First off, Happy New Year to you all - hopefully your holiday hangovers are a distant and fuzzy memory.
Brisbane returned back to winning form, halting a worrying run of five matches without a win, by easily disposing of a disorientated Victory. Mehmet Durakovic has his fair share of detractors, but this was easily his worst tactical performance against a title contending team yet. By contrast, Ange Postecoglou was masterful in the dug-out, completing bamboozling his counterpart, by tailoring his system to exploit key weaknesses.
This edition of the Melbourne Derby was a thrilling contest, fought between two clubs with contrasting approaches. Heart were able to emerge victorious, largely due to the shrewdness of Dutch manager John van't Schip. Having seen his initial theoretically sound tactical plan fail to contain the sparkling Victory trident of Hernandez, Kewell and Thompson, the former Ajax winger changed Heart's formation, and from then were in the ascendant. This match superbly illustrated the superiority of a collective 'system' over reliance on individual 'star power' in building a team.
