Rd. 18 - Sat. 9th February 2019 vs. Adelaide, AAMI, 7.50 pm.

[Tomi]

19 hours ago, Mr MO said:

Why suck up to somebody who is leaving?

So he will hopefully change his mind and not leave, then they can stick him on a 2 year contract and keep him in their nursery. They did the same thing with arzani. He was leaving so they threw him into the team and look what happened.

[Mr MO]

48 minutes ago, Tomi said:

So he will hopefully change his mind and not leave, then they can stick him on a 2 year contract and keep him in their nursery. They did the same thing with arzani. He was leaving so they threw him into the team and look what happened.

They played Arzani more towards the end of the season to trigger his extension clause, those extra games tied him automatically to City for another year. I’m still convinced Joyce was forced to play him by management as at the start of the season he had used any excuse under the sun not to select him.

[jw1739]

13 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

They played Arzani more towards the end of the season to trigger his extension clause, those extra games tied him automatically to City for another year. I’m still convinced Joyce was forced to play him by management as at the start of the season he had used any excuse under the sun not to select him.

I agree with you there. Looked like that to me also.

A major interest for me for the rest of this season is to see just what Joyce does with Maclaren and Harrison. The latter especially has been portrayed as a "Joyce signing" and I'm going to be interested to see just how much match time he gets.

[bt50]

Yeh nah i dont buy that. Our squad was deep af at the start of last season, to the point we couldnt even get Kilkenny into it. There simply wasnt an opportunity to get an untried and untested kid like Arzani into the squad, esp when he had obvious fitness concerns.
Eventually through injury and a few players leaving an opportunity presented, and he subsequently took it. Simple as that.

[Dylan]

I would normally say 3-5-2 but looks like Good is out so its going to be 4-3-3

10 bucks says he throws Larocca into mid with Griffiths and Brats

[Mr MO]

12 minutes ago, bt50 said:

Yeh nah i dont buy that. Our squad was deep af at the start of last season, to the point we couldnt even get Kilkenny into it. There simply wasnt an opportunity to get an untried and untested kid like Arzani into the squad, esp when he had obvious fitness concerns.
Eventually through injury and a few players leaving an opportunity presented, and he subsequently took it. Simple as that.

Yep, that too he took his chance and his contract got extended and because of that CFG could sell and Joyce took him of the field at first opportunity for a sub. Why can’t it all be both? That’s what Joyce is here for right, get these players developed and if they do move on because they are too good at least make some money out of them. So it was critical to keep within the group contractually. 

Edited February 8, 2019 by Mr MO

[bt50]

37 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

Yep, that too he took his chance and his contract got extended and because of that CFG could sell and Joyce took him of the field at first opportunity for a sub. Why can’t it all be both? That’s what Joyce is here for right, get these players developed and if they do move on because they are too good at least make some money out of them. So it was critical to keep within the group contractually. 

I definitely dont think we played him to trigger his extension ; he was clearly holding his own, and more, in the side and was earning a game on merit. His game time gradually built and by seasons end he was playing close to 90 min most weeks.
Also, imo we didnt want him to go and had every intention to keep him. His world cup drew so many suitors that in the end he got stars in his eyes and he wanted to go, so CFG thought 'well if you're going to go abroad we may as well sign you because we think we can get better cash for you in a couple years time than we would if sold you now'. Just business sense once a decision had already been made by the player.

[Harrison]

28 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

1. That’s what Joyce is here for right,

2. get these players developed and if they do move on because they are too good at least make some money out of them.

3. So it was critical to keep within the group contractually. 

1. I'd say Joyce is here to help us win trophies. It's his primary focus, but there are other concerns like development that all managers have to consider. 

2. All clubs develop their own talent and then sell them if they become too good for the club or the league. This isn't exclusive to our club.

3. It's critical for every club to keep talented players under contract . Otherwise they walk and you end up with nothing, especially if they're over a certain age and there's no compensation. 

I'm not sure why everyone sees some hidden agenda with our club. Principles like commercial sustainability, youth development and contract management literally apply to every club in existence. 

 

[Mr MO]

32 minutes ago, Harrison said:

1. I'd say Joyce is here to help us win trophies. It's his primary focus, but there are other concerns like development that all managers have to consider. 

2. All clubs develop their own talent and then sell them if they become too good for the club or the league. This isn't exclusive to our club.

3. It's critical for every club to keep talented players under contract . Otherwise they walk and you end up with nothing, especially if they're over a certain age and there's no compensation. 

I'm not sure why everyone sees some hidden agenda with our club. Principles like commercial sustainability, youth development and contract management literally apply to every club in existence. 

 

Yeah all correct.

it's not a hidden agenda at all, for me it's plainly obvious what happened. The Arzani contract situation was well truly at discussion mid season well before the world cup and even before he became a regular starter. There was talks of him going back to Sydney due to lack of game time, Arzani's management also put pressure on the situation as he wasn't playing and coming out of contract. Everything you say is 100% correct and follow the mechanics of the commercial football world, if City didn't play him was essentially going to walk out of the door for free. Without game time he could not show the world what he was capable of , this to upkeep his player value.

The rest is history he played well, City triggered the clause without having to renegotiated a new contract, CFG could sit back and relax during the world cup - it was a win win for both of them. I just sometimes think that we like to idealize the football world too much.

[n i k o]

1 hour ago, bt50 said:

Yeh nah i dont buy that. Our squad was deep af at the start of last season, to the point we couldnt even get Kilkenny into it. There simply wasnt an opportunity to get an untried and untested kid like Arzani into the squad, esp when he had obvious fitness concerns.
Eventually through injury and a few players leaving an opportunity presented, and he subsequently took it. Simple as that.

Couldn't or wouldn't get Kilkenny into it? I think suggesting Kilkenny wasn't good enough as a reflection of the strength of the squad is not quite right. Looking at his performances this season he'd get ahead of Baccus, Griffiths, Malik, and also Brattan. 

[rass]

1 hour ago, bt50 said:

I definitely dont think we played him to trigger his extension ; he was clearly holding his own, and more, in the side and was earning a game on merit. His game time gradually built and by seasons end he was playing close to 90 min most weeks.
Also, imo we didnt want him to go and had every intention to keep him. His world cup drew so many suitors that in the end he got stars in his eyes and he wanted to go, so CFG thought 'well if you're going to go abroad we may as well sign you because we think we can get better cash for you in a couple years time than we would if sold you now'. Just business sense once a decision had already been made by the player.

Exactly this

 

1 hour ago, Harrison said:

1. I'd say Joyce is here to help us win trophies. It's his primary focus, but there are other concerns like development that all managers have to consider. 

2. All clubs develop their own talent and then sell them if they become too good for the club or the league. This isn't exclusive to our club.

3. It's critical for every club to keep talented players under contract . Otherwise they walk and you end up with nothing, especially if they're over a certain age and there's no compensation. 

I'm not sure why everyone sees some hidden agenda with our club. Principles like commercial sustainability, youth development and contract management literally apply to every club in existence. 

 

..and this.

[bt50]

22 minutes ago, n i k o said:

Couldn't or wouldn't get Kilkenny into it? I think suggesting Kilkenny wasn't good enough as a reflection of the strength of the squad is not quite right. Looking at his performances this season he'd get ahead of Baccus, Griffiths, Malik, and also Brattan. 

My take at the time, whether you agree with it or not was this. Killa was in the team for R1, pulled out injured (or sick?), replaced by Malik who had a motm performance. Malik and Brattan then formed a pretty decent partnership in the following games and being the incumbents, couldnt be pushed out until they put in a poor shift. I think this is particularly true of Malik.
IIRC the next two or three games Killa couldnt even get into the squad because we were winning and everyone was doing their role. We were also 4-0. Remember Joyce's team first ethic, particularly last season, whether you agree with it or not, seems to revolve around you dont get dropped if you play well.
He eventually broke back into the squad in R5 when we played Sydney and came of the bench, with no real impact. This off the bench thing continued for the next two or three weeks from memory before he found himself out of the squad altogether. I stand to be corrected, but this was around the time when it was rumoured that he had a fall out with Joyce why he wasnt back starting, and obviously the rest is history.

Im not suggesting he wasnt good enough by any stretch and clearly hes killing it this season. But i dont think its as cut and dry as not being good enough either.
IMO basically it came down to Joyce preferring the Malik-Brattan partnership to the Killa-Brattan partnership, and the fact that the former was performing reasonably well made it hard for Killa to get in and prove that he was the better option anyway.

IMO there was never any point where i thought Malik was a better player than Killa, and still don't, but for some strange reason the partnership of Ossie and Bratts seemed to work better than Killa and Bratts that we'd seen the season before. 

Edited February 8, 2019 by bt50

[HughJass]

 

[Afif Adam]

anddddd breath

[Jovan]

1 hour ago, bt50 said:

My take at the time, whether you agree with it or not was this. Killa was in the team for R1, pulled out injured (or sick?), replaced by Malik who had a motm performance. Malik and Brattan then formed a pretty decent partnership in the following games and being the incumbents, couldnt be pushed out until they put in a poor shift. I think this is particularly true of Malik.
IIRC the next two or three games Killa couldnt even get into the squad because we were winning and everyone was doing their role. We were also 4-0. Remember Joyce's team first ethic, particularly last season, whether you agree with it or not, seems to revolve around you dont get dropped if you play well.
He eventually broke back into the squad in R5 when we played Sydney and came of the bench, with no real impact. This off the bench thing continued for the next two or three weeks from memory before he found himself out of the squad altogether. I stand to be corrected, but this was around the time when it was rumoured that he had a fall out with Joyce why he wasnt back starting, and obviously the rest is history.

Im not suggesting he wasnt good enough by any stretch and clearly hes killing it this season. But i dont think its as cut and dry as not being good enough either.
IMO basically it came down to Joyce preferring the Malik-Brattan partnership to the Killa-Brattan partnership, and the fact that the former was performing reasonably well made it hard for Killa to get in and prove that he was the better option anyway.

IMO there was never any point where i thought Malik was a better player than Killa, and still don't, but for some strange reason the partnership of Ossie and Bratts seemed to work better than Killa and Bratts that we'd seen the season before. 

My memory was slightly different. 

Your first part of being injured and then Brattan and Malik formed a partnership was as I remember. Then from my memory Brattan got dropped. It could have been the 1st derby not sure. But instead of Kila coming in Jakobsen was brought in. To his credit first up it was okay but after 2 or 3 games it was clear he wasn't up to it. Then Brattan came back. 

I CBF checking but would be interested to be confirmed. 

[rass]

1 minute ago, Jovan said:

My memory was slightly different. 

Your first part of being injured and then Brattan and Malik formed a partnership was as I remember. Then from my memory Brattan got dropped. It could have been the 1st derby not sure. But instead of Kila coming in Jakobsen was brought in. To his credit first up it was okay but after 2 or 3 games it was clear he wasn't up to it. Then Brattan came back. 

I CBF checking but would be interested to be confirmed. 

Hmm completely forgot about Jakobsen playing CDM...

[bt50]

13 minutes ago, Jovan said:

My memory was slightly different. 

Your first part of being injured and then Brattan and Malik formed a partnership was as I remember. Then from my memory Brattan got dropped. It could have been the 1st derby not sure. But instead of Kila coming in Jakobsen was brought in. To his credit first up it was okay but after 2 or 3 games it was clear he wasn't up to it. Then Brattan came back. 

I CBF checking but would be interested to be confirmed. 

 

11 minutes ago, rass said:

Hmm completely forgot about Jakobsen playing CDM...

Yeh same. Was it a Jako/Malik CDM pairing with Bratts as the 10? Who was playing 10? Jeepers.

[AXIOM]

4 hours ago, Mr MO said:

They played Arzani more towards the end of the season to trigger his extension clause, those extra games tied him automatically to City for another year. I’m still convinced Joyce was forced to play him by management as at the start of the season he had used any excuse under the sun not to select him.

So if they had him for one more year then why did man city have to get involved and sign him on a 2 year man city contract? 

[n i k o]

1 hour ago, bt50 said:

My take at the time, whether you agree with it or not was this. Killa was in the team for R1, pulled out injured (or sick?), replaced by Malik who had a motm performance. Malik and Brattan then formed a pretty decent partnership in the following games and being the incumbents, couldnt be pushed out until they put in a poor shift. I think this is particularly true of Malik.
IIRC the next two or three games Killa couldnt even get into the squad because we were winning and everyone was doing their role. We were also 4-0. Remember Joyce's team first ethic, particularly last season, whether you agree with it or not, seems to revolve around you dont get dropped if you play well.
He eventually broke back into the squad in R5 when we played Sydney and came of the bench, with no real impact. This off the bench thing continued for the next two or three weeks from memory before he found himself out of the squad altogether. I stand to be corrected, but this was around the time when it was rumoured that he had a fall out with Joyce why he wasnt back starting, and obviously the rest is history.

Im not suggesting he wasnt good enough by any stretch and clearly hes killing it this season. But i dont think its as cut and dry as not being good enough either.
IMO basically it came down to Joyce preferring the Malik-Brattan partnership to the Killa-Brattan partnership, and the fact that the former was performing reasonably well made it hard for Killa to get in and prove that he was the better option anyway.

IMO there was never any point where i thought Malik was a better player than Killa, and still don't, but for some strange reason the partnership of Ossie and Bratts seemed to work better than Killa and Bratts that we'd seen the season before. 

I think you are right on most accounts there. I suppose he couldn't get in from that perspective. Where this argument, for want of a better word, is going is back to Joyce decisions making to be able utilise and choose his better players. 

[bt50]

9 minutes ago, n i k o said:

I think you are right on most accounts there. I suppose he couldn't get in from that perspective. Where this argument, for want of a better word, is going is back to Joyce decisions making to be able utilise and choose his better players. 

Yeh i suppose when you recruit a wealth of midfielders and can only play 3, and then choose to play the picked on your last performance game, you back yourself into a corner in terms of a selection policy. I can appreciate his logic behind the philosophy tbh, but ultimately i just dont think its a good philosophy unless you have the very best players available, which you'll never get in a salary capped league.

[jw1739]

Kilkenny did not start a single match for us in 2017/18. He was not in the squad for the first four rounds, came on in the 76th minute in Round 5 (lost 0-1), was on the bench in Round 6, (drew 1-1), came on in the 46th in Round 7 (lost 3-1) and in the 78th in Round 8 (lost 1-3). Thereafter he was excluded from every match-day squad.

He went to Perth in the January window, and played the full duration of every one of their last 10 matches.

[bt50]

18 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Kilkenny did not start a single match for us in 2017/18. He was not in the squad for the first four rounds, came on in the 76th minute in Round 5 (lost 0-1), was on the bench in Round 6, (drew 1-1), came on in the 46th in Round 7 (lost 3-1) and in the 78th in Round 8 (lost 1-3). Thereafter he was excluded from every match-day squad.

He went to Perth in the January window, and played the full duration of every one of their last 10 matches.

Technicality i know, but he was definitely in the 'squad' for the Round 1 match v Brisbane and was a late withdrawal due to illness i think.

[Inchcolm]

I do not think we will any change to his formation 4:2:3:1

......................Galekovic

De Laet, Delbridge, Schenkeveld, Jamieson

................Griffiths, Brattan

..Wales........... McGree.............Berenguer

.......................Maclaren

[kingofhearts]

7 hours ago, Afif Adam said:

anddddd breath

start on the bench?

[Afif Adam]

start birighitti

[dconder13]

24 minutes ago, Afif Adam said:

start birighitti

Agrees

[Dylan]

I am starting to get a feeling like this will probably end up like the Sydney game. Big build up, large crowd and then we will go embarrass ourselves.

[IssySG]

For those that are interested, the newly formed Melbourne City Terrace are encouraging everyone to get down to The Imp before the game, and they'll be leaving for Aami Park at 7:00pm.

The atmosphere won't come back without people getting involved, if you're in a position too, come down to the Imp and have a drink with fellow City Fans. Happy game day people, up the City Boys!

[moops]

Great weather for football, hopefully it will be a good game.

[Afif Adam]

So what we expecting to crack at lest 10k today? 

[neio]

5 minutes ago, Afif Adam said:

So what we expecting to crack at lest 10k today? 

Not a chance 

Maybe 9 at most, but more likely closer to 7500

[Afif Adam]

2 minutes ago, neio said:

Not a chance 

Maybe 9 at most, but more likely closer to 7500

Never thought I’d see the season where a welly home game would get a bigger crowd than us, Rudan is a genius 

[CityWildcat]

I'm strangely pumped for this game.  See you there.  I'll join the terrace... 

[Shahanga]

1 hour ago, Afif Adam said:

So what we expecting to crack at lest 10k today? 

Look out the window.

[Dylan]

3-4-3 no defensive mids hold on to your hats

[rass]

Nice...

Reckon it will be 4-3-3 with Good CDM.

Edited February 9, 2019 by rass

[haz]

Just now, rass said:

Nice...

Now this is sexy! Most hyped I have been for a game in a long time!!!

[rass]

2 minutes ago, haz said:

Now this is sexy! Most hyped I have been for a game in a long time!!!

Agree. 

[AXIOM]

14 minutes ago, rass said:

Agree. 

Agree x 2 just need to play well and win. That has to be easy enough 

[dconder13]

Left laneway for this we better fkn win, fire up!!!!