Jump to content
Melbourne Football

Round 4: 'Do we really have to do this again mum?' V Welly @ AAMI Friday 7:50pm


Dylan
 Share

Recommended Posts

Who selects Man of the match. I thought Wales did ok but there were a few I would have voted before him. He contributed an assist but his crosses and distribution need to be better. 

Were we good or were they bad. I'm just going to enjoy a win and the three points we scored 2 and conceded 0 happy with the result

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A win, a needed win, but a ho-hum win.

Positives:

A win

A goal to Bruno, not a coincidence that we had 5 players in the box at that time

More intensity and intent tonight

McGree gives us good penetration

Formation worked well in that we controlled the midfield and kept compact affording much less space for Nix to play between our lines

Pressed in a coordinated way tonight

Moved the ball quickly for about 5 minutes in the second half

Row Z safe tonight despite David Williams playing

 

Negatives:

A win against a team with little ambition

Unlucky not to score more, Nix keeper kept them in the game but for all our domination we should have done more

McGree gives us good penetration but is the only one who will take players on

Formation worked well but it isn't surprising that our midfield 5 dominated their 2 without an effective response from Rudan

Still struggling to break down teams that play the well-established template that usually beats us: sit compact, score on the break. Still look vulnerable on the counter, the game wasn't even safe at 90'

The crowd speaks with its feet, 50% drop over last week. Nix games are usually poorly attended but the size of the drop reflects the dire performance last week and Wazza's most un-CFG style of play

 

Edited by belaguttman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The saddest thing for me tonight was wearing my Melbourne Heart jacket (which I do every 2nd or so game) and getting looked at like I’m from out of space  or something...

Just now, HeartOfCity said:

Please just stop, the game was rubbish! We should be putting the keeper under alot more pressure than that. This will never work against the good teams. 

I just got home and sat on the couch, you beat me to it by 1min Well said 👏👏

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We needed that. We were far more positive than the previous week, with players at least prepared to have a shot. Good to see Bruno score from a very nice interchange with McGree - will do his confidence a lot of good. Good goal from De Laet. Still plenty of room for improvement, though, in terms of passing accuracy.

I'd have little doubt that the attendance was hurt by the terror incident in the Bourke Street. Under the circumstances IMO 6,410 was a good turn-out. People are going to be cautious about going out when there are reports of that sort of incident being carried by the media.

AAMI Park staff need to do a lot more about the seagulls. Tonight they were a real nuisance, and detracted from the match as a spectacle. Seemed to me that the deterrent sirens weren't turned on until late in the match - and don't seem particularly effective anyway.

Take the three points and move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tonight's game was good because the team mentally bounce back, we get 3 points and Bruno scored. But I reckon it tells us little about the team in relation to last weeks game. Trying really hard to not take too much away from us but Wellington were downright atrocious tonight. Have to wait and see what we're like against a few decent teams. 

Edited by n i k o
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This week was a nothing game against a group of chumps.

This game tells us nothing about our team at all, it really does tell us one thing though, Wellington are crap and Wazza nearly got out-coached by a shit manager with a shit team and we are very lucky we have 3 star players in our team.

Next week will be interesting from the point of view that we are playing a better team with a shit manager, so let's see if Wazza makes it 4 poor coaching performances in a row.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, playmaker said:

This week was a nothing game against a group of chumps.

This game tells us nothing about our team at all, it really does tell us one thing though, Wellington are crap and Wazza nearly got out-coached by a shit manager with a shit team and we are very lucky we have 3 star players in our team.

Next week will be interesting from the point of view that we are playing a better team with a shit manager, so let's see if Wazza makes it 4 poor coaching performances in a row.

Is that even possible? Wellington were terrible and Joyce looked like a mastermind compared to Rudan tonight. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, AXIOM said:

Atkinson did fa but sub after 50min Joyce has lost it lol. 

Why? If players do FA meaning ''Fuck All'' that means you take them off right? Atkinson poorly contributed to the game, I don't like Joyce but there is more quality on the bench, take the kid off so good call I thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, n i k o said:

Is that even possible? Wellington were terrible and Joyce looked like a mastermind compared to Rudan tonight. 

The way I saw it was if Wellington had one star player on the pitch, they would have drawn level when they switched their tactics and threatened the area for that 10 to 15 mins.

Wazza did nothing,

oh no hang on he did

he swapped Bruno for Metcalfe that made things even worse seeing that the kid didn't know how to defend the wing.

Lucky we were 2 ahead by that stage.

A bloody circus.

 

  • Like 1
  • Confused 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, haz said:

Watching the highlights, a win is a win but jeez Wellington were shit.

Team played so much faster with Florian and Mcgree in the middle. Hopefully Brattan DOES NOT walk back into the XI next week.

I doubt he will, he was dropped from the team not injured 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, neio said:

I doubt he will, he was dropped from the team not injured 

Anyone else catch Joyce's interview?

Pretty much said that after the Sydney game, they held a trial game where he said to the players that they are playing for their spots.

Obviously Brattan didn't put in enough effort in this game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, playmaker said:

The way I saw it was if Wellington had one star player on the pitch, they would have drawn level when they switched their tactics and threatened the area for that 10 to 15 mins.

Wazza did nothing,

oh no hang on he did

he swapped Bruno for Metcalfe that made things even worse seeing that the kid didn't know how to defend the wing.

Lucky we were 2 ahead by that stage.

A bloody circus.

 

Mate I was at the game, within ear shot of the coaches/bench. The second Metcalfe went on, Joyce, Kisnorbo and Kalac were all screaming at him...."get back,...get forward.... head that... dont lose it" on and on and on ....and they did not stop the whole time the poor kid was out there. How confusing and distracting would that be? Trying to gain momentum and confidence when all you can hear is people screaming at you from the sideline. People around me were even saying; "Jesus shut the fck up and let him play." Ive watched plenty of the youth games and can tell you the kid is a midfielder not a winger and considering its only his second appearance (again playing out of position) he did bloody well. He worked hard, ran his hole out and keyboard warriors like you get on here and sledge his effort? Sheesh

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, playmaker said:

The way I saw it was if Wellington had one star player on the pitch, they would have drawn level when they switched their tactics and threatened the area for that 10 to 15 mins.

Wazza did nothing,

oh no hang on he did

he swapped Bruno for Metcalfe that made things even worse seeing that the kid didn't know how to defend the wing.

Lucky we were 2 ahead by that stage.

A bloody circus.

 

I agree we gave up too much of the ball in the last 15 minutes. But they would have drawn level? When? You seem so sure yet the stats say they had 1 shot on target and 1 shot off target for the whole game. Please enlighten me and tell me exactly where they would have drawn this game. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Mr MO said:

Why? If players do FA meaning ''Fuck All'' that means you take them off right? Atkinson poorly contributed to the game, I don't like Joyce but there is more quality on the bench, take the kid off so good call I thought.

I was being sarcastic. Joyce did the right move for once.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, rass said:

I jump on this forum each week and seriously just shake my head at what is written and the expectations of people on here.

For all the 'we should have done this' and the 'they made us look better' and in general, negativity around us - no one bothers to pay attention to how other teams setup against us.

Apart from Victory to a degree, the other teams we have played are content to sit a wall of defenders back and give us the ball, knowing it will be hard for any team to penetrate. Unless you have the unparalleled technical ability of a Man City in your league, playing against teams that are disciplined and defend this way is not easy, making these types of games quite frustrating to watch.

Obviously the key is to play the ball quicker so as not give the other team time to set up their defence, which I thought was a clear intent of our game last night, so ticks there.

Sure, the response will be 'well that's the manager's job to work around' and that's true. ...but he made a huge statement last night not starting Vidosic and dropping Brattan completely. Playing Berenguer and McGree more advanced and most importantly, centrally was also a very good move that helped the ball movement and attacking play. So I think he should be given credit for last night's performance.

Not sure what people expect, but I walked away content from the game. The win was one of the most comfortable in ages (WP never looked like scoring) and bar a couple of 5-10 minute patches, we controlled the game. Despite the frustration around his play, Bruno got on the scoresheet which will massively boost his confidence. Berenguer finally got some good touches and looked decent and De Laet showed why he is marquee status with the class and technical ability of that finish a joy to watch. The crowd was ok given the weather and other terrible incident and active I thought, did a good job too.

Given last week, it was a good response from the team and leaves me feeling there's hope yet after last week's shit.

Spot on. I left content too.

We showed to have addressed some of the deficiencies from the previous outing. Players played more familiar roles and formation changed. Bruno scored, and was looking to score from the get go (frustrated first half but his hunger was visible for all to see). Team looked delighted when he did score.

Joyce tinkering with the team to find the best dynamics and improve amount of shots and chances created. We already had 9 shots by the end of the first half, thats a chance every 5 minutes.

By all means it was not perfect. I dont expect any team I follow to control and dominate for a full 90. Wellington had a good spell from 65th-80th. We looked comfortable in defence - but we dont have the world best, we will always be susceptable to conceding.

We kept a clean sheet. Progress is visible. 3 points. Joyce now has a trial game and a tried and tested game to select players who will win games for us - the players he put out won the game for us. Thats it. Now to plan for and improve for the next game.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Solid win. Frenchie looked much better centrally than out wide, we actually gave Bruno the ball in space and we didn’t really look like conceding. 

I can believe how much crap Brattan is coping on here. Even without him in the team we were slow and methodical, playing it back and forth between Bart and Delbo. Baccus is neat but he rarely passes forward. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, rayv36 said:

Solid win. Frenchie looked much better centrally than out wide, we actually gave Bruno the ball in space and we didn’t really look like conceding. 

I can believe how much crap Brattan is coping on here. Even without him in the team we were slow and methodical, playing it back and forth between Bart and Delbo. Baccus is neat but he rarely passes forward. 

Yeah but Bratts is slow as fuk on the ball, Baccus is fast and makes more space 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, dconder13 said:

Yeah but Bratts is slow as fuk on the ball, Baccus is fast and makes more space 

Assuming these 2 are fighting for the same spot I’d rather someone who can produce a killer pass than someone who will play it safe. Defensively I’d rate them the same. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, rass said:

I jump on this forum each week and seriously just shake my head at what is written and the expectations of people on here.

For all the 'we should have done this' and the 'they made us look better' and in general, negativity around us - no one bothers to pay attention to how other teams setup against us.

Apart from Victory to a degree, the other teams we have played are content to sit a wall of defenders back and give us the ball, knowing it will be hard for any team to penetrate. Unless you have the unparalleled technical ability of a Man City in your league, playing against teams that are disciplined and defend this way is not easy, making these types of games quite frustrating to watch.

Obviously the key is to play the ball quicker so as not give the other team time to set up their defence, which I thought was a clear intent of our game last night, so ticks there.

Sure, the response will be 'well that's the manager's job to work around' and that's true. ...but he made a huge statement last night not starting Vidosic and dropping Brattan completely. Playing Berenguer and McGree more advanced and most importantly, centrally was also a very good move that helped the ball movement and attacking play. So I think he should be given credit for last night's performance.

Not sure what people expect, but I walked away content from the game. The win was one of the most comfortable in ages (WP never looked like scoring) and bar a couple of 5-10 minute patches, we controlled the game. Despite the frustration around his play, Bruno got on the scoresheet which will massively boost his confidence. Berenguer finally got some good touches and looked decent and De Laet showed why he is marquee status with the class and technical ability of that finish a joy to watch. The crowd was ok given the weather and other terrible incident and active I thought, did a good job too.

Given last week, it was a good response from the team and leaves me feeling there's hope yet after last week's shit.

I think that every team has the same successful template to use against us, that's well recognised. As you say, ball speed and movement of players on and off the ball are the key ingredients for us to break them down. the problem is, that, on the whole, we lack both of these. We will always remain vulnerable to quick counter-attacks from more competitive teams than Nix and CCM, and will regularly concede at least 1 and often 2 goals to this. Unless we get better at executing our style in these 2 areas, and better at a coordinated team press,  then we are going to continue to lose as many games as we win. When we qualify,  we'll get slaughtered in the ACL, where, teams have a more competent defence and a more effective attack. I believe in our style, however, our execution is marginal

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, rass said:

I jump on this forum each week and seriously just shake my head at what is written and the expectations of people on here.

For all the 'we should have done this' and the 'they made us look better' and in general, negativity around us - no one bothers to pay attention to how other teams setup against us.

Apart from Victory to a degree, the other teams we have played are content to sit a wall of defenders back and give us the ball, knowing it will be hard for any team to penetrate. Unless you have the unparalleled technical ability of a Man City in your league, playing against teams that are disciplined and defend this way is not easy, making these types of games quite frustrating to watch.

Obviously the key is to play the ball quicker so as not give the other team time to set up their defence, which I thought was a clear intent of our game last night, so ticks there.

Sure, the response will be 'well that's the manager's job to work around' and that's true. ...but he made a huge statement last night not starting Vidosic and dropping Brattan completely. Playing Berenguer and McGree more advanced and most importantly, centrally was also a very good move that helped the ball movement and attacking play. So I think he should be given credit for last night's performance.

Not sure what people expect, but I walked away content from the game. The win was one of the most comfortable in ages (WP never looked like scoring) and bar a couple of 5-10 minute patches, we controlled the game. Despite the frustration around his play, Bruno got on the scoresheet which will massively boost his confidence. Berenguer finally got some good touches and looked decent and De Laet showed why he is marquee status with the class and technical ability of that finish a joy to watch. The crowd was ok given the weather and other terrible incident and active I thought, did a good job too.

Given last week, it was a good response from the team and leaves me feeling there's hope yet after last week's shit.

I agree with your post except no one taking notice of other teams setting up and the crowd being ok. 

I am curious though as to what last night gives you hope for..? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/joyce-denies-brattan-on-outer-at-city

 

Quote

"Brattan's certainly not a scapegoat because he was no better and no worse than 10 other players (against Sydney)," he said.

"(Brattan and Caceres) both trained very well.

"Anybody could have been left out ... barring Bart (Schenkeveld) and they couldn't have a grumble.

"We worked on different things during training and we've picked the best players to do the job for tonight."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, rayv36 said:

Assuming these 2 are fighting for the same spot I’d rather someone who can produce a killer pass than someone who will play it safe. Defensively I’d rate them the same. 

Agree, but we aren’t making the runs for killer passes.

They are mostly on par with each other but slightly different going forward. 

Brattan has more forward drive than Baccus, who was criticised at WSW for too many side and back passes (last night he was better in that regard). Brattan’s passing capability is one of best in league but is indeed slower.

It really also depends how you look at it; 

Brattan wants to pass forward but hesitates because there was no upfront movement (which was a big issue in earlier games and also last season). He gets called slack and slow. When runs are being made, like Mcgree against Victory he will kill it.

Baccus rarely makes a forward move but never losses possesion and gets a lot of credit for it. 

I think putting Mcgree next to Baccus is an excellent solution.

Edited by Mr MO
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Tomi said:

Mate I was at the game, within ear shot of the coaches/bench. The second Metcalfe went on, Joyce, Kisnorbo and Kalac were all screaming at him...."get back,...get forward.... head that... dont lose it" on and on and on ....and they did not stop the whole time the poor kid was out there. How confusing and distracting would that be? Trying to gain momentum and confidence when all you can hear is people screaming at you from the sideline. People around me were even saying; "Jesus shut the fck up and let him play." Ive watched plenty of the youth games and can tell you the kid is a midfielder not a winger and considering its only his second appearance (again playing out of position) he did bloody well. He worked hard, ran his hole out and keyboard warriors like you get on here and sledge his effort? Sheesh

Are you illiterate? Read my post.

I have no issue with Metcalfe and I wish the kid well, but it was the wrong decision to put him on and have him running around not know what to do when they were exploiting that side of the pitch in attack. I sit behind the bench also and what you say is true about the yelling from the bench, so why put him on when he can't play his natural game?

Wazza did a disservice to both him and the team.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's my take on a few things from last night. 

Our crowd has always been poor at turning out. Given the poor performance last week, wet and cold weather and a terrorist incident in town, the poor crowd last night was little surprise. Lightweights, though... 

Those who did turn out had a decent game to watch, saw two cracking goals and a fair few near misses. Active were united, noisy and funny, and we cannot ask for more than that. 

Florian had a good game. He got into good positions, was strong and tenacious, and created problems for WP. He has enough about his game for us to be positive. 

Bruno is short of form, and struggling for service. He missed one gift wrapped chance, and delivered a couple of mediocre free kicks, but I the end scored a goal which will do a great deal of good for his confidence. I was as delighted as everyone else that he got one. 

The movement of the ball was much faster, and the width of our play was notably good. I particularly loved the interplay up the left wing and Lauchie's work. We tried a lot of stuff which didn't quite come off, but at least we tried. Its a work in progress, but it's better than last week. RDL is a worthy marquee. 

I still worry that we're far from top two contenders. Beating Phoenix at home might get us into the six, but it doesn't make us the best side in the league. There is still a lot of work to do. 

And finally, how is the seagull, and is Bort OK....? 

Edited by fensaddler
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

Here's my take on a few things from last night. 

Our crowd has always been poor at turning out. Given the poor performance last week, wet and cold weather and a terrorist incident in town, the poor crowd last night was little surprise. Lightweights, though... 

Those who did turn out had a decent game to watch, saw two cracking goals and a fair few near misses. Active were united, noisy and funny, and we cannot ask for more than that. 

Florian had a good game. He got into good positions, was strong and tenacious, and created problems for WP. He has enough about his game for us to be positive. 

Bruno is short of form, and struggling for service. He missed one gift wrapped chance, and delivered a couple of mediocre free kicks, but I the end scored a goal which will do a great deal of good for his confidence. I was as delighted as everyone else that he got one. 

The movement of the ball was much faster, and the width of our play was notably good. I particularly loved the interplay up the left wing and Lauchie's work. We tried a lot of stuff which didn't quite come off, but at least we tried. Its a work in progress, but it's better than last week. RDL is a worthy marquee. 

I still worry that we're far from top two contenders. Beating Phoenix at home might get us into the six, but it doesn't make us the best side in the league. There is still a lot of work to do. 

And finally, how is the seagull, and is Bort OK....? 

I believe the Doctor has ruled Bart out for two weeks (from Tinder).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, rass said:

the other teams we have played are content to sit a wall of defenders back and give us the ball, knowing it will be hard for any team to penetrate. Unless you have the unparalleled technical ability of a Man City in your league, playing against teams that are disciplined and defend this way is not easy, making these types of games quite frustrating to watch.

Obviously the key is to play the ball quicker so as not give the other team time to set up their defence, which I thought was a clear intent of our game last night, so ticks there.

Sure, the response will be 'well that's the manager's job to work around' and that's true.

Correct.

The issue is the compression of space and therfore a compression of time.

Our main objective should be about creating space in key area when teams swarm the box.

A perfect example was our first goal, if you watch the player movement you will see what I mean and the space DeLaet exploited.

The other tactic that is common is to set up deep in the midfield and wings and draw the opposition out and create space by force, something the Smurfs and Tards do well and imo something Wazza really needs to look at seeing this style of play has had the most success in this league.

The problem I see is that we don't have the players atm and play wide way too often however I think Wazza is starting to tweak his tactics towards this style.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mr MO said:

Agree, but we aren’t making the runs for killer passes.

They are mostly on par with each other but slightly different going forward. 

Brattan has more forward drive than Baccus, who was criticised at WSW for too many side and back passes (last night he was better in that regard). Brattan’s passing capability is one of best in league but is indeed slower.

It really also depends how you look at it; 

Brattan wants to pass forward but hesitates because there was no upfront movement (which was a big issue in earlier games and also last season). He gets called slack and slow. When runs are being made, like Mcgree against Victory he will kill it.

Baccus rarely makes a forward move but never losses possesion and gets a lot of credit for it. 

I think putting Mcgree next to Baccus is an excellent solution.

Actually Baccus did lose the ball several times last night with some uncharacteristic sloppy turnovers.

I prefer Baccus over Brattan, simply because I rate Brattan overall as the more talented of the two yet their effect on the game is pretty much equivalent, meaning IMO that Brattan doesn't play up to the level he should.

What puzzles me is that Joyce is very willing to play Baccus, and yet he froze Kilkenny out of the club.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...