mattyh001

irrespective of the result, we always had a chance. personally, i would have rathered Sydney won since they have Perth at home next week while MacArthur travel to Wellington. In any case, a win now for us against Western United and a failure by Sydney to win against Perth means we go 5th

So we host Western United next Sunday while the Wanderers are away to victory. Might not even need to beat the nomads next week. Interestingly MacArthur play Sydney tonight and then Wellington away next week. Sydney host Perth next week. Both Sydney based teams are two points clear of us going into tonight. Doubt we'd jump both but crazily we could finish 5th

So we sub off someone subbed on previous?!?!?

Shit marking from Ugarkovic

Well fuck me dead. Sort of came from nothing. Still doesn't excuse the bullshit misses

Broadcast just said excluding today, WSW hav conceded first on 13 occasions this season, drawing once and losing the rest.

Fortunate small deflection there but Natel finally finding form And Jakolis can fuck off too

quite a few outcomes, and that's not even taking into account that we could still finish higher than 6th. sad that we have been so fucking inconsistent and injury prone all season. then again, the three big wins we have had this season has really skewed our GD. take the 7-0, 8-1 and 8-0 out we have played 22 games for 6 wins with 25 Goals Scored and 36 Goals Against. makes think we will win this and then lose to Western Utd

Great goal by Natel and quality as usual by Arslan If only we did this every week

agree with the fact some of the new ones haven't lived up to the bill. and considering that we started the season with Nuno Reis, Souprayen, Arslan and and Sakhi as our visas (Natel replaced Leckie or Nabbout as an inj replacement, Fernandez replaced Behich with the spot left by Sakhi) then you do wonder wtf was the last visa spot during preseason? i think that adds to your point TBH of course, Arslan is the one stand out. i feel he has more than surpassed VDV, Berisha and Berenguer in those two advanced spots. where people see his offensive output vs O'Neill's defensive dominance would be interesting. and that's were i would maybe reframe some of the debate; how do we compare the efforts of VDV and Berisha (with Berengeur as the alternate) vs Sahki/Jeggo and Ugarkovic (with Lopane as the alternate)? what's interesting there is that we are talking about one offensive trio made up of visa players (who should be better) vs a midfield trio that's predominately Aussie (again we did leave a visa spot free so ...). so does that mean the local talent for pick up (or at least the current ones available) are just shit? is it a fair comparison as O'Neil is effectively a walk up Socceroo - putting him on the level of most visa who succeed in this league. maybe we were just so bloody lucky with him? not trying to make excuses there either. i just think there is so much to delve through

hope people havent interpreted my rant as me asking for one more season for old times sake rather it can be very hard to take stock / break down our current predicament of our current season vs (a) the last two seasons and thereby (b) the reasons those players were given three year deals in 2021. yes we can say with hindsight this season may have been one too many, but IMO it's a part of the broader aleague challenge of how you manage aleague rosters, salary caps, etc. the only real way i could see long term deals (three years +) work is only the first two are locked in. aka players are offered 3 or 4 year deals as 2 year with 1 (+ 1) year options.

i'm not sure there is an easy, quick to fix answer here. to highlight this, i'll start with our three "big" name attackers going into this season (MaClaren, Leckie and Nabbout). they were all signed to three year deals (from my understanding via the pinned current squad thread) when they were 27, 30 and 28 respectively (as signed in June - Sept 2021). MaClaren was a Socceroo with little injury issues (or at least at the time from memory). Leckie has been a star at a WC in the time since despite injury issues while Nabbout was a decent age. also remember this also includes two league premierships in that time where those players have featured prominantly (even with Leckie and Nabbout being injured at times). so i don't think the 3 year deals those players signed is all that bad. three current defenders that were signed at the same time in mid 2021 was Good (3 year deal at age 28), Nuno Reis (3 year deal aged 30) and Galloway (aged 24 with a 4 year). given that defenders tend to play better to an older age, i'd argue those deals have actually been fairly reasonable given the players in question and the success we have had over the last two seasons. the other risk i foresee here the the Richie Garcia dilemma. you can offer shorter term deals (Garcia only had a one season deal given injury history) with the risk the player comes really good and then fucks off to a bigger deal. so you're dammed if you do when Garcia leaves and you are dammed if you don't (ie Leckie) when the injuries get the better of them on a longer deal. and that doesnt even take into the Richard van der Venne / Thomas Lam fuck around. you do your research, sign a quality player to a decent deal and get the goods during season one only for them to fuck off home sick. you can probably add Sahki to that - was finally coming good so we buy out his deal only for some sort of bullshit to occur within two weeks later. secondly, (and i've said something elsewhere that) having a mass change over with a loss in culture and a head coach whose too laid back (didnt or couldnt set a high standard / level of responsibility) makes it hard to keep players accountable. the club should have taken that into account with how we set up going into the season. if Rado needed a couple of proper hard nose pricks on his coaching staff then that's what should have happened. edit: sorry for the long response; again no easy fix

I'd make a point that part of the problem was that the previous strong club culture had been lost in the wash. Be it appointing a coach too laid back, be it letting players exit the club because could without resistance, the club needs to do better. We have had a poor culture/attitude from so many this season that we have folded in so many games

Good finish by Arslan but fuck me that was a shit turn over by the tards backline. Eat a dick Arzani can eat a big bag of shit too

We were also due to play the Mariners but they were in India last night. It's been pushed back to April 2nd