After a career taking him from the Premier League to the A-League Men, Roy O’Donovan knows what it takes to succeed in the penalty box. In the first of a weekly column for KEEPUP, O’Donovan takes us inside the art of goalscoring.
How would you measure the best striker in the A-League Men? Please don’t tell me you’d rely simply on goals scored because there is so much more to a striker’s craft than that.
After one round of the Isuzu UTE A-League, I’m fascinated by the variety of styles among the forwards, some of whom look like they have made a real effort to progress their game in the off season. Anyone would think there are places in the FIFA Men’s World Cup squad at stake.
Goals are a vital part of a striker’s worth, of course, and it was fitting that Jamie Maclaren scored the winning goal in the first game of the season, for he has won so many previous fixtures for Melbourne City. To understand Maclaren’s ability, and the way City play to his strengths, you see so much sitting in a stadium surveying the whole pitch – that way you can comprehend the work he does out of possession.
His scanning and awareness of defenders’ positioning is acute, as is his understanding of when and how to press. Out of nothing he will attack a defender in possession with aggression. Look at that winner last Friday, universally described as a mistake by Leo Lacroix – it was, but a mistake engineered by Jamie, who then produced an effortless finish to make Jamie Young look invisible.
One of the reasons Maclaren is so effective is the system that Patrick Kisnorbo has created. You know what they will do, in working the ball out wide and delivering low crosses, but combatting it is a different matter. As I have argued before, a tap-in goal can be a work of art if you have managed to disappear in the box and then reappear at the critical moment.
It’s all part of a process and one of the things that Marco Tilio has to learn, as a young player of huge potential, is when to play within that system – often he’s still looking for the early hero pass to put Maclaren away, when the latter’s movement at that point is part of the process of losing his man in order to then get on the end of a cross.
The other key to Jamie’s success is confidence, within and without. By that I mean his self-confidence, which should be and is very high; but also the confidence of his coach. Kisnorbo built a system to service him, whereas Graham Arnold seems to prefer a lone, physical striker for the Socceroos which emphatically is not Maclaren’s forte.
Having said that, his movement against a tiring defence, if a game is in the balance, could be a brilliant alternative threat at the World Cup. But so could Nick D’Agostino, if his Round 1-performance becomes a trend.
The moments of quality we saw at Brisbane and Perth look increasingly like a striker coming of age at Melbourne Victory. In Tony Popovic he has found the coach who he needed – D’Agostino looks leaner, more explosive, with a better understanding of how to use his physical strength to most effective use.
I think his stamina is an underrated quality too. When the Olyroos qualified for the Tokyo Games, he scored three goals in four games, including the goal that secured qualification, and ran himself into the ground. Coaches don’t forget that level of commitment; Graham Arnold won’t.
It’s interesting to compare D’Agostino, the face of the future at 24, with two old(ish) stagers in Charlie Austin and Jason Cummings. I love the way Charlie has embraced being a big-name import but that brings pressure for instant success; the longer he goes without a goal (and to be fair, it’s only one game so far) the more he will want to make a statement.
But I saw some good signs in the draw with Macarthur, even though the Bulls’ very conservative approach to the game gave him no space to work in. Austin’s movement was economical, he wasn’t dropping deep, and Carlo Armiento served up a number of early crosses that Austin – with a bit more match rhythm – would be expected to devour. I don’t think that first goal will be far off.
It’s disappointing that Cummings, meanwhile, has returned from his Socceroos debut with a shoulder injury; I hope it’s not serious because Cummings is good for the league. Going back to my original point – is Jason Cummings the best striker in the league? He’d argue yes (and 10 goals in half a season last year is strong supporting evidence), and that brashness is key to who he is, and why the fans like him.
Strikers take the headlines, and their value can come – yes – in goals, but also in their wider play, their profile, their fan appeal. Garang Kuol, a winger who hasn’t started a professional game and who’s fame so far has been built on a handful of moments, is absolutely a case in point. Apparently fearless, energetic and of calm temperament, he has so much to learn – and yet he’s putting smiles on faces. Isn’t that as good a gauge as any?
