Sydney FC continued their incredible post-Asian Cup break run, beating Newcastle Jets 1-0 on Friday night to make it five wins and a draw since the restart. Despite the close scoreline and Newcastle having chances of their own, it was a game where Sydney dominated for large swathes.
That was primarily due to their ability to create overloads in between Newcastle’s lines of defence and midfield, with wingers Chris Naumoff and Bernie Ibini coming inside alongside No10 Alex Brosque.
“We’re looking to exploit the space outside of [Ben] Kantarovski and once we’re in those positions we need to make more forward runs to penetrate in behind their defence,” said Sydney’s assistant coach Steve Corica at half-time, giving great insight into the half-time messages of manager Graham Arnold. “They’ve made it difficult for us to play out – they’re compact at the back and it’s causing us a few problems – but we’ve sorted it out at half-time and there’s space either side of Kantarovski and we’re going to look to exploit that and then get in behind their defence.”
In order to create these spaces around Kantarovski, Newcastle’s No6, Sydney FC had identified the simple messages delivered to Newcastle’s midfielders – i.e. “mark your direct opponent in midfield”. With the hard-working Mitch Cooper and Zenon Caravella in midfield, the simple, man-for-man approach can be effective in frustrating the opposition, as the midfielders are unable to find space to receive possession. However there is a risk when Newcastle’s three midfielders are dragged out of shape.
This had occurred at times last week when Newcastle faced Central Coast Mariners, with Caravella, Cooper and Jacob Pepper directly marking Anthony Caceras, Liam Rose and Nick Montgomery respectively. With Montgomery dropping deep, Rose pushing high and Caceras moving out towards the right flank, Newcastle were occasionally dragged out of shape, but the Mariners were unable to take full advantage.
As a result of the man-marking tactics in midfield, Caravella received a booking in the 28th minute of that match when he tracked Caceras all the way out towards the right-hand touchline. He was then drawn towards right-back Storm Roux on the ball and produced a late challenge to receive a yellow card.
Sydney FC used this knowledge to also drag Newcastle’s midfield out of shape, however they did so with different movements. Midfielders Terry Antonis and Milos Dimitrijevic sat deep when Sydney looked to play out from the back, drawing their direct opponents Caravella and Cooper forward and stretching the space in between Newcastle’s lines of defence and midfield.
This was different to how the Sky Blues have played of late, particularly since signing holding midfielder Mikael Tavares. When Tavares plays, Sydney’s midfield patterns in possession tend to begin with the Senegal international dropping in between the two centre-backs to form a back three, therefore allowing the two full-backs to push on.
With Tavares suspended and Antonis and Dimitrijevic both taking up deeper positions, Sydney not only dragged Newcastle’s midfielders forward, they also allowed Nikola Petkovic and Rhyan Grant to bomb forward.
But most importantly, with Cooper and Caravella pushing upfield to apply pressure on Antonis and Dimitrijevic, Sydney’s wingers Ibini and Naumoff and No10 Brosque looked to overload Kantarovski in between the lines.
Outnumbered three-to-one and with a large amount of ground to cover in the middle of the park, Kantarovski was often overwhelmed and Sydney had a number of chances in the first half stemming from this pattern.
There was a warning sign in the eighth minute, with Newcastle dragged out of shape in midfield, when centre-back Sebastian Ryall was able to pass directly into the feet of Naumoff. Naumoff, a left winger, had moved into a central position in front of Newcastle’s back four and was able to receive the ball in space and shoot from the edge of the box, with Kantarovski all of 20 metres away from him. Also, as soon as Naumoff was able to turn and face forward, Brosque had also looked to run in behind to receive possession through on goal in the box.
Sydney’s best chance of the first half also came as a result of this pattern – with Antonis and Dimitrijevic drawing Newcastle’s midfield forward before Naumoff received possession in between the lines and was fouled.
With Cooper, Caravella and Kantarovksi all pushing up towards halfway to close down Antonis and Dimitrijevic when they were playing out, a gaping space was left in behind the Newcastle midfield. When Matt Jurman passed to Nikola Petkovic, Naumoff dropped into that space to receive possession and face forward, with Brosque bursting in behind. However Naumoff was fouled by right-back Scott Neville and from the resulting free-kick Ryall’s header struck the crossbar and Marc Janko’s goalbound follow-up shot was deflected off Daniel Mullen’s arm and out for a corner.
Despite the warnings in the first half, Newcastle failed to adjust to Sydney’s approach in possession and the Sky Blues ran riot as they dominated the second half, with Janko scoring to see out a 1-0 win. The win was deserved not only for Sydney’s superiority in terms of personnel, but also due their tactical approach.
