After Melbourne Victory’s faltering start to their 2026/27 A-League Men campaign, the crew on A-Leagues Download have analysed the issues they’re facing in the wide areas of the park.
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Under new head coach Giovanni Savarese the Victory have only secured one point from the first two Matchweeks, with the bulk of their attacking threat coming from Charles Nduka.
The Japanese striker has scored and assisted both of Victory’s two goals, but Monday’s Download panel of Jake Barker-Daish, Naum Sekulovski and Thomas Sorensen suggested a lack of width could be harming the club in attack.
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“It seems like they’re still trying to find rhythm with their front three what they do,” Barker-Daish said.
“You’ve got Guillermo May sort of floating around in various positions, they don’t seem to have too much width.”
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MELBOURNE VICTORY’S ISSUES OUT WIDE:
Sorensen pinpointed some specific issues with Victory’s apparent issues out wide.
“You’ve got [Harrison] Shillington and [Joshua] Inserra, I think they’re lacking that width,” the Danish goalkeeping legend said.
“You’ve got [Keegan] Jelacic, they love to come inside and support Nduka.
“I’m struggling to see where the service is going to come from out wide.
“Santos came on in the second half, and maybe he’s a solution. But I feel they need to provide more, especially from those fullbacks.”
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Sekulovski questioned whether or not Victory may be too dependent on one player in the front half.
“Is it maybe a little bit too reliant on Nduka?” he asked of the Victory attack.
“From a fullback perspective, if the boys can engage a little bit more… you might be able to provide some options out wide at least.
“But yeah, maybe it’s a scenario where they’re too reliant on him up front.”
Nduka has six goals and three assists in his 15 starts for Victory across the back of last season and the first two matches of this campaign.
Melbourne Victory have a chance to turn their early season form around this Sunday with a home fixture against Central Coast Mariners at 3pm AEDT.
The Mariners have only beaten Victory once at AAMI Park and will be looking to find themselves after picking up just one point in their opening two fixtures.
Buy your tickets for Melbourne Victory vs Central Coast Mariners here.
