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Melbourne Heart
Semester Summary
Well now, where to begin with Melbourne Heart? The red half of Melbourne caused a stir with their rivals with their preseason signing of former Victory marquee Harry Kewell and signs were promising heading into the start of the season. New signings Orlando Engelaar, Rob Wieleart, Andrea Migliorini and Michael MIsfud gave fans some hope that their club would rise again to compete in finals. So where did it all go wrong? The club sacked John Aloisi after his failure to win a competitive fixture since February of 2013, one of the worst records in A-League history. His replacement, inaugural coach John van’t Schip, returned to the helm to help lift the Heart from their rut. Lack of finishing in front of goal, despite remaining competitive, has undoubtedly been the biggest problem for the bottom-placed Heart and injuries have also hindered their performances in the first half of the season; how ridiculous is Kewell’s injury list getting?
Areas of Excellence
Credit must be given to the Melbourne Heart (green seat elite) fans for sticking by their team in a time of desperation. Despite not being acknowledged by players post their 1-0 loss to Wellington at home, fans insist on returning to AAMI Park in hope of finally seeing their club take home the three points. Competitiveness is always promising; however, fans will not stick around if results aren’t attained. Preseason recruitment has been great – capturing a player with 14 Dutch caps was a great coup for the club – however, it is not so good when Engelaar breaks his leg in his first hitout with the club.
Areas in need of improvement
We’ve mentioned it time and time again, but you can’t win games without scoring goals. David Williams, Mifsud and Golgol Mebrahtu, when not warming the Bunnings plastic chairs, need to do better to help the Heart pick themselves up in the latter part of the season. There also must be something in the water over in Epping, as injuries have hindered the club’s ability to keep a stable squad. Engelaar, Kewell, Jonatan Germano, Jason Hoffman, Patrick Kisnorbo and Dylan Macallister have all been restricted to the sidelines at some point in time this season through injury.
Top Students
David Williams is the club’s leading goalscorer and arguably their best performer thus far. Andrea Migliorini has also proved himself a fan favorite in only nine games for the club, scoring two absolute pearlers against Adelaide at AAMI Park in December. Massimo Murdocca also gets a special mention for always being brave enough to front the media in post-game interviews when the knives are out, which let’s be honest is pretty much every game.
Class Clowns
Michael Mifsud. Oh yes, we went there. Yet to prove himself to the Heart faithful and should be doing much, much better on his marquee income.
Grade
Big. Fat. F.
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Fans got what they wanted (eventually) with their #AloisiOut campaign, so can their savior JVS help bring them back from the dead or will it be the same old poor Melbourne Heart we’ve all become accustom to watching? Where are those three points hiding? For the sake of everyone in red and white, we hope we won’t be discussing the same issues come season’s end.