Dismal Wanderers Dragged Down By Perth

[mack]

Perth Glory took all three points via a Keegan Jelacic goal as they hustled their way to a 1-0 win over a disinterested Western Sydney Wanderers team in Perth tonight.

Western Sydney coming off the back of a 4-0 win against Macarthur were looking to continue their good form against last placed Perth Glory who fell 2-0 to Adelaide United. Ruben Zadkovic elected to drop Liam Reddy as goalkeeper after his mediocre performance after his 350th match, while Marko Rudan left Yeni Ngbakoto out entirely after he failed a late fitness test despite travelling over to WA. Melbourne City's stellar form meant that even a win wouldn't be enough for the Wanderers to go equal top, it would however put them at least 5 points ahead of the Mariners & Adelaide before the 3rd & 4th placed teams clash on Saturday.

Perth opened the action with a high powered, wayward shot from Jelacic, and followed that by winning back possession and earning a 2nd minute corner, and then another 4 minutes later on the opposite side that was headed away. The Wanderers first attack came through Brandon Borrello, who cut it back to Calem Nieuwenhof who won a corner with his shot only to have the offside flag revert the play to when Borrello latched onto the long ball that put him into the box.

Ramy Najjarine made a run down the right flank, mishit his shot but it fell to the feel of Gabi Cleur and his effort was on target but straight at Cameron Cook in the Perth goal. In the 24th minute Lawrence Thomas pulled out a fingertip save after having very little to do so far. Mustafa Amini brought the ball away in midfield, took a couple of steps and fired at the bottom right corner of Thomas' goal, requiring a full length lunge to deflect it away for a corner. Said corner was caught by the strong wind and went away to the other side of the pitch for a goal-kick that was almost a throw-in. Luke Ivanovic had a shot on the turn in the 32nd minute that Thomas got down well to his left to stop. With 5 to play Kusini Yengi dragged himself off the pitch with a quad muscle injury to his leg and was quickly replaced by Sulejman Krpic, in the middle of a goal drought stretching back to the 5th minute of the Round 3 match against Brisbane Roar back in October last year.

Salim Khelifi took from 30 yards out and shot an absolute rocket that Thomas was well positioned to block over the bar. From the resulting corner it fell for another long bomb, this time from former Wanderers Jack Clisby and against Thomas was in the way. Not content for the long shots to come from one side only, Borrello had his own 20 yard effort on the turn, trying to curl it around but just heading wide of the post. Khelifi then went down with a similar looking injury to Yengi, and he was replaced by Joeseph Forde in the last major point before the half-time whistle. Perth were marginally the better side, but neither side had any clear cut chances and most of the shots on target were from outside the box.

Krpic had a great chance early in the second half, from the penalty spot he attacked a cross from Cleur to win a clear header but only managed to knock it to the middle of the goal straight into Cook's hands. Perth got away with lax defender from a free kick when John Koutroumbis was lucky his attempt at a head clearance sliced off the top of his head and out for a corner. Cleur picked up his 5th yellow card of the season, one that would see him out of the match against Melbourne City next week.

Adam Zimmerino made his way onto the pitch and with his first touch he turned on Marcelo and fired low across the grass, beating Thomas but not being able to bend it back into the far corner. Perth didn't mind much as they had the lead seconds later. David Williams attacked the Wanderers defence and they stood off, stood off, and stood off while he made his way into the box, three defenders who refused to make a challenge, he took advantage by cutting inside, his touch was strong but Jelacic was on the spot with a snatched left foot shot that bounced off the pitch, into the far post at just the right angle to nestle into the back of the net to make it 1-0 to Perth.

Oli Bozanic tried to replicate his lobbed goal from the Macarthur match but this time his body shape was leaning backward, sending the ball into the proverbial Row Z of the temporary stands behind the goal. It was his last action as he was replaced by Daniel Wilmering. Marcelo went into the notebook, ruling himself from the match vs City after Nieuwenhof was booked for a poor challenge, sparking a confrontation with the entire Perth team, who I'm sure were happy to waste some time doing.

The Wanderers should have had a penalty in the 80th minute when Ramy Najjarine was tripped from behind by Duncan inside the box. Referee Jack Morgan missed the foul completely, and VAR declined to intervene to at the very least, turn the decision into a free kick and a yellow card, which is allowable under the VAR Protocols. There was precious little going forward as the Wanderers chased an equaliser, and several very late corners turned to naught.

Perth held on, and the Wanderers once again fell into the predictable pattern of a strong victory against a high placed team then losing the week after playing a woeful team into form. There was precious little to be positive about from the visitors to be defeated by an inexperienced team in the middle of an injury crisis, but Perth showed heart, they were aggressive in the tackle from minute one and never took their foot off the brakes while the match was in the balance.

Western Sydney's next match is against Melbourne City in Parramatta on Sunday the 15th of January with kick-off at 3pm.

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[Legionista]

Rudan out. 

[matty]

Perth played really well unfortunately.

[EmMac]

Perth employed what i have now dubbed as the Indian Myna-bird- defense: Surround a target, annoy the cr@p outta them, until they eventually overturn the ball. At one point there were 4 players on one of our players who had the ball. Four.

I wouldnt say based on that game Perth are better than us overall, but this game we had no answer to their tactics,  and for that you gotta say they deserved their win.

[GunnerWanderer]

I don’t know what others thought but when you start the game with effectively what was a 4-6-0 formation and you lose then yeah Rudan has to cop this one and say his tactics were wrong. 
 

after Yeni was late scratching I though it was the perfect opportunity to unleash Yengi up front instead we saw some weird instance of Oli and Remi playing as false 9’s. 
it didn’t work we created little and Rudan needs to throw that one in the bin. 
 

On a side night the passion on display from Amini was remarkable - he was so up for it! 

[Smoggy]

Shite ground with shite floodlights and shite fans

Shite Paramount production With shite commentary

Shite kick off time

The ref seen everything all night apart from the only potential Penna shout

We didn’t look up for it, Perth did, we were off the pace from the start 

Excuses  like we are tired from the trip or from last week don’t cut it with me. We have not done a lot of travelling lately and the WC break still wasn’t all that long ago. We are hardly in an intensive ACL style period are we. The side we had out should have been good enough to cause Perth issues,

Rather than taking a massive opportunity to consolidate top two and put pressure on city with them coming up we are instead now four points behind having played two games more and are about to be over taken. In the context of the standings it is a big loss. 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Smoggy

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, EmMac said:

Perth employed what i have now dubbed as the Indian Myna-bird- defense: Surround a target, annoy the cr@p outta them, until they eventually overturn the ball. At one point there were 4 players on one of our players who had the ball. Four.

I wouldnt say based on that game Perth are better than us overall, but this game we had no answer to their tactics,  and for that you gotta say they deserved their win.

4 players on 1 means space if you get your tactics right. If you afford a team the luxury of that kind of marking you deserve to get beaten.

[Sithslayer1991]

Ok honestly we didn't play badly. We really didn't we actually played good. However Perth is really strong at home regardless of the squad they have, and they actually played really well so hats off to them they deserved their victory. Context they have only had 2 home games but won 4 point of their total 7 points prior to this game. While the away record is poor, at home they have now won 7/9 points at home, I also think Macedonia Park has King Tom vibes. The crowd was really on top of the game, so they really were used like a 12th man, the next thing is the pitch was peak park football. That wind was doing all kinds of insane things and we really didn't adapt. Yes every one is on Wilmering back because he is good on crosses but Borello and Amalfitino were having shocker crosses as well. Bozanic left his scoring boots at home, he has his chances again he most likely takes them.

The biggest thing though was losing Yengi, we lost the left creativity yet again on that left side. Unfortunately no one from the bench really stepped up to change the game. Just put this one behind us not many teams are going to Perth this season and leaving with points.

[EmMac]

1 hour ago, Smoggy said:

4 players on 1 means space if you get your tactics right. If you afford a team the luxury of that kind of marking you deserve to get beaten.

Agree and disagree. Its a tactic of odds. If you surround 1 player with 4 defenders all trying to get the ball then odds are, you will turn it over trying to release to one of your players and when its released there are 4 opposition players to pounce for possession. That tactic falls apart when you and your team are more skilled than the opposition. That wasn't the case last night. In this game we weren't better skilled and those tactics benefited Perth. 

[Jefski]

1 hour ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Ok honestly we didn't play badly. We really didn't we actually played good. 

That's as far as I read and stopped.

 

Surely we were watching different games. We were atrocious.

[Smoggy]

12 minutes ago, Jefski said:

That's as far as I read and stopped.

 

Surely we were watching different games. We were atrocious.

Yes we were..

The only thing that can cheer me up today is if Usma  Khawaja gets clean bowled first ball.

[Sithslayer1991]

4 hours ago, EmMac said:

Indian Myna-bird- defense:

[WHACKO]

3 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Yes we were..

The only thing that can cheer me up today is if Usma  Khawaja gets clean bowled first ball.

I thought you became an Aussie after the Socceroos efforts. 

That was short lived.

[Smoggy]

8 minutes ago, WHACKO said:

I thought you became an Aussie after the Socceroos efforts. 

That was short lived.

It's a long process.

[sonar]

3 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Shite ground with shite floodlights and shite fans

Shite Paramount production With shite commentary

Shite kick off time

The ref seen everything all night apart from the only potential Penna shout

We didn’t look up for it, Perth did, we were off the pace from the start 

Excuses  like we are tired from the trip or from last week don’t cut it with me. We have not done a lot of travelling lately and the WC break still wasn’t all that long ago. We are hardly in an intensive ACL style period are we. The side we had out should have been good enough to cause Perth issues,

Rather than taking a massive opportunity to consolidate top two and put pressure on city with them coming up we are instead now four points behind having played two games more and are about to be over taken. In the context of the standings it is a big loss. 

 

This. I'm over the excuses as well.

The inconsistency of performances from one game to the next is really doing my head in and I'm not just talking this season.

FMD we've made it an art form over the past 5 seasons or so.

 

[pseudonym]

24 minutes ago, sonar said:

This. I'm over the excuses as well.

The inconsistency of performances from one game to the next is really doing my head in and I'm not just talking this season.

FMD we've made it an art form over the past 5 seasons or so.

 

[GE942150]

Can anyone find the Rudan press conference? Not uploaded on yet on Keep Up YouTube, but the Perth one is.

 

[StringerBellend]

It's in Rudan we setup in 4 6 0 formation 

I mean ffs that team and formation could play for days and not score.

We set up with no forwards against the bottom table in the league 

What does that say to you as a player going out to play? 

[Wanderboy]

I can't believe I stayed up till after midnight to watch that ****.

[StringerBellend]

He played this idiot formation last year with Troisi upfront now we are doing it again as we still haven't found a centre forward

Ffs Rudan put Sapsford on up front or one of the other kids. 

No he goes for Najerine who has scored something like 7 goals in 60 odd games 

[Potkorok]

I don’t think I’ve watched a game where we had so many cheap turnovers. Perth were hungry and just kept up an intensity. We looked bored and disinterested. Tactically ridiculous from Rudan. What is this, a pre-season game where he’s experimenting ffs?

As for the venue - far out Perth that is embarrassing. Surely that lighting wasn’t broadcast standard?

And then the commentary. Having to listen to Pellizeri or whatever he’s called is like being forced to listen to Alan Jones while being crapped on by seagulls

[sonar]

10 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

He played this idiot formation last year with Troisi upfront now we are doing it again as we still haven't found a centre forward

Ffs Rudan put Sapsford on up front or one of the other kids. 

No he goes for Najerine who has scored something like 7 goals in 60 odd games 

This. Would of been the perfect game to do it.  You have to wonder why we give the young guys contracts and have them warming the bench all season.

[Keithie]

Good teams grind out wins in games like last night,  this team has now put 2 very poor performances in this season CCM and Perth,  we either get a hi quality forward or we will struggle with making the 6 and who wants to make just the 6 , top 3 at the worst should be the target.

We also should not use Narjarine , Krypic and Wilmering again as first choice subs put the kids on develop them they cannot perform and worse than those 3 

[StringerBellend]

8 minutes ago, Keithie said:

Good teams grind out wins in games like last night,  this team has now put 2 very poor performances in this season CCM and Perth,  we either get a hi quality forward or we will struggle with making the 6 and who wants to make just the 6 , top 3 at the worst should be the target.

We also should not use Narjarine , Krypic and Wilmering again as first choice subs put the kids on develop them they cannot perform and worse than those 3 

I like Najarine but he's not a centre forward or a false 9 whatever that is 

Willmering it's a shame but I just don't think he is going to be A League standard. He has an ok left foot but you need more than that.

Kripic that Rudan played Najarine and Bozanic as sort of 9s against bottom team and benched him says it all 

[GD07]

I wonder what they do all week, definitely don’t work on crossing. 

[GD07]

Also, someone just told me we haven’t won in Perth since 2014. Might have got rid of the Melbourne curse, now for the Perth one. 

[Paul01]

1 hour ago, GD07 said:

Also, someone just told me we haven’t won in Perth since 2014. Might have got rid of the Melbourne curse, now for the Perth one. 

And the next gane against Perth Glory is at HBF Park. It might be even the opening game after the redevelopment.

[Upthehill]

2 hours ago, StringerBellend said:

He played this idiot formation last year with Troisi upfront now we are doing it again as we still haven't found a centre forward

Ffs Rudan put Sapsford on up front or one of the other kids. 

No he goes for Najerine who has scored something like 7 goals in 60 odd games 

I'm pretty settled on the idea that Rudan has nfi what he's doing. Seems Bosnar did a semi decent job recruiting, but all the things we predicted at the start of the year are showing through.

Great keeper, good back line, decent midfield. Attack is completely directionless. Zero depth almost anywhere.

Rudans decision making is only mildly better than Robinson and Babs. He seems to understand that some changes need to be made (Babel had nfi, and said so out loud on the bench). His deployment of players is ******* appalling. Wilmering at LW, Lopane has been used at DM 3 times. Refusing to use a striker. Simmons on the RW instead of LW. Using Najjarine at St/10 when he clearly can't handle it. Changes into a 3ATB formation we know our players can't handle.

I could go on all day about it, but it's pointless. He's had ample opportunity to learn from his mistakes but he refuses.

Here's to hoping our backline can get us a respectable result.

[Jefski]

3 hours ago, Upthehill said:

I'm pretty settled on the idea that Rudan has nfi what he's doing. Seems Bosnar did a semi decent job recruiting, but all the things we predicted at the start of the year are showing through.

Great keeper, good back line, decent midfield. Attack is completely directionless. Zero depth almost anywhere.

Rudans decision making is only mildly better than Robinson and Babs. He seems to understand that some changes need to be made (Babel had nfi, and said so out loud on the bench). His deployment of players is ******* appalling. Wilmering at LW, Lopane has been used at DM 3 times. Refusing to use a striker. Simmons on the RW instead of LW. Using Najjarine at St/10 when he clearly can't handle it. Changes into a 3ATB formation we know our players can't handle.

I could go on all day about it, but it's pointless. He's had ample opportunity to learn from his mistakes but he refuses.

Here's to hoping our backline can get us a respectable result.

Way things are going, Popa might be available soon.

[EmMac]

10 minutes ago, Jefski said:

Way things are going, Popa might be available soon.

No, as we all know, never go back to the partner who dumped you .

Especially when they dumped you for someone else....