The championship hangover is real.
That’s the consensus from our expert panel on this week’s episode of the Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast.
After five rounds, champions Western United sit bottom of the Isuzu UTE A-League table with just one point on the board and 14 goals conceded, with the stars of a title-winning campaign looking bereft of confidence having shipped four goals in consecutive games.
Daniel Garb is joined by KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies and Network 10’s Simon Hill to dissect all the action from Round 5, including Western’s home defeat to Adelaide United, Luis Nani’s best performance in a Melbourne Victory shirt, the World Cup hopes of many A-Leagues stars and more in a bumper episode.
Listen below, or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you consume your podcasts.
‘There were times where the defending was laughable’
Western United are bottom of the pile after five rounds, and with a trip to New Zealand to face in-form Wellington Phoenix on the cards this weekend, the challenges aren’t getting any easier for John Aloisi’s side.
The champions have lost four of five games to begin the campaign. They’re currently conceding at a rate of just under three goals per game; the next goal conceded will be their 15th last, half the total they conceded across 26 regular-season games in 2021-22.
A particularly lackadaisical defensive display in Round 5’s 4-2 loss to Adelaide was defined by a languid own goal scored by Leo Lacroix, who threw a boot at a weak George Blackwood strike to send it trickling past Jamie Young into his own net.
Daniel Garb: “I think it’s time to ask some serious questions about what’s going on at Western United, because there were times yesterday where the defending was laughable.
“Leo Lacroix has copped a lot of it, and fair enough, he copped a lot of praise last season and deservedly so. It’s a cliche, but the (championship) hangover seems real.”
Tom Smithies: “It’s fine margins, though. Joe Gauci made some outstanding saves at the beginning and end of the game, and they almost got another couple of goals back at the end of the game… I think it could have almost been a different story – but their defending is horrendous, and it’s letting them down every single time.
“You could even see Neil Kilkenny admitting as much after the game, you can imagine there’d be some fairly tense conversations in that dressing room because some players are not pulling their weight – and we know how that goes down in a team environment.”
Simon Hill: “Defensively, you remember the start of last season you couldn’t pass Western United for love nor money – now you can drive a bus through the defence at times. John Aloisi will know that, and I think they will improve – and again, the World Cup break might come at the right time – but I think that there may be one or two off-field issues they have to resolve.”
‘Nani arrived. That was the performance we were waiting for’
Melbourne Victory marquee Luis Nani departed AAMI Park on Friday night having put together his best performance of the season to date.
His side won 4-0 over Newcastle Jets on the night, and although Nani failed to break his goalscoring duck, struck the crossbar from range and won his side the first-half penalty which sent them on to clinch three points.
Nani is yet to string together consecutive 90-minute shifts – he’s only lasted from start to finish once across five games this season – but all signs were pointing to the Portuguese finding his feet in the league in Round 5.
Garb: “Nani arrived. That was the performance we were waiting to see in its totality, I think, and he was fantastic, the marquee man of the competition.”
Hill: “Yeah, I’d agree with you. Obviously the penalty was a little bit controversial… he went down in instalments. But there was a little bit of contact, and that’s ultra-professionalism, isn’t it?
“He’s starting to come to the fore – and that was always going to be the case, a player of his quality. It all came together for Victory on Friday night after three games where they troubled to struggle the scorers. Whether the arrival of Bruno Fornaroli put a bit of a rocket up some of the others or not, I don’t know.
“But what about that ball from Jake Brimmer, by the way, with the outside of the boot?”
It was the highlight of the night for Victory in a performance full of standout moments: Jake Brimmer’s delivery to Nick D’Agostino off the outside of his right foot for the home side’s third of the night.
Smithies: “I love the fact that firstly, he’s picked up where he left off from last year. But also, he’s played in a deeper role when he’s had to, he’s done what the team needed. I love his attitude, I love his maturity, he’s a top guy to talk to and it’s terrific to see him do so well.”
Hill: “I think Tony Popovic – and it’s the same with Nick D’Agostino – he’s actually given the two of them, who are still pretty young players, he’s given them responsibility in important areas for a big club.
“He said that to me in an interview I did in pre-season… sometimes you’ve got to place that responsibility on a young player’s shoulders and say: ‘Come on, you’ve got to step up, because this is a big club, and you’re in a very important position’.”
‘This generation of guys are really setting the template for the next bunch of good Aussie coaches to go overseas’
Kevin Muscat’s Yokohama F. Marinos are J1 League champions, overcoming a strong challenge from defending champions Kawasaki Frontale to seal the title on the final day of a thrilling campaign which came to a conclusion over the weekend.
He’s the second Australian to guide the club to a J1 League championship after his mentor Ange Postecoglou, now of Celtic, who he replaced at Marinos last year. Fellow Australians Shaun Ontong, Ross Aloisi and Greg King all contributed to the title charge as part of Muscat’s coaching staff.
Hill: “I’m delighted for Muscy… he’s continued that good work Postecoglou has done with Marinos, and in Japan.
“This generation of guys are really setting the template fr the next bunch of good Aussie coaches to go overseas, and I don’t think it will be long, for example, before we see the likes of Patrick Kisnorbo making that move. I don’t know whether that will be in Europe or Asia. But they’re proving they can cut the mustard.
Smithies: “I think one of the things with Muscy, all the stuff that goes with him because of his history, his record, his personality has tended at times to obscure slightly an acute tactical mind. He really thinks about the game.”
Garb: “There were two big questions on him in terms of his managerial future. (The first) was could he do it away from Victory? Because he was so established in that football club. He ticked that box, he’s proven he can.
The other one was the temperament, the white line fever with Muscy – it was always a chance he could do something to turn a club offside or perhaps go a little too far on the sidelines. In Japan, you can’t do that, you’ve really got to be well behaved. I think it’s the perfect place for him to level out in that sense. He’s ticked those two boxes in a massive way.
“For me, he’s top of the pile now for the Socceroos job if there is a vacancy after the World Cup. I think he’s already leapfrogged Popa in that sense.
Smithies: “That’s assuming that after he’s waited a while for a chance, whether he wants to go to a job that’s so different with so little coaching involved, whereas he’s a manager who likes to be on the training ground.”
