Melbourne City take on Western Sydney Wanderers in top-of-the-table A-League clash

IT’s the heavyweight contest of the round, as Melbourne City’s free-scoring attack faces Western Sydney’s almost impermeable defence.

Melbourne City v Western Sydney Wanderers

IT’s the heavyweight contest of the round, first against second in the tightest A-League title race for years.

But the face-off between Western Sydney and Melbourne City on Friday night is also the competition’s irresistible force coming up against its immovable object, City’s free-scoring attack against one of the A-League’s most miserly defences.

The figures are stark. The 40 goals City have scored in 16 games sets an average per game of 2.5 which is the highest ever in the A-League’s history at this stage of the season — and the fourth highest in the history of national league football in Australia.

In Bruno Fornaroli they boast the competition’s leading goalscorer, with 12 goals in 16 games — and eight of those in the side’s past nine fixtures. Third top scorer in the league is City’s Harry Novillo, with eight goals — and joint fourth top is Aaron Mooy with seven.

Not only that, Mooy has created 60 chances for his teammates this season, a third more than any other A-League player and almost twice as many as Western Sydney’s creator-in-chief Mitch Nichols.

And yet City face a defence that is the second meanest in the league this season, behind only Sydney FC, and has recorded three clean sheets in its past four home games. To emphasise the effectiveness of Western Sydney’s defensive structure, they have faced only 142 shots, compared with 234 faced by their visitors.

It’s hardly a surprise that a side coached by Tony Popovic is so effective in defence — over the previous three completed seasons, including last year’s horror show, Western Sydney had conceded the fewest goals in total of all 10 teams. They’ve maintained that strength even with a new, more attacking style this year.

Yet if anyone will test that, it’s Melbourne City. “You certainly want to test yourself against the best, and in an attacking sense, City are certainly up there,” said Wanderers goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.

“They’ve shown this season how powerful they are and they have a lot of individuals with talent upfront, players who ca create an opportunity out of nothing.

“It’s key to cut off their supply, and not give them any space or time to turn and face our goal. The most effective way of countering teams that like to play football like that is to squeeze them so there is no room to play in.

“But we have our own attacking threat, we’ve shown that against everybody this season. Defensively we know that rather than focusing on individuals, if we play to the game plan, and maintain the structure and discipline that’s drilled into us, we’re confident of maintaining our excellent form.”

Originally published as Melbourne City take on Western Sydney Wanderers in top-of-the-table A-League clash