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our home form


belaguttman
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I have no answer to this question but why is our home form so bad? We've lost 3 straight home games when we should have been in a position to win any or all of them, and if they'd been away games we arguably would have won them. This is a problem that started last season but has never gone away, it's like there are 2 different Melbourne Hearts.

This not only makes it harder to finish much higher than mid-table over at the end of the season, but also makes it hard to grow our club - who will pay for a season ticket to come and see us lose most home games?

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Heard a Gold Coast player last year explain that they believed their away form being better was due to the home team attacking them, and they would find it easy to hit them on the counter and find the back of the net. At home however, the away mob would play more defensively and they struggled to break it down..

our problem to an extent at least?

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Based on yesterdays game what we put out there was in complete contrast to our previously poor home form, unfortunately the result doesn't show it.

IMO that is the highest quality full 90 game we have played at home and if we maintain that level when at AAMI we will win more than we lose/draw there.

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Well don't quote me on it but I don't think they have lost at aami yet....? Apart from us that is, but when they go to shittyhad they lost a few...would like to see us have our own stadium one day "yarraside park" "Melbourne Heart Theater of dreams" "red bitter stadium"

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Look at the most successful clubs in the uk for e.g.

Melwood is miles from Anfield

Carrington is miles from Old Trafford

They have had more success then any other teams in the prem ........

I dont think it matters not where you train its how you train & play that counts

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These are teams that have been around for 100 years though, maybe it might take 5-10 years for AAMI to become a fortress, but by that time we could of lost thousands of supporters and potential millions of $$$. Plus better facility's, Fred, Germano, Shroj & colosimo might not of been injured & we wouldn't of had to fork out money for madaschi n Reid... Also we could attract better players! But it is what it is and I think we are doing VERY well with what we have.

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Well don't quote me on it but I don't think they have lost at aami yet....? Apart from us that is, but when they go to shittyhad they lost a few...would like to see us have our own stadium one day "yarraside park" "Melbourne Heart Theater of dreams" "red bitter stadium"

would love for this to happening say in 10-15 years if the a league get more exposure and everything it needs first

would love RED HEART LANE or something along the lines of that

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Heard a Gold Coast player last year explain that they believed their away form being better was due to the home team attacking them, and they would find it easy to hit them on the counter and find the back of the net. At home however, the away mob would play more defensively and they struggled to break it down..

our problem to an extent at least?

This was the situation in yesterdays game but we lacked the finishing touch, we had no trouble in breaking through there defense which was why the result was so disappointing and frustrating for supporters. Good theory, makes sense...

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Strong knowledge of what home advantage actually involves ITT.

The main benefit of home advantage comes from the referee giving 50/50 decisions to the home team due to the pressure of the home crowd. Maybe in this league not having to travel also is reasonably important due to the long distances involved. But apart from that, any other advantages due to being at home are minimal. Players don't just forget how to play due to being on a different field lawl.

Considering how retarded the refrees in this league are, decisions are all over the place, this destroys that home advantage, especially for us last night ffs.

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These are teams that have been around for 100 years though, maybe it might take 5-10 years for AAMI to become a fortress, but by that time we could of lost thousands of supporters and potential millions of $$$. Plus better facility's, Fred, Germano, Shroj & colosimo might not of been injured & we wouldn't of had to fork out money for madaschi n Reid... Also we could attract better players! But it is what it is and I think we are doing VERY well with what we have.

it's not that easy mate but a nice idea :)

latrobe is good sponsorship money for us. it was obviously a more cost effective deal than having hq at AAMI.

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I have no answer to this question but why is our home form so bad? We've lost 3 straight home games when we should have been in a position to win any or all of them, and if they'd been away games we arguably would have won them. This is a problem that started last season but has never gone away, it's like there are 2 different Melbourne Hearts.

This not only makes it harder to finish much higher than mid-table over at the end of the season, but also makes it hard to grow our club - who will pay for a season ticket to come and see us lose most home games?

Bela, I don't have the answer either. But I see it as part of a wider question - 'Why is our form as bad as it is?' It's true that we're still third on the table, but if you actually go back over last season, pre-season, and this season so far, our performances have seen long periods where we have not won a game anywhere. We went seven games without a win in November/December 2010 (six defeats and one draw), and our last six games of 2010/11 resulted in one defeat and five draws. We couldn't win either of our pre-season games this year, started with two defeats and three draws, and as we painfully know, our last four games have produced one measly point. The purple patch earlier this season was an aberration, not the norm. We have consistently failed to hang on for three points or a point, whichever applies, conceding far too many goals in the last few minutes of either a half or the match (Buddy has the statistics on this I think).

The only teams we have beaten at home are North Queensland (2), Melbourne Victory (2), Wellington and Newcastle. Which means we have never beaten at home Brisbane, Central Coast, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney or Gold Coast.

I don't subscribe to the theory that if we had better facilities we would win more matches. That's like saying examination results will improve simply by providing better classrooms.

My wife says that the reason we are beaten by teams such as Adelaide and Perth is that they are stronger physically and more determined to win the ball and play the match right out to the final whistle. I think she has a point.

I think we have a shrewd coach, who is excellent for player development, but he had no previous documented success with a senior team. I think we have some very talented footballers in the squad. I also think we have some dead wood, players who for what ever reason don't actually deliver. Little things count. Until recently our dead-ball plays have been wasted - and things like that shouldn't take a season and a half to work out. The fitness level of some players is questionable. We should go up a notch when a sub comes on, not down. Players not in the team should be match fit by working hard on the track. Yoga might be good for the soul, but I'm not sure it helps you make that extra metre of run with a minute to go. Watch the warm-up shooting practice and see how many of our players can actually get the ball on target...all this sort of thing counts when the crunch comes.

IMO we need to garner a minimum 12 points from our remaining 10 games to make the finals. We have a tough run home. We can do it, but it's going to need the whole squad to lift again.

Overall the Melbourne public and Heart members have been very tolerant of just six victories at AAMI Park. But you are right, we will not grow our support with that sort of form. Players coming out of contract at the end of this season need to be critically examined, not only for their potential but what they have actually delivered. I'm sure that JvS can deliver the goods, but perhaps there are some things he needs to re-examine. It's not sufficient to outplay a side tactically but not put the bloody ball in the back of the net. I also think that the Board may need to loosen the purse strings a little and bring in, for example, a name guest player, to spark a little more interest in the team.

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Heard a Gold Coast player last year explain that they believed their away form being better was due to the home team attacking them, and they would find it easy to hit them on the counter and find the back of the net. At home however, the away mob would play more defensively and they struggled to break it down..

our problem to an extent at least?

I think there's some truth in this. Ignoring results for a second and looking just at how we play, I think there's been a difference in the possession based style we use at home and our approach in at least some away games where we've opted to conserve energy, allow the opposition to have the ball and hit them on the counter attack. The Sydney game in particular comes to mind. Once we were a goal up, Sydney kept going for a result and we kept opening them up at the other end.

The thing is, it's tactically easy to have a compact defence, wait for the opposition to cough up the ball and rely on quick counter attacks. I could coach an A League side to do that. And many teams seem happy to do that when coming to play us. (Brisbane is the only team that tries to dominate every game they play.) And teams have been successful in doing that because our defence hasn't been settled enough or good enough to deal with it for 90+ minutes. It only takes one or two lapses of concentration (Perth), or fatigue (last night) and we get done. We rarely get outplayed at home - we just haven't mastered the style we want to play consistently enough, we don't yet play at a high level for the full 90+ minutes, and we still cough up goals though defensive mistakes and lapses.

We're getting there, but it takes time. As our younger players get more experience, they'll develop more match hardness as well as familiarity with the tactics and systems. If we have basically the same squad next year, with a good replacement for Bolton, I wouldn't put any limit on how far we could go. Hamill and Good for example will develop into a great combination at the back with more games together.

Edited by Sash
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If we outplay a team tactically on a consistent basis then we should be winning a lot more than we are losing. We certainly do seem a lot more comfortable this season with counter-attack rather than possession and we still are not able to control games on any consistent basis. we are probably still a few players short. I agree that we don't seem to get many 50:50 decisions from the refs at AAMI.

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  • 2 weeks later...

3 goals scored in 450 minutes of play at AAMI:(

I think that we bring the ball up to the box too slowly. It's apparent to every other team that we have troubles penetrating a box that's packed with defenders, our slow ball speed and slow build up allows teams to bring 6+ players back and then we try to walk the ball into the goal without success.

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I think that we bring the ball up to the box too slowly. It's apparent to every other team that we have troubles penetrating a box that's packed with defenders

Spot on. I have been thinking about this a lot and comparing it to situations where teams get broken down. 1 touch football breaks teams down, 2 touch, including 1st touch facing the wrong way just gives them time to get set. Fred plays 1 touch but not many others, which is one reason why we are missing him so much. Too often we look like we are playing a game of "how many touches until we lose the ball", rather than a game of "lets see if we can score a goal". I'd rather risk losing the ball going forward in the knowledge that if it works we are in on goal, rather than taking a less risky option that eliminates all chance of scoring, but maintains possession.

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3 goals scored in 450 minutes of play at AAMI:(

I think that we bring the ball up to the box too slowly. It's apparent to every other team that we have troubles penetrating a box that's packed with defenders, our slow ball speed and slow build up allows teams to bring 6+ players back and then we try to walk the ball into the goal without success.

Absolutely spot on.

We have the potential to play a quicker passing and movement game with the talent we have, we just need a striker in the true sense of the word and have our wingers run and whip balls into the box consistently and at the right times.

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I think that we bring the ball up to the box too slowly. It's apparent to every other team that we have troubles penetrating a box that's packed with defenders, our slow ball speed and slow build up allows teams to bring 6+ players back and then we try to walk the ball into the goal without success.

I think that's what I'm saying in my comment on the NYL match today, only not as succinctly. If other teams have picked this up, then so should have our own coaching team.

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I think that's what I'm saying in my comment on the NYL match today, only not as succinctly. If other teams have picked this up, then so should have our own coaching team.

This is hardly new - we did this all of last year.

It was working for a while too until the opposition worked out that close marking of Sibon meant he could not execute his great touch from number 10 as well due to size and mobility.

This year things have worked better as Fred is a much quicker player at number 10.

Fred’s impact on our performances is unbelievable and sadly very unhealthy.

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