Robert Koren (confirmed by club as released)

[Dylan]

On 22/12/2015 at 0:59 PM, Murfy1 said:

Melbourne City's Robi Koren takes the flak but is now fit to answer the critics
 

December 22, 2015

Michael Lynch

 

Robi Koren has endured plenty of criticism during his injury plagued two seasons at Melbourne City, with many fans calling for the cashed-up City group to show their ambition by replacing him with a marquee player who gets on the pitch regularly and plays a major part in the team's performances. 

Koren has endured another frustrating season having missed most of  the campaign so far as he battled to recover from a calf injury picked up in the second round, the 3-2 derby loss to Melbourne Victory.

It was a similar story in 2014-15, when another calf injury kept out of action until the New Year.

When he has played he has showed flashes of the sort of talent that brought him a lengthy career in the English Premier League, with Hull City and West Bromwich Albion.

But it has been an all-too-rare occurrence. 

However, having come back into the squad in the past two weeks, with cameos off the bench in City's wins over Newcastle and that nailbiter against Victory last weekend, Koren feels he is now at last over his problems and ready to do himself justice as City bid to mount a serious title challenge.

And, he says, the criticism and the suggestions that City should have a much bigger name marquee player than him don't concern him at all.

"When you're playing football you're always under pressure. You want to do well, it doesn't matter if you're the marquee player or not, and that's pressure," he said.  

"What people are saying around, I don't care, I don't mind. I'm here to help the club, the club will decide if its good enough or not. I don't have problems with that."

Koren says he is now ready to start having been a substitute in the past two games - if coach John van 't Schip wants to change the line up, that is.

"It's good to be back, I am fit and ready to go. I trained for the last two weeks, so I am looking forward for the next games. Unfortunately I got injured again. The same thing as last year. In football injuries happen, we needed to deal with that, but I am fit now and hopefully I can stay fit until the end of the season," he said.

"It's always hard when you are not involved in the games, but when the team is doing well things are easier. This year things are much easier than last year because the team is doing well so I can take more time to come back and we can be more sensible, we don't need to rush."

The mood around the City camp is certainly buoyant after four wins on the spin, and that reflects the way the players approach games.

"The team is doing well, we won the last four games, that's really good for the confidence. The last game was really good, to win the derby was brilliant, to give a Christmas present to our fans. We enjoyed this win and we can build on that," Koren said.

"It [the 2-1 derby win] was really up and down, box to box. They were really open, they tried to win the game as well. They did really well in the second half. They had some good spells and chances. But overall we did enough to win the game and we deserved the three points ... it's really important for the club, the players and the fans."

Koren, at 35, is one of the team's veterans and he has looked on approvingly as the youngsters like Paulo Retre, Jacob Melling and Stefan Mauk have come of age as midfielders this season.

But, he says, your birth certificate doesn't really come into it. It's whether a player can perform for the team that counts.

"It is not about age when you're playing football, you're good enough or you're not good enough. The young boys have done really well," he said. 

"I'm here to help the club, help these young boys but we need to know we've done nothing yet.  All that matters is what happens at the end of the season."

 

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/melbourne-citys-robi-koren-takes-the-flak-but-is-now-fit-to-answer-the-critics-20151222-glt4bo.html

Having a bad case of Dejavu here

[Shahanga]

To be honest I think the media have been very kind to Robi. He could (should) have come under a lot more scrutiny for his lack lustre performances and "invisible man" impersonations in the big games (which is surely when you expect your experienced players to stand up).

[n i k o]

2 hours ago, Shahanga said:

To be honest I think the media have been very kind to Robi. He could (should) have come under a lot more scrutiny for his lack lustre performances and "invisible man" impersonations in the big games (which is surely when you expect your experienced players to stand up).

I believe this is what Ange was alluding to this week.

 

[jw1739]

Who of the international marquees playing this season have actually demonstrated their worthiness as such?

[Luke]

6 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Who of the international marquees playing this season have actually demonstrated their worthiness as such?

Berisha

[n i k o]

8 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Who of the international marquees playing this season have actually demonstrated their worthiness as such?

Berisha, Broich & Mooy.

...and then there's a handful of visa players that have outperformed the rest of the current marquees in the league. 

Edited December 26, 2015 by n i k o

[Shahanga]

Just now, jw1739 said:

Who of the international marquees playing this season have actually demonstrated their worthiness as such?

It hurts to post it but Berisha is scoring goals. Haven't seen a lot of Brisbane but I imagine  Broich has been playing well as always. 

Not sure if WSW have an international marquee, the bloke at Sydney isn't delivering, not sure apart from us that anyone else has an Intetnationsl marquee (I believe Carussca is under the cap). 

[Dylan]

3 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

It hurts to post it but Berisha is scoring goals. Haven't seen a lot of Brisbane but I imagine  Broich has been playing well as always. 

Not sure if WSW have an international marquee, the bloke at Sydney isn't delivering, not sure apart from us that anyone else has an Intetnationsl marquee (I believe Carussca is under the cap). 

Carussca is the marquee and the WSW is that fat striker who has done nothing 

[Shahanga]

Thinking about it Perth must have one which is why they can't sign Keogh. Presumably it's that free kick specialist.

The problem is Most clubs use the marquee like Heart used to. The "marquee" is just the foreigner who is paid (slightly) more than the others.  Marquees in accounting terms only.

[n i k o]

15 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

Thinking about it Perth must have one which is why they can't sign Keogh. Presumably it's that free kick specialist.

The problem is Most clubs use the marquee like Heart used to. The "marquee" is just the foreigner who is paid (slightly) more than the others.  Marquees in accounting terms only.

Marinkovic? Yeah he's not bad quality and given he played for a better more proactive playing team he would show more I reckon.

[Tony999]

1 hour ago, Dylan said:

Carussca is the marquee and the WSW is that fat striker who has done nothing 

Kresinger?

[Kiro Kompiro]

I actually felt nothing when he came on in the derby.  No anticipation, no expectation.  Nothing.

[Jovan]

12 minutes ago, Kiro Kompiro said:

I actually felt nothing when he came on in the derby.  No anticipation, no expectation.  Nothing.

Just like seeing an ex girlfriend that you dumped.

[jw1739]

So what it comes down to at this stage of the discussion is that there is a dearth of decent overseas marquee players in the A-League this season. Painful though it is, most of us would put Berisha in that category, and possibly Broich (although the stats don't say an awful lot about him). As Shahanga says most clubs are using the "marquee" place as a device to pay a moderate amount outside the salary cap.

In saying the above I doubt very much that too many people (any?) would actually choose to go to a match just on the basis of seeing Berisha or Broich, so IMO unless clubs get someone of the stature of Del Piero or Villa then IMO the "marquee" concept isn't doing a lot for the league and it will remain just an accounting device.

[Shahanga]

I would go to MMA to watch Berisha. Does that count?

[Tonyboozeadams]

12 hours ago, Tony999 said:

Kresinger?

Piovicardi 

[mjake1234]

So now the FFA reap the rewards of the Lampard rule. Short-sightedness, stupidity or Sydney focus?

[Luke]

2 hours ago, jw1739 said:

So what it comes down to at this stage of the discussion is that there is a dearth of decent overseas marquee players in the A-League this season. Painful though it is, most of us would put Berisha in that category, and possibly Broich (although the stats don't say an awful lot about him). As Shahanga says most clubs are using the "marquee" place as a device to pay a moderate amount outside the salary cap.

In saying the above I doubt very much that too many people (any?) would actually choose to go to a match just on the basis of seeing Berisha or Broich, so IMO unless clubs get someone of the stature of Del Piero or Villa then IMO the "marquee" concept isn't doing a lot for the league and it will remain just an accounting device.

Berisha helped victory to the title last season, Victory recorded membership this season.

Winning games puts bums on seats. 

[malloy]

5 hours ago, Kiro Kompiro said:

I actually felt nothing when he came on in the derby.  No anticipation, no expectation.  Nothing.

I felt fear

[NewConvert]

Perhaps it is 'growing pains' that the A-League is experiencing wrt international marquee players. Basically the under the cap squad are much better than at any time in its history. Bringing someone like Ronaldhino for a season will do very little to improve the quality of a team and more than likely disrupt the whole team. ADP was good in his first season but at that stage Sydney were a rabble, in his second season he was a passenger. So the expectations now are that only has the marquee have to be good enough to merit a start and be recognisable enough that he will bring casual fans to the games. AND all of that on a budget of about $1.5M or thereabouts - it is not going to happen. JW1379 has it right, the concept of international marquee has become an accounting device where clubs can bring international players of higher quality who cost more and can integrate into the team. Luke rounds it off by stating the obvious - winning games increases membership and attendance and viewing figures.

[playmaker]

6 hours ago, Kiro Kompiro said:

I actually felt nothing when he came on in the derby.  No anticipation, no expectation.  Nothing.

I didn't expect anything, but after that through ball to Bruno I was searching for the tissue box.

[Shahanga]

1 hour ago, malloy said:

I felt fear

Watching my recording we had been on top for a period, but once he came on the tards grabbed the ascendency. A coincidence?

[Shahanga]

On 4/30/2015 at 7:11 PM, silva10 said:

I am a Celtic fan and watch the games on Celtic TV

Rogic had one or two good games at the start, however he was far from a class above his team mates.

Of course injuries haven't helped him, but IMO I do not believe he is good enough for Celtic.

His main asset is his running power, but he lacks the finesse to really make it at a top league.

Like (I suspect) everyone else I'm sick of talking about Koren, he's 35, been here 18 months, so there ain't a lot of mystery or a lot to debate left in my book, so even though its his thread, I thought I'd hijack it back to Tommy Rogic for a few posts at least.

Tommy's finally been fully fit this year.  Thoughts @silva10 ?  His highlights package for those who aren't interested in SPL (that's me!) has been impressive with his typical -"oh f.o., you can't make that look easy" goals, but how have you seen the full package?

For those who aren't even sure who Celtic are, his latest goal is here:

http://www.socceroos.com.au/article/socceroo-tom-rogic-scores-screamer-for-celtic-fc-in-scottish-premier-league/1ocyjfqhf7u95102a6jstdr4z7

[jw1739]

If video had been invented when I was playing (haha) you would see a couple of screamers even in my highlights package. Every forward has scored a goal or two like that in their career. Highlights packages are not the way to recruit players. You need to have scouts actually assessing the way players actually play and how they can fit into the game plan that you want in the league that you're in - as we did with Fornaroli - rather than highlights. Anyway, I thought that the general opinion was that the SPL is a bit of a one- to three-horse race every season, with the rest of the clubs making up the numbers?

[Kiro Kompiro]

7 hours ago, Shahanga said:

Like (I suspect) everyone else I'm sick of talking about Koren, he's 35, been here 18 months, so there ain't a lot of mystery or a lot to debate left in my book, so even though its his thread, I thought I'd hijack it back to Tommy Rogic for a few posts at least.

Tommy's finally been fully fit this year.  Thoughts @silva10 ?  His highlights package for those who aren't interested in SPL (that's me!) has been impressive with his typical -"oh f.o., you can't make that look easy" goals, but how have you seen the full package?

For those who aren't even sure who Celtic are, his latest goal is here:

http://www.socceroos.com.au/article/socceroo-tom-rogic-scores-screamer-for-celtic-fc-in-scottish-premier-league/1ocyjfqhf7u95102a6jstdr4z7

You know what i like almost as much? That one touch pass where he sees the overlapping player Lustig- uses his peripheral awareness for perfectly-weighted pass and most of all fast thinking- 

@jw1739 Thats not his only long range goal either and a cheeky back heal.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Kiro Kompiro

[silva10]

8 hours ago, Shahanga said:

Like (I suspect) everyone else I'm sick of talking about Koren, he's 35, been here 18 months, so there ain't a lot of mystery or a lot to debate left in my book, so even though its his thread, I thought I'd hijack it back to Tommy Rogic for a few posts at least.

Tommy's finally been fully fit this year.  Thoughts @silva10 ?  His highlights package for those who aren't interested in SPL (that's me!) has been impressive with his typical -"oh f.o., you can't make that look easy" goals, but how have you seen the full package?

For those who aren't even sure who Celtic are, his latest goal is here:

http://www.socceroos.com.au/article/socceroo-tom-rogic-scores-screamer-for-celtic-fc-in-scottish-premier-league/1ocyjfqhf7u95102a6jstdr4z7

He has played more this season and scored a great goal yesterday. The problem is when Scott brown is back fit he will be the most likely player to drop out. I still don't see the touch player people tell me he is on here. For me his forte is his running power. He does play some good passes, but I don't see him as a play maker for Celtic.

Hoping, he now can get a run of games over the next few weeks.

 

6 hours ago, jw1739 said:

If video had been invented when I was playing (haha) you would see a couple of screamers even in my highlights package. Every forward has scored a goal or two like that in their career. Highlights packages are not the way to recruit players. You need to have scouts actually assessing the way players actually play and how they can fit into the game plan that you want in the league that you're in - as we did with Fornaroli - rather than highlights. Anyway, I thought that the general opinion was that the SPL is a bit of a one- to three-horse race every season, with the rest of the clubs making up the numbers?

The reality is that is the case with most leagues JW

In Spain Atletico have joined Real and Barca the last few years. In Germany Bayern stand alone, except for a few years of success at Dortmund. In France PSG are the dominant force. In Holland it is either PSV or Ajax. The EPL is the most competitive in Europe, but you can only see Arsenal or City winning it this year.

At the moment Aberdeen are giving Celtic some competition.

1.  

[Kiro Kompiro]

25 minutes ago, silva10 said:

I still don't see the touch player people tell me he is on here.

Ok then here's some others on the Celtic forum telling you:

" Most talented footballer in our squad. Not all things will come off but he's usually trying things the others don't think of or don't have the ability to do. "

" The guy picks up excellent positions, plays excellent passes & scores amazing goals "

" Always amazed at the way he glides past players. "

" Looks like the ball is stuck to his foot at times.Great player "

" Can take players on, has an eye for an incisive pass, great shot on him and picks up dangerous positions "

"For a big guy he has incredible ball control. At times he looks like he wouldn't look out of place playing for Brazil in the late 90s."

 

" he has better passing and awareness than Commons. His first touch is also better, something which lets Commons down I feel. "

 

As far as his "running power" honestly you couldn't be any more wrong if you tried. His endurance and running power is his weakest asset.  But he makes up or it wit quick thinking and quick feet.  But don't take my word for it- here's some recent quotes of Talk Celtic:

 

"Still needs to improve his fitness, he used to be chronically slow, now he's not that slow definitely improved his sharpness but he always tires too early in games"

 

" Just needs games to work up the fitness and be able to last the 90. "

 

"Was one of our better players today,lacks a burst of pace,was better than Bitton and Johansen "

 

[silva10]

2 minutes ago, Kiro Kompiro said:

Ok then here's some others on the Celtic forum telling you:

" Most talented footballer in our squad. Not all things will come off but he's usually trying things the others don't think of or don't have the ability to do. "

" The guy picks up excellent positions, plays excellent passes & scores amazing goals "

" Always amazed at the way he glides past players. "

" Looks like the ball is stuck to his foot at times.Great player "

" Can take players on, has an eye for an incisive pass, great shot on him and picks up dangerous positions "

"For a big guy he has incredible ball control. At times he looks like he wouldn't look out of place playing for Brazil in the late 90s."

 

" he has better passing and awareness than Commons. His first touch is also better, something which lets Commons down I feel. "

 

As far as his "running power" honestly you couldn't be any more wrong if you tried. His endurance and running power is his weakest asset.  But he makes up or it wit quick thinking and quick feet.  But don't take my word for it- here's some recent quotes of Talk Celtic:

 

"Still needs to improve his fitness, he used to be chronically slow, now he's not that slow definitely improved his sharpness but he always tires too early in games"

 

" Just needs games to work up the fitness and be able to last the 90. "

 

"Was one of our better players today,lacks a burst of pace,was better than Bitton and Johansen "

 

Everyone has different opinions. I can only comment on the few times i have seen him. I personally think he does have running power and needs more games. He has played some nice passes in games, but I don't see him as an out and out play maker. For me that is what Celtic are missing in midfield. Bitton is probably the closest we have.

Maybe I will change my mind when I see Tom play 6, 7 or 8 games in a row. However, I am not sure he will be given that game time by Delia.

[Shahanga]

Sorry didn't mean to put you quite on the spot like that, I got it in my head you were a fanatical Celtic fan or something and never missed a game.

Anyway for the record so far he's played 17 league games, 2 cup games, 4 UCL games. Averaging 75 minutes a game in his league appearances.

[Imperial Pints]

Koren be like

 

"I make a million...bucks every 12 months and y'all, hating my game, screamin my name they call

me the 'lux of all things, thinkin' I'm fly without wings

while alien #8 be pulling strings"

 

 

"My calf tears on point like dadadadadada what's the point?

My output disappoint like dadadadadada what's the point

New York I'm in ya area (Over Here!)

Man City I'm in ya area (Over here!)

Melbourne I'm in ya area (Over here!)

Cfg spent the world on me..."

[sheepdog]

On 25/12/2015 at 10:28 AM, Jovan said:

Just like seeing an ex girlfriend that you dumped.

Regret? Sadness? Bitterness? All due to the fact that ever since you dumped her the sexy bitch has gone on to be even hotter, has a well paying career, married and built her own house and I have gone on to somehow fuck up my life with two kids to two different women, currently un employed and going through the motions of trying to shake a crack addiction cold turkey.

If you are reading this Melanie, I still love you and miss getting headjobs as I drove your little convertible down the freeway. 

 

[haz]

shit.

[mus-28]

No Mooy. Gets chance to play in preferred position. Produces utter wank. Fuck this pretender off to the Dog & Duck League.

[drewmelbcity]

Where's that dude that was pumping Koren up? If it wasn't for his hat trick yonks ago he would be Mifsud status at the club. 

Edited January 2, 2016 by drewmelbcity

[hakz7]

What do we think of Koren??

[Luke]

Fucking useless 

[Kiro Kompiro]

Just needs a bit more time.

[Cityscape]

Fuck he is shit.

$900,000 a year for that.

[Shahanga]

Has potential 

[belaguttman]

I can finally say that Koren has stopped disappointing me. I expected nothing substantial from him and he met my expectations totally