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Matchday 15: v Newcastle - Saturday 18th January 7.30pm at AAMI Park


Harrison
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Important three points ahead of one of those 'huge opportunity in front of a home crowd' (and where we always seem to shit the bed) matches against Perth next week.

The season has been a little disappointing to date (only four losses, but each has genuinely been horrible in its own way), but next Saturday against Perth (with a tricky assignment in Western Sydney tomorrow) is an absolute rolled gold opportunity to entrench us in second. It's beyond time to fucking seize a moment like this.

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Another shit performance with us taking the points, ref was good first half and the standard A-League dog shit 2nd half. 
 

Atkinson worst on for us. Turned it over twice around the box 1st half and then got slaughtered 2nd half. 
 

luna tracking back and winning it set up a lot. 
frenchy tried but he’s fucking shit

hopefully Wales last start for us 

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8 minutes ago, Thrillhouse said:

Another shit performance with us taking the points, ref was good first half and the standard A-League dog shit 2nd half. 
 

Atkinson worst on for us. Turned it over twice around the box 1st half and then got slaughtered 2nd half. 
 

luna tracking back and winning it set up a lot. 
frenchy tried but he’s fucking shit

hopefully Wales last start for us 

We must have watched different games. I thought Atkinson was quite solid and completely shut Petratos out of the game

Edited by GreenSeater
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I thought our defence was better. We lacked a solid mid-field and the tempo lifted once Berenguer was replaced by Griffith. Once Susaeta came on it was definitely at another level (BTW isn't he a pasty colour). And to give due credit, I did not think that Newcastle were a rubble - they lack someone up front and tidier back line. In essence teh first goal was against run of play, the second one was a penalty however if JMac had nailed that header then that would have been a great open play goal.

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That was an awful game to watch and having taking an early lead you would have thought we would have gone on to win easily. There wasn't one player that showed any urgency to get the game moving. Why did we leave it so late with the substitutions? It was crying out for someone to come on and show a bit of spark to liven the game up.

We do really need to get rid of Berenguer. He brings nothing to the team whatsoever.

At least Susaeta showed that he can pick a player out with that cross to McLaren late on. Hopefully he can bring that creativity we lack.

 

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39 minutes ago, GreenSeater said:

We must have watched different games. I thought Atkinson was quite solid and completely shut Petratos out of the game

He failed shielding the ball/hoofing it down the line twice, turning it over that close to goal is horrific. Pot shot petratos dribbled past late on but I think he deflected for a corner while someone else was helping out and possibly hoffy went past easily too

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1 hour ago, Thrillhouse said:

Another shit performance with us taking the points, ref was good first half and the standard A-League dog shit 2nd half. 
 

Atkinson worst on for us. Turned it over twice around the box 1st half and then got slaughtered 2nd half. 
 

luna tracking back and winning it set up a lot. 
frenchy tried but he’s fucking shit

hopefully Wales last start for us 

Wales had the worst game of any player. Whatever was wrong with him second half (physical or mental) he wanted none of the ball. If he wasn't injured then this may be the last we see of Wales. Poor bastard just can't crack an egg. 

 

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7 hours ago, n i k o said:

Wales had the worst game of any player. Whatever was wrong with him second half (physical or mental) he wanted none of the ball. If he wasn't injured then this may be the last we see of Wales. Poor bastard just can't crack an egg. 

 

Totally agree. I told my brother that he couldn't score at all in an AFL game. Also to note there was hesitation to pass the ball to him. I think that apart from the lack of skills he is down mentally. Most likely he can see the writing on the wall.

8 hours ago, Thrillhouse said:

He failed shielding the ball/hoofing it down the line twice, turning it over that close to goal is horrific. Pot shot petratos dribbled past late on but I think he deflected for a corner while someone else was helping out and possibly hoffy went past easily too

We noted that his work rate went down after the 65 minute mark. Out of the three substitutions I would have made he was the third one for me purely because he looked spent.

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8 hours ago, silva10 said:

That was an awful game to watch and having taking an early lead you would have thought we would have gone on to win easily. There wasn't one player that showed any urgency to get the game moving. Why did we leave it so late with the substitutions? It was crying out for someone to come on and show a bit of spark to liven the game up.

We do really need to get rid of Berenguer. He brings nothing to the team whatsoever.

At least Susaeta showed that he can pick a player out with that cross to McLaren late on. Hopefully he can bring that creativity we lack.

 

Both sides dropped off. We assumed it was because the horrible past three weeks here in Melbourne and although things are better the last three days you can still see early in the morning the smoke from fires that are hundreds of kilometres away. At one stage even I was affected and thankfully had to fly interstate for business and what a difference clean air makes.

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48 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

Totally agree. I told my brother that he couldn't score at all in an AFL game. Also to note there was hesitation to pass the ball to him. I think that apart from the lack of skills he is down mentally. Most likely he can see the writing on the wall.

We noted that his work rate went down after the 65 minute mark. Out of the three substitutions I would have made he was the third one for me purely because he looked spent.

I was saying to my group after the game that if he wasnt injured and it was something mental then it looked like he wanted no part in receiving the ball. He didnt run hard or present himself to receive it. Imo he wanted no part of that game during his last 25 minutes. 

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10 hours ago, Shahanga said:

Am I the only one who saw all Delbridge’s mistakes?

up till his goal line clearance he’d had a Barry Crocker.

All the errors he's making are going unnoticed while Andy Harper repeatedly froffs over him as Socceroo material.

In comparison to last season he's been extremely disappointing.There's no doubt he's a great athlete for his size but his general play has been clumsy and Good should be the one getting the plaudits. 

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Thought we made very hard work of what should have been a thrashing. Best game of the night came from La Femme Reffe, who, despite my support for @playmaker to express his opinion showed that people should be doing a job based on their performance rather than any other arbitrary qualification.

City were pretty turgid IMO. I thought Atkinson, Delbridge, Good, and Luna all showed well, and Bouzanis for once did what a GK is supposed to do. I remain frustrated by Wales, Noone and Maclaren - we just blow so many opportunities to score it's unfathomable. I also don't understand the timing of Mombaerts' substitutions.

Best point about us for me was that we ground out a win when in days gone by we would have coughed up a goal and two points in injury time.

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I feel like Delbridge's problem is that he plays in a position where some people would prefer a player who just gives you a solid 6-7 out of 10 performance every week, rather than a player who is one of your best performers 80% of the time, but can cost you a couple of games each year with catastrophic brainfarts.

Something I would like to bring up though: this crap about a controversial penalty. Bloody hell, if that's controversial then you may as well call Delbridge and Bouzanis's penalties controversial a couple of weeks ago. Unlucky, sure.

Huge credit to Topor-Stanley, he summed it up brilliantly immediately after the game, basically "I can see why you give it, I would have been screaming for it at the other end, but I dunno what else I'm supposed to do." Perfectly put.

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52 minutes ago, mus-28 said:

All the errors he's making are going unnoticed while Andy Harper repeatedly froffs over him as Socceroo material.

In comparison to last season he's been extremely disappointing.There's no doubt he's a great athlete for his size but his general play has been clumsy and Good should be the one getting the plaudits. 

No doubt. Good is just a class above Delbridge in terms of positioning and ability to read the game, which is the most important thing for a defender. This is harder to judge and Delbridge on the surface seems better because he’s quite good at recovering from poor positions. I don’t mind Delbridge, I think he’s a decent defender at this level and we should be keeping him. But if it’s Good or Delbridge, it’s an obvious one for me. 

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1 hour ago, mus-28 said:

All the errors he's making are going unnoticed while Andy Harper repeatedly froffs over him as Socceroo material.

In comparison to last season he's been extremely disappointing.There's no doubt he's a great athlete for his size but his general play has been clumsy and Good should be the one getting the plaudits. 

Perhaps we saw the fruits of (cannot believe I am saying this) Joyce's youth coaching experience bringing the best out of him and forcing him to be accountable. In all of Erics qualities, he is far less punishing in his sideline managing and I can only presume the same goes at training. Arzani and Wales did seem to flourish under him.

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1 hour ago, SF33 said:

I feel like Delbridge's problem is that he plays in a position where some people would prefer a player who just gives you a solid 6-7 out of 10 performance every week, rather than a player who is one of your best performers 80% of the time, but can cost you a couple of games each year with catastrophic brainfarts.

Something I would like to bring up though: this crap about a controversial penalty. Bloody hell, if that's controversial then you may as well call Delbridge and Bouzanis's penalties controversial a couple of weeks ago. Unlucky, sure.

Huge credit to Topor-Stanley, he summed it up brilliantly immediately after the game, basically "I can see why you give it, I would have been screaming for it at the other end, but I dunno what else I'm supposed to do." Perfectly put.

Topor-Stanley had a decent game with the exception of the penalty which as he put it what else was he supposed to do. I will note that although a handball was given by the VAR no card was issued unlike Delbridge. Is it just me or is it that I am becoming paranoid.

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1 minute ago, NewConvert said:

Topor-Stanley had a decent game with the exception of the penalty which as he put it what else was he supposed to do. I will note that although a handball was given by the VAR no card was issued unlike Delbridge. Is it just me or is it that I am becoming paranoid.

They called Delbridge's as blocking a clear goal scoring opportunity (which most agree wasn't the case, but you can sort of see it with Berisha and one other WU player bearing down on goal with only Bouzanis to beat if the pass made it there). With Topor-Stanley's, the ball was still being contested: it could have gone anywhere once it hit the ground. Not a clear scoring opportunity.

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3 minutes ago, SF33 said:

They called Delbridge's as blocking a clear goal scoring opportunity (which most agree wasn't the case, but you can sort of see it with Berisha and one other WU player bearing down on goal with only Bouzanis to beat if the pass made it there). With Topor-Stanley's, the ball was still being contested: it could have gone anywhere once it hit the ground. Not a clear scoring opportunity.

But that was the reason for raising it to a red. He got a yellow initially just for the handball? 

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35 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

Topor-Stanley had a decent game with the exception of the penalty which as he put it what else was he supposed to do. I will note that although a handball was given by the VAR no card was issued unlike Delbridge. Is it just me or is it that I am becoming paranoid.

No, I think you're being quite reasonable. No card whatsoever? If La Reffe interpreted the rule book correctly then the rule book, or interpretation book, or both, is or are stupid IMO. I can't see any substantive difference between the Delbridge and Topor-Stanley incidents.

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2 hours ago, jw1739 said:

 I also don't understand the timing of Mombaerts' substitutions.

 

Yes, this I don't understand either.

Waiting way too long with subs, honestly what's the point of giving players a 4 minute cameo? Some young players need to play a bit more than 3 minutes to develop, most of them won't play in youth them either if they got minutes with us.

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2 hours ago, Harrison said:

No doubt. Good is just a class above Delbridge in terms of positioning and ability to read the game, which is the most important thing for a defender. This is harder to judge and Delbridge on the surface seems better because he’s quite good at recovering from poor positions. I don’t mind Delbridge, I think he’s a decent defender at this level and we should be keeping him. But if it’s Good or Delbridge, it’s an obvious one for me. 

Agreed - I do think that Good and Delbridge can complement each other.

There seems to be two camps on Delbridge.

1) Fans people who love big lunge tackles and speed
2) Fans who appreciate football skills more

Both are attributes of a good defender so there is no right or wrong. I guess with another quality defender in the mix you can form your CB pair to adjust it to the opposition.

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1 minute ago, Mr MO said:

Agreed - I do think that Good and Delbridge can complement each other.

There seems to be two camps on Delbridge.

1) Fans people who love big lunge tackles and speed
2) Fans who appreciate football skills more

Both are attributes of a good defender so there is no right or wrong. I guess with another quality defender in the mix you can form your CB pair to adjust it to the opposition.

Absolutely. I said this before the season began, and I stand by it: we can win a trophy with Delbridge and Good as our central partnership. Now this season Good has got better and Delbridge has gone backwards slightly after being very good last season, but they’re good enough to help us win it. 

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In regards to subs I think the key problem was that with 6 players unavailable we basically had no one to bring on.

Griffith is just a “keep what you’ve got” sub, Susesta looked like he’d met everyone in the sheds and the rest arent old enough to drink.

Challenging for any coach.

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