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Eli Babalj Appreciation..


Mozilla
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Agree on his introduction into the team reflecting with our good form, I reckon he is a gun and will be pivotal along with Fred to our success. It wasn't the ignoring of the backward passes that was pissing me off, just the ones where he had blokes running down the flanks into crossing positions who were wide open. Where he instead tried to take on two or three defenders.

He wasn't the reason we lost by any sense of the imagination however once he learns (and this is from a bloke who has only played U17 Bendigo soccer) when to dribble and when he should make the obvious forward pass he'll be almost unstoppable. When his dribbles come off I cream my dacks, when they don't and there is an obvious open pass it shits me to tears. Just trying to have my cake and eat it too I spose.

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Couldn't agree more. Eli coming into the team is one of the reasons we've actually won a few games this season. So, he dribbled a bit too much on a couple of occasions - I'd rather that than the endless back-passing we saw from a number of other players. Contrast Perth - every time they got the ball forward they put the ball into the box. All they needed to do was wait for the defensive mistake - we made two and that was the game. We lost that game rather than Perth won it.

You mean Hoff.

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LIke I said before. Put the ball at Babalj's feet and something will happen. Both free kicks that we almost scored from were from him not to mention the penalty. As for him trying to dribble too much and not passing at least it showed he was taking the game on when most of the other boys were content with passing the ball around and pretty much taking to long to get it foward. This worked out beautifully for Glory's defenders as it gave them time to organise themselves.

What did my head in was the amount of time we got the ball into the final third without getting a ball into the penalty area - instead we went back even as far as Bolton (I think he got more kicks than some players). On half the occasions all he could do is bomb it foward and we ended up giving away possession. It would have been better to make that final pass or cross even if the odds of something comming out of it were less than 50/50.

So Sharpy I don't agree with you getting pissed off at Babalj for dribbling too much when really he only got caught out a couple of times and that was at the end of the game when we were getting desperate and nothing else was working.

Better to get pissed off with some unimaginative midfield work.

Correct. He is too good with the ball at his feet to waste this sublime talent by sending sky balls his way.

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The young fella is a good player right now and has plenty of potential to improve if he keeps his feet on the ground- on his current trajectory he is a future socceroo for sure. He does have a major weakness though in his inability to use his left foot. Hopefully he is working on this on the training ground. I reckon its cost at least 2 goals so far (in excellent positions on his left, but cut back into traffic to get on his right) and once defenders wake up to this he'll be easier to shut down.

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Cant finish and lost the game last night.Seriously hope we arent recycling shit.Can we afford Eli Babalj on the field.

I can't say i was especially happy with his performance either but he's 19 for fricks sake. He's got the talent, and now he's being exposed to professional games which is the best thing for him to develop better awareness/desicion making which looks like his problem. Same with Rojas at Victory. and every other young player in the world.

The thing that annoys me about him is though is that he seems a bit lazy, which Ante and JVS certainly let him know about from the sideline yesterday.

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Taking out the fact he is 19 and has potential etc., and just looking at his current ability, he is by far the best option we have at present for his position. And I dont see the need to bring anyone in.

Exactly, who is a better CF option?

Terra provides has no height for getting long balls down.

Williams is completely out of form.

Hoff is Hoff.

And the less said of Maycon’s NYL performance yesterday the better.

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What do you think about Harry kewell Mario?

Harry Kewell is incredible for his age, but grow up what and how was he playing when he was 19? Jets are now signing Taj Minniecon which is over weight and basically finished and paying him $130 000 a season its like your in the loop so we have absolutely no respect for the league. There are better players, if they re lazy, if they are not capable of competing for christ sake show them the door. Thats what they do any where else in the world. Jordan Farina apparently played in a team that was relegated and from a premier league team to division one and so now Gaham Arnold has him training with the central coast. So after everyone knows his old man just picks up the phone and you just stick it to football Australia.

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I can't say i was especially happy with his performance either but he's 19 for fricks sake. He's got the talent, and now he's being exposed to professional games which is the best thing for him to develop better awareness/desicion making which looks like his problem. Same with Rojas at Victory. and every other young player in the world.

The thing that annoys me about him is though is that he seems a bit lazy, which Ante and JVS certainly let him know about from the sideline yesterday.

Find someone who will give 200% not 50%, you end up making it an excusable league.

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There are better players, if they re lazy, if they are not capable of competing for christ sake show them the door. Thats what they do any where else in the world.

A contract is a contract mate. Plus we have a squad minimum and maximum. We can't just '...show people the door...' even if we want to. And we can't just sign who we want, when we want, and pay them what we want. The practices overseas have led to many clubs being in appalling financial positions. Big names such as Manchester United and Chelsea included. Please have a look at the facts before you post this sort of stuff.

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A contract is a contract mate. Plus we have a squad minimum and maximum. We can't just '...show people the door...' even if we want to. And we can't just sign who we want, when we want, and pay them what we want. The practices overseas have led to many clubs being in appalling financial positions. Big names such as Manchester United and Chelsea included. Please have a look at the facts before you post this sort of stuff.

A contract can be broken I assure you and There are much better players. So you answer me this, why would you keep someone who wont give you 200% and is playing below par and why would you sign players that are obviously finished. Would you like a list of players in the a league that have been draining the league only to be moved to another club again to make $130 000 for playing NYL because they re not up to scratch.So what you are saying is you want to throw good money away and in doing this the league also.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nice to see Babalj back on the score sheet. Hopefully it will give him a much needed confidence boost.

As an aside, I am happy to contribute to a club fund for the young fella to get a decent haircut.

As a further aside surely Eli is "E-lie" not "El-ee" - honestly I've never heard it pronounced that way before- is this a Fox confusion or to do with his heritage?

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Hate Victory but got to say Kewell 35 years old is all class.Last game 2 shots 2 goals and they were great shots. What is the use of 30 shots and losing game. Dont pay if doesn't do the job! Then we would get class in the league.

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Edited by Tesla
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A - Harry Kewell is 33

B - Harry Kewell 5 outfield goals in 1658 minutes of play (331.6 minutes per goal) v. Eli Babalj 5 outfield goals in 1051 minutes of play (210.2 minutes per goal)

C - Harry Kewell 59 Attempts on Goal for 5 goals (11.8 shots for every goal) v. Eli Babalj 29 Attempts on Goal for 5 goals (5.8 shots for every goal)

D - You're retarded

E Eli Babaji is crap

F ........

G grow a brain you cant pass a prune off as a peach

H how to screw up and lose alot of money.....

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