Wow. Well that settles that. Three strikers on at a time is a good idea. A very good idea.
The match started lively enough, with both sides looking evenly matched. An injury to Michael Thwaite forced Ernie Merrick to make an early substitution. With no defenders to pick from, Merrick chose the most daring option: Archie Thompson. What a good move that was!
Ney Fabiano and Danny Allsopp led the pack, as Archie roamed around behind them, combining with Billy Celeski and Carlos Hernández to drive the Victory’s attack. Played behind the front two, Archie had the most effective game I’ve seen him have since the Grand Final against Adelaide United. If Merrick was wondering whether a line-up featuring Allsopp, Fabiano and Thompson could work, he has his answer.
Besides Archie, two other players stood out to me: Evan Berger and Billy Celeski. With Thwaite forced to sub off, Berger fell back into defence. Up against the very dangerous Jin-Hyung Song, the 21-year old did the job he had to do, and did it well. Celeski, meanwhile, seemed to shift to a more central role as Jose Luis Lopez also dropped back, and the Olyroo gave a solid performance in the centre of the park.
There is now a one-week break for World Cup qualifiers. Hopefully, it will be long enough for Michael Thwaite to recover from his injury. Besides him, Sebastian Ryall, Nick Ward and Daniel Vasilevski are all set to make their return. Only question is, why would Merrick want to tinker with last night’s line-up?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6oOhpRZ47s[/youtube]
10 comments ↓
5-0!!!! Thats one goal for each of those painful losses we’ved had to endure fro the last five games!!! WE’RE BACK AND GONNA WIN THE TREBLE!!!! Bring on Adelaide!!!
Very solid team performance with great passing and movement that shows the understanding between the players is developing well. I know it’s early days yet but if this continues then we’re in for a great season.
I really thought it would be a tight affair which for the first 2o mins or so it was, but whereas Melbourne remained disciplined and hungry, Newcastle just lost faith after the second goal at such a crucial time, and in the second half were demoralised and on the ropes.
Credit to Ernie Merrick for sensing that Archie would add that incisive edge to the attack, rather than Brebner or Pondeljak at that point. The team looked very balanced and in answer to Eric’s question I’d say that if Thwaite is back for the Adelaide game, stick with the same starting line-up.
Omg mate how the hell did you pick the “utter destruction” of newcastle last night, i was confident of a win but i origionally prdeicted 3 -1 to melbourne, that was blown out early in the second half, but no complaints here thats for sure id love to be that wrong every week! lol!
it was a fantastic game, in the last 20 mins melboune pulled off abit and seemed to be toying with the jets, who i dont think were all that better, but melbourne were just a class of there own last night.
i was throughly impressed with the midfield, hernadez and lopez were fantastic, and this just in: billy celeski is my new favourite player(after caceres depature).
as usual the back line was superb, muscat and vargas, theo didnt see all that much of the ball but what he does do he does right, berger also look lively and is definately worthy of the rap merick has given him at this stage. was ashame to see thwaite come off early and hoping its not to serious.
which leaves us the front men, allsop, thompson and fabiano, all had a great game, a good understanding of each others game and allsop seems to have found his form from 2 years ago, even though his first might have well been archies. what fabiano lacked in shooting prowess he made up for enery on the park, the guy chaces every single ball.
cant really fault the game or the boys last night, this season is now well and truely on track for a succesful campaign, lets not loose momentum. can melboure can unbeaten this year…..hhmmmmm
Awesome! Newcastle fell apart, especially Jade North. It was good to see us make an example of them and put them back in their box. Carlos was in cruise control, Celeski looked very comfortable in the middle, Berger was great, ran all day, there was not a bad player on the day. Maybe Costa Rica will think twice before leaving Hernandez out of their next qualifier. Bring on Adelaide, I hope we get 30,000.
great result… celeski gets himself into trouble some times but other times he is just magical…
can not complain at all….
A good result, good to see Allsop, Thompson and Fabiano play well together.
playing the 3 up front worked a treat. Archie was able to search and roam for space instead of being the focal point with 2 centre halves up his arse, while fabiano takes a load off allsopp, allowing the big man to find some space of his own. With their mobility and inter-changing of position, they will be hard to keep track of. Hernandez was fantastic in behind them, and appreciated when archie came deep to allow him to get involved further forward. No A-league defence can cope with it. A special mention must go to Thwaite, Berger and Celeski. These boys have really impressed. We knew Thwaite was good at the back, but his support work has been first rate and he is very dangerous at set pieces, allowing the others like Vargas to be harder to pick up. Berger did a brilliant job on the Korean, while celeski does well to link up and keep the ball moving. The other boy Kemp has started well also. All in all, we have started really well. Lets hope ernie keeps the 3 up front and really attack this season. I see lots of goals coming up.
When we signed Fabiano I wrote on this Blog that Ernie should show some attacking spirit and plan a three man attack – Archie, Danny and Fabiano – with Hernandez attacking from midfield. It seems to have worked a treat so lets hope Ernie stays positive. We dont need to play 4-4-2 like most teams. We have the basis for a ‘defensive’ 4-3-3 line up or an ‘attacking’ 3-4-3 with our strong midfield tracking back or forward depending on the circumstances.
Let’s hope everone stays fit although we seem to have real depth this year on the bench and 1 or 2 players out from time to time should be easy to cover during the season.
With Kemp running up and down the wings, I’m seeing a fairly fluid movement from 3-4-3 to 4-3-3. Berger and Lopez also showed that, if called upon, they can do the job up the back. Which is good, because two weeks in a row we’ve had a defender go down and turned to the bench to find no defensive subs. Obviously once Ryall’s back from international duty, we’ll have a little more depth there. But it’s good to have players on the field that can switch to a defensive position.
By the way guys, Costa Rica beat Suriname 7-0 in their world cup qualifier! Pupy Lopez played 82 mins but didn’t manage to get on the score sheet
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