Josep Gombau was announced as the new boss of Western Sydney Wanderers during the build-up to this match, and he chose to observe from afar as Hayden Foxe took the reigns for the final time. Onlookers were interested to see if a few days under the former Adelaide coach had changed anything, whilst others were wondering if Victory were going to finally kickstart their slow start to the season.
 

Western Sydney’s different midfield dynamic

Despite the fact that Gombau has only been at the club for a few days, it seems as if he has already made some small adjustments to the playing system of the Western Sydney Wanderers. This season, it has been shown that they tend to favour building up in central areas where possible, in an effort to maximise their options going forward. So far this season, Kearyn Baccus has been integral in this strategy, performing a fulcrum-like role within midfield as shown below in an excerpt from the Sydney Derby. Consistently positioning himself between and behind his immediate defenders, Baccus was able to provide an option which enabled the breaking of a line of pressure, allowing his team to move forward as a result.

Kearyn Baccus has been integral to Western Sydney’s build-up so far this season.

The Wanderers’ latest outing saw a slight change in the operation of the midfield during the second phase of possession, with less emphasis on Baccus being a key difference. The central area included two holding midfielders, Roly Bonevacia and Baccus, with veteran Mark Bridge being more advanced and playing behind Oriol Riera.Western Sydney’s midfield dynamic when bringing the ball out from the back.

As seen above, the three midfielders played very clear roles when Western Sydney were looking to play out from the back. The closest of the two holding midfielders would drop off and offer a passing line on the inside of the player with the ball, generally creating a 2v1 in the process. The other holding midfielder would offer a diagonal option in the middle of the pitch, whilst Bridge would move into a vertical passing line and look to provide an option between the lines and behind one or more lines of pressure. In most cases, the pass would be to the closest midfielder, but this was not necessarily always the case. Bonevacia and Baccus would frequently rotate positions on either sides of midfield, adding to the ability of the Wanderers to distribute the ball from the back.

 

Riera’s movement to create superiorities

In another easily identifiable change from previous Western Sydney games this season, Oriol Riera played a slightly different role during construction of possession. As well as providing the depth in most circumstances, Riera also showed the propensity to drop from his forward position in between the opposition lines in an effort to create a superiority, or at least to equalise the situation.

Riera’s movement to create a 2v1 in central areas, with the wingers maintaining width and depth.

At this point, it is unclear whether this is a permanent addition to Western Sydney’s system or a ploy employed by the coaching staff to undo the effects of Melbourne’s man orientation scheme. When all three midfielders were being covered by Victory players, Riera’s movement was triggered and he dropped into a position to receive the ball. Whether he did or not was irrelevant, he as the movement in and of itself attracted defenders away from the players they were marking, freeing up options for Western Sydney ahead of the ball. In some cases, Riera was able to create superiorities of either a qualitative or numerical nature, which allowed further progression of the ball and allowed good opportunities to create chances or to get in behind the Victory defence. In some teams that operate with a False 9, the maintenance of depth can be a problem. This was avoided by the Wanderers, as the wingers moved higher whilst also maintaining their width, sustaining the space available to the team.

Red card reaction

After Mitch Austin received his second yellow for delaying the restart of play in the 25th minute, Victory underwent several changes in shape over the rest of the match in an effort to find the best way to respond. In the first half, they defended in a 1-4-4-1 shape, with Leroy George pressing ahead of two banks of four. These two banks of four formed perhaps the most disorganised and unbalanced defensive block seen so far this season, struggling to adapt their man orientation to a change in shape. This disorganisation led directly to Oriol Riera’s opener, with Llorente finding Cejudo in acres of space between the Victory lines, with an inadequate reaction eventually resulting with the ball in the back of the net via Riera’s head.Melbourne’s failure to deal with Llorente caused imbalance within the system, allowing too much space between the lines.

This goal also came from clever combination play down Western Sydney’s left side of which we have seen plenty already this season. In the Sydney Derby, Josh Risdon and Cejudo engaged in a variety of wing combinations, resulting in the creation of many opportunities and the exposure of a weakness in Sydney FC’s defensive scheme. In this match however, Llorente made an overlapping run with Cejudo appearing on the inside, which ended up creating space between the lines as the Victory midfield failed to track the movement of the winger.Western Sydney’s near-identical movement against Sydney FC earlier this season.

There was a significant change in the way Victory defended in the second half, with a diamond shape being taken up in midfield as shown below. This allowed for continuity in relation to Victory being able to effectively execute their zonally-based man orientations – an element that defending in two banks of four was not found particularly conducive to.Melbourne Victory’s diamond midfield without possession, with key responsibilities indicated.

The diamond placed extreme demands on all players, with George routinely having to drop to cover one of the holding midfielders of Western Sydney, freeing up the two Victory central midfielders to press the oncoming fullbacks should they move forward to support the attack. The holding midfielder was tasked with marking Mark Bridge tightly, with the fullbacks taking responsibility for tracking the movement of the Wanderers’ wingers. When Oriol Riera dropped off the forward line, one of the Melbourne centre-backs would follow him to undo any advantage that his movement would have created. This was probably the best tactical response Kevin Muscat has made all season, and could be seen as the sole reason why Victory got a point from this match despite being a man down for over an hour. Any chances that Western Sydney did create in the second half were generally in wide areas, and were able to be dealt with fairly easily by the Victory defence.

Conclusion

Melbourne Victory got their equaliser from a set-piece to snatch a hard-earned point from Western Sydney, who already appear to have slightly changed their approach under new manager Josep Gombau. Going down to ten men proved difficult for the Victory, but coach Kevin Muscat made a tremendous adjustment at half-time which resulted in a tough second half for the visitors.

Nathan Muir is an Australian coach and tactical analyst. You can contact him on Facebook @NathanMuirFootball or on Twitter @NathanKMuir.