It may be a new year but unfortunately, it’s the same old Perth Glory, losing games.
This time it was to Adelaide United, as the Glory went down 2-0 at Hindmarsh Stadium.
A mistake from Liam Reddy led to Adelaide defender Lachlan Barr opening the scoring in the first half heading the ball into an empty net.
The second came from a quick transitional moment midway through the second half, as Craig Goodwin delivered an excellent ball across the face of the goal to an unmarked Ben Halloran at the back post.
I think what can be concluded from the game is that the Glory still have a long way to go to becoming a team that’s primed and ready for the finals.
Overall, we attack like a bottom three side, and we defend like a bottom three side.
We did show some good moments on the ball during the game. However, they were few and far in between.
Sometimes, we’d see a good passing sequence to get the ball into a dangerous position, but the end product would always be woeful.
There was a stat shown by Paramount+ during the game, highlighting the crossing accuracy of Adelaide United and Perth Glory over the course of the season.
United’s were the best, while unsurprisingly we were the worst.
During the game, Glory had 22 crosses. Only two were on target. A striker getting good service in this team is about as common as total solar eclipses.
Luke Ivanovic had one chance in the 54th minute following a deflected cross, only to put it wide from about six paces out.
Statistically, that was our best chance all game as that shot had an 0.51 xG.
When trying to think about why the Glory struggle to create good chances in each game, it stems from a much broader issue; we lack clear ideas of how we want to play.
I know I don’t want to be all doom and gloom as last season there were essentially no positives, but it’s not an overstatement to suggest that the Glory are in pretty big trouble at this moment.
You know it’s not looking good when the commentators are suggesting that the team doesn’t have an idea of how they want to play.
Phil Moss expressed clear displeasure to Glory centre back Daryll Lachman taking two or three extra touches at one point in the second half.
He’s not wrong, as we ideally should be moving the ball at a greater tempo, but the reality is, our positioning off the ball is, in all honesty, crap.
The lack of width from the back three to try and stretch the pitch, as well as the lack of dynamic movements from our midfielders and forwards essentially relegates our methodology to break down defences to hopeless long balls over the top.
The players ahead of the ball just seem static, which either stems from a lack of understanding of where when and why they should move, or it could be a behavioural problem, with the players potentially thinking “I don’t want to move from my position, someone else can move and receive the ball”.
I highly doubt it’s the latter, so it brings me back to my overarching point, we just seem like we don’t have any ideas.
When you don’t have clear principles and ideas for how you want to play with the ball, then you have to expect the backline to eventually crumble and it did, though fortunately not to the extent that we saw against Melbourne City.
Mark Beevers was probably the Man of the Match in my eyes, given the number of interceptions and last man tackles he made.
But aside from that, it’s difficult to pinpoint any positives from the game.
There won’t be much time to ponder for the Glory either, as it is a quick turnaround for Friday’s game which will be against the red-hot Western Sydney Wanderers at Macedonia Park, who are coming off a really emphatic win against Macarthur.
Adam Taggart coming into the team will help, but it won’t be the solution that will magically get us playing better.
I hate being this negative about the Glory, but things need to fix up quickly.
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