Roar play it short in search of long-term gains
By Brett Taylor
October 14, 2010
Think attractive football, think Barcelona. Given the popularity of the Premier League in Australia, you can throw Arsenal in there, too. Those clubs have something in common - they're among the very best in their respective leagues and they can afford to grow, buy and keep the best players. It's a lot easier to play attacking pass-and-move football when you have better players than your opposition.
But Brisbane Roar are proving that a high-tempo possession game is possible in the A-League, where the salary cap dictates that no one squad is any stronger or weaker than the others. Brisbane have caught the eye with their attractive play, but they're showing it can be successful, too. Ange Postecoglou's men have stormed the new A-League season, surprising most with their run to second position on the ladder by the October international break.
Brisbane's is a high-risk game but, when the risks come off, the rewards are high. So far, the spoils have come in the form of four wins and three draws, with just the solitary loss against Melbourne Victory blotting the record. Yet that 3-0 reverse at AAMI Park, where Victory pounced on errors by Roar as they tried to play out of the back, is seen by the team as a critical stage in their development. Postecoglou has told his players that they will make costly mistakes playing out from the back but that the new system will pay off in the long run if they stick to their guns.
"I thought we played well that day and got punished for making mistakes," Postecoglou recalls. "I think that galvanised the group, by showing us we will get punished sometimes but it won't stop us from doing what we're doing. We made it clear to the players we'd rather make mistakes trying to play the way we are than change the way we play. The following week, the players played exactly the same way. The players know there are no recriminations from the coaches."
Midfielder Erik Paartalu agrees with his coach's sentiments: "We played Adelaide the next week and they were at the top of the table, flying with confidence, but we tried to play the same way. That's a big theme from the coaching staff's point of view. We want to keep the ball coming out from the back or we end up like every other team just trying to play it long when we get in trouble. It is a risk but it's a great risk to take because if we can get out of those tight situations there's going to be a part of the pitch that's very open."
Passing football is not new to the A-League. Victory in particular have long shown a preference for keeping the ball on the carpet. Graham Arnold says his Mariners have a new motto of "look short before long". But Roar's system is built on more than a philosophy.
Brisbane have a very deliberate pattern of play designed to secure possession and then break the opposition down by pulling them out of position with super-fast ball movement in the attacking half. Players take minimal touches on the ball and constantly move to create an option, if not to receive the ball themselves then to open up space for a team-mate. In fact, once a move is in full swing, the players don't relate so much to their designated positions as the space on the pitch, freely interchanging places as the situation dictates.
Matt McKay, a foundation player at Brisbane, has played for or against every team in A-League history. He believes Roar are breaking new ground with their new gameplan: "I haven't seen anything quite to the extent we're doing but in saying that we've got a long way to go as well. It takes a lot of time to develop the combinations and the confidence to play like that."
To get the play started, the Roar centre backs and Paartalu form a deep triangle to secure clean possession while the full backs push high up the wings. If the opposition tries to close down those players, the likes of McKay and Massimo Murdocca drop out of midfield to create another 'out' ball, ensuring clean possession is retained. Then they start the process of systematically dismantling the opposition defence with perpetual movement of players and ball at pace. This is where Brisbane differ from their rivals. In the season of the No. 10, Roar rely on a collective effort rather than an individual one to create openings on goal.
This brand of football didn't happen by accident. Postecoglou, who joined the club midway through last season when Frank Farina was dismissed, spent the offseason recruiting players like Paartalu and impressive German import Thomas Broich with a view to implementing his gameplan. Then it was a matter of making pass-and-move second nature to his troops. He reveals: "We tailored our whole four-month pre-season around playing two touch small-sided games. All the running was in a game situation. Instead of ten minutes of running, we would play ten minutes of two-touch 4 v 4 in a small area."
It's a big investment in one particular method of play and, with no guarantee it would bring success, something of a gamble by the coach. McKay admits to being a little surprised the results have come so quickly. Melbourne Heart and Perth Glory were both torn apart, paying the price for not stacking enough numbers in Roar's midfield playground. But soon enough teams will start figuring out how to negate Brisbane's passing game, either by clogging up the midfield or forcing errors as Victory did. But Postecoglou challenges rival coaches to stop his side when they hit their peak.
"There'll be games where the opposition will try and work us out but if we keep improving it's very hard to stop," he says. "The best teams in the world are playing that way and that's the path we want to go down."
McKay repeatedly mentions the mobility of the Roar players, of which he is the epitome, as well as buzzwords like high tempo, two touch, movement. It's clear the players are thriving in this aggressive, attacking system, particularly McKay, who earned a Socceroos call-up based on his early season form.
Paartalu, largely unknown to Australian audiences, excited few with his CV of lower-tier football in the UK when signed for Roar. But the 24-year-old admits the kick-and-rush football he encountered in Scotland, while character building, never played to his technical strengths. Suddenly Australia have a talented young ball-player in the trendy 'quarterbacking' role, and he feels he's only getting better.
"When I first came in, I was playing it pretty safely," Paartalu says. "As your confidence builds, you look to go forward a bit more. A lot of midfielders in the league play the ball side to side and that's just keeping the ball, but if you can play a good ball through the middle that can really help a holding midfielder's game."
It is obvious that Roar's lack of real firepower is the factor most likely to undermine their season. Despite their domination of most matches, they have only scored nine goals in eight, four of those coming in one outing against Heart. Postecoglou might be wondering what could have happened had he not lost one player he didn't want to see cleared out, Sergio van Dijk, now leading the line at table-topping Adelaide. A further challenge is the congested fixture list, which sees them play five midweek fixtures in the next two months. We'll know by Christmas whether Roar have the efficiency in front of goal to go with their functionality in making them true contenders this campaign.
Regardless of whether the results come, the attractive football will remain. McKay's inclusion in the national team is recognition enough that the gameplan is working. Hopefully the fans will flock back to Suncorp Stadium to appreciate the A-League's most tactically progressive team.
