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Our second 'arf XI against Bury: Redmayne; Hoffman, Evans (T), King (T), Chantler (T), Murdocca, Melling, Poole (T), Duff, Williams, Ramsay

 

Looks like Redders, Captain Hoff, Willo and Ramshit have been unimpressive in the first half and have been given another half to justify their positions at the club. Let's hope that's what it is :P

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oooooo

 

 

slINLFVl_normal.pngMelbourne City FC @MelbourneCity · 21s

Starting XI | Redmayne (GK), Hoffman, Wielaert, Archibald (T), Ramsay, Kalmar, Mooy, Retre, Dugandzic, Williams, Brown #MBCvBFC

 

Presuming that means this:

--------------------- Redmayne ---------------------

-- Hoffman - Wielaert - Archibald -  Ramsay --

------------ Kalmar --- Mooy --- Retre ------------

--- Dugandzic -------------------------- Brown ---

----------------------- Williams -----------------------

 

1-0 up at the half, with a goal from James Brown.

Half time changes in bold:

--------------------- Redmayne ---------------------

-- Hoffman --- Evans ---- King ---  Chantler --

--------- Murdocca -- Meling -- Poole ---------

--- Duff --------------------------------- Ramsay ---

----------------------- Williams -----------------------

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We're playing Bury behind closed doors at Carrington today (tonight AEST). There will be some triallists.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/news-display/Melbourne-City-FC-challenge-Bury-FC/91160

Any thoughts on the motives for the "behind closed doors" side of things?

I can't come up with much myself. There is of course the slightly fanciful idea that an elite player is "trialing the club" (elite players don't need to trial but they would be very interested in their team mates) but I don't give that a lot of credence.

I would think it would be easier to organise. Not having to worry about supporters turning up (bury) etc.

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It could be behind closed doors for any number of reasons. Perhaps because this is Bury's first game and they don't want to charge supporters to see a gentle run-around which they expect to lose. Perhaps because one team is trialling a player who doesn't have a work permit, as UK law says you don't need one to play in a match with no ticketed viewers. Perhaps just because Bury can't afford to pay to open their ground to fans.

As for the line-up, sounds like this is being treated as a fitness friendly by Melbourne. It's traditional in games like this to play half of your best players in one half and then the other half for the second 45 mins. It just means that they want to give as many players some gametime as they can and they don't want to play all the reserves/youth/trialists at once because who learns anything when you're getting thumped off the park and haven't even touched the ball for the last 5 minutes?

Edited by Falastur
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I just looked on Bury's twitter for details of their scorers, by the way, and found that they are completely rebuilding their clubhouse at present. That's probably why the game was behind closed doors.

Interesting to see former City academy players trialling, incidentally.

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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith!

The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

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Melbourne City FC kicked-off its UK pre-season with a 2-2 draw with English League Two side Bury FC on Tuesday afternoon.

Goals from James Brown and triallist James Poole had put the Hyundai A-League outfit ahead twice, but John van't Schip's side failed to hold on to their lead and were forced to settle for a share of the spoils at Manchester City’s training ground, Carrington.

Melbourne started the brighter of the two sides, controlling possession well and building from the back, carving the Bury defence open on number of occasions.

Melbourne City’s first effort of the afternoon came from Iain Ramsay, who struck from long-range into the goalkeeper’s arms on eight minutes.

Just three minutes later, Melbourne opened the scoring when - having been denied by a defender on the line - Mate Dugandzic squared for Brown to tap home from close range.

Bury responded well to falling behind and Andrew Redmayne was called into action within minutes, tipping a shot over the crossbar.

Heeding the warning, Melbourne pushed forward in search of a second goal. Dugandzic was thwarted on 20 minutes after good work down the right from Jason Hoffman, before Brown, Aaron Mooy and Jason Hoffman tried their luck from distance to no avail.

The second half brought a number of changes to the line-up, with trialists George Evans, Tom King, Chris Chantler and Poole entering the fray.

Possibly disrupted by the shake-up, Melbourne struggled to continue where they left off and conceded a soft goal from a corner just before the hour mark.

David Williams then spurned a fine chance to regain the lead, rounding the goalkeeper before firing over.

Just four minutes later though, Melbourne City did net their second as Poole turned his defender before stretching to poke the ball past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Once again though, Bury reacted and almost found an immediate equaliser, striking the crossbar.

Seven minutes later, the 'Shakers' did draw level, crossing to the back-post and smashing the ball into the bottom corner.

From then on, the focus for both sides appeared to be to avoid defeat. Bury kept 11 men behind the ball in fear of conceding, so aside from Poole’s low effort that was pushed wide, little was created in terms of chances to win the game.

Next up, Melbourne City FC face Oldham Althetic at Boundary Park on Saturday, kicking-off at 3pm BST.

 

 

lol

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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith! The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

Smeltz wasn't a visa player, if this guy was australian id have no problem either. The leagues grown and improved a lot in the 7 years since he was plucked out & we aren't the Wellington Phoenix.

Anyone else think these English trailists could be trailing to a) help fill numbers because we have so few players over there and B) are being looked at for NYC, not us? Having 8 visa spots and a 3.1 million cap I think they could be looking at some young cheap players for them. And there's no NY team yet to trial for.

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Why are so many quick to jump at shadows at everything that happens. Its pre-season, with a long way to go. Get the trialists in now, finalise the roster and then hope the results start to come, in both style and substance.

 

To be honest, if we were peaking now I'd be more concerned.

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Yes its pre-season but the concerning thing for me is D. Williams needs to be more clinical in front of goal which has been his problem for a few seasons now.. I don't know how he is going to put that right...

 

Giving up a lead twice is concerning as it happened so many times last season and once we had the lead we always looks shaky.. I hope JVS and the boys can put this right otherwise their stay at Melbourne City FC will be short lived... Our knew owners will not stand for losing games due to missed chances, and losing games because we were out coached...

 

Early days yet ... still positive... lets move onto the next game...

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Why are so many quick to jump at shadows at everything that happens. Its pre-season, with a long way to go. Get the trialists in now, finalise the roster and then hope the results start to come, in both style and substance.

 

To be honest, if we were peaking now I'd be more concerned.

Fair point, but it's the same thing as playing an FFA Cup match in Ballarat. After four years of under-performance supporters are just venting their frustrations. What it means is the we do care and we want our club to be successful and grow, and that's why we hang on to every word that's spoken and written (and even more on those that we want to hear or see but don't).

 

I'd be concerned if we weren't concerned...

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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith!

The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

Smeltz wasn't a visa player, if this guy was australian id have no problem either. The leagues grown and improved a lot in the 7 years since he was plucked out & we aren't the Wellington Phoenix.

Anyone else think these English trailists could be trailing to a) help fill numbers because we have so few players over there and B) are being looked at for NYC, not us? Having 8 visa spots and a 3.1 million cap I think they could be looking at some young cheap players for them. And there's no NY team yet to trial for.

So you're saying that if Smeltz didn't have Australian citizenship he wouldn't be worth having as a visa player?

The point is, these players could be hidden talents, that have just ended up playing in a much lower quality league than they should be for their ability level. There is obviously a reason they are there, could be just to make up the numbers, could be to trial for NYC, but I'd say they are being looked at for Melbourne City as well.

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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith!

 

The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

 

Smeltz wasn't a visa player, if this guy was australian id have no problem either. The leagues grown and improved a lot in the 7 years since he was plucked out & we aren't the Wellington Phoenix.

Anyone else think these English trailists could be trailing to a) help fill numbers because we have so few players over there and B) are being looked at for NYC, not us? Having 8 visa spots and a 3.1 million cap I think they could be looking at some young cheap players for them. And there's no NY team yet to trial for.

 

So you're saying that if Smeltz didn't have Australian citizenship he wouldn't be worth having as a visa player?

The point is, these players could be hidden talents, that have just ended up playing in a much lower quality league than they should be for their ability level. There is obviously a reason they are there, could be just to make up the numbers, could be to trial for NYC, but I'd say they are being looked at for Melbourne City as well.

 

Obviously in hindsight, Smeltz has been brilliant in the A-League but if he didn't have Australian citizenship there's no way I would have taken him on as a Visa player, especially considering his poor goalscoring form at his previous club Halifax.

 

If you want to be successful in the A-League you have to get Visa players right and whilst I'm all for unearthing hidden talents, I'm not really keen on another Steven Gray situation. 

 

At the end of the day It's all about risk imo, signing Tom King makes sense because he's Australian and would most likely come at the expense of another young Australian, whereas one of the English trialists could come at the expense of a proven, quality international (such as Duff) and potentially turn out to be a flop. It's all hypothetical stuff though, JVS will hopefully weed out the right players he feels he needs.

Edited by Nate
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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith!

The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

Smeltz wasn't a visa player, if this guy was australian id have no problem either. The leagues grown and improved a lot in the 7 years since he was plucked out & we aren't the Wellington Phoenix.

Anyone else think these English trailists could be trailing to a) help fill numbers because we have so few players over there and B) are being looked at for NYC, not us? Having 8 visa spots and a 3.1 million cap I think they could be looking at some young cheap players for them. And there's no NY team yet to trial for.

So you're saying that if Smeltz didn't have Australian citizenship he wouldn't be worth having as a visa player?

The point is, these players could be hidden talents, that have just ended up playing in a much lower quality league than they should be for their ability level. There is obviously a reason they are there, could be just to make up the numbers, could be to trial for NYC, but I'd say they are being looked at for Melbourne City as well.

Obviously in hindsight, Smeltz has been brilliant in the A-League but if he didn't have Australian citizenship there's no way I would have taken him on as a Visa player, especially considering his poor goalscoring form at his previous club Halifax.

 

If you want to be successful in the A-League you have to get Visa players right and whilst I'm all for unearthing hidden talents, I'm not really keen on another Steven Gray situation. 

 

At the end of the day It's all about risk imo, signing Tom King makes sense because he's Australian and would most likely come at the expense of another young Australian, whereas one of the English trialists could come at the expense of a proven, quality international (such as Duff) and potentially turn out to be a flop. It's all hypothetical stuff though, JVS will hopefully weed out the right players he feels he needs.

You're quite correct TBH, apart from the fact there is also a salary cap so not every visa player can be a Duff either.

FWIW, I don't have a problem with Gray having been signed, he was signed as a cheap backup defender, the fact he was a visa player didn't matter as the visa spot was spare and I doubt we would have used it regardless. Obviously having low quality visa players like Gray isn't good for developing Australian players as he takes up a spot for an Australian without adding to the quality of the league, but a club should only concern itself with whats best for the club rather than the NT, and signing Steven Gray, who they would have believed was the best backup defender they could get for the price (and they may have been correct, we can't really know), was part of that. The responsibility of making sure development of Australian players is optimised lies with the FFA, and they have responded with the decrease in visa players they announced.

In other words, there is nothing wrong, from the club's perspective, of using a visa spot on a backup player if that visa spot wasn't going to be used anyway. Apart from that it brings our scouting into question because we really should be able to find a first team visa player that is better quality than an Australian we could get for the same salary, which would then lead to Australian players being the backups.

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The crack head.

724806-1.jpg

Strange they're trailing him, 24 & playing in league 2. Why not contact James Meredith!

 

The greatest striker in A-League history was playing in the 7th tier of English football a year before coming here, don't see any problem with trialling a guy from the 4th tier.

 

Smeltz wasn't a visa player, if this guy was australian id have no problem either. The leagues grown and improved a lot in the 7 years since he was plucked out & we aren't the Wellington Phoenix.

Anyone else think these English trailists could be trailing to a) help fill numbers because we have so few players over there and B) are being looked at for NYC, not us? Having 8 visa spots and a 3.1 million cap I think they could be looking at some young cheap players for them. And there's no NY team yet to trial for.

 

So you're saying that if Smeltz didn't have Australian citizenship he wouldn't be worth having as a visa player?

The point is, these players could be hidden talents, that have just ended up playing in a much lower quality league than they should be for their ability level. There is obviously a reason they are there, could be just to make up the numbers, could be to trial for NYC, but I'd say they are being looked at for Melbourne City as well.

 

Obviously in hindsight, Smeltz has been brilliant in the A-League but if he didn't have Australian citizenship there's no way I would have taken him on as a Visa player, especially considering his poor goalscoring form at his previous club Halifax.

 

If you want to be successful in the A-League you have to get Visa players right and whilst I'm all for unearthing hidden talents, I'm not really keen on another Steven Gray situation. 

 

At the end of the day It's all about risk imo, signing Tom King makes sense because he's Australian and would most likely come at the expense of another young Australian, whereas one of the English trialists could come at the expense of a proven, quality international (such as Duff) and potentially turn out to be a flop. It's all hypothetical stuff though, JVS will hopefully weed out the right players he feels he needs.

 

You're quite correct TBH, apart from the fact there is also a salary cap so not every visa player can be a Duff either.

FWIW, I don't have a problem with Gray having been signed, he was signed as a cheap backup defender, the fact he was a visa player didn't matter as the visa spot was spare and I doubt we would have used it regardless. Obviously having low quality visa players like Gray isn't good for developing Australian players as he takes up a spot for an Australian without adding to the quality of the league, but a club should only concern itself with whats best for the club rather than the NT, and signing Steven Gray, who they would have believed was the best backup defender they could get for the price (and they may have been correct, we can't really know), was part of that. The responsibility of making sure development of Australian players is optimised lies with the FFA, and they have responded with the decrease in visa players they announced.

In other words, there is nothing wrong, from the club's perspective, of using a visa spot on a backup player if that visa spot wasn't going to be used anyway. Apart from that it brings our scouting into question because we really should be able to find a first team visa player that is better quality than an Australian we could get for the same salary, which would then lead to Australian players being the backups.

 

I completely agree. 

 

I'd be very surprised if we left a Visa spot blank this time around though but you're right, remaining salary cap space is a key factor which us supporters really don't get an insight into and for all we know, we mightn't have much room at all left with Duff, Mooy and Williams squeezing under the cap.

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JVS OUT !!!! Just thought id be 1st of the season :P

 

It will be one of many... People will be jumping at shadows at every turn.

 

The difference this year is that if he doesn't get results, implementing the prefered CFG style, he will be gone. This is very different to the previous owners last year who didn't want to pay out JA :)

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