Stajball: What Is Alen Stajcic Cooking With Perth Glory?
Three games in under new coach Alen Stajcic, and while the results haven’t always been reflective of the performances on the pitch, there has been a consensus that the Perth Glory are implementing the right building blocks to become a team that are regulars in the finals series.
That’s not necessarily to say the Glory will make the finals this season, they may miss out.
But so far, we’re seeing some promising signs tactically and statistically showing that Glory can compete with any team in the competition.
So first of all, the numbers show that the Glory are on a promising trajectory in several key areas.
Concerning xG, at the time of writing, only Melbourne Victory have accumulated a higher xG than Stajcic’s side (7.6 to 5.6).
3 games is a pretty small sample size, however comparing the stat at this point in the season to where the Glory were last season (3.7), there is clear improvement.
When we look at why the Glory have been a lot better at creating chances, it’s tactically due to a few factors.
For one, the improvement in pressing has been pleasing.
One area where former Glory coach Ruben Zadkovich did play a part in helping the Glory get to this position now was implementing that pressing mentality, where particularly at home, the players would hunt after the ball in packs.
We’re seeing similar now with Alen Stajcic, particularly when it comes to second balls, which was one of the big factors in creating the Glory’s first goal of the season.
Below is a still image of the lead-up to Taggart’s opener against the Jets in Round One.
Jason Berthomier was hassled by Luke Ivanovic, who then dispossessed the Frenchman.
Following on from there, Ivanovic drove down the byline with the ball, Glory got numbers into the box and after Daniel Bennie’s subsequent header was parried about by goalkeeper Ryan Scott, Taggart tapped the ball home.
In terms of Glory’s general shape, I mentioned on a talkback show a few weeks ago that I felt the Glory would be playing a brand of football similar to RB Leipzig under Ralf Rangnick and Ralph Hasenhüttl’s Southampton.
Some instances where it’s similar can be seen through the pressing, as mentioned before, but also the positions occupied by the front four players.
So far what we’ve seen from the Glory under Alen Stajcic, is that he likes his wingers to come inside to play as ‘dual 10s’.
This allows, in theory, for smaller distances in counter-pressing when the ball is lost but also the opportunity for combination play.
Take this example, also from the Newcastle game, where Giordano Colli is on the ball, as Jarrod Carluccio has drifted inside.
Colli’s pass broke the lines to find Luke Ivanovic, and as he received the ball, this happened.
Carluccio running inside allowed the space to open up for Johnny Koutroumbis to make a run in behind, where he was found by Ivanovic, where the move unfortunately didn’t amount to a shot at goal.
This is a similar pattern of play that Hasenhüttl’s Southampton utilised when they were in the Premier League as seen below.
There are similar principles at work.
One striker (Nathon Redmond) dropping deep with the other (Danny Ings) staying high, as the right winger (Theo Walcott) moves inside to allow the right fullback (Kyle Walker-Peters) to make a run in behind.
A simple yet effective rotation by the players to achieve a really good goal-scoring opportunity.
The Glory are particularly brutal once they regain possession and can counter — an attribute that the best A-League teams do every single week.
Below are a few excellent examples of this.
In the Newcastle game, it was quite a common occurrence, especially in the second half where the Glory would win the ball back in the midfield and break at speed.
Some of the instances where the Jets midfielders would just give the ball away so cheaply without a doubt helped the Perth players.
Below, Cal Timmins’ poor touch allowed Gio Colli to regain the ball in an advanced area.
On another day, Adam Taggart could’ve had a hattrick.
Colli’s pass found Daniel Bennie, who intelligently moved beyond the blindside of his opponent where he then slipped through a beautiful slide rule pass to the advantage of Taggart, who was unfortunate to hit his strike straight at the keeper.
In the Mariners game, however, there was a brilliant counterattack goal scored by the Glory that showed just how lethal they can be on the break.
It was a pretty poor corner delivery from Colombian winger Ángel Torres, as it was lofted too far to the back post.
Aleksandar Šušnjar met the cross and then found Ollie Bozanic, who then found Bruce Kamau, who had escaped his marker.
What really helps the Glory is that they’ve got some really strong and powerful runners, guys like Kamau, Taggart and Colakovski, all of whom were involved in the counter-attack.
Kamau’s switch found Taggart, aided by the attempted intervention by Brian Kaltak, which then created a very dangerous situation for the Glory.
Taggart delayed until the right moment, and as he found Colakovski, all the winger had to do was slide the ball under Danny Vukovic.
It was a brilliant move from the Glory and has so far become a hallmark of their style of play under Alen Stajcic.
Just very quickly on the defensive end, while the goals conceded show that the Glory’s backline has been pretty average, the xG conceded metric (2.1) and the shots on target against p90 (3.67) show that Stajcic has so far really improved the defensive organisation of the team.
More often than not, teams have to shoot from outside the box against the Glory. Half of the goals they conceded were as a result of that.
The Glory’s defensive organisation is as good as it is, is due to a few factors.
For one, they’ve got very good penalty box defenders. Guys like Darryl Lachman, Mark Beevers and Aleksandar Šušnjar are particularly good at this. They can read and smell the danger very well.
The Glory also have diligent and reliable runners in the team that track back, covering a lot of ground.
Structurally, the distances between the lines are also pretty good, which forces teams to be inch perfect if they are to penetrate the lines.
The structure is quite narrow, but it is really compact.
They can afford to be this narrow, as their wide players, in particular, can get out really quickly to their opponents.
All in all, Stajball has been working and will get better as more quality players come in, but also as the current players understand their roles further.
