Central Coast Mariners thoroughly handled Brisbane Roar by a score of 4-1 in A-League action. This game was not close. But Brisbane, as a team that has the league’s worst attack by a mile, but also one of the best defences, does have some players with interesting and unique profiles.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Carlo Armiento
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 23
- Date of Birth: 04/06/1999
- Current club: Brisbane Roar
- Career: Adelaide United, Perth Glory
- Position: Attacking Midfielder
- Preferred foot: Left
Carlo Armiento played in a number of attacking positions for Brisbane Roar in this match. At various times he popped up on both wings and in the centre of the field. He, like the rest of the Brisbane Roar attacking unit, was quite isolated in this game and only had limited chances to impact the game. But he still showed a range of qualities that have led me to consider him one of the league’s most underrated players. Brisbane’s attack is terrible. But even in this sub-optimal setup, Armiento is a consistent shot generator. Part of this is that he shoots from anywhere at any time. In this match, his two shots were both from dead balls (a free kick and a corner he almost bent into the goal) but I have seen him do that from open play plenty of times. Just take a look at this shot map from the past season via Wyscout:
It’s very much a quantity-over-quality approach. But the sheer volume, even on a terrible team means that he is a goal threat. Armiento can also be a dangerous crosser, as he showed in this match. His deliveries were a real danger from both dead balls and open play. Armiento is a reasonably tricky dribbler. He forced a couple of fouls in dangerous areas by beating players 1v1. However, his first touch is a little bit lacking. It is not terrible but it does let him down from time to time. This contributes to an overall lack of efficiency in his game. Armiento has also played as a full-back in his career. I think he is much better in an attacking position but he is decent at defending high up the pitch. He is a little bit quicker than average but he is not going to dominate games with his pace or any other aspect of his physicality.
Rating – B1
Armiento is either a very strong B1 or a very weak A1. He turns 24 in a couple of months so he is not really a prospect at this stage. But he is an effective volume shooter and crosser, who hardly gets any opportunities to rack up volume because his team is so bad. His contract expires at the end of the season so somebody smart (and hopefully better at attacking than Brisbane Roar) should be all over that. That might be a better A-League team or a team in a European league of a similar level. He has Italian citizenship so a move to Europe would definitely be possible.
Taras Gomulka
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 21
- Date of birth: 16/09/ 2001
- Current club: Brisbane Roar
- Career: Adelaide United (Y), Melbourne City
- Position: Central Midfielder
- Preferred Foot: Right
Taras Gomulka played as a central midfielder in this match. The main thing he had going for him was that he was a fairly good interrupter. Central Coast was on the attack for the vast majority of the game and there was a lot of defensive work to do. Gomulka covered quite a bit of ground and was good at tracking back to make interventions. But he did get sucked out of position occasionally. This was especially apparent in the Mariner’s first goal when he dropped right on top of his own backline and as a result, was much too slow to close down Jason Cummings.
He also could have done a better job of tracking runners arriving late in the Brisbane penalty area. A lack of awareness was also a big problem for him with the ball. He passed into traffic a couple of times, creating further problems. Now, to be fair Brisbane is not good and there were not always great options available. But Gomulka’s decision-making was not the best. He was also a very conservative passer, making very few progressive passes. When your passing isn’t progressive or secure, you really aren’t offering much.
Rating – B2
Gomulka is young and not without positive traits. But I think the best-case scenario for him is probably being a good A-League player.
Jordan Courtney-Perkins
- Nationality: Australian
- Age: 20
- Date of Birth: 06/11/2002
- Current club: Rakow (on loan to Brisbane Roar)
- Career: Brisbane Roar (Y), Rakow, Warta Poznan
- Position: Centre-Back
- Preferred foot: Left
Jordan Courtney-Perkins played on the left side of a back three for Brisbane in this match. He showed some positive traits as well as some negative ones that may hold back his development. Courtney-Perkins has a lot of characteristics that make him an attractive prospect. He is big, standing 6’2 and being solidly built. He is left-footed, which isn’t always easy to find. He is also a really strong 1v1 defender.
On the ground, he is not easy to dribble past and in the air, he is rarely beaten. A big left-footed centre-back who wins most of his duels, and is young, is always going to be very attractive to teams. But these exciting characteristics come with some drawbacks. The first of these is that Courtney-Perkins is not very mobile. He was not beaten very often in this match but he struggled with foot races. He also seems a bit lacking in other athletic traits like flexibility and balance. He moves a bit like a stiff plastic action figure. One of the goals in this match was caused because he couldn’t get his body shape correct to deal with an awkward ball in the midst of a goalmouth scramble and an opponent was able to poke the ball into the goal.
He is also very limited with the ball at his feet. He was not able to make passes under pressure. However, he did get into advanced positions surprisingly often, appearing on the left flank and putting in crosses on a couple of occasions. So he does have ambitions to get around the pitch even if he doesn’t necessarily have the tools to do so.
Rating – A2
Courtney-Perkins has some major drawbacks that will be a challenge to overcome. But, at 20, he has a lot of time to overcome them. I would be surprised if he made it to the highest levels of the game but it seems probable he could re-establish himself with his parent club and build his career in Europe from there.