A highly impressive away from home Western Sydney performance saw Melbourne City succumb to a 3-0 defeat at AAMI Park on Friday night.
Goals to Mitch Nichols, Federico Piovaccari and Mark Bridge helped the Wanderers easily dispatch their opponents, illustrating a huge improvement in fortunes after a shaky start to the season.
Team News
Chances created
Popovic’s side created two more chances than their opponents on the night (5-7), which on it’s own is not an overly impressive statistic.
When the area and manner in which these chances were created are taken into account, however, it is clear to see why the Wanderers flourished in attack, while City floundered.
Hughes’ half-time substitution hurt City’s defensive organisation
Aaron Hughes showed glimpses of the quality he will bring to City’s defensive stocks in his first-half showing. After being substituted due to a calf complaint, the same injury that robbed van’t Schip of his presence prior to round six, his teammates were poorly organised and conceded three goals that were scored from the zone where Hughes was previously stationed.
Perhaps, when taking into account the controversial non-offside call that dominated discussion surrounding Piovaccari’s maiden A-League goal, City can be afforded some slack. Yet they were far-too generous throughout the match to seriously threaten the Wanderers’ grip on the contest.
Defensively poor centrally and also out wide
The simplicity of a flat back four is it’s strength. Fullbacks, if exposed, can be covered by someone centrally pulling across. Though the problems associated with allowing crosses into the box far too easily and marking strikers somewhat loosely is an obvious recipe for disaster. City’s naiveté in defence was exposed again.
Without diminishing credit to the Wanderers, who fully deserved maximum points here, it will be a continuing trend of opposition teams finding similar joy when City make it this easy to put the ball into their nets
Novillo’s early spark fails to ignite
Wanderers fullback Scott Neville was given the task of marking the Frenchman in his first start of the A-League season, following an impressive cameo appearance in Adelaide last week. In the early stages, Neville could not get to grips with Novillo’s pace, and looked particularly vulnerable when the forward customarily cut inside to create an opportunity on his favoured right-foot.
As the service to City’s forwards and particularly those in wide areas (Kuzmanovski, who was substituted for Gameiro and Novillo) became more scarce, these dangerous wide men were forced to drop increasingly deep to begin attacks – a ploy that none of the attackers were comfortable with.
Andreu + Dimas + Nichols compliment one another excellently
This midfield has all the traits of a successful team.
The industry of Dimas Delgado saw the Spaniard amass five interceptions and five tackles throughout. His work rate and positional awareness in sniffing out danger helped to blunt City’s previously free-flowing forward line.
Andreu’s quality sits with the ball at his feet, which was seen last night with a wide array of passing, ending with a completion rate of 89%. Besides substitute Hernan Espindola, who completed all five of his passes in a 25-minute cameo, Andreu’s ball retention helped the Wanderers mount attack after relentless attack, pinning City’s tiring rearguard further back as the final whistle drew nearer.
Nichols has provided the cut and thrust that evaded the Wanderers midfield in the second-half of the 2014-15 season. Adventurous distribution led him to complete only 67% of passes, though this is a misleading figure, given his creative licence when operating ahead of the aforementioned duo of Dimas and Andreu.
Melbourne City conclusion
Only those in City’s inner sanctum will know what van’t Schip’s message to the squad was in the immediate aftermath and what the fallout from this poor showing will be. The question surrounding the team’s over-reliance on Aaron Mooy, who missed this game due to Socceroos duty, gained validity here.
Without their star midfielder, the pressure was too great on Erik Paartalu, who failed to show the leadership expected of a player of his pedigree. Similar struggles shrouded the performances of Stefan Mauk and Jacob Melling.
Paartalu, Mauk and Melling’s combined pass completion rate was a mere 68%, a statistic that illustrates City’s struggles in transition from defence to attack.
A meeting with the Brisbane Roar awaits next Friday night at Suncorp Stadium and with Jamie Maclaren and Brandon Borello in-form for John Aloisi’s side, a draw would be a highly commendable result.
Western Sydney Wanderers conclusion
Impressive. With Nichols buzzing around as he does in midfield, few opponents will be able to run with him and secondly, be able to keep their shape. The Wanderers’ movement in certain stages had the home side’s marking system completely out of sync and they will go into the match against the Wellington Phoenix next week at Pirtek Stadium as favourites to notch their fourth consecutive win.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
