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R3 vs Wellington Phoenix AAMI Park Saturday 21/10 5:35pm


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7 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I think the mists of time are gilding the Heart memories Murf.  In our four seasons as Heart our record against Wellington was only 3W-4D-5L. As City it's 7-2-2.

Further to that, one of those wins was in Morwell and the other the 5-0 at the cake tin. Our 'home' record was appalling against them back then.

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1 hour ago, bt50 said:

Further to that, one of those wins was in Morwell and the other the 5-0 at the cake tin. Our 'home' record was appalling against them back then.

I just checked the records to make sure I'm not going batty:

 

HOME
2-1 W (AAMI)
1-0 W (Morwell)
1-1 D (AAMI)
1-1 D (AAMI)
0-1 L (AAMI) [Aloisi]
2-2 D (AAMI)
 

AWAY
2-2 D
0-2 L
1-3 L
2-3 L
0-1 L
0-5 w

 

Alright our actual number of wins was lower than I thought. But still, we did only lose 1 game at AAMI during the Heart days, and it was Aloisi's last game. And we lost 4 games away to Wellington (66.666%), so comparatively we were significantly better at AAMI than away againt the Nix. However it is true that it is only in the City days that we have started actually winning consistently against the Nix at home, and I'm happy to see that our record against them has only been getting better over time.

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8 minutes ago, bumpyknuckles said:

My 2.5 year old loved it.

Was clapping when the nix fans were chanting and telling us to clap along.

Lasted until the end no problem at all. Wish there was more 5pm games this season.

My niece loved it too. She started to cry at the end of the game saying "I miss soccer". But I bet the chips and sweets had something to do with it.

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On 22/10/2017 at 7:45 PM, playmaker said:

Yeah, I just think we need better quality in the middle as our choices from midfield transitions were poor, lacked vision, and missing that quick final ball into the box. Many times Ross was well positioned but didn't get service. I would definitely like to see Budzinski or Carusca behind Ross for the next match.

Carusca would be good, just don't expect him to defend

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1 hour ago, belaguttman said:

Carusca would be good, just don't expect him to defend

Exactly this.

I think what many are overlooking me included is that our  strong defensive performances are not soley due to the back 4. It's been by and large a total team effort. Kamau and Fitzy have really put in super shifts in all 3 games although on one occasion during the Derby Fitzy lost concentration and got caught ball watching and they scored. Ross puts in and so did Cahill when he came on. Malik and Jakobsen have basically won nearly all their individual duels and rarely have been caught out of position and Mauk has looked a different player. His work rate is through the roof. I always considered him very much a one way player but so far he has been huge.

The issue though is when we get the ball, especially last week we were so poor. So many times we butchered it, but to our credit we got it back pretty quick but it made for a very poor spectacle.

What to do? Do we bring in more creative player/s and risk losing our newly formed defensive strength or do we persist with the existing combination and tweak it slightly in the hope of getting the proper blend.

I think we continue to do as is until we need to or a forced to change, weather that be we go behind in a game or we infact lose a game. Until then I reackon we stay the course and expext tough tight games for the next month or so.

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23 minutes ago, Jovan said:

Exactly this.

I think what many are overlooking me included is that our  strong defensive performances are not soley due to the back 4. It's been by and large a total team effort. Kamau and Fitzy have really put in super shifts in all 3 games although on one occasion during the Derby Fitzy lost concentration and got caught ball watching and they scored. Ross puts in and so did Cahill when he came on. Malik and Jakobsen have basically won nearly all their individual duels and rarely have been caught out of position and Mauk has looked a different player. His work rate is through the roof. I always considered him very much a one way player but so far he has been huge.

The issue though is when we get the ball, especially last week we were so poor. So many times we butchered it, but to our credit we got it back pretty quick but it made for a very poor spectacle.

What to do? Do we bring in more creative player/s and risk losing our newly formed defensive strength or do we persist with the existing combination and tweak it slightly in the hope of getting the proper blend.

I think we continue to do as is until we need to or a forced to change, weather that be we go behind in a game or we infact lose a game. Until then I reackon we stay the course and expext tough tight games for the next month or so.

I understand your point, but you are making an assumption that if we had a more centrally orientated attack that our defence would be less efficient. If you look at the roles of the midfield atm, most of them are cutting off passing lanes and occupying space in the defensive third. There is no reason why the players on the pine can't do this.

We have Killa, Marcin, and Brattan and Carusca which would easy fit those roles defensive if Wazza has trained them as he has the rest of the team, and the short comings in the attack transition you have mentioned would be less likely to occur with some of these players due to their football smarts.

Your point is well made though.

Edited by playmaker
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18 minutes ago, playmaker said:

I understand your point, but you are making an assumption that if we had a more centrally orientated attack that our defence would be less efficient. If you look at the roles of the midfield atm, most of them are cutting off passing lanes and occupying space in the defensive third. There is no reason why the players on the pine can't do this.

We have Killa, Marcin, and Brattan and Carusca which would easy fit those roles defensive if Wazza has trained them as he has the rest of the team, and the short comings in the attack transition you have mentioned would be less likely to occur with some of these players due to their football smarts.

Your point is well made though.

No that's not my assumption at all its yours.

All I'm saying is that changing the current combination  (the same 11 we've had ) could lessen our defensive strength and not to change anything until we have to.

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55 minutes ago, Jovan said:

I think what many are overlooking me included is that our  strong defensive performances are not soley due to the back 4. It's been by and large a total team effort.

 

8 minutes ago, Jovan said:

No that's not my assumption at all its yours.

All I'm saying is that changing the current combination  (the same 11 we've had ) could lessen our defensive strength

OK then :blink:

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40 minutes ago, playmaker said:

I understand your point, but you are making an assumption that if we had a more centrally orientated attack that our defence would be less efficient. If you look at the roles of the midfield atm, most of them are cutting off passing lanes and occupying space in the defensive third. There is no reason why the players on the pine can't do this.

We have Killa, Marcin, and Brattan and Carusca which would easy fit those roles defensive if Wazza has trained them as he has the rest of the team, and the short comings in the attack transition you have mentioned would be less likely to occur with some of these players due to their football smarts.

Your point is well made though.

Well see I think the opposite in that our midfield (Mauk, Jako & Malik) have done an absolute ton of work and I simply can't see anyone on that bench bar, Brattan, having the same effect defensively. 

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6 hours ago, n i k o said:

Well see I think the opposite in that our midfield (Mauk, Jako & Malik) have done an absolute ton of work and I simply can't see anyone on that bench bar, Brattan, having the same effect defensively. 

Cahill is actually quite defensive, watch the game against Chile, he lead from the front defensively.

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6 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

Perhaps our problem is our perennially poor midfield ball retention. As a result of that Wazza is positioning our midfielders more defensively to cut off counter-attacks, it does mean that we have less support for McCormack in attack

That doesn't make sense to me, if you want to retain possession you want more technical players.

To me he is taking a very English approach, build up from defence and worry about attack later.

The biggest problem is players lumping the ball forward aimlessly, we are becoming Perth Glory mark II.

Hopefully he will start working on offense soon.

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7 minutes ago, moops said:

That doesn't make sense to me, if you want to retain possession you want more technical players.

 

1

Yes, there are lots of reasons for our poor ball retention and they start the moment we move into attacking transition, but we've always had issues when we've lost the ball in midfield and in seasons past teams have specifically used a midfield press against us, created defensive overloads when they regained the ball and this is why our defence has been under the pump every season and conceded so regularly. We've played a more proactive possession style in pre-season games but maybe Wazza has decided that we can't manage it against any team with a minimum level of ability

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1 hour ago, belaguttman said:

Yes, there are lots of reasons for our poor ball retention and they start the moment we move into attacking transition, but we've always had issues when we've lost the ball in midfield and in seasons past teams have specifically used a midfield press against us, created defensive overloads when they regained the ball and this is why our defence has been under the pump every season and conceded so regularly. We've played a more proactive possession style in pre-season games but maybe Wazza has decided that we can't manage it against any team with a minimum level of ability

Our transitions and movement has always been poor, I agree and overloads are the key and something directly incumbent on the coaches.

I didn't really want to talk about tactics until a few weeks, because I don't think we have seen what Wazza wants.

That said there needs to be balance, or if you go one way in extreme, you need a game plan for transition or contingency.

I don't think Wazza is there yet, I'll wait 4-5 more matches, but Adelaide will be a good test. Fortunately or unfortunately they have a few injuries, I would expect to win because of it. In the least I would like more than 20% possession!

Edited by moops
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30 minutes ago, moops said:

I think Mauk is better than Bratten, Bratten has become our new Duganzic.

I have been impressed with Mauk, however he needs to be in the box to have real chance on goal which makes us more predictable. Budzinski on the other hand can pull the trigger early and is good box to box if he is fit enough.

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1 hour ago, playmaker said:

I have been impressed with Mauk, however he needs to be in the box to have real chance on goal which makes us more predictable. Budzinski on the other hand can pull the trigger early and is good box to box if he is fit enough.

As he has said, he likes the box to box role.

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2 hours ago, moops said:

He can play no 10, that's where he made his career.

For example he could go Malik, Mauk and Cahill.

He could very well. In saying that, for a few reasons, there's probably another 2-3 different combinations of midfielders I'd go before selecting those three players. 

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