RD 27 Perth away Sunday 16th April

[Torn Asunder]

That game was a true horror show. 

I am only glad I watched it on delay, so I could fast forward after Perth went 2 goals up, otherwise I would have smashed my TV. 

Stress, pain and dissapointnent is way of being a City supporter.

Taggart, Castro, Lowe and Harnwell can all eat a turd.

Fuck off Perth and fuck you City!

[jw1739]

I watched "Maigret" instead. Damn good TV.

I thought that I knew a little bit about football, but I have no idea of what is "wrong" with City this season. So much talk of finals being important, the ACL being a high priority, etc. etc. and yet so little actually delivered. Coaches, players, both - I honestly don't know any more. It just seems that we cannot deliver.

Out of interest I went through the final four league matches of all ten clubs and produced a points table, as follows:

Sydney: 10
Brisbane: 9
WSW: 8
Perth: 7
Phoenix: 7
Adelaide: 5
MV: 4
City: 3
CCM: 3
Newcastle: 0

So we actually lost ground on every club in the league except Central Coast and Newcastle. A very typical end of season fade-out from us. Coaches, change, players change, the back room staff change, and yet it's the same old story. Very, very frustrating.

[bt50]

14 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I watched "Maigret" instead. Damn good TV.

I thought that I knew a little bit about football, but I have no idea of what is "wrong" with City this season. So much talk of finals being important, the ACL being a high priority, etc. etc. and yet so little actually delivered. Coaches, players, both - I honestly don't know any more. It just seems that we cannot deliver.

Out of interest I went through the final four league matches of all ten clubs and produced a points table, as follows:

Sydney: 10
Brisbane: 9
WSW: 8
Perth: 7
Phoenix: 7
Adelaide: 5
MV: 4
City: 3
CCM: 3
Newcastle: 0

So we actually lost ground on every club in the league except Central Coast and Newcastle. A very typical end of season fade-out from us. Coaches, change, players change, the back room staff change, and yet it's the same old story. Very, very frustrating.

Whilst I take your point, and this club should definitely be striving for better, we did play 3 of our last 4 away, 2 of which were probably the hardest trips we could possibly get this season. Context i guess.

[belaguttman]

5 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Whilst I take your point, and this club should definitely be striving for better, we did play 3 of our last 4 away, 2 of which were probably the hardest trips we could possibly get this season. Context i guess.

Yes they were played away but the pattern is the same every season. Put it another way, 3 out of the last 4 games were against finalists, 2 out those 3 were against teams below us on the ladder, we lost them all

[n i k o]

1 hour ago, Torn Asunder said:

That game was a true horror show. 

Really? Outside of the derby earlier in the season that was gold. Maybe it's cause I'm totally detached but it was comedic entertainment of the highest order. 

[jw1739]

8 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

Yes they were played away but the pattern is the same every season. Put it another way, 3 out of the last 4 games were against finalists, 2 out those 3 were against teams below us on the ladder, we lost them all

Thanks Bela. I didn't spell it out but that's exactly what I was trying to point out. If you want to be a champion, those are precisely the matches in which you have to grind out a result - even a draw. It's long past the time when we had to start to walk the talk.

[haz]

Anyone have Tim Cahills interview after the game? He said of good words on how shit we are.

[moops]

Looking at this thread gave me aids, people even barracking for the other team, you make me want to throw up into my own vomit.

It was a crazy game, entertaining game and we lost, it happens. But you are all fucked, no wonder the same old cunts just frequent this forum and hardly any newcomers do, you all made me more angry than the game ffs.

[haz]

Valkanis Press Conference:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/video/football/a-league/press-conferences/city-press-conference!619102

 

Cahill Interview:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/video/football/a-league/i-think-it-was-a-mess!619096

[kingofhearts]

1 hour ago, moops said:

Looking at this thread gave me aids, people even barracking for the other team, you make me want to throw up into my own vomit.

It was a crazy game, entertaining game and we lost, it happens. But you are all fucked, no wonder the same old cunts just frequent this forum and hardly any newcomers do, you all made me more angry than the game ffs.

Everyone supports the team differently mate,  people are just venting their frustration with all the shit we've had to put up with no only this year but the whole time we've been supporting this club. 

Just seems like same shit different day with this club. 

[jeffplz]

Timmy was so fucking disappointed, I bet he really wanted to play his last season by winning an ACL

[moops]

Just now, kingofhearts said:

Everyone supports the team differently mate,  people are just venting their frustration with all the shit we've had to put up with no only this year but the whole time we've been supporting this club. 

Just seems like same shit different day with this club. 

I get that, I am frustrated as well, but that is fucked.

Why don't I post here often? because it's full of vitriol, I don't give a shit if you want to slag off the coach or team, or whatever afterwards, it's kinda par for the course. But a bit of objectivity and critical dispute wouldn't go astray and a general consensus you want our team to win!

I won't say anymore.

[moops]

17 minutes ago, jeffplz said:

Timmy was so fucking disappointed, I bet he really wanted to play his last season by winning an ACL

He seemed as pissed off as us, our Timmy is all heart, we just haven't played him right and he looked right frustrated because he knows it.

[Embee]

2 hours ago, jeffplz said:

Timmy was so fucking disappointed, I bet he really wanted to play his last season by winning an ACL

Regardless of what some on here would have you believe he's carried us at times this season, especially in 'big games'.

Real shame that we haven't had enough of the others step up in the same way when it counts.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Embee

[n i k o]

3 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

Everyone supports the team differently mate,  people are just venting their frustration with all the shit we've had to put up with no only this year but the whole time we've been supporting this club. 

Just seems like same shit different day with this club. 

Nah @moops has got a point. I'm amongst the shit talkers but fuck, it's got to the point that I really need to find some humour in the whole thing or else I'll just leave completely. 

Edited April 17, 2017 by n i k o

[malloy]

3 hours ago, moops said:

I get that, I am frustrated as well, but that is fucked.

Why don't I post here often? because it's full of vitriol, I don't give a shit if you want to slag off the coach or team, or whatever afterwards, it's kinda par for the course. But a bit of objectivity and critical dispute wouldn't go astray and a general consensus you want our team to win!

I won't say anymore.

Once I thought we were going to lose I wanted us to get smashed and lose by an amount that would see Perth jump above us. The reason being is that it feels it will take something drastic happening to the team for the club to pull their finger out and fix the problems which have been around for what feels like forever.  

It seems that whilst there are minor improvements on prior seasons performances (despite the team drastically under performing) that the club will be happy to coast along with their small improvements each season, this 'feeling' may be unjustified as we are hardly aware of what is happening behind the scenes at the club. It is for this reason that I am able to sympathise with those fans who wanted us to lose as it could be the thing that forces the club to lift our results and win more.

[jw1739]

9 minutes ago, n i k o said:

Nah @moops has got a point. I'm amongst the shit talkers but fuck, it's got to the point that I really need to find some humour in the whole thing or else I'll just leave completely. 

Yes, he does have a point, and so do you. But if you don't let your real feelings out, however they may appear to others, the Forum will rapidly become as bland as City has become, where nobody seems to be prepared to tell it like it is or actually admit "we fucked up.". Cahill got close, but Valkanis was as far away as ever - he's still "taking positives" after 27 matches.

[Shahanga]

4 hours ago, moops said:

Looking at this thread gave me aids, people even barracking for the other team, you make me want to throw up into my own vomit.

It was a crazy game, entertaining game and we lost, it happens. But you are all fucked, no wonder the same old cunts just frequent this forum and hardly any newcomers do, you all made me more angry than the game ffs.

Perhaps your post was an over reaction, but this forum can feed on its own negativity at times, so I reminder to stop being so self obsessed is fair enough.

No one has bothered to talk about the game?  It was just crazy.

The game always looked like it had a lot of goals, with both teams thinking "de fence goes around de house".  At 4-1 down i felt we could score (& needed to) & sure enough that's what happened.  Bizarre game for Reddy, who made 3 great saves but then had what might be best described as a "psychotic episode".  Our defence was appalling again, though of course Brattan for Caceres meant another player forward and more risk of conceding.

More broadly I gather we now have 1 point out of a possible last 27 in Perth.  The club needs to review everything about their preparation, travel plans and match strategies for this venue.

 

 

[moops]

4 minutes ago, n i k o said:

Nah @moops has got a point. I'm amongst the shit talkers but fuck, it's got to the point that I really need to find some humour in the whole thing or else I'll just leave completely. 

All good mate, sometimes you mean to try to laugh, but online there is no syntax and it get's construed wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I am frustrated with this season as well, it just pissed me off last night when I had a glance at the comments during the game and it seemed to carry on through to today. I wanted to vent or comment, but what I saw was torture, or pure vehemence.

It got me thinking actually, we hear talk about the culture of our club and that it's no good, but what about the culture of our fan base?

I have posted about shit coaching, tactics and players, but surely we have to get behind the boys, even if it's futile, it's our team right and we have gone through the Heart years, what can be worse than that?

Everyone hates us because we are making the right sounds, we have the money, facilities and Cahill

Your disappointment is only equal to your expectations - Frederick Nietzsche 

And we got fed expectations........

 

[moops]

13 minutes ago, malloy said:

Once I thought we were going to lose I wanted us to get smashed and lose by an amount that would see Perth jump above us. The reason being is that it feels it will take something drastic happening to the team for the club to pull their finger out and fix the problems which have been around for what feels like forever.  

It seems that whilst there are minor improvements on prior seasons performances (despite the team drastically under performing) that the club will be happy to coast along with their small improvements each season, this 'feeling' may be unjustified as we are hardly aware of what is happening behind the scenes at the club. It is for this reason that I am able to sympathise with those fans who wanted us to lose as it could be the thing that forces the club to lift our results and win more.

Guys from Manchester have said they are slow movers, this season is what it is, don't expect fast major changes, I don't.

We all knew JVS was Shite (his team lost 5-0 btw last night) and Valkanis was shafted into the post.

Goto try to make the best of it, or cheer our shit kickers anyway, it's what we do.

[Shahanga]

Oh one more thing. I was disappointed in our bench in a must win game, with a defender and a defensively minded (in my book) midfielder named.

Would have preferred to see Arzani in there for Tongyik and if we got an injury rely on Retre being able to play right back, Colazo being able to play left back and both Kilkenny and Rose being able to play in the middle.

Then the sub for Kilkenny could have been Arzani and we roll the dice.

[belaguttman]

4 hours ago, moops said:

I get that, I am frustrated as well, but that is fucked.

Why don't I post here often? because it's full of vitriol, I don't give a shit if you want to slag off the coach or team, or whatever afterwards, it's kinda par for the course. But a bit of objectivity and critical dispute wouldn't go astray and a general consensus you want our team to win!

I won't say anymore.

oops it's hard to remain positive when there's so little evidence that any single major problem that we've all talked about for years has been addressed. This was a game that we had to win but we had no control of the game from the first minute and nothing changed, at least until 3-1 when I watched something else. Perth looked likely to score from every single attack. If I didn't care about the team I would have kept watching but really it's just too frustrating. 

Every home game is a 750km round trip for me, I'm just not prepared to waste a day for the final when the team shows so little evidence of progress, if you exclude the abomination of the Bambi years we have a team that has improved from fighting for 6th to a team that fights for 4th - not good enough, especially as you say our expectations have been raised

[Jestr]

Finishing 4th/5th in a bloody 10 team league is a f&$@n disgrace 

 

[Chris p]

1 hour ago, moops said:

Guys from Manchester have said they are slow movers, this season is what it is, don't expect fast major changes, I don't.

We all knew JVS was Shite (his team lost 5-0 btw last night) and Valkanis was shafted into the post.

Goto try to make the best of it, or cheer our shit kickers anyway, it's what we do.

 

Yeah was just going to say something similar. Coming into this season we knew and suspect CFG knew JVS wasnt up to it yet they stuck with him.

 

[n i k o]

1 hour ago, moops said:

All good mate, sometimes you mean to try to laugh, but online there is no syntax and it get's construed wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I am frustrated with this season as well, it just pissed me off last night when I had a glance at the comments during the game and it seemed to carry on through to today. I wanted to vent or comment, but what I saw was torture, or pure vehemence.

It got me thinking actually, we hear talk about the culture of our club and that it's no good, but what about the culture of our fan base?

I have posted about shit coaching, tactics and players, but surely we have to get behind the boys, even if it's futile, it's our team right and we have gone through the Heart years, what can be worse than that?

Everyone hates us because we are making the right sounds, we have the money, facilities and Cahill

Your disappointment is only equal to your expectations - Frederick Nietzsche 

And we got fed expectations........

 

Our expectations were warranted based on the improvement we made each season and they were solely ours based on the squad we put together. Culture of a lot of our fan base has had enough tbh. Some of that goes far deeper than simply results on the pitch. For a lot of the good that the club does, and they do a lot, they've fallen really short in areas that make it a club that I can really get behind at the moment. On field results definitely don't help the situation. Just regarding my comment there was some truth in it that I wouldn't have minded playing a final away from home given how I feel about our current situation. You have every right to make the comments you made as I would have done the same not too long ago. 

[HEARTinator]

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/melbourne-citys-asian-champions-league-hopes-hang-by-a-thread-20170416-gvlydi.html

Melbourne City's Asian Champions League hopes hang by a thread

• Michael Lynch

The City Football Group has invested millions of dollars to transform Melbourne City into an A-League powerhouse.

Their spending – a reported wage bill of around $9 million this season  largely because of the investment in Tim Cahill – was also driven by their desire to become a regular contender in the Asian Champions League.

Perth win remarkable fixture

A record seven goals were scored in the second half as Perth beat Melbourne City 5-4.

After their wild night in Western Australia on Sunday, when they crashed 5-4 to Perth Glory in one of the most bizarre games in the A-League's 12-year history, that dream of Asian participation is now hanging by a thread.

If City is to qualifying for the Asian tournament, it is going to have to do it the hard way by making the grand final. To do so they may have to defeat premiers Sydney away from home in a semi-final, that is, assuming they can defeat Glory next Sunday evening in the elimination final in Melbourne.

Melbourne City must now take the long road to qualify for Asia. Photo: Getty Images

Still, they at least get a home final, the very barest of expectations for such an expensively assembled team. 

At one point it looked as if they were even going to blow that as Glory, needing a four-goal win to leap ahead of City on goal difference, raced to a 4-1 lead with 15 minutes to go.

Tim Cahill reduced the deficit to 4- 2 with a goal 10 minutes from time, sparking a mad few minutes in which another three goals were scored.

Cahill was right when he said seconds after the whistle that this was simply not good enough.

Melbourne's City Bruno Fornaroli controls the ball against Perth's Lucian Goian and Mitchell Oxborrow. Photo: Getty Images

The FFA Cup win was something to hang their hat on, but for an operation like the CFG, where money and resources is not an issue, continual mediocrity is not acceptable.

The season is not a write-off just yet, but City have shown little of the mettle required to suggest they can surmount the challenges ahead.

While they can score goals, of the top six teams only one – Glory – has conceded more goals.

The return of Michael Jakobsen was supposed to help the defence, and they did keep a clean sheet against Adelaide on his first game back, but his organisation could do little to prevent such a flaky performance on Sunday.

City could do a lot worse than get former England manager Roy Hodgson, here for a few weeks on a mentoring mission, involved in some emergency defensive coaching.

One thing Hodgson can do is organise a back four and stay calm in a crisis, having shown that repeatedly in the English Premier League at Fulham and West Bromwich Albion.

City coach Michael Valkanis has a week to work on keeping things tight at the back. He has plenty to think about.

"It was a crazy game, a crazy game. I can't believe how many goals were scored, but I guess both teams were chasing wins and needed to win," Valkanis said.

"We probably could have had another four or five goals as well ... we conceded a sloppy penalty at the beginning of the game ... then there were two Perth goals that came from passages where we were about to score and we were in a good attacking position.

'The boys' endeavour to keep going even when at one stage it looked like it could have been horrible just turned it around. In the disappointment, you have to look at some of the positives, especially going into finals now.

"We lost the battle today, but not the war."

City have been far better at home this season than on the road.

"We're a very good team at home. We have fought and battled away from home and the results haven't gone our way," Valkanis said.

Cahill was frustrated and disappointed that his club had not achieved its goal of securing at the very least an ACL qualifying berth, and Valkanis said that was a measure of the Socceroo veteran's will to win.

"He performed very well and got himself two goals and pushed and pushed. He's a leader, he's an organiser and he's very disappointed not to finish third – every player is – and he's an important player coming into finals."

Edited April 17, 2017 by HEARTinator

[playmaker]

At least Valkanis was honest as he said the player endeavour was outstanding but apart from that he doesn't know wtf is going on.

Typifies our whole season really. 

The management is shambolic.

[kingofhearts]

15 hours ago, n i k o said:

Nah @moops has got a point. I'm amongst the shit talkers but fuck, it's got to the point that I really need to find some humour in the whole thing or else I'll just leave completely. 

The only way to stay sane and support this club is by venting I've found, or i would've gone crazy years ago haha.

It doesn't make anyone less of a supporter, i know people who have been here from the start like myself and vent during games, and other people remain quiet. It doesn't really matter what type of supporter you are, both of those two groups are always back supporting the team next week.

[rass]

It's a final ffs. Let's just get around them.

[Jovan]

32 minutes ago, rass said:

It's a final ffs. Let's just get around them.

I'm with you. Finals are finals. Anything is possible. Bulldogs last season finished 7th. 

No point in being over negative before we lose.

When we lose then go for it, kick the dog ( or wife depending on your situation) scream at the wind whatever gets you through but until the final whistle no point in worrying about what we should have done. 

[n i k o]

59 minutes ago, rass said:

It's a final ffs. Let's just get around them.

I have little doubt that everyone will be doing anything but