Perth in Possession

Perth attacked in a shape resembling a 3-2-3-2. Chianese pushed forward to the same line as Fornaroli, with Castro dropping slightly on the right to link play. The wing-backs pushed forward to provide width on both sides, and the midfielders stayed central, with Kilkenny as the main deep playmaker.. The outside centre-backs (especially Wüthrich) occasionally ventured forwards to join the attack.

Perth had three main strategies for getting forward:

1. Find Castro.

The Perth attack was mainly focused on finding Castro, so the early passing was also focused down the right. As the game progressed, Castro came deeper and more central to help bring the ball up the pitch. The aim was to get Castro on the ball in central positions so he could turn and drive towards the defence.

Sydney defended quite narrow, and shifted over compactly to the side the ball was on, collapsing on Castro when he was able to receive the ball in between the lines. This made it difficult for Perth to break through the middle, but also opened up space for the switch on the left, with Meredith often left in acres of space.

2. Long ball to Chianese

When Perth won possession, Chianese would immediately step up, looking for a long ball in behind the defence on the left, to catch out Grant frequently high up the pitch. Unfortunately, they didn’t really hit the mark (2 min, 3 min, 32 min

3. Full backs on the overlap, dragged in by strikers, Sydney defending narrow

Fornaroli and Chianese both played in the half-spaces between the centrebacks and fullbacks. This drew attention from both fullbacks inside, inviting space for the wingbacks Franjic and Meredith to come up the pitch. The narrow attacking midfielders Ninkovic and Caceres were focused on cutting passing lanes centrally, and so when Franjic and Meredith were able to get the ball, they had space to drive into before they got closed down. (12 min, 26 min, 90 min)

Sydney in Possession