December 19 Christmas Derby

[Murfy1]

City’s win can do wonders

 

By Gilbert Albertson

December 22nd, 2015

 

 

It has been a month since Melbourne City drew 1-1 with Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium in a match where their approach indicated they were likely both intent and content on securing just the single point. Accused of playing anti-football after the match by Roar coach John Aloisi, City have since gone on to record four straight victories, lifting themselves from seventh position to third and just one win behind league leaders Western Sydney Wanderers.

Rather than the alleged anti-football that saw them collect five yellow cards in that trip north, in their last four matches City have scored sixteen goals with free-flowing attacking football taking centre-stage with big wins over Perth Glory, Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets before defeating Melbourne Victory 2-1 on Saturday night.

City gain control

After struggling to maintain possession in the first ten minutes of the derby, City grew into the game as they began to play through Victory’s press and move the ball forward with more ease. Where City’s wingers look to get beyond Bruno Fornaroli and use their pace out wide in direct attacking transitions, when building possession more patiently from the back, they looked to come deep and narrow. With Victory going man for man in midfield – Oli Bozanic would push high onto Paulo Retre, Gui Finkler stayed close to Erik Paartalu while Rashid Marhazi did his best to act as Aaron Mooy’s shadow – they would move into the spaces either side of Mahazi and Mooy in midfield to receive the ball and help City play out from the back. 

Example 1

With City maintaining possession and rotating it back to Patrick Kisnorbo it meant Franjic was high up the pitch and ahead of Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Stefan Mauk moved narrow and deeper to the space behind Bozanic and Finkler and to the left of Mahazi. Kisnorbo found the young attacker, who had dragged Daniel Georgievski forward with him, before a deft first time pass found the Socceroos fullback in space.

Example 2

City’s first goal (the ninth time in 11 games they’ve scored first) came from a similar move. With Victory’s press not as high or energetic the ball was able to be switched from Kisnorbo on the right to Ben Garuccio at left-back. Importantly, Harry Novillo made a run back into midfield reminiscent of Mauk’s in the previous example, dragging Jason Geria with him and opening up space for Garrucio to attack at speed. The fullback’s cross found Mauk who headed home. 

Example 3

The ball was again switched to the left and with Garrucio advanced, Novillo came narrow to receive the pass from Retre before playing in Mauk who had drifted in between the lines from the right. This forced Leigh Broxham to charge forward from centre-back and commit a foul; gifting City a free-kick in a dangerous position.

The ability for van ‘t Schip’s wingers to link-up with Fornaroli and attack beyond the striker when City attack quickly in transition is an important aspect of the side’s game plan and has played its part in their recent goal-scoring run. But with the team also needing to adapt and maintain possession for longer periods and build attacks with more patience, the ability for the wingers to come inside to find space once the opposition defence is more set is an important point of difference.

Victory get on top

In a pattern that has plagued City at times during the last two seasons though, their early start faded as the game continued, with John van ‘t Schip’s side increasingly under pressure during the second half. Victory repeatedly peppered the goals with twenty-three shots, remarkably thirteen of which were on target – the most any side has managed this season. 

City were unable to control the tempo of the game after the break like they had during the first forty-five, but more importantly they were unable to close down space in the final third for the reigning champions, with Victory completing more passes in the final third than any game besides their trip to Newcastle in round three.

In a pattern familiar to Victory’s game the previous week against the Wanderers, each side’s fullbacks and wingers were in a constant game of cat and mouse. The wingers from both teams were determined to stay as high up the pitch as possible to help their team attack quickly, but in turn conceded ground to their direct opponent to advance unmarked and create 2 v 1 scenarios at the other end. In addition to this, City failed to defend compactly enough, regularly allowing Victory’s attackers to find space between the midfield and defensive lines.

While City were able to create some good chances on the counter-attack themselves, with the tempo of the game so clearly tipped in Victory’s favour in the second half, the intent on keeping so many bodies forward caused issues at the other end. Robert Koren’s introduction saw the marquee player join Mooy ahead of Paartalu in midfield leaving them further exposed to Ben Khalfallah, Barbarouses and then Archie Thompson coming inside and while the substitution of central defender Aaron Hughes for Novillo helped outnumber Victory in the penalty box, it meant switching to a 5-3-2 that only gifted Victory’s fullbacks more space in the final minutes.

Example 1

Ben Khalfallah was able to drift across the pitch under little pressure before providing an excellent cross for Besart Berisha to make the score 2-1 just before half-time. While Paartalu stood off the Tunisian international, it was in part due to needing to drop into the defensive line as Geria had pushed forward with Novillo making no attempt to track back after City had failed to create a counter-attack.

The goal came less than three minutes after Novillo again hadn’t tracked Geria who was able to create a 2 v 1 for Kosta Barbarouses to cross to Finkler who’s close range shot was blocked.

Example 2

Even discounting the fact that Paartalu was injured up field, City conceded an enormous amount of space to Victory in this 89th minute attack from Kevin Muscat’s side. The back five had just the two players to deal with, but Koren was dragged wide following Finkler, leaving just Mooy to effectively cover the central space that Jess Makarounas, Broxham, Ben Khalfallah and an advancing Georgievski could all receive the ball in.

Looking ahead

The derby was the first opportunity City have had to play an opponent inside top six since they began their excellent run. While they can only play who the fixture presents and they’ve been aided by returns from injury to some key players, doubts will still remain about their ability to dominate against tougher opponents, with City riding their luck in the second half to come away with all three points. The first half display was impressive but it won’t be sustainable to rely on Thomas Sorensen to make eleven saves each week.

Naturally, playing against higher quality opponents is more difficult than playing against teams towards the bottom of the table. But there has been a stark contrast for City so far this season in their performances against the clubs at either end. The win over Victory on Saturday was their first in five attempts against other teams currently heading for finals football. 

The psychological victory on Saturday night cannot be overlooked for its importance, however the match away against the Roar on Sunday now firms as an even more important fixture for van ‘t Schip’s side. They have won four games from four since the trip to Suncorp in November and their performance on the night and the words from Aloisi following the draw will still be fresh in the memories for both sides.

Another win will further bolster City’s credentials and it will be important they don’t entirely throw away the attacking style that has been successful over the last month. But it is important for there to be balance – to pose a threat against the top sides for longer periods of time City must exert greater control over the tempo of the game and look to make the opposition play on their terms for more than just short bursts.

 

http://leopoldmethod.com.au/citys-win-can-do-wonders/

 

 

Solid match summary. In particular a very good analysis of our build up down the flanks. Excellent to see our wingers and fullbacks starting to work very well together. However, I'd dispute the validity of comparing our games against the "top 6" with our matches against the "bottom 4". It's comparing apples with oranges, because we played most "top 6" teams in October and early November when we had a lot of injuries and had lesser replacements--our starters against these top 6 teams included Wade Dekker (at LW), Trifiro, Retre at RB, Espindola at LW and Kuzmanovski (also we had a lot of our better players feature when they weren't fully fit in these games: Mooy [round 1], Zullo, Novillo, Hughes).

And sure enough we've played most "bottom 4" sides late November and December, and sure enough we've had most of our best player fit and starting, such as Mooy, Fornaroli, Novillo and Franjic, and those replacements named before who had to start can't even make the bench. Unsurprisingly when our team has its best players it produces its best results. Nonetheless, I do agree that Melbourne City has to make (better) opposition play on our terms for more of the game, and now that our most important players are fit and starting that's a lot more likely to happen now than it was in the opening rounds of the season when we fielded an injury-crippled team.

[cadete]

1 hour ago, Embee said:

You've made this point numerous times now, I don't quite see why you feel the need to reinforce your opinion on the subject to the extent that you do. Anyone who pays any kind of attention on this website is probably very aware of where you stand on the issue and have also likely seen your numerous posts where you pointed out not one MCFC supporter was mentioned in the paper.

Just for the record, before we actually went up to Sydney and got any kind of hearing with the FFA we'd actually been told a tifo for the derby was an absolute no go (pullover, card display or banner on poles, nothing was to be allowed) and guess what, we ended up getting to go through with our requested display after everything was said and done, so we achieved the results we set out to achieve when this all started.

Someone who is guilty but under those circumstances would receive the full term of a ban for igniting a flare with no regard for agoalie's mentioned specifics of his situation.

Under the new system (assuming it's followed through on) he would still receive a ban but would have the option for it to be reduced due to the extenuating circumstances, something that isn't currently done.

How you can not see the irony of you guys going to Sydney and aligning yourselves with a Group of PPL who represent and protect those who then barely a week later not only light flares during the Derby...

But more importantly then attack both your Home Bay and then your subsequent Post Match March is fucken beyond me. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2015 by cadete

[thisphantomfortress]

2 minutes ago, cadete said:

How you can not see the irony of you guys going to Sydney and aligning yourselves with a Group of PPL who represent and protect those who then barely a week later not only light flares during the Derby...

But more importantly then attack both your Home Bay and then your subsequent Post Match March is fucken beyond me. 

 

 

 

 

 

We aligned ourselves with 8 other clubs who would not proceed without it being a united approach of all 10 clubs. No contact was made with said supporters and none will be made in the future. Like @Embee said, we got what we wanted. Would we have got a tifo had we not gone to Sydney? IMO no. Would the mongs have attacked us regardless of whether we went to Sydney or not? Absolutely.

We both had a common goal and we got what we wanted out of it, they will remain a pack of animals regardless.

[cadete]

15 minutes ago, thisphantomfortress said:

We aligned ourselves with 8 other clubs who would not proceed without it being a united approach of all 10 clubs. No contact was made with said supporters and none will be made in the future. Like @Embee said, we got what we wanted. Would we have got a tifo had we not gone to Sydney? IMO no. Would the mongs have attacked us regardless of whether we went to Sydney or not? Absolutely.

We both had a common goal and we got what we wanted out of it, they will remain a pack of animals regardless.

Personally I think all club's going as a "United Group" to the talks will make it easier for the FFA to link the negative actions of one of two clubs to that of "The United Group" by using dialogue like "Well you were there when we said this... and they said this.. and then they went and did that".

Melburnians like YSIDE prior to these talks as a single identity had a pretty blemish free record (ESP in comparison to some others) which could have been something useful to keep ahold of when dealing with the FFA.

I guess that is something that we will have to see how it plays out, but if even you concede that the MV fans are not going to alter their behaviour I think you should be pretty pessimistic about the FFA holding up their end of the deal long term.

 

 

 

[thisphantomfortress]

2 minutes ago, cadete said:

Personally I think all club's going as a "United Group" to the talks will make it easier for the FFA to link the negative actions of one of two clubs to that of "The United Group" by using dialogue like "Well you were there when we said this... and they said this.. and then they went and did that".

Melburnians like YSIDE prior to these talks as a single identity had a pretty blemish free record (ESP in comparison to some others) which could have been something useful to keep ahold of when dealing with the FFA.

I guess that is something that we will have to see how it plays out, but if even you concede that the MV fans are not going to alter their behaviour I think you should be pretty pessimistic about the FFA holding up their end of the deal long term.

I think both Melburnians and YS have a similar attitude to these sorts of behaviours hence the similar records of nothing amounting to more than isolated incidents. For us the total lack of dialogue with the FFA prior to this shitstorm was as a much concern . We were lucky enough to get a private meeting as well in Sydney where other non-ban related grievances were aired and we wouldn't have had this oppertunity had we not paticipated in the wider fan movements.

I'm happy next time I see you at the imp to come over and have a chat about some of the more intricate details.

[Embee]

1 hour ago, cadete said:

How you can not see the irony of you guys going to Sydney and aligning yourselves with a Group of PPL who represent and protect those who then barely a week later not only light flares during the Derby...

But more importantly then attack both your Home Bay and then your subsequent Post Match March is fucken beyond me. 

 

 

 

 

 

thisphantomfortress has pretty much beat me to the punch on this one, but I don't see how you've managed to get so entrenched into this opinion that we went up there to align ourselves with the NT, as fortress mentioned, we didn't actually have any dealings with them at all whilst up there/during the entire process.

It's been done to death over and over again, but this wasn't about just one issue. Maybe you guys didn't cop it as hard from the FFA during your time (that's not me having a pop at you, that's me honestly having no idea) but we've had to jump through all sorts of hoops pretty much since we formed only to continuously get told that what we requested wasn't going to happen anyway. Yes, we felt the banning process was unfair, simply because that process happened to effect a large group of Victory fans who are bullies at best (and probably will get banned anyway with an appeal process in place) doesn't mean that change wasn't necessary, the other terraces felt the same.

We also went up there with the intention of making our voices heard about the crap we individually have to put up with as a terrace and as I mentioned in my previous post we've already gotten a result that we would definitely have not had if we hadn't been part of what happened in Sydney.

We despise the NT and how they treat our supporters and terrace (and the terrace before us) as much as you do mate, but at the end of the day we've also got an obligation to make sure our terrace and our fans get fair treatment and access to the kind of things that make Active support more enjoyable (like tifos).

Edited December 22, 2015 by Embee

[n i k o]

So with Finkler declaring their normal mid season game against Perth this week is a grand final are we to expect they will receive the same treatment our players have for their locker room picture 

Edited December 22, 2015 by n i k o

[moops]

@Murfy1

Great stuff, could I add?

thanks

 

1st half:

Example 1:Agree.

I just wished Franjic had looked up to see both Mauk and Mooy positioned for the cut back, he either was not aware of it, or made a wrong decision.

 

Example 2: Gooch played very well this match and this play he was very good. Also watch where Novillo is positioned, ready for the cut back if the cross was blocked, I very much like this. Tiery Henry spoke about Guardiola recently and said he was all about the 3 P's. Play, Possession and Position. He remarked that positioning was the most important. So do I, it conserves energy, blocks or focuses your opponents attack, opens passing options when in possession, drags defenders away and gives you superior control receiving the ball.

 

After 2nd goal - 2nd Half:

Victory get on top by tempo?

Maybe, but I think it was more about mentality and positioning, we began to sit to far back and play it long from the back, it just doesn't work, we let them in.

Example 1:

Victory overloaded our left flank (their right) to make it 3 on 2. Either Novillo should have closed their wide player, or our DCL (who was in no man's land) should have closed in, so our 2 defenders could do their duty more efficiently.

Example 2:

Much of the game in the second half, I didn't like it and made me shit my pants, we can't do this, it is the old mentality we used to have that we need to get rid of.

[playmaker]

 Quote 'Tiery Henry spoke about Guardiola recently and said he was all about the 3 P's. Play, Possession and Position. He remarked that positioning was the most important. So do I, it conserves energy, blocks or focuses your opponents attack, opens passing options when in possession, drags defenders away and gives you superior control receiving the ball.'

I agree, i rather enjoyed the 2nd half as it was a real test for our defensive structure. It was much more positive for us than it was for the tards as they must be really deflated from the fact they threw everything at us and couldn't score.

Brings back memories of the mentality of the Italians in the 80s that couldn't be broken with waves of onslaughts by the South Americans who arguably had the greatest forward pressing attacking teams in the last 50 years. They would give up possession freely and when possession was gained would unleash savage counter attacks through drilled positioning and brilliant passing.

I think where we were lacking was the initial disposals once we gained possession to be damaging enough, however they were very shaky on the counters we got right.

Murphy1's analysis is true but only from the stand point of possession game being the objective and not agreeing with the Henry or Italian strategy of allowing an opponent to forward press and hold possession, defending by superior positioning and unleashing a counter attack the can not be defended.

I see the 2nd half differently than Murphy1.

Also if you are going to count the near miss shots the tards had then we need to count ours, Bruno, Williams, kisnorbo, and Novillo which all would have been converted on another day as the tards defense was left flat footed. 

As i said prior, our players would have walked away inspired by their defending of the lead, the tards would have been devastated that they couldn't break though with everything they had.

Their best wasnt good enough.

Edited December 22, 2015 by playmaker

[moops]

I think you are right playmaker, in that was the way JVS was thinking.

'I think where we were lacking was the initial disposals once we gained possession to be damaging enough'

If we are to play that game, smart passing and transition is needed, we had neither in the second half, let's be fair, but the positioning and defending was quite good. But it can't be sustained and rarely is to any effect, we got a bit lucky. Catenaccio is a bit different and a bit out dated, but I do enjoy a good chess match game as anyone, but let us not confuse it wit G Arnolds dire football please.

[moops]

Missed Example 3 - first half.

The passing game was quite good, but the final pass to Fornaroli was poor, as Bela say's it's a poor percentage pass. It was very congested on our left flank, if it had been switched to (I think it was) Frnjic, he would have been in acres of space to put in a cross to any number of attackers.

[playmaker]

If it was from the onset of the game, I agree, not my cup of tea, but for defending a lead I think its a good strategy. But you need to sub on some quality passers to link up a counter. Unfortunately too many times it was rebounding back in far too quickly due to poor passing.

However the handful of real counters we had, especially Bruno's one on one, could have easily killed the game

Is Pirlo out of contract? Hand him a 10 year contract as a sub please.

Edited December 22, 2015 by playmaker

[moops]

Mate spot on, sorry I didn't acknowledge that we stifled the tards and we did have a few realistic counters that half to be true.

But as the Murfy1 post suggested it was tempo, no I do not buy into it, we sat deep and it invited Victards to play the way they like, it is a bad strategy against them. Added by your observation that we played poorly out from the back, we got sucked in.

overall it was a great game though, the best so far in the HAL, I have friends in Japan, France and Spain who loved it, it was a high quality game.

[hakz7]

1 hour ago, moops said:

Mate spot on, sorry I didn't acknowledge that we stifled the tards and we did have a few realistic counters that half to be true.

But as the Murfy1 post suggested it was tempo, no I do not buy into it, we sat deep and it invited Victards to play the way they like, it is a bad strategy against them. Added by your observation that we played poorly out from the back, we got sucked in.

overall it was a great game though, the best so far in the HAL, I have friends in Japan, France and Spain who loved it, it was a high quality game.

Yeah, a mate who's been a Victory member for almost their whole existence said it was one of the best games he's been to.

[Jovan]

6 hours ago, hakz7 said:

Yeah, a mate who's been a Victory member for almost their whole existence said it was one of the best games he's been to.

Totally agree especially because we won.😀😀😀Also it was actually amazing how high the quality was considering the pitch looked very average( did anyone notice the pitch) and above all the temperature. Both massive factors that could have created a dour 0:0 snorefest. Credit to both teams that wanted to play. 

[[LIBBA]]

On 20/12/2015 at 2:50 PM, possiblygeorge said:

This dickhead should get off the crack...

 

Edited December 22, 2015 by [LIBBA]

[HeartOfCity]

Just watching the replay for some reason (because it was a shit hot game) and I don't think we played to bad in the second half and we still had some good chances. I did notice how SHIT victory where in not being able to put into the back of the onion bag and thought if city had that many GOOD chances then we would have scored 3 or 4 times. Love watching the dumb fuck red faced towball prowl the boundary like a dick head it really makes watching the replay worth it. 

[jeffplz]

2 hours ago, HeartOfCity said:

Just watching the replay for some reason (because it was a shit hot game) and I don't think we played to bad in the second half and we still had some good chances. I did notice how SHIT victory where in not being able to put into the back of the onion bag and thought if city had that many GOOD chances then we would have scored 3 or 4 times. Love watching the dumb fuck red faced towball prowl the boundary like a dick head it really makes watching the replay worth it. 

yeah we didn't actually play bad at all. if only novillo and fornaroli didn't miss their shots on goal, holy shit it would've been a different game.

[playmaker]

In my opinion, going all out defence and trying to defend the tards onslaughts and succeeding is one of best things that has happened to us all season. We have no issue scoring goals but have always had a question mark over our ability to defend. The question mark is slowly disappearing and how we went about it on Saturday is a massive step forward for the balanced development for the team. I loved the 2nd half.

As for Musctard, there was a group of us sitting behind him that were telling him to shut up and sit down he he, loved it. He is such a whinging prick, and I don't know why he doesnt get a warning for the amount of crap he gives the 4th referee.

 

[johnno cpfc]

1 hour ago, playmaker said:

In my opinion, going all out defence and trying to defend the tards onslaughts and succeeding is one of best things that has happened to us all season. We have no issue scoring goals but have always had a question mark over our ability to defend. The question mark is slowly disappearing and how we went about it on Saturday is a massive step forward for the balanced development for the team. I loved the 2nd half.

As for Musctard, there was a group of us sitting behind him that were telling him to shut up and sit down he he, loved it. He is such a whinging prick, and I don't know why he doesnt get a warning for the amount of crap he gives the 4th referee.

 

As a matter of fact i seem to recall the ref coming over to speak to Mucas on the sideline for some reason or other, i thought the fourth official had had enough and the ref came over to tell Mucas to button it.

[playmaker]

1 hour ago, johnno cpfc said:

As a matter of fact i seem to recall the ref coming over to speak to Mucas on the sideline for some reason or other, i thought the fourth official had had enough and the ref came over to tell Mucas to button it.

Yeah I was wondering what that was about. That didn't shut him up though, only way to shut him up is to send him off a few times then I think he will pull his head in.

His behavior is appalling.

[thisphantomfortress]

10 hours ago, playmaker said:

 

His behavior is appalling.

He made a career out of shocking behaviour don't see it stopping until they sack him.

Edited December 23, 2015 by thisphantomfortress

[moops]

20 hours ago, playmaker said:

In my opinion, going all out defence and trying to defend the tards onslaughts and succeeding is one of best things that has happened to us all season. We have no issue scoring goals but have always had a question mark over our ability to defend. The question mark is slowly disappearing and how we went about it on Saturday is a massive step forward for the balanced development for the team. I loved the 2nd half.

As for Musctard, there was a group of us sitting behind him that were telling him to shut up and sit down he he, loved it. He is such a whinging prick, and I don't know why he doesnt get a warning for the amount of crap he gives the 4th referee.

 

I just watched it again, it was pretty epic, it should give our defenders a lot of confidence.

 

Nice, I hope his head looked like a big tomato. 

[raw10]

On 12/23/2015 at 4:58 PM, jeffplz said:

yeah we didn't actually play bad at all. if only novillo and fornaroli didn't miss their shots on goal, holy shit it would've been a different game.

And Willo too... Had he scored that goal, that would have been good for his morale and us..... and I can just imagine him stick it up to that tards