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Rnd 1 - 8/10, 5.35pm Vs Wellington (Away)


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24 minutes ago, Dylan said:

I agree with @Shahanga (cant find the post to quote) Rose was going fine until that mistake. I even though the red was slightly harsh given the rules say 'handled' the ball with his hand, as he made no attempt to save the ball with his hands and it hit the trailing arm. Anyway, not going to argue, ref probably couldnt do much else. But, those blaming Sorenson are completely delusional and either have this irrational hatred for him because he is old, OR Tando has become mythical to them and they forget how he wassnt that great at all before he had that purple patch toward the end of the season. Oh and by the way thats the first time Sorenson has been sent off his entire career.

 

Anyway I am extremely happy with the performance of the first half (and start of the second) where we were all over Wellington, especially their midfield (which was at full strength) . Also happy with the performance of the second half where we went 40 mins with 10 men and away from home. You need that ability to win championships. 

 

I said when Sorenson got sent off if we win this we will win the derby and I still believe that. I suspect this is going to go a big way to galvanising and gelling the squad and hopefully developing a siege mentality. 

 

The main thing we will be missing is his leadership at the back, I don't know how vocal Bouzanis is, or even if the players will listen to him. Hopefully Jakobsen steps up (was a bit rusty against Nix) and controls that back line.

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5 hours ago, silva10 said:

It didn't surprise me we almost lost a goal from a back pass. I counted at east haf a dozen times where we passed back to Sorenson when it wasn't required. Nothing infuriates me more than to watch players pass it back to the goalkeeper without any pressure only for the keeper to launch it forward. FFS the player can do that himself.

Anybody that blames Sorenson for the sending off knows sweet fuck all about football.

My MOTM was Brattan followed by Kamau. However, all the players where solid after the sending off. Last year we would have lost that 3-1.

 

The back pass to the keeper is a JVS trade mark from the first day of the franchise's existence.  You've only had to watch it for a couple of seasons.

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6 minutes ago, Kiro Kompiro said:

The back pass to the keeper is a JVS trade mark from the first day of the franchise's existence.  You've only had to watch it for a couple of seasons.

This. I remember games where it seemed like the players had been instructed to pass it backwards no matter what

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Interesting talk of scapegoats across the forum, all the guys i watched with thought Josh Rose was absolutely terrific, backpass not withstanding. They constantly attacked his side and time after time he repelled the attack. Obviously made one bad error.
As for the sending off, not a red for mine. Arm was below his head, behind and imo in as a natural a position as you can expect when going to ground like that, coupled with the fact it was point blank and impossible to react to. Probably a yellow and foul, but red way too harsh.

I found it hard to split Rose, Brattan and Kamau for man of the match. Brattan was unbelievable and has to be a shout for the JW Medal.

Pumped for the derby, i reckon we'll even go in as favourites.

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10 hours ago, Kinnibari said:

Don't think we've ever had a home opener. Also we usually get an away last round. Thanks FFA.

Our very first match was at home. Since then we've been away in the first round. Not correct, though, on your second assertion, although it feels that way because we've always finished the season poorly or very poorly - including that we've never actually won our last home league match of the season.

31 minutes ago, KSK_47 said:

This. I remember games where it seemed like the players had been instructed to pass it backwards no matter what

Who can forget the nightmare of Colosimo knocking it back to Bolton time after time? What really gets me is the free-kicks and throw-ins that go backwards, and I'll swear that more times than not we get into trouble doing it.

Edited by jw1739
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It can be argued that Sorensen was "unlucky" that the rebound struck his arm, but in the circumstances the referee saw it as an "obvious goal-scoring opportunity" denied by handball, and IMO he had to show the red. IMO we should take our medicine and not appeal the standard one-match suspension, derby or no derby. It's not FFA's fault that people think Bouzanis is not up to it, but by all accounts he saved us more than once so maybe he's not so bad after all.

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1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

 

Who can forget the nightmare of Colosimo knocking it back to Bolton time after time? What really gets me is the free-kicks and throw-ins that go backwards, and I'll swear that more times than not we get into trouble doing it.

Oh my god. So painful.There was one game i remember someone standing up and yelling "for fuck sake! Youre going the wrong fucking way!!!" and everyone in south stand stood up and applauded

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Watching that game, I think we're in for a similar season to last year. Lots of goals, some decent football but a leaky defence that won't get fixed.

Our structure is interesting, if not a bit odd. The intention seems to be for the Kilkenny/Malik role to play as CB in defence and DM in attack. But, the transition both ways is very ineffective at the moment, meaning we don't really have a DM to bounce the ball into in attack so we end up playing out through Chapman and Rose and getting caught in the narrow corridors near the side line. 

Then we have a CB sprinting back into position in defence ( after belatedly taking up the DM role), often leaving us open to the counter. Good teams on the counter (Victory) will punish us for this. 

Also, can't believe how much Chapman has stagnated in the past 18 months or so. He is so untidy/unsure on the ball now- I think Malik is probably a better fit for that role at present. 

 

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Was having a look at some of the stats that were published by Fox Sports after the first week of play and there are some interesting ones for the Melbourne City players.

 

ScreenHunter_392 Oct. 09 19.12.jpg

Colazo created the most chances of anyone in the A-League this week, I'm not sure how they define chances, but an encouraging start for the Argentinian, though I originally had him pegged as a left back more performances like that will lead to him being used further up the park.

ScreenHunter_393 Oct. 09 19.18.jpg

The work of our three midfielders was pretty industrious and the stats of them plot pretty much as expected. Brattan having a much lower passing efficiency than Kilkenny but I'd wager that you'd see a lot fewer forward passes from Kilkenny, Caceras is a mixture between the two in terms of his overall passing rate, but much more similar to Brattan in terms of his Passing Accuracy in the forward half which melds with how I think of them playing.

 

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13 hours ago, bt50 said:

Interesting talk of scapegoats across the forum, all the guys i watched with thought Josh Rose was absolutely terrific, backpass not withstanding. They constantly attacked his side and time after time he repelled the attack. Obviously made one bad error.
As for the sending off, not a red for mine. Arm was below his head, behind and imo in as a natural a position as you can expect when going to ground like that, coupled with the fact it was point blank and impossible to react to. Probably a yellow and foul, but red way too harsh.

I found it hard to split Rose, Brattan and Kamau for man of the match. Brattan was unbelievable and has to be a shout for the JW Medal.

Pumped for the derby, i reckon we'll even go in as favourites.

I actually thought Rose had a decent game up to the back pass. After that he struggled a bit which is no surprise.

 

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23 hours ago, bt50 said:

Interesting talk of scapegoats across the forum, all the guys i watched with thought Josh Rose was absolutely terrific, backpass not withstanding. They constantly attacked his side and time after time he repelled the attack. Obviously made one bad error.
As for the sending off, not a red for mine. Arm was below his head, behind and imo in as a natural a position as you can expect when going to ground like that, coupled with the fact it was point blank and impossible to react to. Probably a yellow and foul, but red way too harsh.

I found it hard to split Rose, Brattan and Kamau for man of the match. Brattan was unbelievable and has to be a shout for the JW Medal.

Pumped for the derby, i reckon we'll even go in as favourites.

Couldn't disagree more, his passing was terrible.

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1 minute ago, Ruckoo said:

Couldn't disagree more, his passing was terrible.

FWIW Rose played 34 passes at 76.5 for the game, comparable to the others. Also had by far the most tackles and clearances of the defence.

I know stats dont say everything, but its an indication.

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55 minutes ago, bt50 said:

FWIW Rose played 34 passes at 76.5 for the game, comparable to the others. Also had by far the most tackles and clearances of the defence.

I know stats dont say everything, but its an indication.

What the stats don't show is how nervous he looks when he is passing. The other thing they don't show is the passes that, while 'accurate,' place his teammates under unecassary pressure. 

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1 minute ago, n i k o said:

What the stats don't show is how nervous he looks when he is passing. The other thing they don't show is the passes that, while 'accurate,' place his teammates under unecassary pressure. 

Understandable. Look, dont get me wrong, i still think his spot is the probably the weakest link in the side, but i just dont think hes as bad as a lot of people are making him out to be. A lot of people are lining him up like they did Hoffman, blaming everything on him and automatically dismissing his game as terrible, even if he does 10 good things and fucks up once.
Rose is certainly limited, but he's also very solid defensively imo, which given last season I'm happy just to see a FB that doesnt get caught out one on one.

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5 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Understandable. Look, dont get me wrong, i still think his spot is the probably the weakest link in the side, but i just dont think hes as bad as a lot of people are making him out to be. A lot of people are lining him up like they did Hoffman, blaming everything on him and automatically dismissing his game as terrible, even if he does 10 good things and fucks up once.
Rose is certainly limited, but he's also very solid defensively imo, which given last season I'm happy just to see a FB that doesnt get caught out one on one.

I'm more concerned with Chapman TBH. Not only the way he's playing but the large chunks of the past two seasons he's missed. IMO he's not developed as might have been predicted.

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18 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Understandable. Look, dont get me wrong, i still think his spot is the probably the weakest link in the side, but i just dont think hes as bad as a lot of people are making him out to be. A lot of people are lining him up like they did Hoffman, blaming everything on him and automatically dismissing his game as terrible, even if he does 10 good things and fucks up once.
Rose is certainly limited, but he's also very solid defensively imo, which given last season I'm happy just to see a FB that doesnt get caught out one on one.

Agree. Was just about to say chapman was far worse than Rose, taking the mishit back pass out.

My opinion on Rose is what I've seen of him in every game since he arrived and not just this one game. 

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3 hours ago, bt50 said:

Understandable. Look, dont get me wrong, i still think his spot is the probably the weakest link in the side, but i just dont think hes as bad as a lot of people are making him out to be. A lot of people are lining him up like they did Hoffman, blaming everything on him and automatically dismissing his game as terrible, even if he does 10 good things and fucks up once.
Rose is certainly limited, but he's also very solid defensively imo, which given last season I'm happy just to see a FB that doesnt get caught out one on one.

Except that he's not solid defensively either, He was completely at fault for the goal conceded vs The wanderers

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8 minutes ago, Chris p said:

Except that he's not solid defensively either, He was completely at fault for the goal conceded vs The wanderers

Surely that was Chapman, who completely lost his man in the 6-yard box, giving him a free header? And not a great effort by Sorensen either.

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Not buying the Bouzanis hype, I've invested over 10 years in telling everyone this guy is shit with tremendous success so far, it's gonna take a lot more for my mind to change.

At the very least one of his efforts where he 'saved us' looked very suspect, looked more like he got lucky jsut getting a touch on the ball at Krishna's feet, I reckon more times than not he would have given away a penalty or Krishna would have got past him and scored.

His positioning was suspect af as well.

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On 07/10/2016 at 11:45 AM, Heart of Melbourne said:

This is a must win game which will also drive our membership numbers 11 days before our first home game. I have been following our daily membership number over the last 3 days and we have average 70 per day. A win on Saturday would no doubt have more people sign up and take us to 80 per day as an average. This is 880 members before our first home game.  This will get us to 10700 members on game day at worst case scenario.

On track. Green Line. Next

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The problem for Bouzanis is the same as for every other reserve A-League goalkeeper - they have little or no opportunity to get match practice. Life becomes a monotonous routine of training and then sitting on the bench watching. Other reserve/fringe players in the squad are pretty much the same.

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I'm just back from a month away and I've just watched the game. Overall, a good performance.

Positives

Good first half where we controlled the game, admittedly against a weakened Nix but you can only play who is on the park

We won a game that Heart would have definitely lost and even City of last season would likely have lost. We made a mistake but didn't crumble or show anxiety

Clean sheet

We adapted tactically after the send-off and actually defended compactly and intelligently. We even slowed the tempo of the game.

All the imports played well and the team looked reasonably cohesive at this early stage of the season.

We had a strong bench that even had a defender on it!

 

Negatives:

We've lost Sorenson for the derby.

At the start of the second half we lost momentum as if JVS was surprised by Merrick's half-time tactical changes. (what a surprise)

We were wasteful in the first half, Moss had an excellent game but we should have been more efficient in front of goal, that will come.

We were pressing the whole first half, that changed after the red card but hopefully JVS isn't going to persist with the idea of 90 minutes of a full team press for another season

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32 minutes ago, Jovan said:

I think its more we expected Bouzanis to be completely shit. A bad version of Redmayne but in fact he's not as bad. Who could be.

Weather he is A League level we will know after Saturday night.(hope he is).

He's never had a chance to prove otherwise 

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