Peak A-League: Jamie Maclaren penalty horror, Marko Rudan's Mourinho vibes

Kieran Francis

•
Peak A-League: Jamie Maclaren penalty horror, Marko Rudan's Mourinho vibes image

A-League Men's superstar Jamie Maclaren faces serious questions about a crucial part of his game, while combative coach Marko Rudan continues to impress with his results and style.

While the competition's young talent again put itself on display with crucial goals across the weekend's matches.

The Sporting News runs the rule over the colour and personality in Australia's premier football league.

MORE: Peak A-League: Adelaide coach rips journalist, Wellington's incredible statistic against Victory

Time to sack Maclaren off from penalties?

The A-League's most prolific striker Jamie Maclaren is undoubtedly one of the best attackers ever to play in the competition.

But he is far from the best penalty taker, with an extraordinary recent record underlining the 30-year-old struggles from the spot.

Maclaren's penalty blunder in Melbourne City's 1-0 loss to Wellington Phoenix on Saturday was his fourth miss in a row dating back to February this year.

 

The Socceroos striker was unfortunate Paulsen made a terrific save but his confidence looks severely dented from the penalty spot.

Maclaren's last scored penalty was against Adelaide in January, but he also missed three others in 2022 against Central Coast Mariners, United City and Western Sydney Wanderers.

It will be interesting to see if City coach Aurelio Vidmar has Maclaren penned in as penalty taker next time they earn a spot kick.

MORE: A-League Men fixtures: Results, draw, schedule for 2023-24 season

Jamie Maclaren recent penalty record

Date Penalty Result Match Result Goalkeeper
Nov 25, 2023 Miss Wellington Phoenix 1-0 Melbourne City Alex Paulsen
Oct 29, 2033 Miss Adelaide United 6-0 Melbourne City Joe Gauci
Mar 12, 2023 Miss Melbourne City 2-1 Brisbane Roar Jordan Holmes
Feb 4, 2023 Miss Melbourne City 6-1 Macarthur FC Nick Suman
Jan 29, 2023 Scored Melbourne City 3-3 Adelaide United Joe Gauci
Jan 2, 2023 Scored Wellington Phoenix 1-3 Melbourne City Oliver Sail
Dec 27, 2023 Miss Melbourne City 1-0 Central Coast Mariners Danny Vukovic

Marko 'Mourinho' Rudan?

What a result for Marko Rudan and his Western Sydney Wanderers with 1-0 Sydney derby victory leaving them unbeaten and top of the league.

Dressed smartly on the sideline in a Mourinho-esque ensemble, Rudan engineered a victory that very much resembled many fighting wins from the Portuguese super coach over the years.

Sydney FC were the more dangerous team in general play, had more chances and applied more pressure - but at the end of the day the Wanderers had the three points and a clean sheet.

After five matches, the Wanderers have only conceded two goals, incidentally which both came against Newcastle in one match.

Much like Mourinho has had to great success, Rudan has been operating a defence-orientated style since joining the Wanderers and the team conceded the least amount of goals last season on their way to a top-four finish - 27 goals in 26 games.

Don't be deceived by the 10 goals scored in five matches this season - five of them came in one match against Western United.

This isn't a criticism of Rudan's team, who are getting results and can lay claim to being one of the early A-League title favourites.

But the similarities with Mourinho don't stop with just the playing style, it's also the way Rudan holds himself on the field.

His combustible nature and animated emotions are also reminiscent of the Portuguese tactician.

You get the feeling Rudan is fighting next to his players in the trenches as opposed to making tactical moves from afar.

Just look at his pre-game speech for the weekend's derby triumph against Sydney FC.

The response from the Wanderers players last season and this campaign to date indicates a strong connection with their coach and his style-slash-personality.

However, the one element of Mourinho that Rudan missing is success as a manager but it appears the Wanderers are right on track to figure in trophy calculations this season.

Budding superstars emerge in the A-League

There has been a general inclination of most A-League clubs to use experienced talent in attacking areas of their teams in recent years.

A preference for a free-scoring, experienced foreign or Australian player has been preferred to the more riskier strategy for results - developing young attackers.

But this A-League season is bucking the trend with fledgling Australian goalscorers having a strong impact on the league.

The development and success of the likes of Garang Kuol and Nestory Irankunda has provided encouragement to clubs to blood youth.

In the Sydney derby, the difference was 21-year-old Wanderers striker Zach Sapsford, who is still yet to start an A-League game.

After an early injury to Brandon Borrello, Sapsford was trusted by Rudan in their biggest regular season match, and he nabbed the 72nd minute winner.

Central Coast Mariners had two teenagers score in their 3-1 victory against derby rivals Newcastle Jets - in their first win of the season.

Ex-Melbourne Victory talent Will Wilson, 21, nabbed the first goal of his A-League career with a spearing finish.

But more was to come for the Mariners with back-flipping 20-year-old Jing Reec also getting his maiden goal with a cracking finish.

For Adelaide United, 18-year-old Luka Jovanovic scored his fourth career A-League goal after being trusted up top by coach Carl Veart.

While he didn't score on the weekend, 18-year-old Thomas Waddingham has become the starting striker for Brisbane Roar and has five goals in all competitions this season.

We have also seen Jaiden Kucharski scored a brace for Sydney FC in their only win of the season and Bayern Munich-bound Irankunda has a goal and an assist to his name so far at only 17 years old.

The future of Australian football is starting to look brighter and we can expect to see these talents nudging the national team in the not-too-distant future.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.