Is it too early in the season to be writing a professional obituary for a coach?

Three games into the A-League season and neither of the Melbourne clubs has won a game yet. It’s been a disappointing start to the season, almost predictable in Heart’s case with their low budget recruiting, but Victory have been the real shocker. With their high profile signings, attack minded squad and new coaching team, they have experienced what can only be described politely as a failure to launch. But who’s responsible for the poor start?

Many supporters appear to be laying the blame at the feet of South Melbourne legend Mehmet Durakovic. Mehm is enjoying a difficult start to his first senior coaching position, appointed after a long period as caretaker in the Asian Champions League and through the off-season, he was never really in a position to plan for the coming season. With most of the squad already under contract for the coming season, and with several new signings already in the bag before he was finally given the job, Mehm was always going to have problems with setting the club up the way he wanted it. Some have taken his quiet demeanour to suggest that he doesn’t know what he’s doing – I suspect Mehm is simply trying to keep everyone happy whilst he bides his time. Given enough time and the opportunity to assemble his own squad I’m sure Mehm can be a success.

Experts are pointing at the squad itself – or to be precise the near complete lack of balance. A handful of average defenders, a couple of journeymen defensive midfielders, and a raft of high quality attacking midfielders and forwards. With Kevin Keegan in charge this might be an exciting concept – but with a less adventurous coach it’s a difficult recipe to get right. It’s worth noting in defence of the current playing and coaching staff, that this squad was put together by Ernie Merrick and Gary Cole, two men who have been sacked for the way they were doing their jobs. It’s a bit rough to hold the new guys accountable for the bad work of the old guys!

For me, the blame lays with the board of Victory. They allowed long term deals to be given to aging and/or injured players like Tom Pondeljak, Billy Celeski, Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp, allowed the salary cap to be spent on attacking players like Isaka Cernak, Jean Carlos Solorzano and Marco Rojas (all excellent players, but hardly likely to provide balance), and then they spent the whole off-season pursuing a superstar who, though brilliant, has upset the balance of the squad further. For an encore they then abandoned a lengthy search of (alleged) top international applicants and appointed the youth team coach as manager before tossing the mess at him with limited remaining funds to tidy up at the back. An uninspiring pre-season and the goal-less start to the A-League calendar leaves many of us wondering whether the club knows what it’s doing.

Unfortunately, Mehm will almost certainly get the blame, and a new coach will be presented with an Ange Postecoglou like opportunity to re-shape the squad over the remainder of the season, followed by the enviable chance to manage the biggest club in Australia with his own team. I wonder what Mehm would give for such an opportunity…