Perth Glory vs Melbourne Victory
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Today’s free tip is in the Australian A-League encounter between Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory.
I didn’t honestly see Perth Glory replacing Melbourne Victory in such a short space of time but they really, really have – and it’s all down to boss Popovic. He’s made the westerners smarter, stronger, and more resourceful whereas Melbourne Victory, despite some fantastic signings, appear to have regressed under Muscat’s continued reign.
I know Melbourne Victory can do more than they show – that’s the frustrating thing. I’m all for Australian managers being given a shot at leading the top teams in the country but Melbourne Victory hasn’t progressed under Muscat’s reign. They may have won the A-League last season but that was pure luck, earned by working hard in one match (due to the A-League’s bizarre format). They were not the better team throughout the season, and they shouldn’t have won it. Sure, they did – fair play to them – but the reality is that this is not an impressive team.
Well, perhaps that’s harsh of me to say because, on paper, Melbourne Victory is really good. They could be brilliant. It’s just that they don’t look impressive because they’re constantly being made to play so defensively by Muscat that they seldom actually outplay teams. Yes, Melbourne Victory does have one of the better defences in the division but no team at this level can always keep clean sheets so it doesn’t make sense to try. That’s not what the A-League is about. If they actually played with balls and attacked teams, they’d probably be unstoppable at this level because I’ve never seen a better midfielder in the A-League than Honda. Furthermore, Toivonen is a brilliant target man, Niedermeier is an animal at the heart of defence, and the speed of Barbarouses alongside the quality of Troisi makes Melbourne Victory seriously hard to contain.
However, because Muscat makes them play so defensively, they look…unimpressive. The danger with opposing them is that they have the quality to score goals against any team, whether they regularly create chances or not. They’ve already been outplayed twice by Perth Glory this season, though, so I am not concerned about Melbourne Victory’s quality today. Indeed, it’s not hard to see where Muscat’s focus lies when his backup striker is Athiu. He seems like a really nice guy, and he’s one hell of an intimidating physical specimen, but he’s fucking useless on the pitch. His finishing is poor, his passing is poor, and his holding up of the ball is below average. He doesn’t contribute anything at all, and I refuse to believe there aren’t better options around than him. Muscat’s speciality is raising holding midfielders, unsurprisingly. Whilst he’s there, I can see this team falling behind others because there’s no way for them co properly compete with the likes of Perth Glory – or Sydney FC, if they find themselves a manager that makes them play with such consistency.
So what makes Perth Glory so hard to play against? It’s the fact that they’re good at everything, really, which shows how much work Popovic has done throughout the season. Indeed, he had his team far more ready for the A-League campaign than any other manager in the division because he made his signings early on and thus the integration period was pretty much seamless. Perth Glory has gone from one of the most ineffectual, defensively-inept, random teams in the division to the most disciplined, organised, consistent outfit you could hope to watch. They can play closed football or open football, long balls or short passing, and score from pretty much anywhere. How do you stop a team like that?
Scoring against Perth Glory is hard enough because of their formation switching ability and the fact that their centre-backs (usually a trio) stay back at all times. They’re not all that mobile, admittedly, but they’re big and strong, not to mention experienced. Two very energetic wing-backs attack and defend very well, and the ability Perth Glory has in midfield to control each game is unrivalled. Keogh is a good striker, and he’ll be joined by Uruguayan forward Fornaroli next season in a move that I can only assume is intended to take the piss out of the rest of the division because they’re already the best team, and they’re only getting stronger. Fornaroli can’t play until next season, though. Still, with Keogh up front, rapid players like Chianese, Ferreira, and especially unplayable Ikonomidis supporting him and creators like Castro on the pitch, this team is basically unstoppable.
Perth Glory hasn’t struggled to deal with Melbourne Victory in their last two meetings. I don’t see why today’s game would be any different unless the hosts have an off-day, which I’ve seen one just one occasion this season. I expect a home win – that’s my main tip – and I’ll also take a shot at the hosts bagging over 1.5 goals along the way.
Main Tip: Perth Glory to win at 19/20.
Additional Tip: Perth Glory to score over 1.5 goals at 4/5.
Saturday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Argentinian Superliga:
San Lorenzo de Almagro vs Gimnasia de la Plata
Godoy Cruz de Mendoza vs Patronato
Independiente vs Velez Sarsfield
Talleres de Cordoba vs River Plate
Australian A-League:
Wellington Phoenix vs Newcastle Jets
Western Sydney Wanderers vs Melbourne City
Perth Glory vs Melbourne Victory
Austrian Bundesliga:
SCR Altach vs SV Mattersburg
Hartberg vs Wacker Innsbruck
Rapid Vienna vs Admira Wacker
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Racing Genk vs RSC Anderlecht
Kortrijk vs Royal Excel Mouscron
KV Oostende vs AS Eupen
Union Saint-Gilloise vs Cercle Brugge
Zulte-Waregem vs Waasland-Beveren
Bulgarian A PFG:
Ludogorets Razgrad vs Beroe
CSKA Sofia vs Cherno More Varna
Croatian Prva Liga:
Dinamo Zagreb vs Inter Zapresic
Istra 1961 vs Hajduk Split
Czech Republic HET Liga:
Opava vs Dukla Prague
Mlada Boleslav vs Sparta Prague
Zlin vs Sigma Olomouc
Teplice vs Slovacko
Slavia Prague vs Slovan Liberec
Danish Superligaen:
FC Midtjylland vs FC Nordsjaelland
English Premier League:
Fulham vs Manchester City
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Southampton
Burnley vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Crystal Palace vs Huddersfield Town
Leicester City vs Bournemouth
Manchester United vs Watford
West Ham United vs Everton
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Flora Paide vs Tallinna Kalev
Trans Narva vs Nomme Kalju
Flora Tallinn vs Tammeka
Finnish Suomen Cup:
Inter Turku vs VPS
RoPS vs KPV
FC Honka Espoo vs Ilves
French Ligue 1:
Olympique de Marseille vs Angers SCO
German Bundesliga:
Bv09 Borussia Dortmund vs VfL Wolfsburg
Werder Bremen vs Mainz 05
SC Freiburg vs Bayern Munich
Fortuna Dusseldorf vs Borussia Moenchengladbach
Nurnberg vs Augsburg
RB Leipzig vs Hertha Berlin
German Bundesliga 2:
VfL Bochum vs Hamburger SV
Union Berlin vs Paderborn 07
Darmstadt 98 vs Jahn Regensburg
Hungarian Liga 1:
Mezokovesd-Zsory vs Budapest Honved
Paksi SE vs Ujpest
Varda SE vs Ferencvaros
Szombathelyi Haladas vs Puskas FC
MTK Budapest vs Diosgyori VTK
Vidi vs Debreceni VSC
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Hapoel Hadera vs Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv vs Maccabi Netanya
Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs Maccabi Haifa
MS Ashdod vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona
Italian Serie A:
Udinese vs Genoa
Juventus vs Empoli
Sampdoria vs AC Milan
Italian Serie B:
Ascoli vs Benevento
Carpi vs Crotone
Perugia vs Livorno
Cittadella vs Padova
Cosenza vs Palermo
Salernitana vs Venezia
Brescia vs Foggia
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Kauno Zalgiris vs Panevezys
Atlantas Klaipeda vs Zalgiris Vilnius
Dutch Eredivisie:
Willem II vs Fortuna Sittard
ADO Den Haag vs Vitesse Arnhem
De Graafschap vs Heracles Almelo
Heerenveen vs Excelsior Rotterdam
AZ Alkmaar vs Groningen
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Odd vs Brann Bergen
Valerenga Oslo vs Mjondalen
Portuguese Liga 1:
Sporting Braga vs FC Porto
Chaves vs Sporting Clube de Portugal
SL Benfica vs Tondela
Santa Clara vs Vitoria Guimaraes
Portuguese Liga 2:
Penafiel vs Pacos de Ferreira
FC Porto II vs Mafra
Russian Premier League:
Yenisey vs Rubin Kazan’
Dinamo Moscow vs Lokomotiv Moscow
Akhmat Grozny vs Spartak Moscow
FK Rostov vs Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast
Spanish Primera Liga:
Getafe vs Leganes CF
Barcelona CF vs RCD Espanyol
Celta de Vigo vs Villarreal CF
Deportivo Alaves vs Atletico Madrid
Swiss Super League:
Luzern vs FC Basel
FC Sion vs FC Zurich
Swiss Challenge League:
Lausanne Sport vs Chiasso
FC Wil vs SC Kriens
Vaduz vs Rapperswil-Jona
Aarau vs FC Schaffhausen
Enjoy your free betting tips!