Tuesday Teabag: Calm down sweet Berisha

It goes without saying that when most A-League fans think of who is the purest striker in the competition, most think of the Brisbane Roar's Besart Berisha.

In the same breath, when most A-League fans think of who is the biggest hothead/guy you would trust the least to not stab you with an ordinary kitchen utensil in the competition, most think of the Brisbane Roar's Besart Berisha.

Credit: Brisbane Roar.

While he may not be a complete bellend in his off-field life, Berisha continues to prove that he is only converting a portion of his potential due to regularly being one on the field.

Usually the Tuesday Teabag serves the purpose of have a dig at some important issues or more likely completely take the piss, but this is going to be the most straight up edition so far: Besart Berisha needs to stop acting like such an arse hat.

The Roar are by no means struggling - sitting pretty at the top of the table with a five-point lead, despite only claiming a 0-0 draw against Perth - but to state the bleeding obvious, the Roar had a massive chance of beating the Glory with Berisha on the pitch for the full 90 minutes.

Sure, a win over Perth away is never guaranteed - the Glory have only conceded five goals at home in eight games - but the chances of the competition's best offence scoring against anyone are relatively high.

Instead, Berisha went ahead and earned himself a second yellow card in the 32rd minute for what looked like a botched attempt at trying to fly kick Glory defender Michael Thwaite's gonads from Perth to Brisbane.

The challenge was described as "A clumsy challenge by Berisha" during the game's telecast which is somewhat correct - Berisha could only make contact with Thwaite's stomach rather than his crotch. Considering both yellows were as a result of challenges on Thwaite, it's pretty safe to assume Berisha isn't a fan.

To again state the obvious, this isn't the first time Berisha has acted like a upset toddler on the pitch, having been put under the microscope for having a whinge at teammates on numerous occasions.

As proven in the past, Berisha still has a temper when things are going perfectly on the pitch. It's difficult to forget his on-field stoush with ex-Sydney defender Pascal Bosschaart which resulted in Berisha kindly inviting Bosschaart into the tunnel for a friendly bout of fisticuffs, all minutes after scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 encounter.

So what steps are needed to be taken for Berisha to be less douche-like? Well, that's the more complicated part, but there is at least one technique that is yet to be attempted.

It's clear that any form of anger management is out of the question and according to Google, there are not a whole lot of results offering advice on 'how to not let down all people to do with my club by acting like a douchebag'. However, when you have a think about it, most douchebags are easily identifiable by their hairstyle. Now we're getting somewhere.

The Roar need to seriously consider hiring a club hair stylist or at least some sort of haircut manager to keep Berisha in line. There is no human in history that has gone down in the books as being a decent guy that has had a bleached blond fauxhawk.

Physically, it's like looking at a more aggressive version of Cristiano Ronaldo back in his early days of fauxhawk glory and we all know how much of a knob stick that couldn't poke a fire Ronaldo can be. Take that and add bleach. It's not right.

What's worse is that Berisha's 'how can I make it look like I spend the majority of my free time robbing from the elderly?' hairstyle choice is obviously setting a bad example for his teammates - anyone who has seen the haircut Diogo Ferreira is rocking will fully agree.

But if maintaining his hairstyle won’t work, someone at the club needs to personally place a firm grasp on Berisha to keep him from straying, whether it be head coach Mike Mulvey, a teammate, one of the other coaches or someone behind the scenes.

With a focused and relaxed Berisha, there is little doubt that the Roar can translate their current A-League dominance to an impressive showing against the best Asian teams. That is only possible with a Berisha that is 100% levelheaded and focused on winning and that’s something he still obviously struggles with if he is being sent off in the first half for ninja kicks to the sternum.

Berisha has already pledged his commitment to the Roar which is a great start but taking action to get him in a permanently focused mindset is critical to the team's long-term success.

Besart Berisha is clearly a talented front man with the ability to make any defender poo themselves. However, if he continues to make stupid decisions, the sad reality is that his and the Roar’s maximum potential won’t be reached.