Wellington Phoenix win sparked by change of shape with back three
As recently as Monday, Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay was adamant he wasn’t considering a change of shape to deal with his side’s injury crisis.
On Tuesday, when they lost 5-0 to the Central Coast Mariners, he set his players up the same way he had – by and large – in his previous 76 matches in charge.
But yesterday, when they arrived at Morshead Park in Ballarat to play Western United, Talay had a surprise for United coach John Aloisi.
A back three – or a back five, depending on how you look at it – with Tim Payne and Finn Surman flanking Scott Wootton in a centreback trio and Sam Sutton and Callan Elliot operating as wingbacks.
The plan, as Talay outlined after his side won 4-1, was to draw Western United forward to try to expose them in transition later on.
That meant soaking up pressure, and they did just that for the first 30 minutes, with all three centrebacks making crucial interventions.
Then came Wootton’s opening goal, tucked home at the back post after a flick-on from David Ball at a corner.
Three minutes later Jaushua
Sotirio scored the first of two goals he would finish with in his first start since recovering from a hamstring injury.
It was a textbook counterattack, exactly as Talay would have dreamed up, that culminated in a fierce shot Western United keeper Jamie Young couldn’t keep out.
Gael Sandoval rounded out the half by slotting a penalty in the bottom left-hand corner and while they conceded early in the second half before Sotirio’s second, a Phoenix win was never seriously in doubt.
Talay joked afterwards that he ‘‘couldn’t give all his secrets away at the start of the week’’ and put the change of shape down to ‘‘the current attributes that we have within the team’’ and the fact that the Phoenix were playing their
fourth match in the space of 14 days.
Aloisi confirmed after the match that Western United ‘‘didn’t see it coming’’ and said the fresh approach had seemingly worked wonders for the Phoenix, who lost 6-0 to Melbourne City last Saturday before their miserable trip to Gosford,
‘‘They changed it up, they defended deep, and they tried to hit us on the counter, and they did that, so we’ve got no excuses about that.
The Phoenix moved up to fifth on the A-League Men ladder with the three points they claimed for the win and have their sights set on getting at least seven more from their final six matches, which is what they think they’ll need to make the finals.
Next up are wooden-spooners Perth Glory at in Sydney on Wednesday, before they return home to Wellington for their first proper home match since last May, against the Mariners at Sky Stadium on Sunday.