Sydney FC 0 - 0 Perth Glory
Two organised, deep defences meant that neither team was able to score in a game lacking of clear cut chances. They cancelled each other out, with the draw probably the most fair result.
Perth in Possession
Perth attacked in a shape resembling a 3-2-3-2. Chianese pushed forward to the same line as Fornaroli, with Castro dropping slightly on the right to link play. The wing-backs pushed forward to provide width on both sides, and the midfielders stayed central, with Kilkenny as the main deep playmaker.. The outside centre-backs (especially Wüthrich) occasionally ventured forwards to join the attack.
Perth had three main strategies for getting forward:
1. Find Castro.
The Perth attack was mainly focused on finding Castro, so the early passing was also focused down the right. As the game progressed, Castro came deeper and more central to help bring the ball up the pitch. The aim was to get Castro on the ball in central positions so he could turn and drive towards the defence.
Sydney defended quite narrow, and shifted over compactly to the side the ball was on, collapsing on Castro when he was able to receive the ball in between the lines. This made it difficult for Perth to break through the middle, but also opened up space for the switch on the left, with Meredith often left in acres of space.
2. Long ball to Chianese
When Perth won possession, Chianese would immediately step up, looking for a long ball in behind the defence on the left, to catch out Grant frequently high up the pitch. Unfortunately, they didn’t really hit the mark (2 min, 3 min, 32 min
3. Full backs on the overlap, dragged in by strikers, Sydney defending narrow
Fornaroli and Chianese both played in the half-spaces between the centrebacks and fullbacks. This drew attention from both fullbacks inside, inviting space for the wingbacks Franjic and Meredith to come up the pitch. The narrow attacking midfielders Ninkovic and Caceres were focused on cutting passing lanes centrally, and so when Franjic and Meredith were able to get the ball, they had space to drive into before they got closed down. (12 min, 26 min, 90 min)
Sydney in Possession
Sydney’s attacking structure resembled a 3-3-2-2, with Brattan dropping level with the centrebacks into the right-centreback spot, fullbacks pushing into midfield, and the two attacking midfielders able to find space centrally or out wide.
Perth pressed quite high early on. Chianese, Fornaroli and Castro closed down Brattan, McGowan and Wilkinson respectively, but Kilkenny and Juande had a decision to make with regards to who they would mark, which enabled Retre to get on the ball to help Sydney play through the press in space, and drive forward to look for a forward ball.
6 min - Juande comes out to close down Retre - late. Caceres is then left free for a one-two to allow him to drive forward and look for a pass.
16 min - Kilkenny doesn’t want to leave Ninkovic completely in space so doesn’t close Retre - infuriating Fornaroli.
They fixed this by 19 min, with both Kilkenny and Juande shifting across accordingly.
Everything went down the right for Sydney - it looked like the plan was to work the ball into the areas behind Meredith, the left wingback to engineer crossing positions. They aimed to did this in a similar manner to last week, and Brattan also played long balls into one of Barbarouses or le Fondre making a diagonal inside-to-out run.
6 min - Grant makes the overlapping run ready for the ball, then Barbarouses makes the inside to out run
6 min - same clip as the previous section above. Note that Grant is ready to make a run when Retre receives the ball, then Barbarouses makes the inside to out run
17 min - shown in the diagram. Grant drops deep, pulling Meredith with him. Caceres makes a run into the vacated space and the ball is played into le Fondre, who manages to head to him for a chance.
(62min - this is a repeat of Pattern 1 from last week - I like that you can hear them call “Down the line…Ninko’s on, Ninko’s on”)
Perth managed to deal with the Sydney attack quite well. They defended in numbers, with at least 7 men usually behind the ball (the five defenders and the two screening midfielders). With three centrebacks, they had a spare man to cover the run in behind, and if they managed to get the ball in areas for crosses, Perth had enough men in the box to deal with them.
Second Half
Sydney changed things slightly at half time.
Sydney pressed higher, which was threatening at the beginning, but the centrebacks were comfortable enough on the ball to deal with the press.
Brattan shifted more centrally, seemingly to bring his passing range further forward up the pitch. He played less long diagonals, and passed more into feet. Sydney’s play was focused heavily down the right, counting on the quick interactions of Grant, Brattan, Caceres (and later Baumjohann). When they came short for each other, Meredith, Juande and Chianese had difficulty with ensuring who was marking whom, allowing for quick play to get them into space to drive towards the back line (60 min, 68 min, 77 min) - it was almost too simple.
Perth didn’t change too much going into the second half, with Castro still being a focal point. He popped up frequently in between the lines and also on the right to create danger, but was quickly closed down. Perth focused more on the flanks, which opened up a bit of space for Fornaroli and Chianese to both drop deep to receive the ball into feet and turn, through which they managed to create some good attacking opportunities.
With Sydney dropping quite deep, the Perth centrebacks would come forward to help distribute the ball. Buhagiar came on as a direct response to that, with his direct pacey threat looking for balls in behind. It was a bit unfortunate that it took so long for his introduction, but it was positive nonetheless. He provided a good counterattacking outlet, which seemed to be a bit lacking before his introduction. He got his chance with the last kick of the game, but unfortunately wasn’t able to put it to bed.