South’s attacking squad is bursting at the seams. Aguek, Lavale, Bonada, Habib are all tussling for starting spots and yet four games in to the Australian Championship our top scorer is… Lampard? Ok, it’s not like he’s been bagging hatricks (he has two goals and is joint with Aguek) but this emphasises how South players are expected to be versatile on the pitch.

Playing in wing back, Lampard has been expected to defend at time and attack at times. How does he manage this coverage? Firstly South is tactically playing as a unit. In some phases the team sits most players behind the ball, here Lampard goes into defensive mode, in other phase the entire team pushed high up the field, here Lampard goes into attacking mode.

One thing that has allowed this to happen is South’s concentration of players in the middle. The wing backs are covered by a back three, and also by defensive minded central midfielders. Pasquali and Giannakopoulos play the role of shutting down opposition play through the middle and also offering an accessible outlet to play the ball out of trouble. If Lampard is in defence and under pressure, he has a safe option in the middle to play the ball. If Lampard up front and oppositions get in behind him, central defenders and midfielders are able to cover.

The situation however had nearly broken a couple of time. Where South is pressing with the ball oppositions on the counter can often find them selves in two on twos if they can beat the central midfield line. This happened often in the first Olympic game, and was the cause of the goal conceded in the second.

That’s the cost-benefit. Optionality and overloads up front, but vulnerability on transition through the middle if the central players lose their duals. There is a lot of pressure on Spink and Jankovic to get their duals right, and for the most part, they have. The only three goals we have conceded to far have been long shots (what can you do?) and Jankovic beaten in the box following transition.

Overall though the tactics have been fun to watch. South can on occasion sit back, and look a little boring, or at worst where the passing lanes wide are cut off, seem a little clueless in possession, but with the ball South has shown versatility and applied significant pressure on teams – often winning games through sheer, quantity of shots and playing the laws of inevitability.

In the next few games it will be interesting to see what we do with our defensive line. Will we rest Jankovic and Spink who have been so critical? With Marshall injured (supposedly) do we have appropriate depth in the position? Will we continue to see Lampard roaming forward, or will he revert to a more conventional full back role when we face better quality opposition?