It was always the case that Perth Glory would have an extended period of games away from Western Australia before a big run of home fixtures in 2022.
Following their 1-1 opening game draw against Adelaide in front of a bumper crowd at HBF Park, the Western Australian outfit have won once out of their next three games, all being played at AAMI Park in Melbourne.
The 3-0 win against Melbourne Victory was probably the sweetest moment for many supporters given Victory appointed former Glory manager, Tony Popovic, and subsequently their club signed a few ex-Glory players.
However, that remains as Perth’s only win thus far this season, as the other two games that were played both ended up in 1-0 defeats against Western United and Melbourne City.
It could be argued that the Glory could’ve got more out of the United game and that goal scored by Dylan Wenzell-Halls really shouldn’t have counted following a controversial VAR decision.
But the game against Melbourne City showed that we need to change things slightly. The scoreline was 1-0 and while that’s not terrible, it didn’t reflect how much City dominated the game.
The possession and shot statistics were telling, as City smashed Perth in those areas, with the home side dominating the ball (68.6% to 31.4%) and having more attempts on goal (23 to 6).
A positive that the Glory can take from that latter stat was that City only had six shots on target, showing that overall that the defensive structure had improved over the pre-season, which was a huge concern last season.
So back to where Richard Garcia should look to change things. Transition, into possession (also known as a counter attack) has probably been one of our weakest areas of the game.
But I believe if this area in particular is worked on during the season, there’s no doubt Perth will gain more points away from home and here’s why.
Often in the games away from home, Glory would be contempt sitting deep in a low block, looking to absorb the pressure.
As an away side, that’s fine as ultimately you want to avoid conceding. This means that the opposition can be kind of lured into a false sense of security by committing a lot of players forward looking to score.
The game against City showed that, as more often than not, the home side would leave only two players in rest defence, in the two centre backs (sometimes three, with one of the midfielders staying slightly more reserved).
For me, the Glory should look to exploit this in the next few games if they’re looking to defend deep.
The shape should change very slightly from the currently unorthodox but successful 4-3-3 into a 4-2-3-1, which is arguably the best system for counter attacks.
I’d keep the back four mostly the same, with Cameron Cook in goal with Antonee Burke-Gilroy at right back and Kosuke Ota at left back.
Where I’d change the centre back paring would be shifting Aaron Calver to centre back and pairing him with Darryl Lachman.
Jonathan Aspropotamtis has been okay at centre back next to the Curaçao international, however for me he’s not been as good as his passing has often been very safe or inaccurate going long and he’s also not the quickest.
Calver being quicker would allow the Glory to have a much higher line when they break in transition. He’s also won 100% of his tackles this season, which would add more steel to the defence.
The double pivot in midfield, I’d pair Luke Bodnar with Callum Timmins. Those two were pretty good as a partnership during the second half of last season and they’ve been good this season as well.
Bodnar has been very impressive for me, as he’s been a lot more progressive on the ball and effective when defending.
The attacking midfield trio behind Bruno Fornaroli should consist of Adrián Sardinero, Daniel Stynes and maybe as a slight surprise, Pacifique Niyongabire.
For me, the Glory’s counter attacks should consist of pace, skill and strength. With Sardinero and Stynes you get skill, Fornaroli you get strength and with Niyongabire you get a lot of speed.
This will give the Glory a lot of opportunities the moment they win the ball back but this is where one of the most important elements has to occur. The pass once we win the ball has to be good but the players following up the pass have to be active, not passive.
An example could be Bodnar winning the ball from a deep position. This should be the cue for Fornaroli to drop deep as he will be the first pass in this sequence.
A sharp pass into Fornaroli will draw out a defender or maybe not, depending on the opposition’s rest defence structure.
As this is happening, I would have Daniel Stynes (who would be playing as a central attacking midfielder) the first player to receive the ball from Fornaroli.
As Fornaroli lays it off to Stynes, both Sardinero and Niyongabire should be making advanced vertical runs in behind.
From there, a goal should be the result.
While this won’t happen every time the Glory win the ball back, this pattern of play (as well as variations of this move) should be worked on as frequently as possible.
If we were stronger in our transition, we probably could’ve beaten Melbourne City as they had a lot of space in behind but we just couldn’t play those first or second balls out of our defensive half into the feet of the players ahead of the ball.
This should be our style of play moving forward in my opinion, given our run of fixtures away from home.
Another small thing I’d like to see the Glory improve on is the speed of passing. It seems that over the last few games, the players have been more concerned about possession retention rather than progression.
I understand that there would be elements of fatigue within the players, however some movement on and off the ball, as well as certain players being brave to play balls forward, breaking the lines, will help massively against sides that defend much deeper against us.
It’s a difficult few weeks facing the players, however there’s every chance that we could pick up some points. This could be huge heading into the home run and perhaps if we are to make a finals charge.
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We will have to counter attack because we are incapable of keeping the ball. We have no creative midfielders and Sardinero is basically invisible. He has been the on of the most underwhelming imports we have had inthe last few seasons so far.