For anyone whose ever supported a football club which has had little success in terms of silverware, there are times when you think that life is bitterly unfair, Melbourne Heart supporters are currently undergoing a particularly rough trot.
For those of you unaware, Orlando Engelaar has been officially diagnosed with a fractured leg, our first ever International marquee signing is in serious doubt for playing for the rest of the year, perhaps even at all in a competitive Melbourne Heart match, so until the full extent of his injury is known, Melbourne Heart shouldn’t be sitting in limbo, quite the opposite, they need to be proactive and they need to start doing so right away.
It seems extremely unlikely that there is another ball playing midfielder of Orlando’s pedigree who will be available to Melbourne Heart in the next few weeks, so how best they adapt?
Firstly don’t make Orlando’s return a focus for the team, don’t go into a holding pattern hoping for his return in the new year and try to salvage results until then, the club made this mistake last year with Vince Grella and to a lesser extent Marcel Meeuwis, they were made to come into a system where they were to be the absolute focus of a team, a strategy which was bound to fail. If (and hopefully, when) Engelaar returns to the park, the team should view him as an added bonus and someone who will strengthen the team, rather then rescue it. My first suggestion, in fact would be to not try to purchase a player to control the tempo, because in the opening games of the pre-season, they look like they’ve found a useful little defensive midfield marshall in Massimo Murdocca, while he is slight, he provides good leadership and is without fail the loudest, most vocal man on the park. Similarly to Matt Thompson last year, he’ll look to play simple passes, but seems to want to get forward more from the limited vision so far, this should be actively encouraged, the only issue is his size, which is why whoever he is paired with will need to be able to provide some strength, which is why ideally we will finally see the move of Patrick Gerhardt into the defensive midfield role that he was mooted to play when signed last season. Firstly, the centre half pairings are well covered, Vrankovic and Wielaert are more then capable together and with Mitchinson able to cover anywhere across the back for admirably, now is the chance to make this move. Understanding that he won’t add a lot of ball playing ability to the role, but he will add a hard tackling and supremely fit option to the midfield role, something which was distinctly lacking last year. The only other option is Jonathon Germano who is yet to be sighted in pre-season and as a result may be overlooked for a starting birth, it was proved time and time again that both Nicholas Kalmar and Jason Hoffman were unsuitable for the role as wanted by the coaching staff. It becomes immediately obvious that more cover is needed in this area and as an injury replacement player can be named, I’d suggest the club look towards two players who were initially deemed not good enough to be put on the clubs books but now can be placed on the clubs list without needing to offer them a full time contract Andreas Govas and Rashid Mahazi, providing neither of them have been snapped up by the blue half of town already. While Billy Konstantinidis looked impressive in the pre-season, but should not be assigned to this role, his attacking instincts looked very good, but this position, as it is currently played by Melbourne Heart requires a different type of player. Two young Australian players with potentional Andrew Marveggio and Steven Lustica should also be looked at, both have looked good at A-League level and could be attracted back, at the very least on loan, with the prospect of first team football on offer.
This should be a guide going forward, the central defensive stocks could also be boosted, with several players likely looking for a loan move until either January or the end of the season with the spots for central defenders certainly not nailed down during a World Cup year. The club needs to make sure that it continues to add to its playing stocks and view this as an opportunity to look for a player for only a short term commitment without needing a huge outlay of money. Oh, and some friendlies in Melbourne would be much appreciated.
All Heart 