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The club are trying their hardest right now.

I don't think it's so much the full backs being "high" as way too narrow, especially when the ball is being brought across form the opposite side of the field. That is okay when the ball is actually on the other side, but once teams bring it across the field, we stay narrow for too long so there is an easy pass to feet out to the wide winger, who has time and space to get it under control and run at the full back. This is a system thing as I have been watching everyone do it for years: Ramsay, Clisby, Garruchio, Retre, etc. Whoever plays there does the same thing, so they are being coached to do this. They just take forever to get across and cover the wide player. I understand the need to not allow the angled ball between the CB and full back but we take it to extremes and make it way too easy to get it to the wide guy.

If this was the I.C.E/S16 wannabe little fucks, consider this a warning. Pull your fucking heads in.

TTIM: This communal Facebook sharing blow job for Waleed Aly after he stated some bullshit about ISIS being shitcunts. #Woop-di-fkn-do

I'm not sure of that. Richardson (RB) and Millar (LB) are genuine defenders. They're fit and available - Millar has even scored for us this season. WTF are they on the books for if they don't play when the first choice FBs are "injured"?

......why did I join again????? Oh, that's right, the introduction of the W-league team with really good signings.......

UOTYH 1: Terrorism isn't that big a deal. Don't get me wrong, I understand it scares people that mass deaths can occur so instantly and with no way of stopping it, but in many ways the fear is irrational. The chances of you or someone you know dying due to terrorism is tiny. There are many many things that will kill you first. Honestly you might as well just lock yourself in your room and not step out, but then again mould has probably killed more people in Melbourne (or even Australia) than terrorists so you're still fucked. Basically you might as well just kill yourself if you're going to be afraid of such improbabilities (that's another thing you're way more likely to die of, suicide). Worst of all is this shit always leads to some more retarded nanny state laws coming into affect. UOTYH 2: While I'm sure most people prefer innocent people wherever they live to not die at the hands of terrorists, it's 100% normal and fine to care a lot more about terrorist attacks in other Western countries than in Beirut or Pakistan. People look at the attacks in Paris and think "Oh shit if that can happen in Paris it can happen here", hence they care since it affects their lives, some terrorist attack in Beirut or Pakistan doesn't really affect their lives so they don't care much. I don't see the problem? This whole "what about Beirut" thing is some fucked up logic.

is someone gonna post the victory squad or should i do that

Pull your head in. That's extremely weighest.

If you had told me two years ago that right now Heart would be owned by Man City, being coached by JVS and in the bottom half of the ladder and playing Brisbane who are coached by JA and coming first... Well, I would have laughed my head off.

Yeah he's 18 years old and making mistakes, time to write him off...........

Like many anglo aussies I didn't give a fuck about soccer at the time. It was only after watching the game vs Croatia in the world cup that I was converted, so that qualifying game was important to me although i didn't know it at the time.

Fuck all you negative cunts. It's a derby, get pmped

Partially agree with this. Point 1: Terrorism is a big deal but not because a random person will die from an unsuspecting attack. It is a big deal because of your last line in the paragraph that the government will introduce greater security laws. I don't like using the term nanny state because the word nanny makes the whole thing look rather childish and infantilises the argument - it is more of a totalitarian state. What is even worse is that these laws are conducted by fallible human beings which means in the end everyone will fall foul of these laws - that was one of the reasons why the former Chilean dictator, Pinochet, fell. Even if you were a law abiding middle class citizen you could come under suspicion or worse. And your logos is correct but your pathos is thoroughly deficient. Even in ancient times (European at least) to be murdered by another human being was despicable (but not so in battle) but to be killed by disease or by a hungry beast was accepted. This reasoning must be a primordial instinct in human beings more than likely to do with trust. Point 2: You are right here. According to traveller.com.au over 1 million people travel to France every year and you don't see that many people holidaying in Pakistan or Lebanon. The other thing is that we automatically assume that they have first class security services like Australia does and so any failure there could also mean that our security services will also fail. If a bomb goes off in Pakistan its a bit like going swimming in a NT river and finding a crocodile but in Paris is like finding a croc in the Yarra. I don't know about the ancient times but certainly in 1683 when the Ottomans attacked Vienna, neither the Germans, nor the French, British or Spaniards gave a shit. Although if the Ottomans would have taken Vienna then it is more than likely that the whole of Europe would have fallen under their control. It is as you say, human nature.

I wonder when people will understand that flares are so anti-social and not funny at all. I'm sorry your kids and others in the crowd have been subject to what might be carcinogenic materials coming from them. I know that asthmatics are particularly affected by the flares. Just plain hooligans and not supporters of any football club. We have just seen a terrible situation in Paris unfold. Heaven forbid that someone brings in something worse than a flare to a game. It's just too easy AND THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE COVERING FOR THEM. For me, check everybody for flares and if you get caught - a life ban and public pilloring!

That's short-term thinking, we need definite improvement over the rest of the season. JVS will pull one out of the bag and then go back to normal with another limp performance at home against Perth.

i hate to say this and never thought that I would, BUT i hope we get flogged this week and finally put an end to his facade. if Bambi can beat the the tanned one, surely the powers that be seen that the experiment is over thankfully I didn't attend last Friday, but i had to explain ( as we watched a replay)to my daughters boyfriend, why we are so shite , there's an old expression about something being as useful as tits on a bull well a friend of mine has changed that to "it's about as useful as a Melbourne City Trophy Cabinet"

old age arthritis

I just find boring as batshit when somebody thinks it's profound to point out on FB that one story is more newsworthy than a supposedly similar story... this has been happening since the fucken Printing Press was invented, in fact you could say the same thing about the way different news spread amongst the public in bloody Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece. The greater public will always found certain stories more newsworthy than other stories for any number of reasons... its human nature and the press just acts accordingly to its audience. It does not mean you have too feel this way or that even the journalists reporting the stories themselves personally feel as such.

With all the rightful criticism around this place it's amazing to think we're only one win from third and two wins off top spot. CFG could fix this mess whenever they want but they choose to do nothing. It baffles me.

Death, Taxes, and The Unsackable Dutchman.

Is there anything in the A League rules that states that our A League team members have to be male?

Still remember that night like it was yesterday. Could sense walking to the stadium that there was something special about it. What a night it was though. Vividly remember after the game people in the packed streets standing on top of their cars, tooting horns, hugging each other and every establishment that was open full of green and gold. Greatest night in football history in this country that I've ever experienced. Doubt anything bar winning the World Cup will get as close to it.

there is no doubt that of the 13 Kisnorbo, Hughes, Zullo, Koren, Williams and Brown will be gone Zullos' injuries will stop him being resigned, as with Brown don't need to say anything regarding Koren & Williams Kisnobo and Hughes will retire as or the others, they are young and have to prove there worth( some have and some haven't)

One of the downsides of having a reserved seat membership A,B, or C is that you cannot generally get seats next to you for friends etc. because they are allocated to other members.

It wouldn't surprise me if the definition changed. The current rule is that A-League clubs must have "a minimum of 3 Australian Players aged 20 or under" (http://www.a-league.com.au/about/competition-rules/1aw1ybfl0o1uo1k3rz9suqvqbb). Marino and Melling don't count; they are outside the 23-man squad: "Each Hyundai A-League club is afforded three additional youth-aged players outside of its 23-player squad with Marino occupying one of those three spots alongside Jacob Melling" (http://www.melbournecityfc.com.au/article/announcement-retre-and-marino-sign-with-melbourne-city-fc/kmflgwex2scq1b5h772cvrtio) I don't think short-term contracts like Richardson and Espindola count. TBH I'm not sure when the age cut-off date is. But I guess Chapman, Mauk, Garuccio and Kuzmanovski could all conceivably count as our 20 or under players. One thing to keep in mind is that we'll need 3 players 20 or under next season, and Chapman, Mauk and Garuccio won't count (as they'll then be too old). So Kuzmanovski could help meet that requirement next season, so we're not caught last minute signing youth players who fail to merit a second of action over the whole season (Ante Tomic anyone?). Anyway I do agree that the squad is a little unbalanced, and would improve with another senior player or two (similar to Jaliens. He had a great effect on the whole team). But all up the squad should be good enough and we need to see more players playing to their potential.

Yes, you're both right, it was a poor choice of words to say it isn't a big deal. My point was that the fear of it is quite irrational, even though I do understand why it scares people so much. And certainly a fair point Nate about the dangers of not keeping it in check. While I obviously (based on my previous posts) agree with you New Convert about it leading to an almost totalitarian state. If anything they would have superior security services. GIGN is considered by many in the know to be the best counter terrorism unit in the world, probably a very hard thing to judge accurately though, but at the very least I imagine they would be close to the best. Australia seems a long way behind. Not sure it makes a huge difference though, can't see terrorists in Western countries (not much scope for training, no experience) going to well against any trained, organised, well resources counter terrorism unit. And in many cases the counter terrorism units are not even going to get a chance to stop/minimise an attack. As for intelligence, Australia seems to do pretty well, and with all the intelligence sharing between nations I doubt there is going to be much of a difference between France and Australia, but it's hard to imagine a country like France having anything but a stronger intelligence service as well (nuclear armed, perm un security council member, global power, more money, etc).

Am I a bad fan if I want us to lose? Get our high-profile coach in in time for the Friday home game against Perth and launch hype based off that. The charade can't go on for much longer.

Alright. This is only a matter of time, not a matter of results. My bet is after the Brisbane game.

by God... how dare you murmur such idiocy

If Retre hadn't been played in the right back position he'd be as invisible as Richardson is at the moment.

Well I would hope that FFA is putting pressure on the franchise owners to sort out the on field performance quickly. The League will live or die on the next TV deal and MCFC is certainly a 'leaner' not a 'lifter' when it comes to providing a compelling viewing spectacle. Match attendance figures are being carried by the visitors and to a lesser extent WSW, our attendance figures are as embarrassing as they are totally predictable and deserved. I'm sure that attendance figures would be much the same if we were offered free entry to the next home game and a pro rata refund to all existing season ticket holders, people just don't want to come at any cost.

This is another one of those games I feel like I dont want us to win. Just for purely symbolism reasons about us losing to JA and having it reflect badly on JVS. Although once I start watching the game that will all change haha

Well I finally watched the game today and it wasn't very good viewing. In the first half we seemed to be sitting too deep when we went forward, and our midfield didn't support our forwards enough. The team just didn't play with any coordination and their defence had an easy time of it. When they had the ball, they moved forward as a team. Our only real chance came courtesy of Redmayne and Novillo should have taken it first time, but with a lack of match practice, probably wasn't confident enough, and took a heavy touch which allowed Redmayne to save. We on the whole were defensively sound, but that is easy to do when you don't push up. Once again JVS made 2 subs at the start of the second half. One enforced and the other because Kuzi was invisible. So I wouldn't say they were bad subs, Gameiro isn't really a wide man, but the alternative in Espindola wasn't good enough. Why he was on the bench in place of Zinni I have no idea. Then a couple of minutes in, they had a throw in outside their box, which we alow them to take, then decide to press. Topor-Stanley then plays a simple ball to the side of Melling, taking out him, Gameiro, Bruno, Mauk and Novillo. Retre tries to press, but is held off and the ball is played outside of Paartalu and we have a 4 on 3 for them. The cross is made and Nichols in acres of space knocks it in. That is schoolboy football at it's worse. If that wasn't bad enough, we then get caught out by stopping because the linesman raises his flag, instead of playing to the whistle, something you learn at 8 years of age. The third goal was equally bad, because we are trying to keep a high line, instead of just simply defending. There was nothing creative in any of those goals, and they were all gift wrapped for WSW. Too many players let themselves down IMO, but the manager is the one who picks the team, tactics and formation. He is failing in all three. Only three players can take anything out of the game. Sorenson, who had practically nothing to do, and every goal he had no chance with. Hughes, who played a solid enough game and showed us he is a good option if he is ever fit. Finally Paartalu, who I have criticised before, but was easily our best outfield player. There was many negatives, but Kuzi was anonymous in the game. Retre, for all his energy, was positionally terrible throughout. We all know Garuccio isn't a left back. If Hughes and Kisnorbo are out for the next game, we are really in trouble.

So highly rated and yet look where we are? Whilst JVS needs to go all these assistant coached can go with him for what i care. We need a bit clean out.

This so much. The squad lacks balance because we do have some old players, so old that they are continually injured and therefore the young players all get thrown in, at the same time, the deep end. And we have Trifiro and he does not get a start or gets subbed on.

I disagree. Club administrators often point to social media to discuss the positives and growth the club has made, such as these comments by Scott Munn: "Munn says that he and the parent company are happy with the progress Melbourne is making after a season under City's control. "Our metrics on social media are incredible. We grew 150 to 160 per cent last year. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are really growing exponentially. Season tickets were up over 11,000 – we grew 70 per cent. "The goal for us is 14,000. We are very bullish we will get there. We improved significantly on the field last year, up from last to fourth, and lost to the ultimate winners who were the best team all year. "This year we have to make another step forward." [July 21, 2015] http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/soccer-we-may-be-owned-by-city-but-we-are-not-a-mini-manchester-melbourne-boss-declares-20150720-gig79p.html So likewise I'd say the club would be very sensitive to wave after wave of negative social media content, like with the floods of negative comments on Facebook and Twitter (which we also saw just before Melbourne Heart sacked Aloisi) after the recent losses. Also, it makes it even harder for the club to attract new supporters and members with so much negativity on the club's official social media sites, and especially as the club is 6,000 memberships below their stated target of 14,000 memberships I'm sure they are pretty unhappy with the social media reactions for that reason as well. I'm not saying negative social media content would force CFG's hand, but I do believe it turns up the temperature and could be a significant factor in CFG's decision-making. I think this is a massively important issue that hasn't been acknowledged enough. - There was disappointment after Melbourne Heart's First Season, and expectations ratcheted up for the next season. - Melbourne Heart's Second Season brought our first finals appearance, but the season was definitely underwhelming as the team never got close to a trophy. - Melbourne Heart's Third Season was a massive disappointment, with the team finishing equal last on points. Expectations massively ratcheted up for the next season. - The club bought a real international marquee for the first time in since the club's First Season, but the Fourth Season was a catastrophe. 4 points out of a possible 36 after 12 rounds. The coach sacked. And the team finished dead last. - So expectations increased every season, since underwhelming season followed underwhelming season. CFG took over, and expectations reached fever pitch. The club signed 3 marquees for the Fifth Season--Villa, Koren, Kennedy--but they all flopped. The club finished an ambiguous and rather middling 5th, with a semi-final exit. So here we are, in the club's Sixth Season. The club only signed 1 real marquee out of 3 salary-cap exempt spots, Aaron Mooy, and he of course was signed by Melbourne Heart before CFG took over, and it was a no brainer for CFG to re-sign him as a marquee (the only way the club could keep him). As far as I can see CFG have not brought one big player to the club, they haven't brought one real marquee to this club, and the contrast with NYCFC couldn't be any starker. And above all the team is faltering, out of a finals position in 7th with 3 losses, 1 draw and 2 wins--only 7 points out of a possible 18--and the season is a quarter finished after the next round. Expectations have accumulated after 6 years, and they couldn't be higher at the moment. Most supporters have been around for more this season, and keenly feel that the club has failed to keep up with mounting expectations. We're currently below where we finished last season, despite the mounting expectations. The other team in Melbourne have won all 3 trophies in Australian football this year, and we're no where near them ATM (and we don't even match them in derbies anymore, after being 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses with Victory at the end of Melbourne Heart's final season [the Fourth Season]). So not only is it an underwhelming season for the few new supporters, but this season is presently a very underwhelming season for the majority of supporters who have loyally followed the club for multiple reasons. This season is reinforcing the powerfully negative narrative that surrounds this club: Melbourne's smaller club, losing culture, perennial underachievers. The club is liable to lose the few supporters it has. And new supporters won't sign up. So I strongly believe club management vastly underestimated the urgency regarding which they had to improve this club. CFG were never, ever going to get a "honeymoon" period with the Melbourne market. So unless club management can change things soon and get the club on the path to real success, I'm afraid long-term damage will be done because of the mounting expectations surrounding the club, and the negative narrative that this club has failed to break loose from. This season the club must be made a lot more successful, to ensure that the club is in a stable and successful position in 5 years time and beyond. A lot more than the present season is at stake.

Yes the team needs youth players. But I think the issue is every position on the pitch has a backup youth player. So far this season besides our centre back position with Hughes it's all youth. Right back, Retre. Left back, garruccio. Midfield, Mauk and Melling. Left wing, Kuzi. Right wing, decker or Zinni. Forward, Dekker. I'm all for youth but our back up players are paper thin due to their age. Look at that backline on Friday, Retre, Chapman, Garrucio. Even Clisby is only 23. I don't blame the players though. This is all on JVS for not having more experienced players to back up our starting eleven.

It's pretty much garbage. All my son got that was remotely useful was a bib with the city logo stuck on it. And even that was such shoddy quality it shriveled up after going through the wash! Would much rather he had got the signed certificate like they used to do.

In all honesty, Novillo should've just whipped out his third limb and k.o-ed the linesman with it rather than arguing.

Should rename this thread to "Step over Steve'

Have it on good authority JVS won't be here past January

Here's a crazy idea! Why don't we sack JvS and bring in a more prominent manager, win our games and watch our membership explode!

I have subjected myself to watching the game again - then had a single malt, so perhaps not in the best state of mind to write. Clisby wasn't great last night but he wasn't shockingly bad. Garrucio and Retre were bad. Chapman was poor. Hughes was OK. So why the performance from defence last night? Well it seems that the players were congested around the box (and quite often inside the box) meaning that WSW had acres of space to run down the left hand side. If that wasn't happening, Garrucio would be way up the ground, desperately trying to get back to defend the acres of space he left behind. Why was this the case? The more I looked at the game, it comes down to JVS. Either his game plan was crap, or the players were not following the game plan, and it is his job to ensure that they do follow the game plan. The problem for next week is that Kisnorbo will most likely miss (pre-match commentary was that it was a 2 week injury). Hughes had problems with his knee, so at a pinch I would say that he is out. Zullo still injured. Franjic is having his first run in months with NYL today. That leaves for the defence Retre, Chapman, Clisby, Garrucio and Richardson. Right now if JVS has not been sacked, he better be doing his homework on how to defend.

So with us doing so poorly and these voodoo injuries that keep popping up, Williams injured and Kisnorbo injured just before the game, and with Aloisi doing well up in Brisbane I'm just thinking that this club is simply cursed.

Let me just add to your comments Benzema23, I left the game early as i had to catch a train early for reasons which do not concern any one on this forum. We walked across the footbridge to the G and on walking around the G on the concourse we were greeted by the early leaving so called Active supporters who were on the lower level near Brunton Ave, they were singing loudly about how great City are which is their right but suddenly a FLARE was hurled at us, narrowly missing my wife and i so i picked it up and hurled it back. Suddenly we had a couple of louts from that crowd running up the steps at us, the leader of which shouted that i was an idiot for throwing the flare at them i mearly pointed out to this yob that if they throw them at me i will throw them back. it seem he was most upset that someone should throw a flare at them, heaven forbid.I think it is worth pointing out that most of that group were wearing black a few were wearing club tops all of them were somewhat well oiled so were feeling very brave enough to try an attack on a 76 year old man and his 75 year old wife. If this is the type of active supporters we have then this may well be the last season ticket that we will buy, i don't have to go to watch a team of losers which is what we have at the moment as i can sit at home and if they continue to play like this at least i can switch it off. Apart from that it was situation normal, players that cannot stitch two passes together and have no cohesion whatsoever what a bunch of losers, i am absolutely disgusted. JVS HAS TO GO !!!!!

JVS has been failing with the man management this season. He said numerous times in pre-season that the team was striving towards consistency this season. Well, judging JVS by his own goal that he set pre-season, he and the team has failed abysmally over the first 6 rounds to achieve consistency. The squad has significant imperfections that are now becoming clearer and clearer. But still JVS built the squad so the blame for the squad weaknesses must be laid on him. To specify the key squad weaknesses: - The team signed several players who were injured at the time of signing (like Franjic, Zullo, Gameiro, Novillo), and those players were expected to be 1st choice starters - The team stuffed up with its trump cards, the marquee signings. Despite our club's vast resources and backing we had 0 marquees playing against WSW, 6 rounds into the season (Mooy was always bound to miss multiple games this season due to Socceroos call-ups, Koren is an unmitigated dud, and for some reason the guest player stint is still unused) - We signed 3 EPL has-beens and aren't getting value for money with our Visa spots. Fornaroli and Novillo have shown what good Visa players can do, and Victory are just about carried by their Visa players, with 1 quality defender, 1 quality midfielder and 3 quality forwards. 2 out of 5 Visa players (and it's been 1.5 over the first 6 games with Novillo not being fully fit) is simply not good enough, and again just like with the marquee spots we are needlessly handicapping our team because of flawed recruitment - The team is stacked with young players. I don't think this would be so much a problem if we had another good Visa player or two, and maybe another marquee or two. But with our squad the team is dependent on a lot of kids (Garuccio, Clisby, Chapman, Retre, Melling, Mauk, Kuzmanovski) playing leading roles in an A-League team, and the kids are really struggling If JVS' man management was better, and I have little doubt that other coaches could have gotten significantly more out of our squad despite it's shortcomings, then the squad's weaknesses could perhaps have been glossed over. But JVS hasn't shown any fire and the players haven't looked very fired up under him this season. We haven't seen outstanding 90 minute performances from Melbourne City players where you have to give the players lots of praise for their pure effort. And the lack of fight and old fashion hard-work reflects very poorly on the coach. It's now at the point where a good new coach being appointed could potentially outweigh any upheaval there might be from a mid-season coaching change. So CFG should be very open to drastic decisions to rally Melbourne City's season and get the team back on course to contending for top honours, as I believe we still can this season.

Also, can active please stop trying to start the 'stand up if you love city' when we are behind?

If the capos can't get people to chant and sing then they also need to have a look at themselves rather than blaming the masses. I hate to say it but our "active" area has been characterised by formulaic, repetitive stuff with very little humour, wit or variety and plenty of banality. There are times I have been embarassed by how lame we can be. It has improved very gradually in the last couple of years, but is still generally ordinary. I guess repetitive boring chanting is better than none at all, but really. So perhaps it is those leading the chants who are the flogs. Just a thought.