Emerton The Solution To Lavicka's Midfield Riddle

Brett Emerton is every manager's must-have player. Emerton is a model professional and a capable technician, and is positionally versatile and ridiculously fit (in the stamina sense - the other sense is perhaps best left to the marketing department).

But Viteslav Lavicka now has a devilish problem to resolve. Emerton is probably happiest playing as a genuine right winger, but the Czech master's preference for a midfield diamond is well known. He has shown no intention to play with wingers - in fact, he shipped off Kofi Danning, his only genuine wide man, and we know that Sydney FC were expecting to recruit Emerton next season but nabbed him 12 months early.

So how does Lavicka fit an EPL-standard winger into his starting 11, while making full use of his talents?

Emerton could play at right back. Lavicka has never settled on Shannon Cole or Seb Ryall in the troublesome spot, and the swift exit of Byun and recruitment of Jamie Coyne demonstrates his dissatisfaction with his younger options. Emerton has played right back for the Socceroos for years and would dominate opposing attackers.

But has Emerton really come to Australia to mark out a winger and mind a touchline, occasionally venturing forward in the conservative way that Lavicka has demanded of his fullbacks over the last two years? It seems doubtful, even though Emerton's decision making and enormous engine are actually perfectly suited to playing the wingback role behind a midfield diamond. It is to be hoped that the rush to push the marquee man goalwards doesn't stop Lavicka from trying Emerton at right back with Karol Kisel ahead of him.

One can however assume that Lavicka will want maximum influence from his premier player and will probably slot Emerton into a midfield role as soon as possible. One hopes he is smart enough to exploit the Socceroo's versatility. Emerton can play right back, defensive midfield, right wing or even genuine centre midfield, and he will probably fill all of these roles within a 90 minutes.

Lavicka demands that his players pass to feet along the grass. We are often told that ball on the ground football is best played by players rotating between positions. Such lofty ambitions are no longer beyond Sydney FC and there is a first 11 that would allow them to switch between formations while playing their young stars alongside their Socceroo mentors - a goal that Sydney should ignore for another year to their peril.

Here is a starting 11 within the current squad that can fluidly shift from a diamond 4-4-2 to a flat 4-4-2 and a classic 4-1-4-1. Let's start with Lavicka's preferred diamond:

-----------------Cazarine-------------------------
-------------------------Petratos----------------

---------------------Carle----------------------

-------------Antonis-----Emerton-------------

-------------------McFlynn---------------------

-Jamieson--Beauchamp--Bosschart--Cole/Coyne

----------------------Reddy--------------------

Here Petratos plays the role of support striker. Note that the formation already encourages players to swap and shift between the lines. Antonis, Petratos and Carle can all play at LCM, at 10 or at support striker, while McFlynn can push on with Antonis and Emerton covering behind as both have done for the Socceroos. Emerton can also switch with Shannon Cole, though Lavicka will probably choose new recruit Jamie Coyne.

This same 11 can quickly switch to the following shape:


-----------------------------Cazarine-------------------------
-------------------------Antonis/Carle----------------

Petratos-------Carle/Antonis----------McFlynn----------Emerton
 ---------Jamieson--Beauchamp--Bosschart--Cole/Coyne

-------------------------------Reddy--------------------

In this flat midfield Emerton plays in his favoured right winger role and McFlynn holds the midfield fort, but others are admittedly out of their comfort zones. Petratos is left-footed and has played left wing but looks more comfortable in central roles. Here Carle can float out left to bring Petratos back into the centre, while Carle and Antonis share their preferred number 10 spot as well as the "Modric" role in the middle. A lot would be required of Scott Jamieson, a confidence player at the best of times.

Still, the formation is remarkably fluid. All four midfielders can comfortably occupy central roles, while Carle and Emerton have repeatedly played wide positions for the Socceroos. Carle, Antonis and Petratos all love to play behind Bruno at 9, and Emerton can surge forward as well.

If the team gets a lead and Lavicka plays conservatively (an approach which did take Sydney to a double just a year ago), he can switch things up without making a substitution.

-----------------------------Cazarine-------------------------

------------Petratos-----Antonis-----Carle----------Emerton

--------------------------------McFlynn-----------------------

---------Jamieson--Beauchamp--Bosschart--Cole/Coyne

-------------------------------Reddy--------------------


This formation can break at pace. Carle and Antonis are particularly capable of playing through balls to Emerton and Petratos, and Cazarine is particularly adept at running across two central defenders to keep them interested.

The key man in all of this is probably the captain - Terry McFlynn. In each formation he is required to do much more than break heads and bust a gut. In the diamond McFlynn's distribution would be tested and if his passing goes astray (as is known to happen), the entire formation breaks down. In the second formation, McFlynn is required to "mind" a much smaller central midfield partner. In the defensive variation McFlynn is again the chief distributor as Lavicka loathes to bypass the man in the hole.

McFlynn struggled in central defensive midfield last season, but reports suggest that Lavicka has him in mind for Stuart Musialik's old role. If he can make it work, it will instantly free up what was a battling midfield. If he can't, the captain may be benched for Rhyan Grant or Hiro Moriyasu.

This starting 11 has other weakness - Petratos plays outside his natural central midfield role, and the squad might lack height at set pieces against physical outfits. But a creative midfield core of Petratos, Antonis, Emerton and Carle is a vast improvement on Musialik, Hiro, McFlynn and Bridge, which is what Sydney was reduced to when injury and poor recruitment cruelled last year's campaign.

Mourinho: The Real Enemy of Football

Real Madrid and Barcelona are becoming dangerous. Pep Guardiola knows it. Gerard Pique knows it, though he ascribes the blame more to one side. Journalists know it - they know that violence on the pitch will have the inevitable consequence.

But Jose Mourinho lurches on, like an enraged alcoholic destroying his own hallway; gouging eyes, spitting insults, muttering conspiracies, dragging the game down to his own embittered level. He cannot yet counter Barcelona and the failure must not be his. It was the ball boys that lost a game where Barcelona enjoyed 70 percent of possession. It was the diving from Barcelona that forced him to gouge an eye, and then smirk about it.

The "Enemy of Football" enjoys little respect throughout the world game. I would guess that his only friends are the former players who he shielded from controversy, while encouraging them to give up all in the pursuit of victory. On the other side, Guardiola is no angel and in my previous post I lament the level that Pedro, Alves and others have sunk to in their mindless pursuit of victory. I am no partisan Barcelona supporter and it's clear that no players should leave the bench to pick a fight with a player on the pitch, as Barcelona did.

But if both sides do not calm down some idiot will leave a Classico, see a fan from the other side and murder them. He might not wait for the game to end. The imagination of the hooligan knows few bounds.

He'll say that he was following the example of his heroes, sticking up for his club, and that the other guy provoked him and deserved it. His behaviour will follow the same logic as Mourinho's, as Marcelo's, as Villa's, and on and on it goes.

Both sides will wring their hands. The clubs will say the killer was no "true fan", and the teams will probably show a modicum of restraint in the next match. They will wear black armbands. Then it will be back to normal.

At least Guardiola has recognised this. But Mourinho rages, attacking the ball boys, the diving Barcelona players, attacking, attacking, never acknowledging that gouging a person's eye is universally despised behaviour.

It is staggering that a proud club like Real Madrid will not sack a manager who has brought their club into disrepute. It is sad that the Spanish FA lacks the power and will to take strong action, though their history of acting for the good of the game is particularly discouraging.

It is tragically pathetic that it will probably take a death to stop this tiresome, depressing devolution of what should be the game's premier clash - a meeting of two proud clubs, of Messi and Ronaldo, of Xavi and Kaka, of sumptuous talents and tactics and trickery.

The troubling thought is that football's classic match has been so corrupted that both clubs would probably continue their death roll regardless of such a crime. After all, the pursuit of power in a world of sport is clearly more important than safety, ethics and morality. Real, Barca and the Spanish FA are shamed, whether they know it or not.