With a third of the season almost done, I thought I’d pop in to share my thoughts on how the mighty Victory are faring this year.

The Equilibrium Shattered: Danny Allsopp leaves, Billy Celeski injured

Melbourne came into this season with a stable squad, with just one new face. For a side that normally signs at least 3 or 4 a season, this was quite remarkable. Keeping a stable lineup has its advantages of course, but it can also make a team predictable. Whether that was part of the reason for Melbourne’s sluggish start to the season, I’m not sure. What’s clear is that Kevin Muscat’s injury earlier this season, Danny Allsopp’s departure and the season-ending injury to Billy Celeski has shattered that stability and forced the club to turn to the players market.

So far, the signings have paid off. Bringing back Adrian Leijer was a brilliant and timely coup. The purchase of Robbie Kruse had me buzzing for days, though last weekend was the most we’ve seen of the youngster so far — and even then he seemed to be struggling with the dust quite a bit. Mate Dugandzic impressed against the Gold Coast with a remarkably self-assured performance. With Costa Rican international Marvin Angulo set to join the club this week, and Thai international Sutee Suksomkit also due to arrive soon, Ernie Merrick looks to have plenty of talent at his disposal. Finding a structure that works cohesively will be his biggest challenge in the coming weeks.

The Return of Kevin Muscat

It has surprised me how much Kevin Muscat’s return has impacted the team. I for one thought Muscat had a poor season last year and expected him to hang up the boots, but it was painfully clear in his absence how leaderless and frail Melbourne looked. Granted, we’d also just lost Allsopp and Celeski, so everything was a bit topsy-turvy anyway, but Muscat’s return played no small part in our wins against Adelaide and Gold Coast. How we cope when he does decide to retire is going to be a very big challenge.

Carlos Hernández: Our greatest import ever?

Do you think he’s the best player we’ve ever had? If it came down to it, who would you rather field: Carlos Hernández or Fred?

With the way Hernández is playing right now, I think he’s the best player we’ve ever seen in Victory colours. Four goals in eight matches, every one of them a beauty. If he gets through this season un-injured, I have no doubt that we’ll finish in the top 3.

Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Rodrigo Vargas have all been picked again though.

Archie has already said he doesn’t like his chances of getting picked. Will the fact that Alex Brosque, John Aloisi and Joel Griffiths are all playing in the A-League finals help them to score a spot ahead of Thompson?

Muscat and Vargas will be up against similar challenges, of course. All up, the 20 of the 29 men selected for Pim’s second training camp are playing in the finals. Making the squad is going to be a stiff challenge for the Melbourne boys.

Which Melbourne Victory player is most likely to feature in the Socceroos squad against Qatar?

Vote in the sidebar and leave your comments below.

Only A-League players were picked for the training camp, though Verbeek insists there’s no guarantee that he’ll pick exclusively A-League players for the opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar on February 6.

On his perception of the A-League, Verbeek said:

“I enjoyed every game I’ve seen, the stadiums are fantastic, the crowds are unbelievable.”

“I saw great goals, but I saw also unbelievable mistakes.”

“It’s up to me to find out if the players make that same mistake too many times because then I cannot use them.” (The World Game)

While Archie’s inclusion in the line-up is predictable, Muscat and Vargas are surprising additions. Not that they’re undeserving – quite the contrary. Muscat is the rock-solid heart of the Victory; and Vargas has been one of the few constants in an ever-changing defensive line-up.

That Michael Theoklitos didn’t make it is disappointing. Clint Bolton and Ante Covic are the senior goalkeepers to have been picked for the camp. But Graham Arnold has selected Danny Vukovic, along with fourteen other Olyroos, to train alongside the senior Socceroos. Unsurprisingly, Leigh Broxham and Nick Ward have both been picked as well.

It will be interesting to see how many A-League players will feature in the Qatar match. If he wants any of the European-based Aussies, Verbeek knows he can get them. But since they’ll only be arriving about 48 hours before the game kicks off, a squad made up entirely of the European-based players seems risky – perhaps even more risky than a squad predominantly made up of local talent.

Check it out.

The pair, who are close friends, went out on Friday night after the disappointing 4-1 loss to Adelaide United. Gary Cole, the Melbourne Victory’s operations manager, insisted that they “had not been drinking or acting in a manner that would bring criticism among the wider community.” (The Age) At the time of that writing, all we knew was that Milicevic and Thompson had both been suspended from training with the team. The official reason given by Cole was that it was “curfew stuff.”

An article in the Courier Mail today suggests that there may be even bigger ramifications for the players:

“As tensions at Victory yesterday came to a head, it is believed Thompson’s ‘partner in crime’ Ljubo Milicevic may be on his last chance at the club.

It is understood the coaching staff will front the Melbourne Victory board tomorrow night to demand Milicevic be released from his contract over his latest alleged misdemeanour.”

It’s well known that Milicevic hasn’t exactly had the best time at Melbourne. Besides picking up an injury in the first half against Wellington Phoenix back in round 1, there were also reports of locker-room tension between Milicevic and captain Kevin Muscat during pre-season. And now this.

Could the club really fire him for missing breakfast? Yes and no.

To be honest, I don’t think this is about the breakfast incident; nor is it about the “couple of beers” Archie and Ljubo had on Friday night. This is about Melbourne’s overall unhappiness with Milicevic’s performance, both on and off the pitch. Is it a coincidence that the “coaching staff” demanding Milicevic’s release includes Muscat, who is assistant coach? The club has previously insisted that the issues between Muscat and Milicevic earlier this year have been sorted out. That sounds decidedly false now.

Meanwhile, I’m sure Archie will walk away from this with a slap on the wrist, and no more. The Victory relies far too much on their star striker to be angry at him for very long.

Milicevic, on the other hand, looks, well… expendable.

Melbourne’s medical team is being kept busy at the moment with both Joseph Keenan and Milicevic out with injuries as well as question marks hanging over the heads of Pantelidis, Theoklitos and now Muscat. Add to that the two players with international commitments; Thompson and Broxham, and the Victory could be 7 players short this weekend. Obviously not an ideal situation. Whatever the outcome, it now appears certain that we will see a very different team line up this weekend in a match that is always bitterly contested. While it does provide the fringe players an excellent opportunity to stake their claims for a 1st team spot, it is greatly concerning that we should be without so many of the big name players.

Perhaps the only silver lining in this whole situation is that none of the injuries appear to be particularly severe. The recovery times quoted for these players are only measured in weeks, not months.

Thankfully, Milicevic, a 24 year old Melbourne boy, isn’t going anywhere. With two weeks to go before the start of the season, that would be very bad news for Merrick and co indeed.
But that is not to say that the rumours are entirely unfounded. There is tension in the Melbourne camp, and it’s between Milicevic and skipper Kevin Muscat.

It’s not hard to see why the two don’t get along. Like Muscat, Milicevic is a fiery player. And he’s a leader, having captained the Australian Under-20s and Under-23s. And in his 6 years in Switzerland, he spent several seasons with FC Thun, which included a string of 5 matches in the UEFA Champions League, up against such humble competitors as Arsenal, Ajax and A.C. Sparta Praha.

Jesse Fink from Half-Time Orange summed it up perfectly:

“Muscat will have grown comfortable in his position as eminence grise of the Victory locker-room. Now, in Milicevic, he has a younger, better and just as headstrong one-time Socceroo defender among his flock.”

Is tension between Muscat and Milicevic necessarily bad?

No. Consider the tension between Muscat and Alessandro at the start of last season, which did not seriously affect the Melbourne game. Tension between players is to be expected.

But Alessandro spent most of the season on the bench. Given Milicevic’s experience and talent, anything short of a spot on Merrick’s A-list would be surprising.

Muscat and Milicevic will be spending plenty of time together on the pitch. For the sake of the team, let’s hope they can put their personal issues to a side.

Read more about Ljubo Milicevic:

• Ljubo Milicevic on Wikipedia
• Milicevic profile on Melbourne Victory website
• Milicevic profile on PintCulture
• Those Melbourne blues, Half-Time Orange
• Victory marches into damage control, August 8, 2007, The Age

Before moving to Crystal Palace (England) in 1996, Muscat played football for a number of Victorian clubs in the old NSL, including Heidelberg United and South Melbourne F.C. When he moved to the UK, he quickly earned himself a reputation as a hard player. Martin Grainger of Birmingham City even went so far as to call him the “most hated man in football”. Maybe so, but Muscat’s skills as a footballer saw him spend 9 seasons in the UK, playing for Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton, Rangers F.C. and Millwall F.C. He captained Millwall to the FA Cup Final in 2004 – a game he missed due to injury.

Muscat played for the Socceroos on 46 occasions and scored 10 goals. He captained them in their unsuccesful qualification campaign for the World Cup 2002, when he scored Australia’s only goal against Uruguay in the 2-leg qualification matchup.

He only scored 5 times during his time in the UK, but his minimal goal-scoring was turned around when he came to the Melbourne Victory in 2005. Since his time with the Victory, he has scored 13 times, 11 of which were by penalty. He is yet to miss a penalty.

One of the key changes between the 2005-06 season and last year’s scorcher was Muscat’s shift from a defensive position to a midfield role. In the first season he played with an attacking mindset anyway, essentially compensating for a fairly lacklustre midfield. But with the move to midfield in 2006, Muscat worked alongside Grant Brebner to form a powerful partnership, controlling the midfield and driving the ball towards Melbourne’s attackers. Better service for strikers Archie Thompson and Daniel Allsopp, as well as Fred, led to a vastly-improved success rate in front of goal, especially for Allsopp. Meanwhile, Muscat’s shift away from the defence saw Adrian Leijer step up to the plate of central defender, as he combined effectively with new recruit Rodrigo Vargas to create a more concentrated and tight defence than the prior year.

In 2007-08, it’s safe to expect that the duo of Muscat and Brebner will continue to reign supreme in the centre of the park. Players like Adrian Caceres, Leigh Broxham, Kaz Patafta and Evan Berger give Merrick plenty of alternatives for the midfield, but I suspect that the Muscat-Brebner combination will not be abandoned in a hurry.

One Kevin highlight from last year:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUjLTdNoFk[/youtube]

Read more:

• Muscat’s $606,000 tackle, February 25, 2004, The Age
• Kevin on Wikipedia
• Profile at MelbourneVictory.com.au