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Week 19: Newcastle Jets v Melbourne - Feb 11 - 5:30pm


Caddy
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Poor game by Newcastle tonight, 3-0 wasn't an accurate reflection of the opportunities or general play in this game. 20 minutes of good play by Heart without a single shot on target, then only 4 shots for the whole match with only 1 of them testing the keeper. Poor all over the park apart from Bolton, at least Williams showed some desire when he came on. Babalj needs some time in the youth team to get his confidence back and we should give some opportunities to Stipo Andrijasevic or Zac Walker.

We've scored 5 goals this year and conceded 14. The problem is not just the absence of key players although of course that's a factor. When the senior and youth team are rising and falling together that suggests a club level issue rather than just a problem with absent players. It could be a lack of belief, a lack of ruthlessness but something important has not been addressed. The way it's going the GCU game will not only be a record low attendance (only us dedicated fans will be there) but it's likely to result in yet another loss. Don't expect miracles just because Fred is returning.

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Typical spiranovic negativity,

played terrible tonight but looking forward to getting a few players back in the weeks to come,

hopefully win enough games to stay in the top 6 and have a strong side fit for finals.

We haven't just played terribly tonight, we've played terribly often and even when we've played well we still haven't scored more than 1 goal in a game since December.

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Yeah I was frustrated, I apologise for the rant but I don't think moving forward Worm, Terra and Maycon will take us anywhere and bringing in Fred, Thompson, Behich, Dugandzic and three better imports we will much better for it in the future.

For next week, we lose nothing bringing in a type like Walker. We lack so much bite up front, with Fred back we will gain more creativity naturally but having a finisher would be nice.

We actually suck so much in defending set pieces, it's beyond a joke. We need to get an experienced CB with strong leadership and presence. This is a must.

Anyway, next week is a new opportunity and three points will get us back on track. Two home games with Fred back coming up. Let's get back on track.

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Central Coast have shown when they are missing just one key player, Simon, the level of the whole team goes down a notch.

Something that media and opposition fans don't realise or choose to ignore is how depleted we really are. Thompson and Fred are 2 of our best players. If you take out 2 of the best of any other team you would expect them to struggle. Then you add Dugandzic, Behich, Sarkies (who's actually been serviceable).

We played like trash today and without heart there's no excuse for that... But getting these players back will lift the team. GCU is a massive massive game. Win that and a few players back for CCM and we could still make the finals.

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When the senior and youth team are rising and falling together that suggests a club level issue rather than just a problem with absent players. It could be a lack of belief, a lack of ruthlessness but something important has not been addressed.

Could it just be uncertainty? Often happens with a lame duck leader. IMO JvS really ought to stand aside, and quite frankly I'm surprised that the club has not done that. He's already said that his future is not with the club, which means he doesn't want to be here, so that really leaves all the players insecure and without direction. We just can't drift for six more matches - there are implications for next year and beyond in terms of things like membership if we do that.

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GCU is a massive massive game.

Agree with that. This game will also mark Marrone's 50th in a Heart shirt - the first player to get there (and not Bolton's despite Andy Harper's claim, have checked twice). Hopefully that will lift the boys (those that aren't killed by the coach in his post game rant that is).

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Could it just be uncertainty? Often happens with a lame duck leader. IMO JvS really ought to stand aside, and quite frankly I'm surprised that the club has not done that. He's already said that his future is not with the club, which means he doesn't want to be here, so that really leaves all the players insecure and without direction. We just can't drift for six more matches - there are implications for next year and beyond in terms of things like membership if we do that.

Leadership should actually be provided by the whole group rather than looking for 'a leader'. That's actually a sign of a dependent group ( look up Bion's basic assumptions in groups). In a way the problem is that Fred is seen as 'the leader' and so the team is leaderless without him. The reality is that the whole club needs to accept responsibility and work together.

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Easily the worst performance I've seen from us. Ran out of ideas after 15 minutes. Since Fred got injured and Dugandzic, Thompson and Babalj lost form, we don't look like we know how to construct a goal anymore. We never looked like scoring today. And by the last half an hour, we lost the plot completely and resorted to pumping long balls. And some poor defending for the goals conceded.

The difference between our best and our worst is massive. We get up for certain games, and then play with a total lack of inspiration in others. Inconsistency can happen with young teams or unsettled teams. But we really lacked leadership and class today. I don't think anyone can hold their head up tonight.

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Eli cant be shuffled unless it out of the league. You cant honestly play so poorly and stay!!!! A man would leave a mouse would stay.Worm has got ot go.

Sad thing is I read the canadian at the roar is so bad they told him to leave, soooooooooooooo Adelaide want him?????????????????? Serious issue with the league makes the A league look like Asssshole league.

Edited by mario
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Eli will come good but he needs to regain his confidence. He also has a good on-field understanding with Mate and so is missing out on assists as he tries to do it all himself. A few goals in the youth team will help him a lot.

Incidentally when is the last time we have won a penalty? Despite trying to walk the ball into the goal, we seem to put little actual pressure on defenders. I can only recall 2 pens for us this year, have I missed any? 1 goal from a free kick and 1 goal from a set piece this season. Compare that to CCM or even Victory.

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We turned it around once this season - lets hope this was rock bottom and its all up from here.

With the side so depleted ,in all honesty this was half expected.

Frustrating as it is we move on to next week and hope for the best

this is not a problem that results from missing players. As soon as we conceded the team just crumbled. One shot on target in the first half. No shots on target in the first 20 minutes despite dictating the play until that stage.

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We were terrible against the Jets. With the increased standard of the A League we fielded too many players that are coach killers. While I'm trying to be optimisitic the reality is our squad has been weakened - Madashi is a massive loss - while Victory have seriously strengthened their squad with the addition of Milligan and Ubay and a new Manager who is both marketing the club and looks pretty good to me. Magilton had Hernandez working hard defensively. When has Hernandez ever done that before!! If I'm objective Victory played quality football against the Mariners - their best by far for the season - and are coming. Not to forget Sydney are also coming for our spot in the six. Anything less than a win against Gold Coast next week and we are stuffed.

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Easily the worst performance I've seen from us. Ran out of ideas after 15 minutes. Since Fred got injured and Dugandzic, Thompson and Babalj lost form, we don't look like we know how to construct a goal anymore. We never looked like scoring today. And by the last half an hour, we lost the plot completely and resorted to pumping long balls. And some poor defending for the goals conceded.

The difference between our best and our worst is massive. We get up for certain games, and then play with a total lack of inspiration in others. Inconsistency can happen with young teams or unsettled teams. But we really lacked leadership and class today. I don't think anyone can hold their head up tonight.

I agree with all above. It really was a bad day at the office. Tony H (RWU) could not watch it as he was out with interstate visitors at, er Dracula's (!?).

I sent him updates on the game. "You could have stayed in and watched this horror show instead."

No bite upfront. Anaemic display. 3-0... like a stake through my Heart. Lost COUNT of the number of bad passes. Played like Zombies. They all need a (silver) bullet!

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Eli babalj, does not fight for the ball and keep fighting. He relys too much on the team to just give him the ball for him to tap it in. Maycon is horrible. Get rid of him. David willams was looking good but them some idiot put maycon even further up front so again, he is not playing in the only position he is good at. Man of the match for me was shroj, he had a great game but did tire so good decision by jvs, next best were colosimo and marrone.

bottom line is you cant win games without 6 good players out. dugangic,behich,hoff,fred,thomson and sarkies.

looking into the future

friday 17 v gold coast, Sarkies back, Fred back off the bench

Sunday 26 v Mariners, thomson back, dugangic,bahich hoffman ????

2 march, v brisbane, everyone back.

thre are 3 games after the brisbane one, so even in this competition 4 wins with our full strength team can put us into finals. But that said we still have to beat gcu, we have to , otherwise it could well be all over.

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More thoughts...

The problem is that the team is looking for a leader rather than stepping up and assuming leadership as a group. Fred has become elevated into something that he isn't and so his absence creates a hole that shouldn't be there. This is a team that is frozen with anxiety, earlier in the year JVS nearly put his finger on it when he called it fear, it's not fear but it's anxiety. This is the issue that needs to be addressed for the team to play at it's potential. The risk is that Fred's return will allow the issue to be deferred as the team will feel their leader has returned but that this will only reinforce the basic problem. I think that this underlying anxiety in the team is also a factor in our poor home form, performing in front of a home crowd is like performing in front of your family, it can make you more anxious.

A small amount of anxiety actually increases your performance but as it rises it impairs your ability to think and this impairs decision making and confidence. Our team needs a sports psychologist.

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Look, missing the players we were missing was always going to make it tough. Missing four first choice players plus a couple of back-ups will hurt any club.

But what was concerning was the way we folded so easily. And it's the first time I've come away from a game with absolutely no positives to point to. In other games we've lost, you could at least see what we're trying to do. You can see the foundations of a gameplan and a team that can carry it out with some improvements here or there. Losing games is ok if you can see that. And although we've had some disappointing games, I've accepted them because we've always shown at least something worth building on. Yesterday there was nothing.

We now have to turn it around next week. Fred will be available, but it shouldn't be up to any individual. Like belaguttman says, every player needs to take the responsibility to turn it around and JVS needs to get their heads in the right place. That's the challenge this week.

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What to do after such a game?? Be grateful it wasn't 6 nil !

Positives - the Heart normally bounce back after a shocker...

Negatives - complete loss of composure after conceding, guys trying too hard without any patience or creativity and a genuine lack of leadership (i.e. someone taking command on feild and re-settling and recomposing the team...)

Excuses - the obvious missing players and the late Sarkies injury - if JVS knew earlier I think he would have gone with a different set up, maybe a 4-4-2 too much was asked of Reid in his second game and inexperience.

Keep the faith people, we are still in good shape with plenty to play for - this comp is all about momentum and hopefully on Friday night ours will swing the right way

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Easily the worst performance I've seen from us. Ran out of ideas after 15 minutes. Since Fred got injured and Dugandzic, Thompson and Babalj lost form, we don't look like we know how to construct a goal anymore. We never looked like scoring today. And by the last half an hour, we lost the plot completely and resorted to pumping long balls. And some poor defending for the goals conceded.

The difference between our best and our worst is massive. We get up for certain games, and then play with a total lack of inspiration in others. Inconsistency can happen with young teams or unsettled teams. But we really lacked leadership and class today. I don't think anyone can hold their head up tonight.

Agree with this summary. Our creativity and chance creation is at an all time low. This is because of the players we are missing, with more than half of our assists being provided by players who are out. Top 2 leading providers of assists are Behich, with 5, and Dugandzic, with 4. Thompson has 3 and I think Fred also has provided 3.

So what's left? Marrone hasn't been providing quality crosses like he did last season, Worm is in terrible form (has provided equal 2nd assists with 4, but can't create much singlehandedly) and Terra is much more of a scorer than a creator. Germano providing assists like with Terra's goal against Wellington is the best we can do until we have more of our team back. That, or Goodwin, Reid and Marrone need to actually pass and cross well and create chances.

I also think there is a needless lack of motivation, with players seemingly becoming directionless when Fred is out. The same thing happened when Broich was out for Roar. I don't think Broich = Roar or Fred = Heart, but I think expectations drop and crude judgements like Fred = Heart might become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As for JVS causing the players to lose direction that definitely wasn't the case last weekend against Victory after he announced leaving so I don't think its true. I just reckon we're missing our chance creators and we're going to depend on mistakes from our opponents and individual efforts (looking at you Babalj! if your going to be selfish find the back of the net!) to get goals and results.

P.S. Worm to the bench and Williams to start. Maycon out of the squad with Zac Walker and/or Kamal Ibrahim to make the bench.

Edited by Murfy1
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I now understand the reason for LR9's "notice". I didn't see the game and from what i've heard a lot of the criticism here is excellent, but far out, to question your support for the club based on a month or so of bad results is pretty poor.

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I saw the first 15 minutes before heading off to a wedding. Thought, yep, we can win this. I then get told we were hammered 3-0. WTF?

I thought Colosimo would be the key to us keeping a clean sheet in this game, but from what I have read he was poor. I've never been a fan of his, but he is a better player than what we've got from him. I level the blame at JVS's awful man-management skills. He has basically shot Colosimo's confidence to pieces. OK to do that when you have back up, but if we're all honest the sort of mistakes that Good and Hamil l have made over the season have been diabolical. I believe in the youth policy, but at the centre of defense we needed someone with experience, and Madasshi was a stop gap. Its unforgiveable that JVS has mismanaged Colisimo so badly when we have no-one else to fill the role.

On to Worm who is copping a lot of flack, not sure how many game he started and completed this season, my guess is about a handful, but on the whole with 4 assists I think he's been serviceable. He and Marrone don't gel, unlike he and Aziz. I didn't see the Jets game, but in the derby, Marrone basically did his best to keep Worm out of the game, consistently avoiding a simple pass down the line to Worm in favour of cutting inside to go in alone. I still rate him over Williams, as I think he is a smarter player.

Edited by Kiro Kompiro
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I saw the first 15 minutes before heading off to a wedding. Thought, yep, we can win this. I then get told we were hammered 3-0. WTF?

I thought Colosimo would be the key to us keeping a clean sheet in this game, but from what I have read he was poor. I've never been a fan of his, but he is a better player than what we've got from him. I level the blame at JVS's awful man-management skills. He has basically shot Colosimo's confidence to pieces. OK to do that when you have back up, but if we're all honest the sort of mistakes that Good and Hamil l have made over the season have been diabolical. I believe in the youth policy, but at the centre of defense we needed someone with experience, and Madasshi was a stop gap. Its unforgiveable that JVS has mismanaged Colisimo so badly when we have no-one else to fill the role.

On to Worm who is copping a lot of flack, not sure how many game he started and completed this season, my guess is about a handful, but on the whole with 4 assists I think he's been serviceable. He and Marrone don't gel, unlike he and Aziz. I didn't see the Jets game, but in the derby, Marrone basically did his best to keep Worm out of the game, consistently avoiding a simple pass down the line to Worm in favour of cutting inside to go in alone. I still rate him over Williams, as I think he is a smarter player.

Problem with Worm is that when the team is doing well he contributes and is serviceable, but when the team is bad he is the biggest culprit. He was easily worst on the field in my opinion, and was a major contributor to the team's lack of confidence from the 20th minute onward. I like Worm, but he needs to be dropped after that performance.

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Our creativity and chance creation is at an all time low. This is because of the players we are missing, with more than half of our assists being provided by players who are out. Top 2 leading providers of assists are Behich, with 5, and Dugandzic, with 4. Thompson has 3 and I think Fred also has provided 3.

So what's left? Marrone hasn't been providing quality crosses like he did last season, Worm is in terrible form (has provided equal 2nd assists with 4, but can't create much singlehandedly) and Terra is much more of a scorer than a creator. Germano providing assists like with Terra's goal against Wellington is the best we can do until we have more of our team back. That, or Goodwin, Reid and Marrone need to actually pass and cross well and create chances.

Away: Dugandzic, Behich, Hoffman

Injured: Fred, Thompson, Sarkies

Returning from injury: Taseski, Kalmar, Zahra

9 players unavailable and nearly all of them goal creators or scorers. While there was a separate issue with attitude/confidence afer we conceded the first, it's not a big surprise that we played poorly.

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I level the blame at JVS's awful man-management skills. He has basically shot Colosimo's confidence to pieces.

My one major complaint about our season was the way the captaincy was handled on the eve of the season. Should've been handled much better.

Even now with Fred and Thompson out, I've noticed Bolton with the armband. Without knowing the internal workings, I would've thought it was a no-brainer to give Colosimo the captaincy. It would be pretty demoralising to suddenly go from captain to not even third choice. Apart from that, I'm generally not a fan of keepers being captains because of the limited role they have on the field. (Not that they can't be good captains, but usually it's outfield players who can lead by example.)

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