For the fourth game running, Sydney FC failed to collect a victory.
Question marks now hang over the ineffective front line, which, not for the first time, has failed to excite and failed to deliver.
It was a relatively dull game against Wellington Phoenix, something that is now all too common with Sydney FC. This is a stark contrast to the free-flowing football of last season.
Some on Twitter have labelled the Sky Blues as ‘boring boring Sydney’ and it is hard to argue the more the season progresses. In the first two games of the season, Sydney were creating a number of good chances. Since Graham Arnold has changed the team’s formation, opportunities are few and far between.
Since reverting to a basic 4-4-2, the emphasis has been on building from the back and maintaining possession. It is obvious to all that Sydney’s defence, while on occasion suspect, has been steadfast and reliable. Maintaining possession has also not been a problem.
It is the transition into attack and creating good goalscoring opportunities where the issue lies.
Part of this problem is that the front line has now become static. That is, those players occupying the front three attacking positions are failing to create or move into space, or are not linking with each other as well as they probably should.
Key to this problem is Shane Smeltz. With Marc Janko’s departure, he made it clear that he wanted to be first choice and has been rewarded with eight straight starts. In those starts, he has rarely looked like scoring and in actuality he has only scored once in those eight games.
Smeltz has rarely put himself into goalscoring positions and this is also a contributing factor to his lack of goals. He has contributed defensively when defence starts from the attack but this is not what he gets judged on. Smeltz’s main job is to score goals and he has continuously failed this season.
It is remarkable that it is now eight games into the season and Arnold still continues to show faith in his game. Compare Smeltz to Matt Simon, who continues to impress as the season goes on. He has only scored two goals but importantly, in his limited game time, Simon has shown that he can and is willing to get into goalscoring positions.
In some of those opportunities, Simon has looked slightly off the pace when attempting to connect to crosses or through balls. But it is Simon’s willingness to get himself into goalscoring positions that will make it more likely for him to score goals. That is in complete contrast to Smeltz who time and again does not even look likely to do the same.
Being critical of Smeltz’s contribution is all well and good and he has earned the criticism. But when you look at the overall picture, there are others who are not contributing as much as we know that they can and should be.
Rhyan Grant is one player who is not playing at his best. Grant’s attacking efforts cannot be questioned. He has continuously provided himself as an option and as a creator of opportunities in attack but it is some of his defensive duties and passing options which is letting down his game.
Grant has been caught out defensively, particularly when Central Coast scored straight after Sydney had scored a few weeks ago in Gosford. While his defence has not proved extremely costly, his passing options can create headaches for the Sky Blues, particularly if his passing error creates an immediate counter-attacking opportunity for the opposition.
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Similarly, Milos Dimitrijevic is another player who has significantly underwhelmed. It is clear that he is not playing at the sublime level he played to last season; occasionally, simple passes he would have made last season have not been made this season. Given that Arnold has allowed Dimitrijevic more free reign in an attacking sense, it seems to have worked against him.
It is not an easy fix. There are obvious adjustments that need to be made. These adjustments need to be made without losing the defensive stability and mastery of possession the team has. It will be difficult because Arnold seems to have a clear idea of what his front line and first choice attackers are.
So the question is how to get the best in attack without losing stability in defence and possession? Is it a formation change, is it a personnel change or is it both? This is a great pub debate for fans but we will not know until Arnold and his coaching staff changes the current status quo.
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