Milanovic Hat-trick Downs The Jets

[mack]

Friday Night Football saw the Western Sydney Wanderers host the Newcastle Jets needing a win to keep in touch with the top 6 before the upcoming international window, a window that will see Brandon Borrello recalled to the national team for matches in Asian World Cup Qualification. Nicolas Milanovic took all the attention however, his first A-League hat-trick seeing away Newcastle and putting the home side into the A-League top 6.

After the 3-4 loss last week to Adelaide, Alen Stajcic rung the changes from top to bottom. Jordan Holmes replaced Tristan Vidackovic in goals, Jack Clisby was benched in favour of Anthony Pantazopoulos. Oscar Priestman made way for Dylan Scicluna who had shown a lot of energy so far this season, and Juan Mata was reduced to an impact sub role with Zac Sapsford coming in to the attack despite the broken nose injury that has him wearing a batman styled facial accoutrement. The Jets were filled with former Wanderers, with Kosta Grozos, Daniel Wilmering and Thomas Aqulina starting against their previous employer.

The best chance of the early game fell to Pantazopoulos, after the Jets failed to clear a corner saw the ball loop back into the 6 yard area where Pantazopoulos threw out his leg with a jumping side volley that flew over the crossbar. Nicolas Milanovic has his first shot of the game after a midfield turnover and good work from Scicluna & Borrello, the shot on the right foot curving across the face of goal and going wide. Sapsford then turned a beautiful ball along the turf only a few yards out yet there was no-one gambling at the back post for what would have been a tap-in.

Newcastle thought they opened the scoring after 16 minutes, Wellisol broke down the Jets left and a cut-back found an attacker who couldn't miss, the celebrations were short lived as a correctly adjudicated offside call ended them entirely.

It was instead the Wanderers who scored first. A free kick 25 yards out from Milanovic that he blasted into the middle of the wall, the deflection from Lachie Bayliss was extremely heavy and it left Ryan Scott on the wrong side of the goal and with zero chance of turning back to stop it.

Milanovic made it two on the half-hour. Holmes launched a ball into midfield where Gabriel Cleur jumped higher than Wilmering to nod it down for Milanovic, he began his run from half-way, allowed to take touch after touch by Mark Natta. With the defence standing off and showing him inside, Milanovic took the space given to aim on his powerful left boot, fired past Natta and Ryan Scott's dive & hand to the ball was nowhere near strong enough to turn it away. The Red & Black dominated the rest of the half but neither side could add another goal to the scoreline.

Rob Stanton didn't wait for the hour before making subs, he took action immediately before the restart as Gibson, Wellissol and Wilmering departed for Timmins, Taylor & Vidic.

The changes didn't help. 10 minutes into the half and Sapsford made a magnificent solo run & goal. Cleur passed the ball over the top on the wing, Sapsford was one-off with Natta who continued his abysmal defensive performance by failing to knock Sapsford over. The striker continued into the area, the defence was late to come across and launched a rocket on his left into the top far corner. 

Newcastle wanted a penalty as Jeong went down on his knees to attempt a block and Clayton Taylor fell over the feet on the floor. After initially waving the penalty away, the VAR intervened and after second guessing himself despite seeing it clearly on the live vision, Jack Morgan decided he'd made a "clear and obvious error" and gave the Jets a lifeline, Kosta Grozos stepped up and nailed his penalty into the top corner to bring it back to 3-1 with half an hour to play.

VAR intervened on the other side, with Natta capping his awful performance by giving away a stonewall penalty on Milanovic after being beat by a move inside and sticking a leg out. As is the custom for the A-League, the referee completely missed it in the live action and needed to check the replay to make the right call. Milanovic stepped up with his hat-trick on the line and finished with aplomb, down to the left and past the correct side dive of Scott.

The sting of the game faded away after the 4th, Juan Mata was installed for a few minutes of game time as Scicluna made way, with Marcus Antonsson and Ayden Hammond having come on earlier for Sapsford and Milanovic. Holmes hadn't much to do so with the exception of the penalty save attempt, yet his attention was on point with a wonderful double save deep into stoppage time. The first was a spectacular diving save to his right to keep out a long range curling strike, the second he made himself big to stop a point blank header down into the turf. The Wanderers closed out the remainder of the match and secured the three points, the 4-1 win was the first win at Parramatta since New Year's Day. Now attention turns to the international window, a short break before the 2nd Sydney Derby of the season.

The Wanderers next match is against Sydney FC on Saturday the 23rd of November, from Moore Park with kick-off at 7:35pm EDT.

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[MathyouWSW]

Nice work there by Batman (Sapsford) and Robin (Milanovic).

 

[Sithslayer1991]

Take the win. A very poor Jets so thank you for the gift Newcastle

[Upthehill]

A few small tidbits to take from that game.

- Holmes looks confident, leave him there until LT is back. He's not smashing the ball into his own net so thats a start
- I dont mind Panta at LB but his lack of left foot hurt his a few times to tonight. Better teams wont allow him to play inside
- Mila is too feckn good for this league. We need multiple players hitting their stride very soon because we may get an offer we cant refuse come Jan 1

A win is nice but we absolutely have to be beating teams like Newcastle, Perth and Brisbane. We need nearly 40 points for finals.

Edited November 8 by Upthehill

[Themumf79]

A much needed win. Milanovic will quite rightly get the plaudits but there is a lot to like about the way Scicluna and Sapsford go about their business. My word the Jets are poor though and Natta is Clisby levels of bad. Next game will give us a true idea of where we are at. 

[immortalshogun]

Very good game and great to see Milanovic step up and grab a hatty. Holmes didn’t have much to do but he was safe hands when called upon. Sapsford slowly coming into his stride, hopefully he can perform come derby time

[sonar]

 

[LetsPele]

Great to get a comfortable win for once (even against a lacklustre Newcastle side). 

Subbing on Clisby had me 🤷. We're 3 nil up. Newcastle weren't threatening. Panta wasn't cooked or injured. Why wouldn't you keep him on? We had players on the bench that need game time. Clisby is a known quantity. Brainless coaching. 

FWIW, disagree about our 'penalty'. We got lucky. Milanovic goes down because he runs into Nata. Specifically into his upper torso. He isn't brought down by Nata's right leg moving slightly towards the ball or by Nata moving into his path to block the run. There's no way that should have been given. There's no comparison between that and the Newcastle penalty where their player is brought down by Jeong's trailing leg.

🔴⚫

[FootballRelic]

Finally a home win . Sapsford is coming along nicely this season. Milanovic stood up tonight 👏. And it was a solid performance. Defensive structure still makes me nervous though.

[102megan]

How good’s that?! 

[ManfredSchaefer]

Missed going to the game and of course they feckin win lol

Watched the second half on TV and whilst we were good Newy were awful. They just looked toothless going forward and their defence was as organised as an anarchist's line dance.

Obviously big props to Milanovic, and enjoying the work of Borrello, Sapsford, Pantz, Scicluna. Brillante didn;t embarrass himself and surprised we finally got a decent effort from the Korean Borda. Oh, and whulst he didn't have much to do Holmes showed he should have been brought on in last Saturdsay's game after the work experience kid shat the bed.

Oh, and not starting Mata obviously had a benefit.

The bar is pretty low...it's gotta be raised when we play clubs who actually know how to win at home more than once every 8 or so games.

[nmh94]

So nice to go to home game in nice weather, see a win, have a beer. The simple things. 

[Upthehill]

41 minutes ago, FootballRelic said:

Finally a home win . Sapsford is coming along nicely this season. Milanovic stood up tonight 👏. And it was a solid performance. Defensive structure still makes me nervous though.

Actually I probably missed out Sapsford in my comments ealier. He's most definitely not a 10 but he's exactly what you want out of a second striker. Works his arse off, drags defenders away off the ball and can pop up for goals.

Its something Borello and Antonsson seem to lack at 9. Neither really know how to start inside and roll out to the edge of the line and force the defensive line to bend. Sapsford did it a few times tonight. Watch him on the second goal quickly looks both directions down the line and count the defenders. He immediately drifted out to drag a defender (Natta responded by just standing still and hanging a limp leg out). Conventional wisdom says Mila uses him there and Sapsford gets a tap in but you cant argue with a thunder bastard in the bottom corner either.

Edited November 8 by Upthehill

[StringerBellend]

Scicluna was excellent tonight controlled the game. We actually had a functional midfield, Brillante did ok.

On the pens, for mine they were both pens but then one to them was more obvious. Donkey defending from Jeong who that aside was ok.

Sapsford worked his arse off. 

My only moan is why being Clisby on at 60 mins and Mata at 87. Panta was fine we could have made a positive sub. Clisby by the way when he came on made one of his trademark crosses to noone.

As for Mata if he's fit then he should have come on after 60mins or so if he isnt then what's the point of 4 min at the end, which really was only enough time to pick up a injury 

Oh and I was wrong on Natta my god he was terrible tonight. 

[matty]

Great to get a win but I'm not getting carried away, Newcastle were trash.

Sapsford is a fantastic second striker. Loving watching him play.

Also loving anyone else at LB 

And Holmes, great performance. Distribution could use a little work.

[Upthehill]

7 minutes ago, matty said:

And Holmes, great performance. Distribution could use a little work.

Out of interest was there any specific instance that you thought was subpar? Not meaning to be argumentative, I just thought his distribution was pretty darn decent. Admittedly he wasnt ever put under any pressure at all. Maybe a touch slow? 

[matty]

30 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

Out of interest was there any specific instance that you thought was subpar? Not meaning to be argumentative, I just thought his distribution was pretty darn decent. Admittedly he wasnt ever put under any pressure at all. Maybe a touch slow? 

He put the ball straight over the sideline too often. Also a touch slow or indecisive with his feet. 

I'm probably nitpicking but I'm a keeper so I watch closely 

[Upthehill]

27 minutes ago, matty said:

He put the ball straight over the sideline too often. Also a touch slow or indecisive with his feet. 

I'm probably nitpicking but I'm a keeper so I watch closely 

Fellow keepers union member!

Medium and long distribution was very 'meh', I'd agree,

I personally wasnt too concerned about his long/medium balls, specifically because our game doesnt seem to be built around them. To compare why I was much more content tonight - last 3 weeks Vida has been completely unable to play short vertical passes. This means the CBs have to sink wider and deeper to escape the press. He's been so slow in picking his pass that Wookie and Bonetig have almost been forced to play off the corner flags. This makes passing out basicaly impossible.

Holmes at least managed to step the ball up into space between the center backs and hit Brillante or Scicluna. It forced newcastle to stay narrow when playing out meaning wookie and Bonetig had at least a little bit of space. To your point though, LTs medium passing range in infinitely better, you rarely see them go into touch

In the end, when picking a keeper I'm always going to prioritise shot stopping (any other opinion is wrong, fight me).  Holmes had to make 3 saves (4 inc the pen which is always excused) and he made all 3.
 

Edited November 8 by Upthehill

[Edinburgh]

Kraev deserves a mention too.  Easily his best game for us. Worked hard in and out of possession, aggressive, won a lot of ball, (lost it sometimes too), a constant threat in possession.  And, he'll only get better.

 

[WSWJACK]

19 minutes ago, Edinburgh said:

Kraev deserves a mention too.  Easily his best game for us. Worked hard in and out of possession, aggressive, won a lot of ball, (lost it sometimes too), a constant threat in possession.  And, he'll only get better.

 

Yes, he had great energy about him last night, though that could be said about the whole team, it was a joy to see aggressive closing down of the opponent in the game, don’t think any one was lacking in effort, certainly a different Brillante atm, a better version 👍, just wish we would cut out the stupid shirt pulling and brainfart yellow cards, what was Borrello doing tripping from behind in their half, he can do better than that, anyway great night well done everyone for that effort, let’s build from here 

[WSWJACK]

Sorry forgot, well done the RBB plenty of energy there driving the players 🙌

[WSWJACK]

11 hours ago, MathyouWSW said:

Nice work there by Batman (Sapsford) and Robin (Milanovic).

 

Due to the shape of the mask, I’m going with the Lone Ranger and (Milanovic/Jonny Depp facial hair) Tonto 👌

[scarcev]

We were as good as we were last week against worse opposition with a keeper this week as well.   Milanovic scored a hattrick but he has been ordinary until tonight so hopefully that kick starts him, Borello not sure what is going on here but he is a shadow of his peak form, Kraev yea good be something there and I think we are realising how much Marcello meant to this squad.  Look we have to give Staj a go and there is something there, but we are still a way off which is a strange thing to say after a 4-1 win.

[Davo]

It’s only the Jets but we usually drop to their level and make hard work of it. Putting four through them is was a good side should be doing and we did it.

Having a keeper who’s comfortable with the ball at his feet changes the whole vibe of the backline when playing out. Everyone looked calm and in control, rather than always being a touch away from conceding. Plus he made the big saves when required. Also I agree with the above discussion about his longer distribution, but the ball to Cleur for the second goal was pinpoint and he celebrated like he was the one who scored.

Panta was a clear upgrade at left back. Didn’t get caught upfield when they countered and no suicide headers back into the danger zone. Also when getting pressed Clisby has the bad habit of lofting an aimless ball up the line. Sure, he’s making sure he isn’t the one to lose the ball, but it’s always a cheap giveaway and feels like a lack of accountability in possession. Panta can withstand some pressure and recycle the ball. Just needs to work on his crossing as he turns them all up to 11. There was one where he was all the way on the left and it went out over the right touch line on the full.

Jeong was great other than giving away the pen, which for a defender is a bit like saying you have a clean criminal record other than that one murder. Turned a net positive game into a negative.

Brillante keeps doing well and won back possession a bunch of times. Scicluna is pushing Priestman out of the starting lineup with his performances.

Similarly, Sapsford is pushing Mata out of the XI with his performances. Took his goal well. Pretty sure I remember a game a few seasons back when Natta was playing for us and Nabbout burned him in the exact same way on the same part of the pitch for a goal.

Enjoy Milanovic while we can, because if he keeps playing like that he won’t be here much longer.

The average age of the starting XI was under 25, with Brillante the only over 30. Will be interesting to see how things progress over the season.

[EmMac]

Whew. That win is just what we needed. We looked good. Hopefully not just because the opposition was Newcastle. Onwards 💪💪

[Smoggy]

20 minutes ago, EmMac said:

Whew. That win is just what we needed. We looked good. Hopefully not just because the opposition was Newcastle. Onwards 💪💪

Hopefully adds a few more to our derby attendance...because I got tickets in the week and not many sold down our end!

It was a decent performance, but is what you would expect against a Jets side that should be finishing bottom 2...

 

[William]

Did anybody see how the how ball entered  the field of play from the bi line when Sapsford scored his goal ?

Kraev for me was great along with the changes to the back 4 made a big difference for us.

Does anybody feel that Sapsford at times seems a little slow to react in certain situations ?

 

[HillsPanther]

48 minutes ago, William said:

Did anybody see how the how ball entered  the field of play from the bi line when Sapsford scored his goal ?

 

I was a bit concerned when I saw that ball. The officials don't need too much of an excuse to take goals off the Wanderers.

[HillsPanther]

Does anyone know what the attendance was last night? I couldn't see an official number, but the stadium looked quite empty. Maybe the club has stopped counting.

[102megan]

19 minutes ago, HillsPanther said:

Does anyone know what the attendance was last night? I couldn't see an official number, but the stadium looked quite empty. Maybe the club has stopped counting.

Haven't seen it yet, but it will come out eventually - it always does.