For the first time since October 2012, over 10,000 Phoenix fans came through the gates at the ‘Cake Tin’ to see Wellington put three unanswered goals past Brisbane Roar. A certain Alessandro Del Piero was the draw card to that match over two years ago, when the Italian made his A-League debut for Sydney FC, but on Sunday, the crowd was there to see an in-form Phoenix side soar to second place in the ladder.
Jeremy Brockie scored twice in his final game for the club but it was the midfield area which was key. “All three of our midfielders were outstanding,” said Ernie Merrick post-game. “Albert [Riera], Vince [Lia] and Alex Rodriguez were setting up Roly [Bonevacia], who was playing in an advanced position, Jeremy Brockie had a terrific game and Michael [McGlinchey] just ran out of legs towards the end. I didn’t think we had a bad player today.”
Merrick has been able to embed his philosophy into this Phoenix side, with the desire to dominate the middle and have runners bursting in behind - two key principles of how Wellington like to attack. When Phoenix clicked into gear after their loss to Perth in round seven, it was a 4-3-3 formation that was used, but with a twist.
Without the ball, McGlinchey, Nathan Burns and Roy Krishna formed a front three with Rodriguez, Riera and Bonevacia the midfield trio behind them. But once possession was regained, Phoenix morphed into a 4-2-2-2 formation with a box in the centre of midfield. This was able to happen with a number of moving parts. McGlinchey acted as a ‘false nine’ dropping back from a central striking position into midfield to create overloads and receive possession. In midfield, Rodriguez dropped back next to Riera and Bonevacia moved forward next to McGlinchey. This created a four-man midfield, enough to overload any opposition team in the middle of the park.
To add the penetration, the two wingers – Krishna and Burns – burst in behind opposition defences from wide areas and caused havoc, consistently scoring goals.
But without Burns and Krishna, Merrick adapted his system to suit natural striker Brockie, with Wellington playing as a fluid 4-2-3-1 against Brisbane Roar. Brisbane are a side that like to dominate possession and they edged the statistics 53% to 47% against Wellington, but despite this, the Phoenix still controlled the middle of the park as well as the final score.
This was due to the areas where Brisbane and Wellington had the ball. Whereas Brisbane’s back five – Jamie Young (32 passes), Daniel Bowles (37), Jade North (56), James Donachie (53) and Corey Brown (45) – attempted 47% of their side’s 475 passes, it was Wellington’s midfielders who dominated their comparative tallies. McGlinchey (29), Bonevacia (45), Riera (56), Lia (63) and Rodriguez (56) combined for 249 passes, a whopping 59% of their side’s total.
It may sound strange to count them as five midfielders when Wellington lined up as a 4-2-3-1, but once again the desire to create overloads in the centre of the park was evident. Starting out wide in the defensive phase, both Bonevacia and McGlinchey drifted inside when Wellington were in possession to create an overload against Brisbane’s three central midfielders.
One notable example of how Brisbane struggled to deal with Phoenix’s five in the centre came when Manny Muscat burst in behind for the second time in the ninth minute. With Riera in possession, Adam Sarota moved to close down the ball carrier but in doing so allowed McGlinchey space to receive possession in the middle of the park. There was little any Roar midfielder could do when they were so hopelessly outnumbered by Wellington but McGlinchey turned to face forward and played a killer pass in behind to Muscat who shot wide.
The win over Brisbane helped stretch Wellington’s unbeaten run to seven games, picking up 19 points along the way to move into second spot on the ladder. Their incredible form, which resulted in a bumper crowd on Sunday, will please owner Gareth Morgan. The known anti-cat crusader has been vocal in the past about his side needing to play an attacking brand of football in order to bring success and crowds and with one of the A-League’s best managers at the helm in Merrick, Wellington are well on their way to delivering both this season.
