It was a round of shocks – Sydney upset ladder leaders Perth and Western Sydney finally got their first win of the season against Wellington – but the biggest shock came when the struggling Central Coast Mariners came from behind to beat in-form Adelaide United. Coming off the back of a 5-1 loss to Sydney FC, Central Coast took advantage of a lapse in concentration from their opponents to score two late goals but it was their defensive set up which prevented Adelaide from adding to their lead.
For much of the season the Mariners have been a side best characterised by their slow, monotonous build up play. They want to dominate possession and frequently have, but they have often lacked creativity in the final third. Couple this with their continued defensive lapses and it’s no surprise they have struggled for wins. But against Adelaide, the Mariners set up more reactively, looking to sit back in their own half and prevent spaces opening up in midfield.
“I thought our defensive structure was very sound for us today,” said Mariners boss Phil Moss, at the same time admitting it “wasn’t pretty”. “We didn’t give them space where they wanted space – that’s in the middle of the park – and their No8s (James Jeggo and Pablo Sanchez) found it tough to get on the ball at times and that disrupted their momentum. They had to then start playing long and that played into our hands so tactically I was happy with how we went today.”
In knowing that Adelaide like to create overloads in the middle of the park, Moss set his side up in a 4-5-1 defensive shape with Matt Simon up front working hard to prevent Isaias from receiving possession in central areas.
With Simon blocking Isaias from receiving in midfield, centre-backs Osama Malik and Tarek Elrich saw a large amount of possession when Adelaide were trying to play out from the back. But whenever they looked to pass forward into advanced midfield positions, they often found their options blocked by the Mariners’ midfield trio of Anthony Caceres, John Hutchinson and Nick Montgomery.
Hutchinson and Caceres, the two more advanced Mariners midfielders, looked to block passes into Jeggo and Sanchez while Montgomery behind them looked to clean up the scraps and also prevent Bruce Djite from receiving possession when he dropped into midfield.
The approach worked well for the most part, with an example coming in the 25th minute. When Malik passed forward into the feet of Jeggo, Montgomery immediately applied pressure and forced a heavy touch. Mitchell Duke was the able to win the ball back and from the resulting spell of possession, Central Coast went up the other end and forced Eugene Galekovic into making a save.
However a small lapse in defensive concentration saw Central Coast fall behind.
With Malik in possession, Simon blocked Isaias from receiving the ball and Hutchinson stood in front of Sanchez. Caceres then slid across to double up on Isaias but when Malik switched the ball to Elrich he was a step too slow from intercepting the forward pass into Jeggo.
But despite this one lapse, as a whole the approach was effective and led to Adelaide boss Josep Gombau to lament his side’s lack of goalscoring opportunities.
“We didn’t create [enough] chances,” Gombau said after the loss. “We had the control of the game but we didn’t create the chances and this is something we need to make an analysis of for next week.”
But by preventing Adelaide from running away with the game, as they had done in their 7-0 win against Newcastle last round, the Mariners kept themselves in the match. Some timely substitutions added energy and quick incisive counter attacking allowed the Mariners to equalise via the penalty spot and then, just four minutes later, a long ball from the back led to Josh Rose scoring the winner.
