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My thoughts on Brattan, Vidosic and Carrusca against Wellington. I fully agree that Brattan is an hugely frustrating figure. His last assist was on December 10th against CCM (and he's only clocked up one other assist, in the 3-1 loss against Brisbane in November). I think most of his "chances created" (passes leading to shots) this season have come from set pieces. And perhaps even more than his creativity, Brattan hasn't dictated the tempo of games, and hasn't helped give us slick ball circulation like he certainly can. All up I agree that Brattan this season has normally dwelled on ball and has taken too many touches. But last night Brattan lifted his performance IMO, and moved the ball much better (read: faster), and Brattan actually laid the groundwork for the first goal, starting the lovely build up play in a triangle with Vidosic and Arzani down the right that led to the cross and McCormack's first goal. Vidosic said post-match that he certainly still needs to get familiar with the runs and positioning of his teammates. Nonetheless, he provided "secondary assists" (the pass to the assisting player) for both of the goals, so not at all a bad first game IMO. And Carrusca played an excellent teasing forward pass that led to the second goal. Vidosic jumped on ball after a defensive header, then Vidosic laid it off to Arzani, and then Arzani to McCormack and goal (and ultimately win). Overall, we have an attack where most players (Brattan and Arzani, Arzani and Vidosic, Vidosic and Carrusca, and so on) have never played together before. This is in the context of pretty much every City player not playing to their full potential for several weeks (Brattan, Fitzgerald, Kamau, Mauk, Malik, Jakobsen, Bouzanis, Muscat, Jamieson, maybe McCormack). So I'm saying these players were good not great last night, and IMO no city players have been great for several weeks. IMO Vidosic, Carrusca, Brattan and others all have much more to give, and I'm hopeful that if we can get a few absolute basics right--midfielders in midfield, attacking players (not Brattan) like McCormack, Arzani, Vidosic and Carrusca in the front 4 positions, and less than 2 really silly goals gifted per game (of course, ideally 0)--then Melbourne City's quality players can show their stuff, and we can see some respectable performances going forward.

Tuesday night, 10pm, the best time to televise a Warren Joyce coached team. There's been enough damage done to the A-League already without exposing potential fans to our 'beautiful football'. We played WSW into form last week, we'll help Perth rediscover their mojo on Tuesday. We've won there once in 8 seasons, I can't see that changing, unfortunately.

I could imagine Cahill advising him to go overseas, as he did. That would be bad advice at this stage his career, as evidenced by the numerous young A-League players who thought they would walk in to a Euro first team after a handful of A-League games, but end up rotting away in the seconds. Arzani has a bit of swagger about him, but he isn't the first one Joyce has seen like that who went nowhere. He called him an X-Factor player. The argument that Joyce will suck the passion and creativity out of him is not believable. What Joyce is giving him is sound advice that there is a time and place for X-factor stuff- and that's not inside your own penalty box 2-1 up with a few minutes to go- yes I'm referring to the couple potentially costly mistakes Arzani made. Yes he had a terrific 25 minutes in an attacking sense but would be remiss of Joyce not to point that out. With Joyce on this one- no other club in the A-League offers a better pathway to Europe than City.

Such a demoralizing choice of words. I could see what Joyce was trying to say, but he left it wholly open to be interpreted a number of ways that dont serve to inspire or encourage Arzani who lit AAMI Park on fire lastnight. He seemed to play the opposite of how Joyce likes it, and probably ignored Joyces instructions which led to the 2 goals in the first place. Seemed a spark in a rusty cog lastnight. Thank fuck he didnt! I like Ross got a full game in. He is a subtle menace. I enjoy watching him off the ball - reads the play for 90 minutes. Granted, he does not have the speed or flair of Fornaroli, but he is an intelligent player who knows and plays within his limits. Credit also for sticking it out with his injuries! I am a fan of Ross. Strike me down, he has copped a lot of shit over recent weeks but he is the reason we are 3rd and not 8th on the ladder.

Budzinski is actually due the "random hattrick but still a shit cunt", Robbie Koren styles.

Attendances are down across the league and whilst City have not been big crowd pullers the FFA have sat in their fat arses and failed to promote. Which Einstein decided to play City v Wellington at the same time the two Melbourne BBL were playing each other 400metres away?

Yeah sure was interesting. Divide made obvious by lack of crowd numbers. Still hats off to the terrace. Entertaining and relevant singing whilst highlighting the current disharmony and lack of cohesion amongst supporters and the club. Its ugly but important to highlight. For too long has his club suffered mediocrity whilst its supporters stick through. The papers reporting the booing off is important too. I hope the players felt it, and Joyce acknowledged it in his Pep talk.

With 12 hours between me and that game I've settled down a bit. It was a pretty dour experience up until when Arzani came on. Fwiw I still back Wazza regarding his comment about the kid. I've been an advocate for him as much as the next person, perhaps more, but I think his work rate can improve and his defending can also be improved. I think he needs to learn to bring other players into the game more often to help him get into bettter position to work off them. But last night was exactly why he should be ahead of Kamau and should have been from round 4 onwards. Kamau whilst scoring some goals (very fortunate ones) was relatively useless during those games otherwise. And given his exposure etc. he should be well ahead of Arzani but he's, imo, behind him and has been for quite a while. Im glad Wazza took off Fitzy as it was probably his worst game in a City shirt. I agree with Embee about his performances the last month, albeit I believe they're more a reflection of the team as a whole over that period of time. Malik was again relatively solid, made probably only a few mistakes, but he's still not what we need in that position. I thought in the first half Brattan was by far and away our best. He's been criticised of dwelling on the ball lately and I took note last night his ball distribution was much quicker than usual. Only at times he would get stuck on the ball however it was again more to do with the lack of movement from other players and the system as a whole. Muscat was serviceable without being anything great, I find for an experienced player he doesn't position himself well enough on a consistent basis. Happy he didn't get a yellow card last night which was refreshing. Vidosic was solid and certainly provided a lot more going forward than Mail has this season Jakobsen, Bouzanis and Wazza were spuds of the match for me for obvious reasons. Janeison continues to show for whatever reason that his distribution with the ball is poor and he is a pretty average player when he's in the final third of the pitch. Finally again Wazza clearly can't get this team to play a system of football that's creative enough. As everyone's alluded to, Arzani took it upon himself to take on multiple defenders at times to win us the game, something we haven't had since the Novillo days. This game was a bandaid on a wound that's been getting bigger and bigger. As much as I believe Wazza can do some good things for our young players I dont think he can do good things for this football club.

I'm shit faced and drunk, I should be more upset probably but we fucking won wooo fucking hooo! Happy birthday to me and @jw1739 what a night Z drinks on me ❤️

Crickey. Someone must have told Wazza during the week about the 3 subs rule.

I really don't care about the style of play, all that matters is results, and the results haven't been there. We may be 3rd but that's because the table is a bit unusual at the moment, we're actually closer to 9th than 1st, and it wouldn't take much for us to not make finals.

I take it all back @Embee also seems like it meant something to fishlock going by the afters on Twitter

Wazza's standard fallback line when discussing players non selection is fitness. Most of the time its just to dodge the question.

tara looked fucking amazing

I thinks that's a bit of a myth for this season and last. They were the top scorers last season and are the top scorers this season and their attacking 3rd is easily the most fluent in the league and players like Ninkovic and Adrian are precisely what we're missing in out final 3rd.

A longer version of Joyce's post-match comments about Arzani: The teenager, raised in Sydney and Iran, dazzled in his 38-minute cameo, the longest stretch of time he's been afforded in two seasons at City to date. Joyce said it had been a battle fitting Arzani into the side due to national team call-ups for both the under-23s and under-19s in the last six months. "He's been away twice with Australia this season already ... he went away didn't play much, come back in poor condition," he said. "He's a good player. I've seen his talent since I've been at the football club." Joyce now wants to make sure Arzani makes the most of that talent - something the Englishman has vast experience in doing, having managed Manchester United Reserves under Sir Alex Ferguson. "I've been around a lot of X-factor footballers in my coaching career and he's got that," he said. "If he trusts us to develop him, he could be a very good player. "If he listens to other people that have got a different agenda ... I've seen a lot of players the same as him fall by the wayside. "There's a lot of things he's got to work on in his game and he's got to be willing to listen to the people at the football club." https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/01/07/joyce-praises-city-young-gun-arzani I'm sure Arzani and Joyce at least have a functional relationship: Arzani can play under Joyce, and Joyce can coach a team with Arzani in it. However, I'm not entirely convinced that Arzani and Joyce have a very good relationship. It sounds a bit off to me. For starters, and I would be happy to be corrected, but the 2 Australian youth team camps that Arzani participated in were the U23 camp between July 10 and July 23 (Qual. AFC U23 Championship) and and the U20 camp between November 1 and November 8 (Qual. AFC U19 Championship). I find it hard to believe that Arzani was seriously unfit between the 8th of November and the 6th of January. Especially given that the team was in a dire run from the start of November until last night--with 6 losses, 1 draw and 2 wins over 9 games--I really doubt that Arzani was so unfit as to deserve next to no game-time for about 2 months until last night. Also given that McCormack walked straight into the team and played one week after signing, despite not playing competitive football for many months and having genuinely serious concerns surrounding his fitness, it shows that Joyce doesn't demand 100% high levels of fitness from every player. By the way, let me be clear, I'm happy that McCormack was picked to play. I believe the best and most useful players should normally be picked to play, unless there are some serious factors counting against them. And just as McCormarck was picked to play (despite the obvious fitness concerns), I believe that Arzani should have been given more game-time well before last night (even "if" he didn't have the highest of fitness levels).

Arzani is a very very intelligent kid. He knows what the media and fans want to hear so I wouldn't erase the possibility of him wanting to move still.

Melbourne City's Daniel Arzani 'ready to start' through packed A-League schedule Anthony Colangelo JANUARY 7 2018 Melbourne City whiz kid Daniel Arzani says he is fit enough to start and play 90 minutes of soccer, fresh off his match-winning performance that helped start an arduous week for Melbourne's A-League clubs. City beat Wellington Phoenix 2-1 on Saturday night – the first of their three games in eight days – while Melbourne Victory drew 1-1 with Central Coast Mariners to kick off their run of three matches in seven days. Arzani came on for City in the 53rd minute with his side 1-0 down and assisted both of Ross McCormack's goals. The 19-year-old dazzled with his dribbling and attacking prowess. His introduction was a welcome injection of impetus for a City team that mostly laboured through a dull 90-minute performance. Coach Warren Joyce was pressed after the game on why Arzani didn't start and explained that he needed to build up fitness lost in the pre-season because of two Australian youth team camps. The Iranian-born Arzani told Fairfax Media on Sunday that early season illness also added to his lack of match condition, but said he was now primed for peak performance. "I am ready now," Arzani said. "I think my readiness to start has only come about recently just because my season, especially pre-season and beginning of the season, was really interrupted by two Australian camps (U20s and U23s). "Now I have reached a point where my levels are good enough to start. It took a lot of hard running." He added that City would not struggle physically through its packed schedule, which includes an away clash against Perth Glory on Tuesday and then a home match against the Mariners on Sunday. "Knowing the gaffer [coach] that we have, we are all very fit, we have very resilient bodies. Fitness shouldn't be an issue for us," Arzani said. "I doubt that will be an issue [three games in eight days]. That's a credit to the gaffer, he has taken us into the pre-season and he has absolutely hammered us and now it's paying dividends for us." Tim Cahill took Arzani under his wing during his time at Melbourne City. The 19-year-old has never started for City, appearing nine times off the bench since joining last season. Cahill still speaks to Arzani even though he left City and the winger also credits Joyce as being a big help in his development. "He [Joyce] is perfect with me," Arzani said. "He's quite strict on me and I think I need that as a player. He is always on my back and that helps me so much because growing up as a player – because I had a little bit of talent – I could get away with certain things. But in a professional environment you can't. "It's been the best thing for me. Bad habits, especially defensively. If I want to take my career further and play in Europe I really need to listen to the things Warren is saying." City's ugly win ended a torrid run of three consecutive losses. http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/melbourne-citys-daniel-arzani-ready-to-start-through-packed-aleague-schedule-20180107-h0emf6.html

Weekly ritual for me

I agree, lok at the smurfs - very successful but Arnold's style is also hard to watch and attendances are poor. It's even worse for us because we've won nothing, and our style is the opposite of CFG's aim for the group. We aren't even attracting those with pre-paid tickets

Just got home, 3 nill win, all round good team performance. Looks like hopefully they are clicking into gear at the right time.

Meh, would rather "if you want Joyce out stand up"

If I had Kamau in front of me starting regardless of form/impact/performance yeh I'd be pissed off too

What was the PAX for last night tho

Brattan was very good I thought. Ross scored two so deserves the praise and is a fair choice for MOM but IMO if it wasn't for Arzani he would have been completely absent for the entire 90 minutes and owes his brace solely because of him. Went for Arzani for this reason.

Jako was poor last night, but being shuffled from LB to DM throughout the season has obviously made him lose his CB form. Hopefully wazza doesn’t put him in the midfield next week and sticks with him at the back.

Terrace was interesting last night; big divide between front and back, plus there was a bit of verbal jousting between terrace leadership and guys on the wings, what was that all about?

I've got no problems with how Wazza went about talking about Arzani. The kid is not short of confidence so he'll be fine. I think he needs this sort of fair but brutally honest treatment to get the most out of himself.

IMO at times we're all a bit too sensitive on here about a comment, a phrase, a figure of speech that someone uses and we could be guilty of over-analysing. From the little I know about Joyce he tends to use this sort of language about many talented young players. And whatever we might think about Joyce he was a youth coach at Manchester United for quite a while. Just as a point of interest I'd like to know how he gets on with Joe Palatsides. The latter has a good record with our youth players, but he's very much in the background. Perhaps he prefers it that way.

@Jovan Jovan, you'll have to do better than that. We beat Newcastle 3-1. Iain Ramsay scored one and Mate Dugandzic two. John van 't Schip was coach, John Aloisi having been sacked on 28th December 2013. We were of course bottom of the league at the time. Indeed, it was a very hot day, and Melbourne was experiencing a 4-day heat-wave. Kick-off was at 7.30 p.m. but the maximum for the city on that day was 43.9 degrees. Avalon had reached 46.3 that day. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/vic/archive/201401.melbourne.shtml#recordsTmaxDailyHigh

You have to go back to 17 January 2014 for us to be as bad to watch.

What is novel is that he didn't take off McCormack and bring on a defender

I hope he is starting to realise that some of the player's on the list are just shit. Arzani, Carusca, Budzinski and Vidosic need to be on the pitch. Mauk, Fitzy, Kamau, Muscat and Malik need to be sacrificed for the great good. Enough is enough.

Merely papers over the cracks and things are still very wrong. But I will never wish for my team to lose or fail to enjoy them scoring. Arzani played a blinder, and credit to big Ross.

I give no fucks about what people think, i left at halftime with my wife, if i didnt i was heading for the bench (no fucks given) to throw my membership etc at Warren fucking Joyce. I'm out until this muppet gets replaced. #nofaith!!!!! Shit manager!!!!!! #bettersummerwithouthim!!!!!!!

When will CFG step in and crack some fucking heads? Joyce can't coach. The centre of the park has no creativity. The formation is set up not to succeed. It's going to be difficult for CFG to find another Aaron Mooy to make Melb City self funded when whatever young talent we have is been coached by a retard and feed by shit like Malik. Nobody is having fun. The fans aren't showing up and the football is fucking dire to watch. There is zero passion or care factor with the players. What are you trying to achieve CFG? Because this club has no identity an no reason for anyone to give a fuck.

Indeed it's true that the forum has diverse opinions. It does seem at the moment however that quite a few have become mordant lemmings, ready to throw themselves off the cliff because we lost to Victory, and that in a match that we bossed the second half, and only lost because of a brain fart and a dive. Likewise, forum opinion has been that we need a decent playmaking number 10, but when we sign one, and moreover one who does not take up a visa spot or a marquee slot, it appears the world has ended for some. Yes, we need a win, yes, there is change and turmoil, yes, we are not following up on early season form, and yes, at times we are hard to watch. The so called forum cancer appears to be the expectation of success brought with CFG ownership, and I suspect we were all a deal less tortured in the Heart days, when top six was success, and we enjoyed the camaraderie as much as the football. Heresy it may be, but perhaps we just need to chill out and accept Kipling's maxim that success and failure are both imposters.