Kalezic’s vision starting to show
Wellington Phoenix fans have been given a fleeting glimpse of what the future under Darije Kalezic might look like.
The introduction into the team of Serbian midfielder Matija Ljujic and Nathan Burns in the 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory on Wednesday led to some of the most promising attacking football of the season under Kalezic.
The caveat of course is that Melbourne played with 10 men for 80 minutes after Rhys Williams was sent off.
But the sustained pressure the Phoenix put Melbourne under in the second half, firing in 30 shots at goal in total, and the fluidity of their play was something that has rarely been seen this campaign.
Yes, they have scored goals, but almost half of those came from headers, not the sort of structured buildup on display at Westpac Stadium.
Sure, the red card enabled Kalezic to break the shackles of the 5-3-2 formation he was deploying, throwing on Burns in the 22nd minute to shift to 4-2-3-1, but maybe that was the catalyst the side needed to get a bit of belief that they can play in that way.
Ljujic came on at halftime and found space in between the lines that Michael McGlinchey had been unable to exploit.
Kalezic said it was the key to breaking down Victory’s defence.
‘‘Matija decides every time to stay in the right place, so they struggle a lot in ball possession of us to keep the team in the shape and win the duels for the ball.
‘‘We keep the ball playing from one side to the other, waiting for the right moment to get the ball to Matija and create 28 shots.
‘‘These are the players [Ljujic and Burns] who think proactive and not reactive and are players who know what they have to do.’’
The Phoenix are expected to release two to three players during the January transfer window.
That would give Kalezic the chance to bring in three more players, hopefully in the ilk of Ljujic and Burns, and potentially a defender who can help build the play from the back.
‘‘This is something I’m looking for. We try to do that now, to fix it as much as possible, to get players like Matija.
‘‘We are looking for that, and I have to say the club is doing their best to think together with me and to do that, but you need the transfer window for those things and I cannot change the Fifa rules. We have to be patient.’’
To bring Burns on on Wednesday, Kalezic dragged off centre back Marco Rossi, leaving on the more inexperienced Dylan Fox.
Kalezic said there were two reasons for that.
‘‘They have fast wingers, [Kosta] Barbarouses and [Leroy] George. So when they are looking for the long ball behind our fullbacks, we want to keep one player who is really fast, and that is Foxy.
‘‘Foxy I think in ball possession when we build up, he can deliver a better job in building up that Marco.’’
That was quite the praise to be giving Fox, so perhaps Kalezic sees in him a defender who can fit that mould of starting the play from the back, finding Ljujic, who can then link the play to Burns, Andrija Kaludjerovic and Roy Krishna.
If they could get that system going, then there might be life in this Phoenix season yet.