MVFC Blog

When he first signed Leandro Love, Ernie Merrick had this to say about the Brazilian striker: The third striker really has to know he’s a back-up striker, so that’s why we’ve gone for a 21-year-old who’s . . . pretty fit and ready to go.

What a difference six weeks makes.

Leandro Love has now started for the Melbourne Victory three times. His performances have been promising - to say the least. Most telling of all, he was instrumental in three of the last four goals Melbourne scored, setting up Archie Thompson on two occasions and winning a penalty against Queensland.

For a back-up striker, Leandro is certainly starting to give Ernie Merrick some selection headaches. On Friday, we already saw him use a three-pronged attack, with little success. It wasn’t until Adrian Caceres replaced Danny Allsopp that the Victory sprang to life.

Is Leandro the new Fred, as David suggested earlier this week? Personally, I doubt it. Leandro may well contribute as much to the Victory as Fred did last year, but his style is markedly different. Frankly, Leandro doesn’t move as much. Fred tended to run into space; Leandro runs into players. To be sure, he fails often enough. But when it does work, Leandro provides plenty of problems for opposition defences.

At 21, Leandro is a young, developing player. He is at Melbourne on a one year loan from Vissel Kobe, where he is yet to feature. If he continues to defy expectations, as he has done so far, this could be a defining moment in his career.

Read more about Leandro Love:

• Leandro Love on Wikipedia
• Leandro profile on MelbourneVictory.com.au
• A sub to Love