Applied science
Michael Lynch
February 27, 2009Ernie Merrick has copped his fair share of flak for his lack of joy when his team scores a goal or does something good.
Photo: Getty ImagesIT'S all about logic, not emotion. Ernie Merrick — the closest thing in Australian soccer coaching ranks to a computer geek — likes to take the passion out of the game whenever he can.
He once remarked: "I hate it when people say they are passionate about the game. They think it gives them the excuse to say anything they like and just criticise and attack people."
Give him the choice of function, process and cool detachment over spontaneity and spur-of-the-moment inspiration and he invariably will opt for the former.
It's all about controlling things as much as possible. If a team can stamp its system, style and structure on a match, not panic and believe in its processes and tactical stratagems, it will win, more often than not.
Merrick has copped his fair share of flak for his lack of joy when his team scores a goal or does something good.
After Melbourne's 6-0 grand final win over Adelaide two years ago he barely raised a smile, evoking comments that compared his capacity for emotional engagement with an Easter Island statue. The truth is that he is a person who finds it easiest to operate in an environment where he takes emotion out of the equation.
That doesn't mean he avoids players with flair, after all, he has employed the A-League's most dangerous player, Archie Thompson, for four years and signed Carlos Hernandez, the charismatic Costa Rican, two years ago.
Both players have been crucial during Melbourne's run to the premiership plate and Hernandez in particular was outstanding in the 4-0 humiliation of Adelaide two weeks ago in the major semi-final.
He has also put his trust for all of his A-League coaching career in the most passionate player to have donned a Victory shirt in captain Kevin Muscat. It is almost as though the coach singles out for critical roles players who are the antithesis of his own character.
His assistant coach, Aaron Healey, yesterday revealed that so well thought out is the Merrick regime that sessions and training plans are worked out up to a year in advance.
"We're getting into the sports science here," Healey said. "It's just basically planning throughout the year. We know weeks, months — even 12 months — in advance what our training schedule is going to be, what we're doing, where we're headed, so it's just basically a good solid plan where you'd like to go throughout the season.
"You're always going to have individual differences within that, but you've got to structure a plan in place and you work to that."
Merrick came to coach Victory after more than a decade at the Victoria Institute of Sport. There he mixed with leading coaches from other disciplines and absorbed plenty of lessons.
Healey, who was at the Victorian Institute of Sport with Merrick, shares the coach's philosophy and belief in a collaborative approach and calm detachment.
"Sports medicine, sports science, strength and conditioning, everyone has an input," Healey said. "So it's been a group effort all the way through, not only the 16 players in the squad, but it's important to acknowledge the six players who miss out as well.
"Everyone has had an input to where we are at the moment and everyone has played a major part in getting us here. It's a collaboration."
Anita Pedrana, the club's sports scientist, is another who spent five years working with Merrick at the VIS.
"Ernie trusts us and gives us the flexibility to be able to assess all the players individually, pull them out when they need a rest and make recommendations individually," Pedrana said yesterday.
"Collectively we sit down at the start of the season. Each of us in our three areas — myself, Adam Basil, strength and conditioning, and Dan Jones, our physio — put together a program that we think will suit the way we will play throughout the year and have them (the players) tailored so we peak at the right time. We present that and discuss it with the coaches, they have their feedback and we work it out.
"Ernie is a fantastic coach to have because he lets us do our job and appreciates how important our input is.
"It's very much a consensual approach. He doesn't tell us what to do, we don't tell him what to do."
Merrick has kept a low profile in the lead-up to Saturday's grand final at the Telstra Dome, speaking to television and radio this week but refusing to be interviewed for this article.
Merrick did, however, offer a window to his approach on the ABC program Stateline in an interview to be screened this evening in which he outlined how he approaches his role.
"I think the days of stick your hands up in the air and rah rah rah and that short term inspirational stuff is long gone.
"Because of the consistency of having been there for four years now and having the freedom to get on with my job I think that consistency has been a great benefit for us.
"We're not chopping and changing staff or profiles of players we have or the way we develop players. The players know what is expected of them and it's developed really well over a period of time."
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/26/1235237834125.html
How Melbourne Victory can be denied
Michael Lynch
February 28, 2009
MELBOURNE Victory has the evil eye on Adelaide United.Game on: Adelaide has nothing to lose against the Victory.
Photo: Digitally altered: Phil SmithThe fans know it and the media never stops mentioning it. It would hardly be surprising if even the players and coaches of both teams didn't believe it, such is the recent run of success that Victory has enjoyed over the Reds.
Five times these teams have met this season and five times Melbourne has come out on top, most recently by a 6-0 aggregate in the two legged major semi-final.
But soccer, as we are so often reminded from luminaries such as Alex Ferguson down to the bloke directing traffic at the local club's car park, can be a funny game.
A grand final is a one-off fixture where history can count for nothing. It's 90 minutes (plus extra-time and penalties if necessary) and when referee Matthew Breeze blows his whistle to start proceedings at Telstra Dome tonight, both sides begin on level terms and the soccer gods of fate and chance may yet decide to have their sport.
Victory goes into the match as overwhelming favourite - Sportsbet Australia has Victory at $1.75 to lift the championship trophy after 90 minutes while Adelaide is at $4.35 - but the gap between the two teams may not be as large as those prices suggest.
Melbourne can be beaten - it actually lost seven of the 21 games it played during the regular season. The Newcastle Jets, coached by last year's coach-of-the-season Gary Van Egmond, and Perth Glory, headed by David Mitchell, each beat Victory twice this season, with Perth twice scoring three goals against it and Newcastle bagging four in one of its wins.
Gold Coast United comes into the league next year and its outspoken boss Miron Bleiberg has already been doing his homework on to how to take apart Ernie Merrick's side in the 2009-10 campaign.
The trio explain how Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar can tackle Melbourne's psychological dominance, shuffle the players at his disposal and refine his tactics to pull off an unexpected triumph this evening.
PERSONNEL:
MIRON BLEIBERG: I will give Adelaide a 45-55 chance in this match.I think the best way to win is to stick to the same line-up and system that they played against the Roar (when they won last week's preliminary final 1-0).
When they lost 4-0 against Melbourne they played Cassio, Alemao, and Lucas Pantelis in the midfield. None of them are renowned for their defensive work.
They allowed Carlos Hernandez and his mates to terrorise the midfield. Fabian Barbiero is a much better athlete than Hernandez and with him and Jonas Salley in there they will fill the space in the midfield defensively much better.
GARY VAN EGMOND: I don't think either side will change much although I would utilise Travis Dodd more centrally and use his pace to run off and move Kevin Muscat around. When Muscat has to concentrate more on defensive work it prevents him stepping into midfield and stops him organising and marshalling the back half, which he does very well and is very important for Melbourne.
DAVID MITCHELL: I would think Adelaide would not change that much. They got the result last week and played better with a different line-up.
PSYCHOLOGICALLY:
MITCHELL: From a mentality point of view everyone thinks Melbourne is going to win, so that's a big tick in Adelaide's box.The fact that everything looks to be in Melbourne's favour - that they have beaten them regularly, that they are playing at home in front of a big crowd, that they have had a week off - it all takes the pressure off Adelaide.
There are no expectations. I would be telling the players that the past does not dictate the future. What happened has happened. This game will be totally different. There's a different referee, different circumstances, there could be three or four players who are different this time.
History and patterns are not always predictive and this is a different game. I would remind the players of their previous achievements. Their wins, the successful record of this club, their performances in the Asian Champions League.
I would tell them that at the end of the day it's the two best teams who are in the final and they are there because they are the most consistent.
VAN EGMOND: It's a difficult one. The most important thing is for the Adelaide team to know what it means for them individually. It's something the Adelaide side needs to share with each other.
For us last year Jado (Jets skipper Jade North, who led Newcastle to grand final victory after it had lost the major semi-final to Central Coast Mariners) got all the boys together before we played the Mariners in the final and asked them what it meant to them.
It got quite emotional and it achieved a hell of a lot. As outspoken as Viddy was the week before (when he blasted his team after the horrific loss to Melbourne) it was probably the best thing he did.
Losing in the major semi-final helped us. We would never have beaten the Mariners in the grand final if we had gone straight through.
After that loss we needed a few home truths to be spoken about. I think it was a positive for Adelaide to have a cleansing process and now there's no reason why they can't win.
BLEIBERG: You tell them that every one expects you to lose. But you tell your players that they are much better players than the last time they played Melbourne and lost 4-0, and that this is a different team.
You tell them that they must go out and enjoy the match, the occasion, the game, and do their work as professionals.
You tell them you trust them to do it. You tell them that every statistic or record is there to be broken and today is your day.
You remind them that Melbourne is not invincible, you show them that Melbourne lost seven games during the regular season, two more than you, and that they conceded a lot more goals than you did.
TACTICS
VAN EGMOND: Essentially Melbourne play counter-attacking football. They don't really press and Archie (Thompson) is not usually one to track back and pick up runners. He cheats a bit, so does Carlos Hernandez.You have to try and move Hernandez about and keep changing the point of the attack. Your two defensive midfielders and two centre-backs have to be comfortable on the ball and play to switch it to the full-backs to drag them around.
Melbourne are the most narrow team in the league. They play a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2 and they switch around. If they play a back three, I like to play three up front against them and drag them around.
It's also imperative to keep the ball. Hernandez won't try to chase. (Billy) Celeski is nice on the ball, but it would be smart to try and run him around defensively, to not let him play with any comfort.
We would stay compact and not chase lost causes.
Parking the bus (stacking the defence) is the last thing you would want to do. You don't want to drop off too much and give them easy possession because they will play around you if you give them too much time.
It's really important to keep the ball, to stretch their midfielders and disrupt the triangle at the heart of their defence — Muskat, (Rody) Vargas and Celeski. You have to go wide because a lot of their good play comes through the middle. When they have it you try to make them play down one side.
Archie and (Danny) Allsopp will go wide to try and draw your centre-backs, so you have to be wary of that.
Melbourne will hurt you if you can't keep possession and frustrate them, and if you don't close it down, frustrate them and keep possession, they will get a chance to play.
Adelaide needs to slow everything down, take the crowd out of things. Walk to free kicks, walk to corners, take the pace and heat out of the game.
Adelaide has another big advantage on set pieces. There's a lot more height in the Adelaide side, they have two big central defenders and other tall players. They do have every chance of causing an upset because it's a one-off game.
MITCHELL: I don't think Melbourne will change much about the way they play. They play a little bit narrow, they play a lot of long balls.
Their two strikers are often a handful and they defend with numbers and rely on getting quick service to the two strikers and for them to cause havoc with the midfielders getting up and forward to support them. Adelaide may defend a bit deeper and not let Melbourne in behind them and then hit Melbourne on the break. If Adelaide open up too much Melbourne might get a lot of room to play in.
I think you can attack Melbourne out in wide areas and have success there. We (Perth Glory) also attacked them from set pieces and scored off a couple. Adelaide have got some big lads who can create a lot of trouble from free kicks and corners.
BLEIBERG: It worked much better for them last week because they brought in Jonas Salley and Barbiero and had energy in the midfield, and it's important to try and get on top there. Paul Reid is important for Adelaide to control the midfield. If they can cut the supply line, prevent Melbourne playing through to their strikers through the middle, then they have a chance. Even Napoleon could not conquer Russia when his supply line was cut.
Also they have a chance if they break at speed. The Victory defence is not the most mobile or fastest in the league. We saw how Michael Zullo and Tahj Minniecon caused them so many problems when Queensland Roar came down and won 2-0 here earlier in the season. If Melbourne are shut down in the midfield and have to resort to the long ball, that will be music to the ears of Robert Cornthwaite and Sasa Ognenovski.
If Adelaide score first Vidmar should have a player like Angelo Costanzo on the bench because they would need to close the game down by taking off a striker or attacking midfielder and bringing him in and using him to bolster the defence. If they are in front they will have to retain possession and try to frustrate Melbourne, and there's no better player in defence for doing that than Costanzo.
If they go 1-0 down in the first half, try to keep the score at that until half-time. In the second half they will have to change things up by adding another striker. If it's scoreless at half-time and Melbourne score in the second period, then you change things immediately, move Lucas Pantelis and Dodd out to the wings and (Paul) Agostino and Cristiano up front, because it is a grand final, there is no other game, and you have to try and get something out of it. I would probably go three at the back in this situation, take Daniel Mullen off.
The more it gets closer to extra-time or into extra-time, if there is no score or it is level, it all depends on the confidence of the coach and how he feels the game is going. If Vidmar is feeling he is getting the upper hand, then he may try to win the game. If not, then he may want to try and shut the match down and play for penalties. At least that gives them a 50-50 chance, which is better than how I think they are starting at 45-55.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/27/1235237923507.html
