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13 minutes ago, playmaker said:

The guy is tool. It was just click bait to promote his football holiday camp.

 

Mainly clickbait.   I think alot of people still have in their head that we have unlimited pockets, when in reality we spend the same as Sydney.

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My season preview :

City certainly haven’t had a sexy off season, signing or performance wise, but they’ve strengthened their side from last season. They’ve addressed their issues at the back, with most of their signings defensive, whilst bringing in a 10, what they lacked in the front half. Whether Budzinski proves to be a success is another thing, but regardless of his pedigree or resume if CFG think he’s worthy of a marquee spot, he’s more likely than not going to be at least decent.
They’ve arguably got the best squad depth-wise in the league, batting all the way down to their youth.

 

As a summary from a senior squad perspective:

IN         Budzinski (MV), Schenkeveld (V), Galekovic, Mauk, Carrusca, La Rocca, Jamieson, Crowley

OUT     Colazo (MV), Sorensen (V), Rose, Retre, Franjic, Kuzmanovski, Gameiro, Caceres

 

There are however, some valid concerns that outsiders and City fans will have, in particular that they will start the season without their main man in Fornaroli, and for the first few weeks at least are likely to have limited impact from Brandan returning from an ACL injury.
There is also the query on the new coach and his style, and whether he can get the best out of what is a talented squad, something JVS and Michael Valkanis clearly couldn’t. The Sydney Cup game a week ago was obviously an abject failure, a tactical gamble that was up-ended before it started by conceding from a free kick. Joyce will need to show a bit more flexibility than that if he is to get the ship moving. At the end of the day, the gaffer was the most important signing Melbourne made over the summer, and only time will tell if it was a good one.

IMO City could end up absolutely anywhere, from first to perhaps 7th, but I wouldn’t back against a top 4 finish personally. Similar to last season, if it clicks then look out.

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57 minutes ago, bt50 said:

My season preview :

City certainly haven’t had a sexy off season, signing or performance wise, but they’ve strengthened their side from last season. They’ve addressed their issues at the back, with most of their signings defensive, whilst bringing in a 10, what they lacked in the front half. Whether Budzinski proves to be a success is another thing, but regardless of his pedigree or resume if CFG think he’s worthy of a marquee spot, he’s more likely than not going to be at least decent.
They’ve arguably got the best squad depth-wise in the league, batting all the way down to their youth.

 

As a summary from a senior squad perspective:

IN         Budzinski (MV), Schenkeveld (V), Galekovic, Mauk, Carrusca, La Rocca, Jamieson, Crowley

OUT     Colazo (MV), Sorensen (V), Rose, Retre, Franjic, Kuzmanovski, Gameiro, Caceres

 

There are however, some valid concerns that outsiders and City fans will have, in particular that they will start the season without their main man in Fornaroli, and for the first few weeks at least are likely to have limited impact from Brandan returning from an ACL injury.
There is also the query on the new coach and his style, and whether he can get the best out of what is a talented squad, something JVS and Michael Valkanis clearly couldn’t. The Sydney Cup game a week ago was obviously an abject failure, a tactical gamble that was up-ended before it started by conceding from a free kick. Joyce will need to show a bit more flexibility than that if he is to get the ship moving. At the end of the day, the gaffer was the most important signing Melbourne made over the summer, and only time will tell if it was a good one.

IMO City could end up absolutely anywhere, from first to perhaps 7th, but I wouldn’t back against a top 4 finish personally. Similar to last season, if it clicks then look out.

Nice summary. 

One point to add.

Last season's core need to improve and remain injury free. Mainly Brattan Jakobsen Kamau and to a lesser degree as they had reasonable last season Kilkenny Cahill and Fitzy and obviously Bruno.

But like you said anywhere from 1 to 7 is conceivable.

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45 minutes ago, Jovan said:

Nice summary. 

One point to add.

Last season's core need to improve and remain injury free. Mainly Brattan Jakobsen Kamau and to a lesser degree as they had reasonable last season Kilkenny Cahill and Fitzy and obviously Bruno.

But like you said anywhere from 1 to 7 is conceivable.

My prediction is 5th but with a strong finals performance

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11 hours ago, silloth52 said:

‘I think they’re in big, big trouble’

WE were promised aspirational and game changing. Instead, writes ROBBIE SLATER, I think Melbourne City have got big, big problems heading into the new A-League season.

Controversial?

He's just making a non emotional assessment of what we've dished up so far. Cruel but fair I reckon 

ps I'm predicting 8th

Edited by Shahanga
Prediction
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All the other A-League clubs have recruited really well in the off-season, I'm predicting it'll be one of the closest seasons in recent memory (maybe excluding Sydney who will probably run away and dominate again). 

I'd say the only club we've recruited better than over the off-season is Wellington, and of course there's the big unknown of how quickly the team is going to gel and adapt to Joyce's gameplan. We could genuinely finish anywhere between 1st and 10th, such is the nature of the league.

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32 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Not with a rubbish coach who has started making excuses already 

If Wazza is found dead this season I think you would be the No.1 suspect :up:. Oh well its good to start hating a coach from the start, if he sticks around as long as JVS then you can call yourself original 

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4 hours ago, haz said:

If Wazza is found dead this season I think you would be the No.1 suspect :up:. Oh well its good to start hating a coach from the start, if he sticks around as long as JVS then you can call yourself original 

Well I live out of Melb atm so I dare say someone would get to him before I could.

anyway to explain my irrational pessimistic attitude. The last two seasons we have all said we have had a squad that could win the league and that it was the manager that was the problem. Now we finally replace the coach and we have gone backwards. I can't put into words how putrid we were against Sydney, it looked like The worst of Aloisi had returned. 

we had  2 playersout, but it was only two and had nothing to do with the performance. The players looked like they had no clue. So what has Joyce been doing the last 10 weeks? From what I could see in all of our FFA cup games. Sweet fuck all. Oh besides picking fights with backroom staff.

 

if we have another shit season it's going to cause a lot of damage IMO

Edited by Dylan
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2 hours ago, Dylan said:

Well I live out of Melb atm so I dare say someone would get to him before I could.

anyway to explain my irrational pessimistic attitude. The last two seasons we have all said we have had a squad that could win the league and that it was the manager that was the problem. Now we finally replace the coach and we have gone backwards. I can't put into words how putrid we were against Sydney, it looked like The worst of Aloisi had returned. 

we had  2 playersout, but it was only two and had nothing to do with the performance. The players looked like they had no clue. So what has Joyce been doing the last 10 weeks? From what I could see in all of our FFA cup games. Sweet fuck all. Oh besides picking fights with backroom staff.

 

if we have another shit season it's going to cause a lot of damage IMO

Yep. We have gone backwards, yes doom and gloom, yes Wazza is shit. Now back to reality....... The season hasn't started yet.

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7 hours ago, Dylan said:

Well I live out of Melb atm so I dare say someone would get to him before I could.

anyway to explain my irrational pessimistic attitude. The last two seasons we have all said we have had a squad that could win the league and that it was the manager that was the problem. Now we finally replace the coach and we have gone backwards. I can't put into words how putrid we were against Sydney, it looked like The worst of Aloisi had returned. 

we had  2 playersout, but it was only two and had nothing to do with the performance. The players looked like they had no clue. So what has Joyce been doing the last 10 weeks? From what I could see in all of our FFA cup games. Sweet fuck all. Oh besides picking fights with backroom staff.

 

if we have another shit season it's going to cause a lot of damage IMO

I agree im just in major denial and hoping that I am wrong.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/3/2017 at 6:22 PM, Jacques Le Cube said:

Stefan Mauk interview with Francis Leach on SEN. Interesting comments on JVS.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=145909

 

That's a pretty good interview and insightful about JVS versus Joyce. Stefan pretty much confirms what we thought about JVS re his laid back, emotionless style. No doubt this had rubbed off onto the  team creating a weak culture where we would failure to finish off games or just wilt under pressure. No doubt CFG picked Joyce to turn around the culture at the club.

Edited by HEARTinator
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Not quite "media", but I'm impressed to see City advertising appearing in quite a few bus shelters this season. My wife noticed them a couple of days ago, and I've driven past a few this morning, including shelters out in the 'burbs very close (<1km) to where I live.

IMO this is good. It's bringing the club to the people.

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Interview with Luke Brattan this week (~Tuesday):

http://16673.mc.tritondigital.com/WHOOSHKAA_1825/media-session/678b8664-7e86-4635-a7f5-8338ceefcbab/podcasts/podcast_1825/podcast_media/7b50a6-bratts.mp3

 

 

Press conference with Kamau this week (~Tuesday):

https://www.melbournecityfc.com.au/video/press-conference-bruce-kamau

 

 

"TripADeal's Team Mates" with Luke Brattan and Nick Fitzgerald (yesterday):

 

 

 

Kyah Simon's first interview interview for Melbourne City (Sunday):

 

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I find it interesting to follow what the players have to say in their own words. It can tell quite the story.

 

For example, both Kamau and Brattan went out of their way to say "they didn't play well against Brisbane" in their own opinions. Even though one scored both goals, and the other was some journalists/broadcasters MOTM. Maybe they are both taking a more humble or (high) standards-setting approach this season. And maybe their approach of really wanting to perform better has to do with Joyce. 

 

There's usually only a handful interviews each week, so it's no worry to put them up on the Forum in one place  :up:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really good presser this morning on the clubs fb page with Wazza and Ossie. Really enforced that the players are under no illusions that if they dont perform they'll be out of the team.
Also made mention that the tiprat played in a behind closed doors game last weekend so he's probably in consideration now. Not sure how he breaks in at the minute, but hopefully gets a look in soon.

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1 hour ago, bt50 said:

Really good presser this morning on the clubs fb page with Wazza and Ossie. Really enforced that the players are under no illusions that if they dont perform they'll be out of the team.
Also made mention that the tiprat played in a behind closed doors game last weekend so he's probably in consideration now. Not sure how he breaks in at the minute, but hopefully gets a look in soon.

Love the tiprat. Winds the oppo up something rotten.  Wot larks.

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After years of promise, Melbourne City are finally delivering

Let’s put this simply. The time has come for Melbourne City to take the A-League by the scruff of the neck. And it’s time for them to embrace the hype that is starting to bubble around their performances.

No club is better placed to get their hands on this year’s title. Not even Sydney FC. That’s saying something, because Sydney are the defending champions, they lost only one game last year, and look incredibly hard to beat this year. A draw in the derby is their ‘blemish’, if you can even call it that.

The best part? City play Sydney on Friday night, which gives us the perfect opportunity to get a true test of where they’re at.

Granted, City have been in a similar space before, and started last season in a blaze of glory. It captivated myself and others but one suspects this will last a lot longer. City’s roster is stronger now. They’ve adjusted to losing Aaron Mooy, a gap they never totally filled last year.

In fact, player for player, City’s squad has to be among the strongest the A-League has ever seen. That Luke Brattan can’t get into the starting side says plenty; he might sneak back in this week courtesy of the red card shown to the revitalised Osama Malik.

The Abu Dhabi-backed team is fast and furious in attack but balanced with a dependable midfield and, crucially, a defence that has been re-stocked and has some menace about it.

Captain Michael Jakobsen told The World Game in the lead-up to the season that defence was the focus of the pre-season. It wasn’t the sexiest line, but it was by far the most critical point for anyone looking for a guide on how the season would pan out.

Eugene Galekovic has delivered exactly what you would expect from the league’s most accomplished custodian: total stability. Bart Schenkeveld has put his FFA Cup nightmare behind him. Iacopo La Rocca and Manny Muscat offer raw steel at tin foil prices.

Of all the statistics, here’s the most critical one: four games played, one goal conceded. That’s not City-like – or at least in the guise that we have known them. There’s always been goals when they’ve played; the question was whether they were scoring or conceding them. Yet they’ve bagged seven so far and look every bit the attacking force they have been in previous years.

Credit must go to coach Warren Joyce for striking a balance. He’s not afraid to concede possession and not afraid to play on the counter-attack. For all that has been said about Australian teams needing to learn to play with the ball – or “dominate” the opponent – Joyce has taken one look at that and rejected it cold.

Of course, Australian footballers must ultimately lift their level of skill, but Joyce has walked in and effectively said: “Not my problem”. His remit is to win football matches. So far, he is cutting through all the noise to deliver what City Football Group demands.

Here’s a stat: City have completed only 1077 completed passes this season, the second lowest in the league (Newcastle has 1003), with the equal-worst completion ratio (with Newcastle at 75 per cent). Everyone else has over 1230 completed passes, scaling right up to the Central Coast Mariners at 1621.

Here’s another. City’s play is so direct that they average only three crosses per game. Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United are at almost nine per game. Statistics don’t tell you everything but they unveil City’s ruthless style.

City quite like getting the ball in their own half, ideally with all of the opposition sucked up the park. It might be a system that works well over summer, too, where high-pressing strategies quickly drain players. This is more of the Venus fly trap approach. Unsuspecting, then devastating. It's difficult to coach against at the best of times.

They now have to counter an attack that has the hyena-like Bruce Kamau ready to run the 50 metres in five seconds, with Nick Fitzgerald and Stefan Mauk not far behind. Then there's Ross McCormack waiting to finish it all off. And when he goes – if he goes – Bruno Fornaroli will come back in. Did we even mention Tim Cahill?

City have been close before, but never quite have they looked this good. If they can maintain this focus and drive, their duck might finally be broken.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/blog/2017/10/30/after-years-promise-melbourne-city-are-finally-delivering

Edited by playmaker
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I'd rather be a lot further into the season before I wrote this sort of thing. Two seasons ago we had one hand on the Premiership with just two rounds to go and fell apart to win zilch.

We're nicely placed after four matches, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

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31 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I'd rather be a lot further into the season before I wrote this sort of thing. Two seasons ago we had one hand on the Premiership with just two rounds to go and fell apart to win zilch.

We're nicely placed after four matches, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

We were in the driver's seat and in control of our own destiny, but tbf we had our bogey side on the road and the eventual premiers in the last two games; not sure that was ever one hand on the premiership. I do think we were the best team that season though tbf, but it was ultimately our two losses to Newcastle that haunted us that season more than the last two imo.

Anyway, we can all agree this team has a completely different look to it, but its way too early to get ahead of ourselves just yet. I daresay that a few more will 'believe' if we can make it 5 this week though.

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How far we go this year is unknown but one thing is for sure, the sexy football, possession approach of JVS has been thrown out the window for a more pragmatic, steely, 'don't give those shits a sniff at goal' approach by Joyce. The lads are fighting for each other and it's working so far. We have Bruno and Brandan to come back to beef up the attack however we should be very happy with how McCormack has produced.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/city-players-happy-to-take-one-for-the-team-as-defence-takes-priority-says-skipper-jakobsen-20171031-gzbscs.html

City players happy to take one for the team as defence takes priority, says skipper Jakobsen

Michael Lynch

This season's Melbourne City bear little resemblance to those flaky sides of the recent past.

The Light Blues are made of sterner stuff – more durable and hard to break down – and it's all down to the team ethic and desperation instilled in a short time by new coach Warren Joyce, says club captain Michael Jakobsen.

If a player has to get hurt to protect his teammates or prevent a goal, then he will, Jakobsen says.

"If you have to block a shot with your face, then that's what you have to do."

The Dane, who is ostensibly a centre-half, has been employed in an unfamiliar central-midfield role this season, indicative of the emphasis on accountability stressed by Joyce in the opening month of the campaign.

Jakobsen admits that his side are  winning ugly and could be a bit more ambitious and cohesive in the forward third of the pitch.

But the proof of the pudding is the league table, and as City prepare for what Jakobsen says will be their sternest test, a Friday night blockbuster against Sydney FC, they sit atop the league, the only club with a 100 per cent record.

Reduced to 10 men for half an hour, under the cosh from the home team Adelaide United and defending a two-goal lead, the City of last season (or any other, for that matter) might have folded and left South Australia with only a draw in their round-four match last Saturday night.

That they didn't is a good indicator of their prospects this Friday, when they face a team that has lost only once in the league in more than a year.

"It's a good start. We know that we can still improve a lot in our game ... I think the most difficult match until now is coming up," Jakobsen says.

"The focus is more on the defensive part, keeping a clean sheet – the boys are fighting not to concede goals ... but we need to improve on the offensive part.

"I think we are in a good state with him [coach Joyce]. We are with a lot of new stuff, especially about keeping a clean sheet, sacrificing yourself for the team."

For some clubs, four games might not be truly indicative of where they sit on the league table. But Jakobsen believes that City can be much better when the likes of Fernando Brandan and Bruno Fornaroli return to peak fitness.

"We need a combination of the way we kept the ball last year and the defensive part we have shown this year, but I think we already know where we are at. We are going to be hard to beat because the organisation in the team is very good."

Jakobsen's move to midfield was not expected, but the captain says he has enjoyed it – even though he might be deployed at left-back this weekend to cover for the injured Scott Jamieson.

"It's an unusual position, but I quite like it, it's quite fun ... I have really enjoyed it. I was excited [to be moved into midfield]. I like challenges and this is a new challenge. When I was 12 or 13 I was playing centre-midfield, but I have not played there at senior level.

"Now I have to look over my shoulder all the time. I really rely on the boys behind me talking all the time, or the guy next to me."

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