Glory Story: Wellington coach Giancarlo Italiano’s insightful post-game verdict on Perth a breath of fresh air

Some words of encouragement - and some welcome and rare post-game analysis - from a rival coach for the Glory, and a question David Zdrilic and co. will need to answer. Hail to the Chiefy Giancarlo ‘Chiefy’ Italiano has quickly become a media favourite in a little over one season in charge of Wellington Phoenix. In a world where most A-League Men’s coaches will dance around the issue of tactics, fearing anything they say will be used against them by rivals, Italiano is all too happy to describe his tactical plan in a polite and thoughtful manner. While Wellington’s second goal was notable for Anas Hamzaoui getting caught ball-watching and completely unaware of Tim Payne rampaging forward, Italiano revealed post-game they had identified the space outside the full-backs as a potential area to exploit. “We identified last week against Macarthur when Perth were actually quite aggressive, we slid down more of an angle and then baiting the opposite side full-back to come in, we could find more space and then come back to the opposite side,” he said. “That was something that was clear, and we did it a couple of times. “They also changed their pressing structure at the start, which made it difficult, as opposed to what they did last week, so then it was just more about us adjusting and finding extra players in the half spaces and so on. “The second goal, was something that we had basically planned for and I was very happy with that.” It will bear watching in future weeks whether other teams look to employ a similar plan. Hope springs for Perth’s press While it has not been the start to the season Glory fans and coach David Zdrilic would have hoped for, Italiano did offer come consolatory words in his post-game press conference. “When you’re a counter pressing team and you’re a pressing team on the front foot, a lot of the time, the advantage is that you don’t have a structured build up; you just put the ball in advanced areas, because you’re connected, you can put a lot of pressure,” he said. “You saw that with Sydney last year when Zdrilic was there, it’s the Leipzig way and it’s actually very effective. “The thing is, pressing takes a sustained effort, 90 minutes plus, but to do it and to get rewarded, you need good energy levels and I think at this stage of the season, sitting in a low block, they might have 45 minutes in their legs. “All teams, in the A-League are actually pretty underdone, but once they start building what they need to in terms of the endurance and so on, they’re going to be very hard to beat.” Zdrilic has said the players are not where he wants them yet in terms of pressing and fitness — the question is how long it will take for them to get there, and whether Perth can carve out results in the meantime to keep them in the finals race? Possession is nine-tenths of the law For all this talk about pressing and what Perth do when they do not have the ball, what they do when in possession is just as important. While everyone was getting excited about the prospect of the GegenGlory in pre-season, my most pressing (pun not-intended) question was what would they look like when they had the ball? Wellington are a disciplined defensive side and they sat deep, soaking up the space, while Perth, not liking their passing options in between the lines, constantly went backwards and sideways — like Frogger, without the forward progress. Brandon O’Neill and Taras Gomulka were unable to hit Adam Bugarija and Hiroaki Aoyama between the lines, resulting in u-shaped possession. Zdrilic bemoaned the lack of connection in the press from the front three, but it was plain to see Glory need a creative outlet to link the final two thirds, and the deepest central midfielders need to be willing to push the ball into those areas. While Daniel De Silva — who was off-contract in the winter prior to returning to Macarthur — might not profile as the perfect player for a Zdrilic system in terms of his defensive work-rate, he would have fit the bill as a Perth local who has the ability to create in the very space Perth looked to struggle on the weekend.