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Losing Heart

 

Not only did Melbourne Heart lose the derby last night but the club have lost their way throughout season 2013/14.  Season four was supposed to be a watershed chapter where we said farewell to veterans such as Colosimo, Thompson and Bolton and welcomed to the club former Socceroos Patrick Kisnorbo and Harry Kewell.  Under the watchful eye of John Aloisi supporters were suppose to ‘believe’ anything was possible.

Eleven weeks into the season it’s time to admit defeat, admit Melbourne Heart 2.0 was a complete failure and start again.  Yes I am well aware that we have 16 rounds of football remaining in the season but have you seen our squad and coaching staff, not even the most positive of Heart supporters can convince themselves something is salvageable from this horror season.

So where did it all go wrong, sure we can point to the Brisbane Roar friendly where our marquee man Orlando Engelaar broke his leg and was ruled out indefinitely, or we could pinpoint the seven week absence of star Harry Kewell after the first Melbourne derby; but I think the problem is far greater and happened well before these date.  The marketing appointment of John Aloisi is where the rot started and those who made the appointment should be held accountable.  Aloisi is a sporting icon in Australia and no, I’m not going to rattle on about ‘that penalty’.  The appointment of Aloisi was too premature and to appoint the man after only one season (with very limited success) of youth league football was in hindsight a horrendous mistake made by all concerned.  If the rumoured talk of a takeover is true at the football club I would not be seeking any individual responsible for that appointment to continue their career with the Melbourne Heart Football Club.

Personally I know nothing of the new ‘potential owners’ but I know that writing about their pros and cons is much more enjoyable than writing an obituary for the Melbourne Heart.

This is not a knee jerk reaction to last night’s dismal performance in the derby; this has been coming for quite a while.  The club is 16 games without a win and 12 points outside the top 6 already.  Yes I am fully aware that 6 teams playing finals out of 10 is preposterous but that is for another day.  Many fans say we have been unlucky through injury and missed opportunity.  Some (Ok, just John Aloisi) say we have been the better side in all but one of our games this season.  I say we are involved in a professional sport and must take our opportunity; the results haven’t happened and because of this consequences are necessary.

At yesterday’s press conference John Aloisi was right about one thing, Ben Williams was terrible, he had no control of the game and his decision (rightly or wrongly) had a large bearing on the game.  We should look towards both Patrick Kisnorbo and the FFA for this, Paddy why would you make such a tackle when you have such an incompetent referee officiating the game, and FFA why do you continually allow Williams to keep a whistle.  Anyone who has been near an ALeague match this season would easily tell you Williams is the worst official in the league.  Please don’t take this as sour grapes for the loss, even taking this result aside you all must agree Williams shouldn’t be allowed near a football pitch (but will be) for the remainder of the season.

Getting back to Heart and where we are at as a club.  You take a look at our list and it doesn’t fill your average supporter with much confidence.  I cannot choose one standout performer from the season so far and would struggle to name a core group of players to build season 2014/15 around.  At the back you could start with Vrankovic but he hasn’t been sighted as yet this season.  Gerhardt is a shadow of the player he was last season, Behich will return to Europe next season and the central pairing of Wielaert and Kisnorbo have hardly covered themselves in glory.  Although Hoffman played his best game for the season last night he looks far better when playing in the attacking half and Jeremy Walker has barely been seen.  Our keeping stocks are low at the moment and rely much on the fragile right boot of Andrew Redmayne.  Whilst he appears a good competent keeper he needs to work on his distribution and communication with the back four.  When a club has Tando Velaphi as a backup keeper fans will always be sceptical.

The midfield hasn’t been too bad, but Dugandzic isn’t the player he was even two seasons ago and runs the risk of becoming another lost Australian talent, whilst Murdocca gives 100% every week but isn’t capable of producing moments the club need to become inspired.  Plenty of the anger this season has been misguided towards Kewell and you can see him becoming frustrated, he won’t stick around next season if this season continues to travel south.  It was good to see Kalmar run out 90 minutes but like Dugandzic you wonder if either player would be playing regular football at other clubs.

I’ll leave Mifsud alone this week as Aloisi’s ‘tactics’ saw him exit the game early.  David Williams must be having moments of Fury déjà vu as the season disappears before him.

As I said last night on twitter (along with numerous other rants) “sadly I have seen Melbourne Heart perform much worse than they did tonight” but leaving the ground last night I haven’t felt much lower.  The club have never reached extraordinary heights in their brief history thus far but the light at the end of the tunnel has turned into a flicker of light instead of a bright light.

Sadly I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I have ‘lost heart’ and find it extremely hard to support the current regime at the club.  At this point in time there is no direction or identity held by the club and we require new blood to step forward to resuscitate our Melbourne Heart.  I will always refer to Heart as ‘we’ but I at this point in time think that changes for the betterment of the club need to be made.

About David Hards (524 Articles)
The Founder of FTSAUS. A football fan who is more than willing to voice his opinion, no matter how wrong it could be. An average goalkeeper or makeshift right back who had more bad days than good on the pitch, but still loved every minute of it. Follow on Twitter: @Hardsy05
Contact: Twitter

2 Comments on Losing Heart

  1. Aloisi has devolved the team over 18 months. I’m struggling to remember anything quite like it in football as usually an incompetent manager has been sacked long before this

  2. Dylan Urquhart // December 24, 2013 at 2:35 am //

    Seems very odd that you have teams like Perth Glory who have gone on to their 3rd coach in 2 years, and you have a rock-bottom team like Heart who keep the poor performing coach.

    I think this sacking will come at the end of the season though.

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