Leo Lacroix, probably the best defender in the league last season, has pretty much fallen off a cliff in the space of just over a month.

The counter-attacking style and clinical finishing that were the hallmarks of their championship campaign are nowhere to be found, with just six goals scored.

John Aloisi’s job is safe for now but he’s got to turn it around soon, or his employment could be in jeopardy. It feels strange to type that sentence, but this is modern football, and fair or not, it’s all about your most recent results.

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Sydney’s defence in shambles

Injuries to first-choice centre-halves Alex Wilkinson and Jack Rodwell have put Sydney in a precarious position. In some games the attacking impetus of new boys Joe Lolley and Robert Mak has been enough to bail them out of trouble, but ever since Wilkinson went down in the first half of the season-opening Big Blue, the Sky Blues’ defending has been poor and at times even shambolic.

A couple of weeks ago Ryan Kitto glided past a few defenders before beating Aaron Gurd easily, and today new man Adrian Vlastelica got his body shape all wrong, fouling Charlie Austin in the penalty area and giving the referee no choice but to point to the spot. These types of errors are fatal, and as long as two of Gurd, Vlastelica and Donachie are deployed in the heart of defence, the clangers will keep coming.

Rodwell is reportedly some chance of making his Sydney FC debut next week when his old side Western Sydney come to Allianz Stadium for the first Sydney Derby of the season, but Vlastelica was only signed because Wilkinson will miss the next three months – accounting for the World Cup break, that’ll likely still be more than half of the season.

There’s no doubt Steve Corica’s transfer business over the off-season was great attacking-wise, but his failure to shore up centre-back looks terrible in hindsight. Time will tell how much it hamstrings Sydney FC, but thanks to Sky Blue: Inside Sydney FC, we know Corica is on thin ice after a dreadful 2021-22 campaign – could this be the final nail in his coffin?

Wanderers’ unbeaten start comes to an end

To say it was a game of two halves at CommBank Stadium on Saturday wouldn’t quite be accurate, but the game was well and truly won in the second half after Nick Montgomery’s substitutes had a huge impact for the second week running. Michael Ruhs bagged a double, and Samuel Silvera sealed the win with a powerful strike from distance.

(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, Garang Kuol instantly injected himself into the game and was instrumental in both of Ruhs’ strikes. Kuol’s final game in the yellow jersey comes next week against Macarthur before jetting off to join his new Newcastle United teammates (or being loaned out), but Montgomery has shown the depth of his squad and opposition managers must be dreading the final third when they face the Mariners.

As for Marko Rudan’s charges, well, it was easily their worst showing of the campaign. They had previously been undefeated in four, with an identical start to title favourites Melbourne City. No one would dispute that Wanderers had shown plenty of defensive solidity but their attack had been far from deadly. That lack of attacking edge, as well as poor individual mistakes, cost them dearly on their home deck.

It sets up a tantalising Sydney Derby next Saturday evening in front of what will hopefully be 30,000-plus supporters. Both sides will be looking to bounce back, and there’s the Milos Ninkovic subplot, of course, to play out too. Vedran Janjetovic was greeted with jeers and plastic snakes on his return to Moore Park; how will The Cove welcome Ninko?

You can usually throw form out the window when it comes to derbies, so will we know more about Western Sydney once the final whistle blows at Allianz Stadium, or will they continue to be enigmatic?

Victory claim much-needed three points

After a successful 2021-22 campaign and managing to capture the signing of Nani, expectations were high at Melbourne Victory for the coming season.

After a less than comfortable three points in the Big Blue back in Round 1, Tony Popovic’s side were winless in three games, making it an underwhelming first month of the season. Popovic would have been looking for a statement at home against Newcastle – and that’s exactly what he received.

In easily their best performance this season, Victory were dominant in a 4-0 win at AAMI Park. Jake Brimmer, Nicholas D’Agostino and Chris Ikonomidis each grabbed a goal before new signing Bruno Fornaroli put the icing on the cake, marking his debut with an 89th-minute penalty.

A big test looms next week in The Original Derby down at the recently refurbished Coopers Stadium. Adelaide are on a good run of form and up to third on the ladder, so it’s an opportunity for Victory to show their title credentials before the league goes on hiatus for the FIFA World Cup.

Who made their case for a plane ticket to Qatar?

With the World Cup just 15 days away now, speculation as to who will board the flight to the Middle East has officially gone into overdrive.

A-League players who’ve done no harm to their chances over the weekend include Craig Goodwin, Garang Kuol, Marco Tilio, and Jason Cummings (the latter, admittedly, should’ve had a goal of his own), giving Socceroos boss Graham Arnold plenty to ponder before his final World Cup squad will be submitted on Tuesday.

(Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

It was shaping up to be another quiet week, however, for Daniel Arzani until the Macarthur man made his way through the Phoenix midfield then slipped in an exquisite ball for Lachlan Rose, who levelled the game.

It would be difficult to definitively state Arzani has done enough to earn a seat on the plane, and frankly, he does go missing for large parts of games. But in a similar vein to Kuol, the X-factor he possesses might just be enough if Arnie wants another option off the bench to break a tied game open.

CODE Sports’ Adam Peacock reported earlier today that 21 players, including Tom Rogic, are regarded as “certainties” for the final 26-man squad. Arnold is quoted as saying he wants players who are versatile and can cover multiple positions, so that could potentially hurt the Australian-based players.

All will be revealed on Tuesday. We’ll keep you updated as soon as the final Socceroos squad is confirmed right here on The Roar.