Babbel’s rabble need to forget fear and find confidence

By Deputy Chief EditorDecember 2, 2018

179 1 minute read

If Western Sydney Wanderers continue to put in peformances of the kind they did in their 4-0 drubbing by Melbourne Victory they will quickly earn a new nickname: Babbel's Rabble.

The Sydney team were woeful. They had little fight, no cohesion and were simply out-played and out-thought in every facet of the game.

Trouble: Markus Babbel needs to find a way to kick-start his floundering Wanderers.Credit:AAP

Victory has rightly won plaudits for the quality of its play and it is doubtful that any A-League side could have held them out in a first half of scintillating football.

But there is no doubt that as good as Victory was, the Wanderers' ineptitude helped make them look better.

It wasn't lost on their German coach Markus Babbel. At half-time he told TV interviewers that the first 45 minutes had been a case of "boys against men".

And while he said the second half – when they conceded only once, having been 3-0 down at the interval – was a bit better, there wasn't much in it.

"They deserved to win. The first half we were non-existent on the pitch, we lost every challenge, we had too much fear for them, it was like a rabbit in front of a snake.

"The second half was a bit better but it wasn't very good."

Losing to a team of Victory's calibre wasn't the problem. Defeats for a team in transition happen. It's the manner of the capitulation that concerned Babbel.

"You can lose against them, it's how you lose that's important. It was men against boys … if you go in with fear in a game there is no chance."

He is at a loss to understand why, in a competition without the threat of relegation, players play with fear.

"I don't understand this, in this league nothing can happen. You can't drop down a division, there is no pressure. You have to fight for it, you don't get a present.

"We lost every challenge, it's not a surprise we lost," said the coach, who admitted he knew how unrewarding the night might be for his players as early as the first minute.