Should questions be asked of Richard Garcia?
This is a very difficult piece to write.
When Richard Garcia was announced as the manager in late September 2020, to lead on the Perth Glory for the next two seasons, I personally was very excited by the news.
The club needed a change after how sour the former manager Tony Popovic’s era came to an end.
The football played during that hub period in Sydney during the 2019/20 season was dire, the dressing room was not in a good place and Popovic himself looked disinterested.
Garcia was left with a pretty embarrassing mess, which in part was due to Covid and players contracts expiring the moment he walked in through the door.
However, he made it clear that the club would be ok and to assist with that process, the Academy would have a great influence.
Thus far, Garcia has handed first-team appearances to Daniel Stynes, Luke Bodnar, Callum Timmins, Riley Warland, Bryce Bafford, Josh Rawlins, Giordano Colli, Mason Tatafu, Ciaran Bramwell, Cameron Cook and Adam Zimarino.
What was also a promising sign from Richard Garcia was his ideas in relation to how he wanted the team to play.
In terms of style of play, he said in an interview with the club, “I want it to be free-flowing attacking football. It’s football that I and everyone else would like to watch.”
For me, this was a pleasing step in the right direction.
Under Popovic, the latter stages of his time saw the side play some very negative football focussed on being defensively strong but sacrificing an offensive edge in order to accommodate this approach.
In that same interview with the club, Garcia was asked what the fans could expect from his sides to which he replied with, “players that wear their heart on their sleeves and that want to work 100%. I feel that is the most important thing; people that play with passion, people that never give up.”
These things in principle are what you’d want to hear, particularly when the players before didn’t really look like they cared during that 2019/20 season.
Just over 17 months on from the day he was appointed, things are in a mixed place.
Academy players were given many opportunities, given the injuries sustained to key players and as a result of a fallout with fan favourite Neil Kilkenny.
Established senior players such as Diego Castro, Chris Ikonomidis and Neil Kilkenny left the club following the 2020/21 season.
Daniel Sturridge was remarkably brought to Australia in what was a massive move for the club and Australian football.
But, the club hasn’t achieved anything thus far.
Covid, border restrictions, lack of certainty with fixtures, massive gaps in between fixtures, quarantine, condensed fixture schedules have certainly played their part.
However, at this moment, Richard Garcia has a win rate of just 32% in the Isuzu Ute A-League Men’s competition.
To put that in perspective, only Ron Smith (21%) had a worse win rate in Perth Glory’s history.
Garcia has had 34 games managing the Glory in the A-League, where he’s only won 11 games, drawn 9 and lost 14.
Under his management, the Glory finished 9th in the 2020/21 A-League season and are currently 12th.
Now, Garcia himself has said that he’s not panicking over the club currently being in 12th due to the highly competitive and fluctuating nature of the table.
But this brings me back to the title of my piece; should questions now be asked of Richard Garcia?
Unfortunately, the answer has to be yes.
So far this season, there’s not been many signs that the club will be making the finals.
In my eyes, I haven’t been overly impressed with the Glory this season, despite some very good results against Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC.
However, over the 8 games played this season, Perth hasn’t dominated many games. Our only wins of the season against the Victory and the Sky Blues were products of the Glory taking their chances and being defensively solid.
But, being defensively solid and the Glory taking their chances hasn’t been overly common this season.
In the very opening game of the season, Perth hosted Adelaide United.
1–1 was the final score. Although, the reality was Adelaide should’ve come away with the three points.
Other than Fornaroli’s goal, which was a product mostly of the Uruguyuan’s individual brilliance and Antonee Burke-Gilroy’s offside goal, Perth created next to no chances.
They got dominated at home in front of a packed crowd of 17,198 at HBF Park.
- United had 61% possession, Perth 39%
- United had a greater xG of 1.36, compared to Perth’s 0.48
- United created 2 big chances during the game, the Glory, 0
- Adelaide also had 190 more accurate passes than Glory (241) and at a greater pass accuracy (80%, Perth’s was 70%)
In the following game in the A-League away to Western United, the Glory should’ve done much better, with the home side winning 1–0.
From a statistical viewpoint, Glory should’ve come away with the three points and this could be explained by a few key stats.
- Perth had a slightly higher xG than Western, 2.18 to 2.17
- Perth had more possession, 54% to 46%
- The Glory missed 3 key chances, United only missed 2
But, the reality was, the Glory did not come away with three points.
Western’s goal in hindsight should’ve been ruled out however the phase of play leading up to it showed key mistakes made.
Brad Jones attempted to start a quick attack by going long towards Fornaroli who was outnumbered 4 to 1. Possession was re-gained by Ben Garuccio who found Alessandro Diamanti.
Below is a still image of Diamanti receiving the ball.
Everyone in the competition knows that Diamanti has the vision, intelligence and technique to pick out passes.
A couple of things frustrate me here.
Notice how there’s this big gap behind Antonee Burke-Gilroy? That there is a very good avenue of space for someone like Connor Pain, who’s left-footed, can exploit.
Connor Pain positioned his body in a manner to suggest he is capable of exploiting the space in behind and Diamanti saw him before he made the pass, see below. This is where his vision comes into play.
Now, Burke-Gilroy, who has been a super player thus far, was very passive with his pressure on Diamanti. He allowed the Italian to turn and play the pass down the line to Pain.
What amazes me is that from the camera angle, Garcia did not notice this move however one of the coaches did, as he rushed out to point to Pacifique Niyongabire (the player closest to Pain) what was happening.
What Niyongabire should’ve done was track Pain. Burke-Gilroy should’ve pressed with more intensity but either way, he left his position to press. At that exact moment, Niyongabire had to be more aware and track the runner.
Instead, this happened.
What amazes me here is Niyongabire just standing there, showing no passion and determination, qualities Garcia has wanted to instil in the team, to get back.
Four Glory players were standing in a line behind the ball. No reaction from Garcia on the touchline, which is strange.
It’s late on in the game and the opposition has got into a very good area to create a good chance to score a very important goal while the manager is just standing there. More or less, you’d want the manager to react to the danger, to help out his players.
What happens next is Connor Pain is allowed to dribble and have time on the ball. Something that should not be happening in that area of the pitch.
Now, here’s another problem. Aspropotamitis’ positioning. Some may not have a problem with it, I do.
Connor Pain’s intention was never to shoot, but for some reason, Aspropotamitis thought it was hence why he tried to force the winger down the line. What the problem was though, Pain faked to come inside but then went down the line. This was so he could cut it back to a dangerous area inside the Glory’s box.
Now Aspropotamitis doesn’t have the quickest recovery pace and Pain is very sharp, tenacious and quick. So all the winger needed to do was show a change of speed and direction, cut the ball back and Wenzel-Halls scored as a result of no awareness from Lachman or Ota.
Now, the ball was clearly out. There’s no doubt about it. VAR fluffed their lines with a clear and obvious error.
But the point was, that goal was the product of poor positioning and structure. That can be blamed on the coaching staff. It took for an assistant coach to sprint out and tell Niyongabire to acknowledge the runner in behind however Garcia just stood there.
This isn’t me being picky. This is me looking at a manager not helping his players in any way during an important moment of a difficult game.
Following that fixture, the Glory played Melbourne Victory away at AAMI Park. A much better performance and statistically, a deserved result. 3–0.
Now this, I will give Garcia credit for.
Can I just say as well, this piece isn’t just me focussing on Garcia’s flaws, I will give credit when credit is due and he 100% deserves it from this game.
Clearly heading into it, the Glory were huge underdogs given the squad was paper-thin and key players were out.
But a game is never won on paper.
The Glory in this game showed some real character and resilience to break down the Victory.
All of the goals were fantastic.
Antonee Burke-Gilroy’s outside of the box strike was special, Ciaran Bramwell scored a very good header and Bruno Fornaroli’s missile was pure class.
The Victory never really threatened so that was pleasing. Not just that, but to get one over Tony Popovic was a resounding sight to see.
Three days later and Perth faced the champions, Melbourne City on their deck.
That was a pasting.
Even though the scoreline was 1–0 to City, Cameron Cook, the spectacular young goalkeeper who’s really stepped up this season, made sure it wasn’t something ridiculous, like 5–0.
The approach from Richard Garcia in this game was weird. I don’t understand what his plan was concerning breaking down Melbourne City.
In the defensive phase, it seemed clear that he was fine with the players sitting off in a deep block allowing City the majority of possession and that was evident through the home side having 69% possession.
But the Glory going forward, I genuinely did not know how we were going to hurt them. It wouldn’t be through dominating possession, as City were too strong and it wouldn’t be on the counter-attack as there weren’t overly quick players on the pitch who could be effective in offensive transition.
Throughout the entirety of the game, Perth had 6 shots, 2 on target.
Melbourne City on the other hand had 22 shots, 6 on target. Now, while that is a reasonably good defensive display there from the defenders in restricting the Citizens to that number, it’s not a sign to show we are a good side.
City’s goal. Scored by a former Glory player with no appearances for the club, Nathaniel Atkinson, showed a lapse in concentration at a critical moment.
The phase of play involved Curtis Good being in possession just inside the Glory’s half.
Now here’s the big problem. Who’s telling Josh Rawlins and/or Ciaran Bramwell, as those are the players closest to Connor Metcalfe, about the run being made into the box?
What made it worse, was that the goalscorer was unmarked too.
That was Kosuke Ota’s man, but like Niyongabire with Wenzell-Hall’s finish, his lack of awareness along with the defensive line overall cost the Glory the game.
You can’t blame Darryl Lachman for that either. Atkinson was very clever in making the blindside run and no one told the Curacao international about Atkinson making the run in behind.
Lack of concentration and awareness from players in the defensive phase hasn’t been a problem just this season, it’s been going on since Richard Garcia’s first season as well.
That played a very large role in the side conceding the third-highest number of goals, with 44.
Now, unfortunately, the Glory had a 44-day break in between the City game and the game against Brisbane. Some players were allowed to come back into Western Australia, others had to stay in Sydney. That wasn’t the most ideal situation.
But, you would think that upon gameday against the Roar that the players would be hungry and filled with energy ready to play.
For me, they didn’t even step off the bus.
Danger signs were seen just after kick-off, as Brisbane went long into the Glory’s half and won the second ball immediately.
Within the first 27 seconds of the game starts, if it wasn’t for Jay O’Shea’s poor finish, the Glory would be 1–0 down and the phase of play leading into that was poor as well.
Ota and Lachman got caught out with a quick 1–2. Passive pressure, space left in behind, not a great deal of recovery pace from Aspropotamitis and Cook has to make the save.
From that shot, Brisbane similarly dominated the game to how City dominated Glory. Perth showed far too much respect to Brisbane during this game, as they allowed Roar to create chances and test Cameron Cook.
Throughout the course of the game, the Roar created 4 big chances. They had 9 shots on target compared to the Glory’s 1. Their xG was significantly higher as well, 2.85 to 0.22 and this was to a side that was struggling to score goals.
Ironically, the goal was scored by one of the Glory’s former Academy players, Henry Hore, who has since been very impressive since that game in the Isuzu Ute A-League Men’s competition this season.
From a coaching aspect, conceding on a set piece is the worst.
When analysing the goal, the corner kick was taken by Alex Parsons from the right, who’s left-footed. The delivery was an in-swinger, meaning the ball would curve away from the goal and then back towards it.
Andy Keogh misjudges the flight of the ball, which allowed Scott Neville a free header and all Henry Hore had to do was force the ball home.
Roar were the deserved winners.
The good thing for the Glory though, was that they had an opportunity to respond quickly against Sydney FC, a side who historically the club has struggled against in recent years.
I was very proud of this effort, to be fair. I knew how difficult this game would be for the team and they stood up and did their roles.
The goals were taken very well and by the players who Garcia would rely upon and trust a great deal. Brandon O’Neill’s very tidy finish against his former club highlighted his ability and why has been selected on numerous occasions to play for the Socceroos. Bruno Fornaroli’s was expert striker work, one touch to control, the next to shoot low and hard across Redmayne.
The game probably should’ve finished 2–0, if it wasn’t for a sloppy penalty but you can’t complain about that in the end. That result was a positive one and for me, should’ve been the turning point in the season, especially given who the Glory would be playing next, Western Sydney Wanderers.
Now over this season, I had relentlessly criticised the Wanderers for how poor their club was, not just on the pitch but off it. This game would’ve been a great opportunity for the Glory to gain some momentum and another three points.
What transpired was such an ordinary performance from the Glory.
Western Sydney was victorious in winning 1–0. A very good start for the interim manager, Mark Rudan.
The Wanderers were all over the Glory.
They dominated the ball, 58% to 42% and their xG indicated they deserved the win, 1.23 to 0.57.
The game may have had a different complexion if Adrián Sardinero had finished his chance. Below is a still frame of it.
He had the whole goal to aim at, but instead, he let off a pea roller straight at Tomás Mejías. A really disappointing finish and a signing who’s been below par thus far.
The Wanderers punished the Glory 16 minutes later.
How did it happen?
The Wanderers were looking to establish the rhythm required for keeping the ball just around the halfway line. Ugarkovic drops in to create a back three, which allows Ziggy Gordon to receive in the right halfspace, drive and find Thomas Aquilina.
Now here’s a problem. James Troisi’s positioning here is very good in that right half-space. He’s in between three Glory defenders.
Him being there allows for Aqulinia to use him as a wall, where the right-back can make a blindside run into the box.
Now, problem here. Callum Timmins was too slow to mark Troisi and Sardinero didn’t cut out the pass made inside to Troisi.
But this isn’t the worst part. Aquilina’s ball in was an absolute beauty and Jack Rodwell was allowed to receive unmarked, take a touch and score despite there being 5 Glory players in close proximity to him.
Now, did the Glory respond in any way in the second half? Did they show any passion or did they were their heart on the sleeve?
Nope.
They had an xG in the second half of 0.00.
So that’s another loss to a side who was struggling, first Brisbane and in that game against the Wanderers.
The next game was against the Central Coast Mariners and in this game, we stole three points from the Mariners.
If I was a Mariners fan, I’d be tearing my hair out wondering how and why my team didn’t get the three points at home.
In that game, the Mariners looked so comfortable and so dominant. They had more of the ball (54% possession), they created 2 big chances compared to Perth’s 1 and they had a greater xG than Glory (1.88 to 0.83).
Throughout the game, the Glory didn’t threaten.
The Mariners scored their goal in the 58th minute and that featured more of the Glory and their arsenal of defensive cock ups and it was the same pairing again, lack of defensive awareness and concentration.
The phase of play leading up to the goal occurred through Fornaroli trying to find Fitzgerald on the break but the pass wasn’t hit with enough power. Daniel Hall was able to intercept and play Lewis Miller who played out of his skin during the game.
He was allowed time to dribble, nonchalantly, with no one applying any pressure.
This goal was sort of similar to Rodwell’s goal, in that the right-back was able to pass inside, breaking the lines.
Now the turn from Marco Ureña was elite. It allowed him to see more of the pitch and pass, which aided him as he is left-footed.
Now here’s where the defensive issue happens.
Jason Cummings made a run off the ball, Ureña spotted it. Burke-Gilroy didn’t tell Calver to look behind his left shoulder, as Calver stepped forward allowing space in behind for Cummings to finish delightfully.
That type of run in behind a static defence was the exact same as how Melbourne City scored their goal against the Glory late last year.
From there, the Mariners were in control.
Fortunately for the Glory, the home side fell asleep deep into added time. A long ball from Lachman, Kye Rowles misjudged the flight of the ball, Fornaroli flicked it, Zimarino pounced on the scraps, found Daniel Stynes who finished cooly into the bottom right corner.
Now that goal, was important in terms of the Perth Glory scamming a point. But the reality was, they were so lucky to have even scored there. It was rare throughout the game for the Glory to create a meaningful chance and test Mark Birighitti.
So at this exact moment, as I said, the Glory is last on the table. They haven’t been overly convincing in the majority of their games.
There have been problems from a stylistic view in this side that have been the case since Round 1 and it’s been really poor to see that they haven’t been fixed.
What’s more alarming, is that these problems are what you would classify under “the basics”.
Firstly, keeping possession.
Under Tony Popovic, we were pretty solid in this area and it allowed us to control teams, dictating how we want the game to unfold. However, this season has seen some scratchy ball work. The Glory is ranked 11th in the competition for average possession per game, with 44.8%, with Macarthur having 1% less.
Now, why do I stress keeping the ball? It’s for a multitude of reasons. It allows a side to dominate the opposition, reduces time defending, tires the opposition but more importantly, if you don’t have the ball, you don’t score. Now Garcia’s Glory over the last 17 months hasn’t been one known for counterattacks, so I can’t understand why we aren’t dominating possession.
Secondly, movement in and around the ball. God, if you’re wanting to break down an opposition’s block, probably not a good idea to stand still. A problem the Glory have faced is a lack of dynamic movement. Often the movement would just involve a player coming deep to receive, no variation in the movement to disorganise the opposition’s organisation behind the ball.
Also, we rarely make runs in behind. You need forward runs. It causes disorganisation amongst the defenders, as well as confusion. This is a big problem for me, as it’s part of the reason why we don’t create that many chances a game and why we’ve only scored more than 1 goal twice this season.
Thirdly, slow ball circulation. When was the last time the Glory had a phase of play involving quick ball movement? If you’re wanting to draw out the opposition, tight 1–2 touch interplay is one way of doing that. Yet we never see that with the Glory. Everything is done at walking speed. There’s rarely speed whenever we pass the ball into dangerous areas.
Finally, our pressing. This was particularly the case against the Mariners. There were so many times during the game where Bruno Fornaroli would look to initiate a press, by looking over his shoulder, that I’m guessing is a trigger for the players to press. But while he’d look to press, no one would follow up from behind.
It’s really frustrating as a striker when you look to initiate a press and no one follows. That for me is a coaching issue. It seems that there aren’t any pre-determined pressing triggers that the whole team knows. Pressing triggers are so important, especially for a side wanting to dominate possession but more importantly limit the effect of a potential offensive transition.
Now when looking at Richard Garcia as a manager, there’s not an awful lot to analyse as a fan that wants to understand how he wants his side to play football.
There doesn’t seem to be a clear football philosophy. It’s not really an identifiable style of play. I know Garcia said his side wanted to play “free-flowing attacking football”, but we haven’t seen that consistently. More to the point, there hasn’t really been intent from the players to execute the actions and behaviours to play this style.
Now, I’m not saying these players aren’t good enough. A lot of them are.
This brings me to ask is Garcia the man to lead Perth Glory forward?
I’m not 100% sure.
I can’t say for certain that he is the man.
This isn’t me saying Garcia out or Garcia in. But I’m not sure that he can construct the team to play the standard of football in all phases of the game required to play finals football.
Now you can argue that he hasn’t been given a fair run, but no team in the A-League has had it completely fair.
Last season in particular, when the Glory had that final stretch of 8 home games where many of the fixtures were winnable and had to be won if the club wanted to play finals football, we couldn’t do it.
Finals football has been the expectation of the club in the A-League, ever since as late as Ian Ferguson’s era when we first competed for the Championship in the 2011/12 season.
Since then, the club didn’t make the finals four times (13/14, 14/15*, 17/18, 20/21). Other than that, finals qualification had been achieved.
So to conclude, this has been a pretty in-depth analysis. This season hasn’t been overly good enough by the Glory. Now Richard Garcia is more than allowed to say the club shouldn’t panic just yet due to their position on the ladder.
But, we’ve only won two games. There haven’t been many indications throughout this season that we will make the finals. We’re yet to have consistent performances. Hopefully, with the border opening on March 3rd, there will be some normality and the Glory can find a rhythm because right now, I’m concerned for the season.
On a final note, you’re completely allowed to disagree with my thoughts and analysis regarding Garcia’s time at the club, in particular this season.
But we can’t deny, this season needs to improve quickly. We’re allowing standards to drop because we create so many excuses because of bad performances. No team has had it completely fair over the last 2 years. Wellington hasn’t had a home game since 22nd May 2021 and they’re not complaining.
I hope, for the sake of the club I love to death, that things improve soon.
*Perth Glory would’ve played finals football, unfortunately, this was the season where the salary cap scandal occurred
