Rd14 Vs WSW @ Aami 7.50 p.m. Friday 6th Jan 2017

[malloy]

13 minutes ago, haz said:

 

Valkanis likes the look of Tongyik
By Clement Tito Jan 7 2017 2:16PM
Melbourne City interim coach Michael Valkanis expects to see more of young defender Ruon Tongyik this season.

Valkanis has experience working with Tongyik at former club Adelaide United and did not hesitate to play him as a centre-back in Friday's 1-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers.

Tongyik made his debut in the 1-1 draw to Sydney FC a month ago and has featured in four games since then.

“I’ve known since he was 15, when we brought him into the youth team so we’ve watched him grow and he’s developed under us,” Valkanis said.

“He’s talented, I don’t think there are many defenders that are so technically gifted on the ball and so comfortable on the ball.

“We noticed that at a young age with Ruon, he was a real skinny kid and he had to work more on his defensive game.

“He’s done a very good job and as I said the experience he gained in the previous three or four games where even playing in the three, he took that pressure, played with the calmness he’s got and I think it’s going to be great for us.”

It was Valkanis’ first game as interim coach after the unexpected resignation of former head manager John van ’t Schip during the week.

After conceding it was an emotional week, he was content after City was able to keep a clean sheet in downing the Wanderers.

He however felt his team could have iced the game after Aritz Borda was sent off in the 30th minute for his elbow on Bruno Fornaroli.

“I thought the first half was very good and we created enough chances to win the game a little bit more comfortably,” he said.

“I think we had good clear cut chances, it shouldn’t have got to that. There was one or two times where they had opportunities but I don’t think clear cut.

“You’re always going to have opportunities against you. The only thing that could worry you was in the last five games, we have conceded those sort of goals.

“But today we had a clean sheet and the boys worked hard. It was difficult conditions, it was very, very hot and we played with a very good intensity in the first half. That affected our second half I think.”

Valkanis also dedicated the win to van’t Schip who is back home in the Netherlands attending to his sick father.

“It has been a tough week, someone who has been here for a very long time and part of this club shocked us with the news that he was resigning,” he said.

“This win was a little bit for John as well. The result was very important but with us it’s always about the style as well. Today the boys dominated the majority of the game.”

http://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/valkanis-likes-the-look-of-tongyik-446628

One of the things I am liking about Tongyik is that when he makes defensive headers he tries to get them to one of our players as opposed tobMalik who seems content with just getting something on the ball. Having Jacobson in the lineup next to him should aid his development hugely.

[MXG]

39 minutes ago, haz said:

 

Valkanis likes the look of Tongyik
By Clement Tito Jan 7 2017 2:16PM
.........

“This win was a little bit for John as well. The result was very important but with us it’s always about the style as well. Today the boys dominated the majority of the game.”

http://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/valkanis-likes-the-look-of-tongyik-446628

Tecnically he is right. It was full dominance. They had 3 chances in total. Is it sustanable dominance? No. Just 1-0 up and WSW with their counter ability were in the game till the very last minute. 10 men is absolutely enough for this type of play.

The biggest worring sign for me is that we cannot maintain the same level for 90 minutes. First 40 min were great. Somebody would say its hot conditions but I would say fitness. I am sure that management is aware of it. The positives  yesterday were that we never started to play a long ball once its became clear we are out of gas.

Absolutely not agree that pressing high is constraining Bruno in any way. He is not the quickest forward and do not not use space when opposition is playing high anyway. Again management is fully aware of it thats why Kamau moved more central and Ivan up when Poppa started to play too high. Thats why we scored. Kamau was good actually, always available and hardworking, a bit unlucky but at least he took a shot and did not just crossed. Coming back to Bruno, what we are lacking is somebody like Novillo who could atract defenders and give Bruno a space in the box or just shoot from the distance if defenders are still on Bruno. Cahill is absolutely useless in this regard. The only man who can possibly do it is may be Fernando.

Could not understand why Brattan was upset when he had been substituted. He was clearly tired and Caceras was a good decision. 

Overall, had a feeling we are on the right track, BUT. If we want more supportes we need to play quicker football NOW, Dutch style or not is irrelevant. As a gooner I prefer total footbal, but in salary cap turnament its gonna be diffucult. Cheap adrenaline based style of victard amatures will be more attractive in highlights.  

[belaguttman]

7 hours ago, Torn Asunder said:

Actually thought it was a good win. Normally that game would end in a draw or a loss so hopefully we've broken the cycle.

Very tough playing conditions and also very hard to break down 10 men who are resolutely implementing absolute defence.

If we can solve the problem of being able to create clearer attacking chances we'll be back on track. 

 

A side note; SBS runs the worst coverage in the universe ... they could not be more biased towards WSW if they tried

 

When Lucy Zelic appears on the TC wearing a red and black outfit its understandable why SBS stands for Sydney Broadcasting Service

[rass]

All this talk on here about Fornaroli being denied space by our tactics, but not much about how well Popa set them up defensively especially when down to 10 men. From where i sat, i saw WSW give up the wide areas so they could flood centrally. Sucked us into thinking we'd tire them out by spreading the ball out wide - only to be greeted with a wall of red and black when we finally tried coming back in.

Reckon that game could have gone another 5 hours without them conceding another.

[MXG]

That's why its important to have somebody who could and was willing to shoot from the distance. We had nobody and tried to walk the ball into the net.

[n i k o]

20 minutes ago, rass said:

All this talk on here about Fornaroli being denied space by our tactics, but not much about how well Popa set them up defensively especially when down to 10 men. From where i sat, i saw WSW give up the wide areas so they could flood centrally. Sucked us into thinking we'd tire them out by spreading the ball out wide - only to be greeted with a wall of red and black when we finally tried coming back in.

Reckon that game could have gone another 5 hours without them conceding another.

I did mention this in an earlier post. Sometimes we can get caught up in what we're doing we forget there's another team fighting just as hard as we are. And sometimes their tactics/efforts/abilities can give us problems that are at times out of our control. It's about finding solutions around those problems which last night to a certain degree we did. 

[jw1739]

9 hours ago, rass said:

All this talk on here about Fornaroli being denied space by our tactics, but not much about how well Popa set them up defensively especially when down to 10 men. From where i sat, i saw WSW give up the wide areas so they could flood centrally. Sucked us into thinking we'd tire them out by spreading the ball out wide - only to be greeted with a wall of red and black when we finally tried coming back in.

Reckon that game could have gone another 5 hours without them conceding another.

In front of Janjetovic they had two lines, a four at the back and a three/four about 10m further up field. We repeatedly let these two lines form up like soldiers because of our slow ball forward movement. So they were effectively playing 1-4-3-2 or 1-4-4-1. When they broke forward it was the middle four that broke up and not the back four - so instead of using wing-backs they were in essence using their half-backs to add to the forward pressure. Old fashioned football really - that's the way I saw it anyway. We were out-coached for most of the match.

It is our slow forward ball-movement that is killing us. Our insistence on possession is tiring us out, and allowing the opposition to recover aerobically, and IMO that's why we are so vulnerable at the end of each half. All these things are linked together.

 

[jw1739]

Borda gets three matches for clouting Bruno.

[SF33]

There's something to be said for being able to secure the three points when you don't play particularly well. My concern is I can only really remember one league game this year where we have really looked impressive in taking apart an opponent and with the quality we have on paper, that's not good enough. We let lesser teams hang around. We lose games we should have drawn, we draw games that we should have won and we take one goal wins when we should be winning those by two or three. Sure, it's an improvement on the Heart days, but it is infuriating to see Victory and Sydney seemingly win every game by multiple goals, when we're scratching out results with the firepower that we have.

A statement must be made with Brattan. He should be benched on Thursday. It's incredibly disappointing that he was actually looking like a worthy replacement for Mooy after the first two games, he's been absolutely bog average ever since. Shows all the signs of a player that got a bit ahead of himself and he's had more than enough time to figure out that he is getting further away from a Socceroos call-up each week.

It was interesting listening to the Fox commentary about City's 'negative' tactics and then in the post-game analysis, it was announced that we'd set some sort of record for balls in the box. WSW had their moments, but the only reason the game was still in the balance was because we butchered 4-5 golden opportunities, like we always do. Still not enough collective ruthlessness to make serious damage in the league. We play up or down to the standard of the opposition and you don't win the league by doing that.