A-League Men: Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic says lack of possession in Wellington draw due to pressure drop

Perth Glory coach David Zdrilic says diminishing on-ball pressure led to a lopsided possession count which ultimately proved costly in their 2-2 draw with Wellington Phoenix at HBF Park.

But Zdrilic is thanking his lucky stars the club moved quickly to sign goalkeeper Matt Sutton on a short-term deal after Glory suffered their second shot-stopper injury in less than a week.

Glory looked to be cruising to a first opening day A-League Men’s victory in five years when Jaiden Kucharski and Adam Taggart found the net inside the opening 25 minutes to put Perth 2-0 up.

But the tables soon turned as Wellington took control and found a deserved goal in first-half injury time through Ifeanyi Eze, before Carlo Armiento scored the equaliser with 20 minutes left.

After Perth’s opening half-hour pow-wow, Wellington had almost 86 per cent of the ball in the 15 minutes before half-time, and finished the game with a gaudy 71 per cent possession.

“At the start we had more pressure on the ball. Them having the ball created those moments where we were able to get in behind, so that wasn’t so much the issue for us,” Zdrilic said of the Glory’s strong start.

“But once they started having possession and we weren’t able to put pressure on the ball, that was the last 15 minutes of the first half.

“They also had the ball when we had all those chances (early) so that wasn’t the problem, but we weren’t able to maintain the intensity of that press which created those chances and that was worrying.”

Glory’s two-man midfield of Rhys Bozinovski and Brandon O’Neill were overrun at the tail-end of the first half as the Phoenix’s midfield trio of Kazuki Nagasawa, Alex Rufer and Fin Roa Conchie got on top.

With winger Ramy Najjarine also dropping centrally to further overload the midfield, Zdrilic brought O’Neill off for Will Freney to inject some fresh legs and while Wellington did not dominate to the same extent after the break, they still had the majority of the ball.

Zdrilic also felt Glory dropped too deep once they went 2-0 up, which led to less pressure on the ball and was best evidenced by Nagasawa’s long ball for Eze’s goal.

“We have to be able to do that (sit deeper) as well and be comfortable there, but not stay there. The first 30 minutes, what was really impressive is that we had different levels,” Zdrilic said.

“Sometimes we were higher, sometimes we were lower, but the courage was there to step on and maybe the 2-0 was a little bit of a security thing, and we could relax a little bit, I don’t know.

“But as soon as we didn’t put that pressure on the ball, we weren’t as comfortable. I prefer us to always have pressure, doesn’t matter if we’re sitting higher or lower,. If we’re lower, you can still have pressure and create chances on the break from deeper, that’s no problem.”

Perth play Melbourne City at AAMI Park next Saturday, but will have to do so without back-up goalkeeper Cameron Cook, who appeared to injure a knee in the warm-up.

Sutton had been named to start just days after arriving on a short-term deal to replace Mark Birighitti following a training ground knee injury, and it already looks like his stay might be extended after Cook went down pre-game.

“It’s just one of those freak things. One of the young boys will come up and fill in,” Zdrilic said.