I’m not going to lie. I booed when Mehmet Durakovic’s face came on the big screens at my first game of the season vs Brisbane at Etihad (as I did for all other home matches). I arrived in Melbourne with my unused membership in hand a week before the Roar game, having to sit through the 2 previous home games (Sydney and He*rt) on the TV.  Both seemed like good occasions, Victory looked average though, like a team without a leader. However, it was early days. Things could only get better right? Wrong.

Yes, we showed a lot of bottle and strength during that Roar game, considering we played against 12 men, as the ref had a tenner on a Roar win. That fight and team spirit was a one off though, as we’ve not shown it since. We’ve had bright moments though, I can’t lie about that (against Wellington for first 30mins especially). However, they were mostly created by a front three to dream of – Archie, Kewell and Hernandez.  An awesome combo. Those 3 could destroy any A-League defense.  That’s where Durakovic was lucky, lucky he had them. Without that trio we’d be bottom of the table now. Fact.

How many matches would we start brightly, then disappear from 25 minutes onwards, with zero power to pull ourselves out of it? Now, I don’t think our defense is as bad as everyone makes out. It can be frail at times but it’s been horribly exposed over and over by an invisible midfield. You cannot control a football match with a weak, non-existent midfield. Think of all the great teams, in any league, in any country, at any level. Midfield is the building block:

Arsenal – Petit, Viera, Overmars, Pires.

Man U – Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Giggs

Chelsea – the Makelele/Essien, & Lampard combination.

Liverpool – the Alonso & Gerrard combination.

They all had a ball winner, a playmaker and versatile wide men. They bossed the midfield, controlling the match tempo and the game.  Yes, the players and teams I mentioned were all outstanding in their own right, however a great midfield doesn’t have to be made from superstars, it just has to function as a unit. Pressing together, being there for each other, covering. The DM (Makelele/Keane/Petit) hunts and wins the ball, only ever playing three yard passes to the playmaker (Lampard/Scholes/Gerrard).

It really is that simple. How often do you see Celeski win the ball with a challenge, only for another opposition midfielder to come in and take it back straight after, meanwhile the other Victory midfielders are three kilometers away?

The other thing that struck me early on was the attitude from our players. Where was the spirit? The battling? The will to do anything for the team? The hunger? No one looked bothered and there was no leadership on or off the pitch. It was painfully obvious to me. During all of this Durakovic stood on the touch line, mouth open, wondering what to do next, completely void of ideas, nothing, nadda, nish – except the occasional token shout of “come on boys”.

I’m not one for a lynch mob, but something had to give. He may have been qualified for the job but it should have never been given to him.