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Jamo's a decent A-League left back. To be honest, there's not a great amount of good fullbacks in this league, it's a weakness across the competition. Galloway, however, is one of the better ones in the league. Noone's starting to give me the irrites. He's played at a high level and as we saw in pre-season he's got plenty of ability. He was also involved in several of our goals earlier in the season too, so he's clearly not a spud, however his finishing has been ridiculously sub-par after some quality goals in pre-season/the FFA Cup. Needs to improve, quickly.

As much as I enjoy the fact that we're constantly looking for goals, I think we need to occasionally be flexible enough to change up and defend a lead. As we've seen with even our convincing wins, we're very open right until the end and as a result we've almost always conceded late. Once we were 3-1 up yesterday we should have been a little more compact, especially with the wild wind we were experiencing.

Not strictly a “Melbourne City” topic but given how often it is affecting us this season it seems the right place to post. a lot of talk but I’ve attached the actual rule. now given that ball was going to knock Genreau’s head into next week (or further) there is no way “he made his body bigger”. It’s a straight forward referreeing error by both the ref and VAR. As to the yellow card, words fail me.

Gosh, I reckon some of you are being hard on Delbridge. In the matches I've seen he's saved us so many times with a block or a last-ditch tackle. He's grown as a player since being with us and does pretty well in the MOTM stakes. Very worthy member of the squad IMO.

One of those games that teams like Sydney don't have in seasons when they win things. This was a mess of a performance, for a team with serious title aspirations. Far easier to win than Fridays match in front of a partisan Parramatta crowd.

O-N-E O-F T-H-O-S-E G-A-M-E-S ... write it off and move on.

I still feel physically sick from watching yesterday's match. And I think there is a deep underlying problem across the club. A couple of months ago I watched our youth team cough up a 4-1 lead to go down 6-4 against Manningham. I spoke to the Manningham coaching staff afterwards. Their analysis was in effect, our boys wanted it more. Yesterday the first player to be interviewed was JMac, and he said, in effect, they deserved to win, they were desperate to win. And the bottom line is, I think, that we weren't. In Geelong, they were backs to the wall and fought back even in the worst circumstances. But yesterday they believed their own publicity too much, they felt they were good enough to win, and that with JMac back they would have enough to win. They were complacent and not hungry. That's our cultural problem, and that's why we lost. It's also why, in the wider sense, we don't win anything. We're not desperate enough.

So there have been a few this season, and I thought I understood the rule. Now Im confused Jakobsen vs Sydney - made himself bigger and stopped cross. Penalty I get it Broxham vs Brisbane - arm away from body, hits arm. No penalty, getting confused Delbridge vs Western United - ball comes off Berisha leg, then his own leg brushes arm, penalty and 2nd yellow. Don't understand Toivonen vs Wellington - arm away from body, penalty. Yep all good Genreau vs Brisbane - 1 metre away smashed at his head, protects himself. Penalty and yellow, nah I'm confused again The other thing I don't understand is when a yellow is given for handball and when it isn't. For example the Delbridge one was the most accidental handball I've seen yet he got a yellow. Then you get pretty deliberate ones with no yellow I think everyone is confused

i reckon he just needs a goal.

This season Delbridge has made more mistakes than he did in the entire season last year, where he was impeccable. A lot of it has to go down to the partnership at the back, he seemed to lift a notch playing beside Bart and they complemented eachother perfectly. Some combinations work, some don't. Anyone who remembers Liverpools pairing of Hyppia and Henchoz, neither were considered elite, but as a pairing they were perfect.

Sorry mate, not good enough, let’s continue this discussion until it descends into personal insults! In all seriousness and to make a confession, I do know Curtis personally so I’m somewhat biased. Having played with him I can say that he’s a seriously good footballer. Frustrating that he’s had the terrible run of injuries he’s had. Not many 19 year old Aussies are signed by PL clubs and get selected by the Socceroos for a World Cup squad. I’m glad that he’s back on track because his potential is still pretty big, he just needs a bit of luck. And not that I rate Okon as a coach (who would? Though I think the bloke is knowledgeable about football and talent), but two weeks ago there was an article about how highly Okon still rated Good and how he thought he was getting closer to NT selection.

Agree to disagree I guess. They've been much of the same this season as far as I'm concerned. I hope Good stays fit and continues to impress, I like the guy and he's a good player.

I definitely thought we'd conceded watching in real time and on replay. That was just one bit of luck that we still didn't make the best of. Delbridge was lucky to get away with a penalty in the first half, and not long after Brisbane hit the post and saw the ball run right across the goal before being cleared. Could easily have been 7-3 if we'd been really unlucky. IMHO, we were lucky to get away with 4-3. Lucky to have a striker as clinical as JMac, and lucky not all of the marginal decisions went against us.

The problem for Curt has been his injuries. He's really only now back to peak fitness after years and years of hip problems ever since he injured it against Ecuador in early 2014. Delbridge has improved quite a bit since his first season here and probably has been consistently 'better' for the past year. That has more to do with Curt working his way back from injury though and getting back his skill and sharpness. They aren't really in the same class though. Good is a superior defender and footballer to Delbridge in every way except aerial ability.

I have a major and fundamental problem with reviewing one single incident in slow motion. It's selective review. If you're going to do that for 3 seconds of a match, then review the whole bloody match in slow motion and see what "should have been." The game is played in real time, and that's the way it should be reviewed. On the same principle, I think we need to move on. Didn't Brisbane also hit the post - maybe twice? We threw the match away by silly tactics after we were 3-1 up. One single incident didn't define the match.

in slo mo, showed forward then reverse, over and over, it was handball. In natural speed, it was pure split second self preservation that made no difference to the play itself, nor did it make the player 'bigger'. Personally, its a horrible decision.

I like Curtis Good just fine, but there's no way he's better than Delbridge IMO.

I'm sorry, but that is a shit and simplistic way of looking at what was a team implosion by us yesterday. We were cruising the whole game when in 15 minutes of madness in the second half we lost our defensive shape (as well as our composure) and compeltely lost control of the game. To concede 4 goals in a half regardless of conditions just isn't good enough. Brisbane did make changes but as a team we switched off. Players weren't running back as hard to mark players, our back 4 was all over the place and it doesn't help when our goalkeeper has little to no control over his box. Bouzanis can make a decent one on one save but when it comes to whether he should stay or come off his line 9/10 he'll stay back and pray the defender's save him with the 1/10 time he'll come out and get caught in no man's land (see the first goal from O'Donovan as the example) bouzanis has been getting away with his shit play for weeks now but it is time to bench him and give someone else a go. Such a dissapointing result considering we should've won but we will just have to redeem ourselves on Friday. Lose on Friday, and we are pretenders

To clarify, I think that's the XI Mombaerts would pick if all players were fit. I'm basing this on who he picked in pre-season (when Berenguer was fit) and exposed form now. But I'll try to justify that XI. Brillante was the single pivot during pre-season. We usually went with Berenguer Brillante Metcalfe and that gives us the best balance IMO. Brillante is a very good player because he a) positions himself very well b) works hard to close off lanes and the space just in front of the defence c) is good on the ball and d) is a deep-lying playmaker. As we've seen, Brillante can hit long passes over the last line of defence, which stretches the midfield and defensive lines of our opponents and creates attacking depth (very important principle in football). This gives our two central midfielders more time and space in the middle third when we're in attacking phases of play. Metcalfe and Berenguer are also very adept at using half-spaces and making the most of this extra space between the lines. So is Genreau but crucially Metcalfe and Berenguer like to dribble. While Berenguer isn't perfect at counter pressing, he still gives us penetration and intelligence and is good in tight spaces. Metcalfe is still building his fitness but presses well and is statistically very good in an attacking sense when comparing him to other central midfielders. I like his progression. He always looks to break down defences. Yes he makes the wrong decisions but that's just inexperience. He's absolutely worth persisting with. Windbichler just looks like a good footballer and has proved himself at a higher level. He needs more time to build fitness and sharpness but I think that Mombaerts will choose him over Delbridge. I like Delbridge but Good is better, so Delbridge goes to the bench. Happy to wait and see on Windbichler though. Cabrera gives us width when he plays on the right. Yesterday showed that he can deliver excellent crosses and seems to have a good relationship with Maclaren. Noone likes to cut in and is more of a modern winger but it leaves us a bit exposed when he's on the left and Jamieson has tucked in and Galloway has pushed high. Brisbane went down that side quite a bit yesterday so it's a problem that needs to be looked at. Is Wales the answer? Don't know. If we went with a more attacking midfield like the three above then maybe it's worth starting Wales on the left because he presses so well.

Bouzanis Galloway Windbichler Good Jamieson Berenguer Brillante Metcalfe Cabrera Maclaren Noone That's the XI if everyone is fit IMO.

Not much he could really do with the bench we had available. We really missed Metcalfe's workrate in the middle, Luna offers nothing defensively and Griff looked spent in the second half.

The handball call was totally not in the spirit of the game but at the very least, it's an equaliser for the shitty one Fenton and Wellington copped against us so it balances out. Very average refereeing all-round though

@neio the only people that are confused are the refs and commentator, the rules a crystal clear. You are correct in all your examples. Delbridge and Genreau incidents are not penalties. This league is suffering from incompetence once again and wrecking the game. You are spot on.

Really disappointing to let that one go, shouldn't be losing from that position What really shits me though is that odonovan gets all the applause and was given MOTM, when it was Amadi Holloway who caused all the problems for us. Maybe it's cause I don't like odonovan The 2nd penalty needs to be cleared up by whoever is in charge. Cause he didn't make himself bigger and he did what every person would do when a ball gets billeted at your head. Horrible decision Onto next week now, we're still on top And also put your hand up if you were one of those who said 9 months ago that maclaren wasn't worth marquee status please

Warren Joyce won his first 4 games

This bloke can only do well against NPL teams. He is a Donkey and we should already get rid of him. No point getting an international player if Tommy Oar could probably do as good as him. As for Jamo, I had enough of him. He is the weakest fucking fullback in the league and we always get slaughtered on his side. Fuck it, bring Ben Garuccio back

Bart has played the full 90 in Panathinaikos' last 4 games, only conceding twice in those 4 games, prior to Bart starting they'd conceded 8 goals in their opening 3 matches. Watching Southampton being violated by Leicester, there's no doubt in my mind Bart is better than every single defender in the Southampton team.

How can I break it to you gently? Our beloved sausage vendor is playing for WU.