A-League Men: Cameron Cook shines for Perth after an impressive season debut in goals
Perth Glory grabbed their first win of the A-League Men’s season and gave coach Alen Stajcic his first three points in charge with a 2-0 win over the Central Coast Mariners. Ben Smith runs the rule over the round two performance.
Cameron Cook: 8 – Brought in for Oli Sail and made two or three really sharp saves. Looked poised with the ball at his feet and only really had one half-nervy moment when he came for a corner and did not quite corral it, but managed to push it away anyway. The number one jersey is his for the time being.
Darryl Lachman: 7.5 – A really impressive performance from the Curacao defender. Solid and stoic without the ball, and looked to bring the ball out of defence and dribble into the midfield when in possession – even if it was not always the smoothest experience, his desire to do so was important.
Mark Beevers: 7 – Having a really nice start to the season. Leading by example and establishing a really solid partnership alongside Lachman.
Johnny Koutroumbis: 7 – You will read the word ‘solid’ a lot in these ratings – but Koutroumbis typifies it. Had his hands full with Christian Theoharous looking menacing in the first-half, but handled the challenge well and played some nice passes out of defence.
Bruce Kamau: 7 – Came off the bench at half-time and immediately put himself about and worked himself into some nice positions. Squeezed a pass through Brian Kaltak’s legs for Colakovski’s opener.
Aleksandar Susnjar: 6.5 – Still looks to be more of a centre-back than a left-back, but dealt well with the threat posed by Angel Torres and showed some nice footwork to get himself out of trouble at times.
Adam Taggart: 6.5 – Flitted in and out of the game, but combined well with his midfielders when he was involved and looks dangerous in and around the goals. Got some help from Danny Vukovic for his goal.
Stefan Colakovski: 6 – Scored his second goal in three games off the bench and added some spark to proceedings.
Salim Khelifi: 6 – Got his first 45 minutes of the year under his belt after returning from injury. On the game’s peripheral at times, but when he was involved, his guile and creativity to get himself out of trouble and open up the pitch was a bright sign.
Daniel Bennie: 6 – Like Khelifi, added some spark whenever involved despite not being in the thick of the action for parts. had a clever flick-on for a Taggart goal which was correctly ruled offside.
Oli Bozanic: 6 – Upon first glance, looked like he was not sitting quite as deep as previous weeks. Still feels like Perth need some more creativity coming from their central midfielders, although his leadership will be missed when the Glory travel to Western Sydney without him this weekend.
Giordano Colli: 6 – Still a work in progress in the deep-lying role, although some of his defensive work was important late. Will be interesting to see how he fares without Bozanic against the Wanderers.
Riley Warland: 6 – Despite only coming off the bench late, provided a perfect assist for Taggart’s goal.
David Williams: 6 – In his 200th A-League Men’s game, Williams hustled and harried upon his introduction off the bench.
Jacob Muir: 6 – Quiet off the bench, sprayed a few passes around and helped Perth retain possession. His most notable involvement came when the back of his head was unfortunately used as karate training for Angel Torres’ open-palmed strike, leading to a red card for the Mariners man.
Jarrod Carluccio: 5.5 – Alen Stajcic hailed his work before he was brought off at half-time. Still misplaces his share of a few passes and is not the sort of player who the Glory play through, although he did play one perfect through ball for Bennie to chase which ended in a shot.
