Tim Cahill deserves the headlines. Inside just 27 minutes of his A-League debut he delivered Football Federation Australia’s sizzle reel pitch to commercial free-to-air television. A single nonchalant swipe of his right boot making the hoo-ha surrounding his recruitment feel like an undersell. Believe the hype.
Luke Brattan deserves his $500 Officeworks-laminated ironically proportioned man of the match award. For the second game in a row Brattan was perpetual motion, passing and moving, passing and moving. Unfussy, unhurried, he does the simple things well and it’s pleasing he’s recognised for it.
But the Melbourne City star most likely to be keeping rival A-League coaches up at night will be Neil Kilkenny.
For the second match in a row the 14-cap Socceroo was listed as a central defender but instead ran the game from central midfield. It was a tactic Melbourne Victory had no answer to.
City effectively operated dual formations, one with and one without possession. Defending, Kilkenny dropped alongside Michael Jakobsen as a recognisable centre-half, but when City had the ball he pushed into the engine room, freeing Brattan and the also excellent Nicolas Colazo. In both matches this season City have outnumbered their opponents in midfield allowing Cahill and co to catch the eye higher up the pitch. It all hinges on Kilkenny.
The former Preston North End utility is responsible for turning City’s defensive four into a three, for shoring up possession in uncomfortable areas, and for stepping out and intercepting following turnovers. It’s no surprise that for the entire 90 minutes on Saturday Kilkenny was shouting and gesticulating to players around him, manipulating his team’s shape like an orchestral conductor. Manny Muscat and Josh Rose seemed odd winter recruits but both sit comfortably tucked into a back three and both have the nous to respond to Kilkenny’s choreography.
Like holding a shell to your ear and hearing the ocean, if you watch a modern day football match closely enough you’ll see Johan Cruyff. Admittedly, when one coach is an old team-mate and disciple of the Dutch legend, it’s easier to spot.
Since arriving at City, John van ’t Schip has largely relied on the classical Dutch 4-3-3 model, to limited success. After a squad overhaul in the offseason he’s reverted to a system Cruyff introduced to Barcelona, spawning his feted Dream Team. It’s a system that relies on the football intelligence of the defensive libero. For Cruyff that man was Pep Guardiola, for Van ’t Schip it’s Kilkenny.
Cruyff talked openly about the vulnerabilities of the approach and the “suicide” of sacrificing a defender for a midfielder. He countered those anxieties with reason - the opposition can’t score if they don’t have the ball, he philosophised. Hence the modern obsession with possession, as much for its defensive properties as creative.
City finished Saturday’s game with 59% possession of the ball with 80% of passes hitting their target. Kilkenny made 55 passes, the second-most on the ground, and three more than Victory’s starting front four combined. Kilkenny’s touchmap reveals only one pass came from inside his own penalty area. When the game was most at stake, City’s dominance of the ball was pushing 70% and fans in the bleachers could be forgiven for thinking Kilkenny had been cloned. It made for attacking brilliance and defensive solidity.
It helps when you know exactly what you’re up against. Kevin Muscat’s Victory are the easiest team in the competition to predict, a reflection of the tried and tested 4-2-1-3 formation over a number of years. With players fit and in form it’s difficult to combat but it falls down when the link between defence and attack fails, as it did on Saturday. This has been a recurring malfunction for Victory since the departure of Mark Milligan but one without any apparent willingness to seek an alternative plan of action.
By contrast City’s moving parts all functioned in elegant synergy, crafting some memorable goals and working in unison off the ball. The front four pressed Victory’s defence smartly, denying the easy release pass. Neither Carl Valeri nor Oliver Bozanic were afforded time on the ball to build attacks from deep. Instead, James Donachie and Alan Baro were forced into long diagonals, too often disrupted by the awkward gusts of wind buffeting Melbourne’s docklands. This gifted possession back to City and the pattern, established around 20 minutes in, continued for the next hour.
The question long-term is how rival coaches adjust to City’s adaptation. City have played the opening two matches on their terms, but they won’t always have things their own way.
However, if they are found out during the season, their title ambitions need not be derailed. This iteration of City has more character than any of its predecessors. There is experience, leadership and fight all over the park, players not only prepared to mix it, but actively seeking and relishing contact. Fernando Brandan is the perfect example, an unyielding pitbull of a footballer, the antithesis of the clichéd mercenary forward courting the A-League for a cushy superannuation.
He is part of a Melbourne City team that is tougher, smarter, and more versatile than we’ve ever seen that football club produce. After flattering to deceive for so long, Van ’t Schip looks to have assembled something special.
