On Friday night, Melbourne City and Brisbane Roar go head to head at AAMI Park in a fixture where both teams will be looking to open the season on a high. As the build up to the match continues, we compare the side’s respective defensive rocks in City’s Michael Jakobsen and the Roar’s Luke De Vere.
When comparing the two defenders, last season, both players showed their defensive styles with Jakobsen’ smoothness on the ball and De Vere’s stern tackling throughout the season, playing a key role for their clubs. De Vere fronted up for 25 matches last season while Jakobsen notched 17 games throughout 2016/17 with a calf injury stunting his first season in Australia. With Jakobsen fit and firing and with the captain’s armband in hand, he’ll look to maintain a consistent run of games in 2017/18.
When talking about passing in the back third, Jakobsen reflects his side’s style with a success rate of 86.8% also having a better passing accuracy in his own half with 94.7% compared to De Vere’s 90.2%
De Vere beats out Jakobsen in the areas of tackling, having a tackle success rate of 79.5% compared to Jakobsen’s 76.9% but Jakobsen was ahead of De Vere 2016/17 in the amount of aerial duels won despite De Vere’s physical prowess and games played.
As outlined by Jakobsen earlier in the week, defence has been a real focus for his side this pre-season and the former Danish international will have a lot to do with the success of that this season.
With the two key defenders going head to head this weekend, the man that finishes on top on Friday night will have a lot to do with getting their side’s season off to the right start.
