A-League tactics: will Perth Glory's form continue?

It’s a mild winter’s day at Belmore Sports Ground. A crowd of under a hundred dust off their World Cup hangovers as Perth Glory, adorned in their new state-coloured FFA Cup strip, take on Adelaide United in a pre-season friendly.

It’s an early look at Kenny Lowe’s rebuilt side – and at times they look understandably incoherent. The system – a 4-4-2 diamond formation – is prioritised over the available personnel; in the absence of Rostyn Griffiths, the Englishman throws Jack Clisby in at the No6 position, with Youssouf Hersi gaining his first minutes in a Glory shirt in the unfamiliar No10 role. Fellow flyer Sidney Sciola puts in a shift, not as the winger fans know him to be – and as the Glory go down to a 1-0 loss, the only bright spot is the blossoming partnership between the two hard working strikers, Keogh and Maclaren.

Fast forward three months and it’s another unbalanced Perth side on display against Newcastle, albeit for different reasons. With three games in a week, including a tough 120 minutes midweek against Melbourne Victory, Lowe has rotated his squad with four first team players rested for this match.

Gone is the 4-4-2 diamond, and Keogh is left operating as a lone striker. With a plethora of attacking central midfielders available to him, Kenny Lowe gives Danny De Silva just his second start, alongside Mitch Nichols and Nebosja Marinkovix in a lopsided 4-3-3 (or 4-1-4-1 in defensively) in which the quartet between Griffiths and Keogh were given remarkable freedom to roam.

Whilst clearly dominant against the Jets, Perth lacked the width and pace to fashion clear chances in a lacklustre opening half.

Which gets to the nub of Lowe’s dilemmas. With Sciola and Chris Harold injured, Hersi becomes the only genuine winger in Perth’s squad – and like Noah’s Ark, there’s no use in only having one of a pair. Either you play Hersi on the left of a midfield diamond, thus saddling his natural attacking instincts with greater defensive responsibilities, or you play a central player like De Silva as a ‘false winger’, sacrificing width and the ability to get behind (especially with the attacking right back, Joshua Risdon also being rested against Newcastle).

Alternatively, to get Nichols, Marinkovic, Garcia or De Silva all on the same pitch, the Lowe can push Hersi forward – as he did against Wellington – at the expense of Maclaren, while still maintaining the 4-4-2 diamond that appears his preferred tactical system.

Against Newcastle, the league’s form striker, Keogh, cut a largely isolated and ineffectual figure, with neither Hersi nor Marinkovic getting close enough to the Irishman to offer support. Tellingly, despite dominating possession (64%) and territory (60% of time spent in Newcastle’s half) in the first 45 minutes the Glory created just one chance from open play, and that fell to Hersi, whose unconvincing shot was blocked.

While in an obvious sense the introduction of Maclaren led to Perth’s victory in this match, this points to a larger pattern across the season so far – when Keogh and Maclaren are on the pitch together, Perth score.

The two strikers have scored all seven of Perth’s league goals, but only one of these has come when they were not working in tandem at the head of the 4-4-2 diamond system. Across the four games so far, when Keogh has operated as a lone striker, or in tandem with someone that’s not Maclaren, Perth have scored one goal in 200 minutes – with Maclaren alongside, that figure rises to six in 160 minutes.

Should you wish to discount the entire 90 minutes against Adelaide, in which the Glory failed to register a single shot on target and were largely outplayed by the Reds’ midfield numerical superiority that ratio falls to six in 70 minutes.

Strikers come in all different shapes and sometimes it’s the partnerships around them that help unlock their scoring potential. Given the fitness and work ethic that both Keogh and Maclaren share, when the two operate in tandem Perth are automatically able to operate a more effective press, putting opposition defences under greater pressure. With an additional striker alongside, both are able to pull central defenders out of position, with their speed and mobility working to greater effect, creating pockets of space for each other.

The challenge then for Lowe and Perth is finding the balance in the rest of the team. How to accommodate Marinkovic, Nichols and De Silva (at least until he leaves for Roma) in the one team? How to get the best from Hersi’s talents within the 4-4-2 diamond system? What to do with Sciola when he returns from injury?

If Perth v Newcastle was anything to go by, the Glory remain a work in progress. Solve these conundrums consistently however and Kenny’s men could find themselves right in the mix, come finals time.