Unlocking the 'most elegant utility player in history': 3 touches & a moment say it all

Sydney FC midfielder has won host of awards but even his biggest fans believe he has more to give, writes Tom Smithies

Three touches was all it took to score a goal that said so many things about Anthony Caceres.

A caress of a pass, a perfect first touch, and a violent shot where the power was entirely the product of technique – that was the moment that won the Big Blue.

For a moment the camera lingered on the face of the Sydney FC midfielder but then hurriedly cutaway to a replay – perfectly summing up the way the spotlight still eludes a player so highly regarded by teammates, fans and pundits and yet rarely the centre of any conversation about A-League flair.

Ten years ago Caceres was told, in the week of his debut as a professional footballer, that he could achieve anything in football once he got used to the idea of valuing his talent as keenly as his coaches did.

A decade on and the sense lingers that a player with a fistful of recent accolades could still achieve even wider acclaim, if his prodigious talent and ball mastery led him to adopt a starring role more often than best supporting actor.

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It’s possible that’s an unfair demand – last season Caceres was voted Player of the Year by his teammates at Sydney FC and by the club’s supporters, and came joint-top of the Alex Tobin medal voting by the experts on Network 10’s A-League coverage.

All of that came in a season of struggle for the Sky Blues – it’s harder to be buoyant in a sinking tide – and this campaign threatens to be similarly disappointing from a team point of view. Caceres must be in the running for those awards again and brings class to all of the various roles he is asked to play – the question is whether deployment across the park means he becomes the most elegant utility player in history.

“If he was my player in my team, I’d have him running the front third in the same way as Milos Ninkovic did,” says Andy Harper – one of those 10 experts and a fully paid up member of the Caceres appreciation society.

“I’ve always had the impression that there’s more for him to give, for all that he is quite some player as it is. His expressive capacity has yet to reach fulfillment, and it’s frustrating that when he does get the chance to be a No 10 in Sydney’s system, the first substitution always seems to see him end up dropping back to No 6.”

Caceres on his debut for the Mariners against Newcastle Jets in 2013.

That goal a fortnight ago unlocked a packed Melbourne Victory defence, the one-two Caceres played with Max Burgess parlaying into his ferocious finish. Ten years ago it was Phil Moss, then assistant coach at the Mariners, who told the then-20 year old that the world could be his oyster “once you’ve grown into the skin of being a professional footballer”. Moments like that goal to defeat Victory tell Moss, now also part of 10’s A-League coverage, that the talent is now being realised.

“I have seen a step change in the sense that what we’re seeing on the park now is what he does for fun all day and every day at training,” Moss says. “He’s never seemed to be a player to catch the fanfare but he scores an exquisite goal like that and he should be front and centre.

“His mastery of the ball in tight situations is breathtaking at times and I feel like we’re seeing more end product – more killer passes, more involvement in goals – this season.

“Personally I think he has the ability to play at a higher level, and we have seen players who have made a move like that later in their careers.”

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With Max Burgess suspended, Caceres has a crucial role to play if the Sky Blues are to best the Wanderers again in Saturday’s derby.

Not surprisingly, for a figure so publicly in love with Brazilian football, Harper loves the flair he can see in Caceres even if he fears it is “caged in by his upbringing, born and bred an Aussie, but still identifiably a Latin player”.

Like a parent desperate for their child to succeed, Harper lives to see Caceres dominate games for Sydney. “He pushes himself into games but he doesn’t thrust himself into the spotlight, and I can only imagine that’s reflective of what seems to be quite a self-effacing personality,” Harper says.

“Parts of his game can sometimes drift to the periphery, but what I love about him is that particularly in Champions League games, against technically proficient opposition, he is the type of player who can excel.

“We see glimpses, great glimpses, of the player he can be. I still think he’s the player who could be Sydney’s star driving force.”