It has been far from the ideal start to the season for Melbourne Heart so far, and their loss to Sydney FC on Friday night made it zero wins in six games this season.
Plenty went wrong for Heart, as they failed to put the early pressure on Sydney. Instead, the Sky Blues took the initiative in the match and effectively killed the contest before halftime with strikes from Alessandro Del Piero and Joel Chianese. The hosts were lucky to go into the break only two goals down, and failed to do any better in the second half.
Heart were just unable to find the killer instinct up front, with plenty of late pressure on Sydney as they became content to sit back and defend their lead. John Aloisi’s changes didn’t bear fruit however and they crashed to their fourth defeat in a row.
Front three still out of sync
One of Heart’s problems so far this season has been their failure to gel as an attacking unit. A dominant spell against Central Coast has been the only productive one, while a good display in Brisbane went unrewarded through bad luck and poor finishing.
There was a reshuffle made by Aloisi before the game, pushing David Williams wide left while Mate Dugandzic came back into the side on the right flank. Even with the changes though it was very much the same story for Heart this week as it was the last. Michael Mifsud up front wasn’t given the required service, and when he did get on the ball he found himself surrounded by Sky Blue shirts. Rarely did he have space to shoot, nor could he find a teammate to maintain possession. Williams found some joy in behind on the left wing, but again he was well covered by Sydney and failed to have any deadly impact. Dugandzic tried to spark something on the right flank in his hour on the pitch, but like the other two forwards, couldn’t find anyone to combine with.
Sydney had the run of play, and when Heart threatened to counter attack, they lacked numbers to support the frontmen and as the game wore on, made it easy for Sydney to defend against them and keep up their attacking pressure. One thing the Sky Blues had was combinations between their attacking players. Richard Garcia, Joel Chianese, Chris Naumoff and Del Piero linked up well with each other, creating numerous openings in and around the box. It was evident whenever Heart attacked they lacked such fluency. Every time the ball was played to one of the forwards they were almost expected to finish the job. One occasion summed it up, when Mifsud received the ball with back to goal, he tried to remain patient and passed the ball back into midfield. It simply ended up going all the way back and they lost their attacking impetus.
It is becoming a big problem for Heart, and the confidence is being sapped with each loss and each game without a goal. Aloisi says the team will keep working hard this week, and this is one area which his side needs to knuckle down and sort out.
Where has Behich gone?
When Aziz Behich hopped on the plane to join up with Bursaspor in Turkey, he left being touted as one of the next left backs in line for a Socceroos cap. Fast forward a few months and he’s back in Melbourne after failing to break through at Bursaspor, and has looked a shadow of his former self.
As a winger converted into a left back, Behich possesses great ability to bomb forward and join into attacks, but we have not seen enough of this so far this season. He has been playing within himself and holding back, while his defensive game is currently more akin to that of a winger than a fullback.
Last week against Western Sydney, the home team tailored their selection to deal with a perceived double threat from Heart’s left side, with Behich and Ramsay occupying that flank in the match. It worked a treat for the Wanderers and Shannon Cole, the man selected to ensure Behich was kept quiet scored. Sydney didn’t resort to that tactic, but their man on the flank Joel Chianese was just as effective in keeping the fullback quiet. Behich did manage a couple of forays into the box, but either his delivery was poor, or in the case of the second half, his shot was palmed over the bar by Janjetovic. To make matters worse, it was Chianese who scored the second goal, and it was due to a lapse of concentration by Behich, who switched off at the vital moment to let the Sydney youngster ghost past him to tap into an empty net. It looked ugly, and at no moment did Behich actually look to see where Chianese was in the build up.
The form he showed to have Bursaspor interested in him to begin with was deadly, and it seemed like he finally sorted out his problem of consistency. But on the six showings so far this season, he has come back a worse player than when he left.
Plan B: Lump it
With the game slipping away from them, Aloisi finally showed that he has a Plan B up his sleeve, and he described it as being a bit more direct. He took the gamble in sacrificing a defender to add an attacking option, as Stefan Mauk partnered Paulo Retre in midfield, while Williams went on the right flank and Golgol Mebrahtu partnered Mifsud up front, lining up in a 3-2-3-2 formation.
It was positive to see that Aloisi had the intention to try different things in this game, with the gamble with his starting line-up and then this late change of shape and style, but the long ball nature of it all seemed to play into Sydney FC’s hands. When the ball got to either Mebrahtu or Mifsud, they were not in position to take shots first time, and the extra touches meant the opportunities came and went.
The crosses from the flanks were from deep, allowing the Sydney defence of Ryall, Jurman, Petkovic and Abbas to read the delivery and clear without fuss. The most dangerous ball from the wing came from Patrick Gerhardt, who probably intended it to be a cross, but the ball was heading over Janjetovic’s head into the far post. It came to nothing though, as the Sydney custodian sorted out his footwork and caught the ball to ease the nerves of the Sky Blue supporters.
For a team supposedly built to play an entertaining brand of football, this could be seen as a concession from the manager that they have nothing left up their sleeve. Teams have figured out how to counter Heart’s strengths, and their pace up front is no longer a serious threat to teams who simply sit deep and invite pressure. Sydney simply soaked it all in and repelled everything that Heart threw at them.
Aloisi received plenty of taunts from the crowd, be it “Aloisi out!” or “Sacked in the morning”, it is clear that if he doesn’t turn things around soon, that he is living on borrowed time. He now has to come up with a solution to winning away from home, as they now travel to Newcastle for their next game. The Jets defeated high flyers Brisbane Roar this week so this will be a huge task for Aloisi.