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The above posters' views on PK seem to be a bit more favourable than my own. In my view PK is a tactically inept hack whose main coaching "quality" is being a hardass and berating players for being 3cm out of position. His tactical ineptness is most obvious when one of his teams is being absolutely outplayed. In such situations he appears unable to notice the tactical issue (blaming individual errors and lack of work rate) which results in him not making substitutes, or making like-for-like substitutes (such that you are relying on a moment of individual brilliance to get something from the game) or making subs so late thst the player has no time to make an impact. A prime example of this is the GF against WU were it was obvious that things were not working and certain subs needed to be made. But he dragged his feet in making any unforced subs, eben though it was obvious Tillio needed to come on. He also seems to detest young talented players.

I just miss Murfy1

Tbh, we (the same 5-10) probably are the nuffs 😁

I reckon they have ballsed up from a lack of a youth academy or if they have one it's poor. Secondly they have regularly recruited 'big name players' who are generally well past their best. Just poor recruiting in the past 3 years. Personally I am enjoying watching them flounder down the bottom, as they have given us shit for soo long and quite frankly deserve to have some poor seasons...

I really miss you all when the forum goes down....

The forum use is pretty heavily correlated to the time since Yarraside disbanded. YS used the forum quite heavily, but none of the other active groups did or do.

Not taking three last night has opened the door ever so slightly for Adelaide, WSW aren't in the race. Realistically 8 points is still pretty likely to be enough, so we are def in the box seat, but it would sure be nice if WSW can do a job and basically kill off their run.

We have seen Melbourne City play very differently under Rado ... more responsibility to the players, subs, player rotation, changed tactics and formations. much more attractive attacking football. To me the games have been highly entertaining, and even our losses and draws could have (should have) been wins. PK was one dimensional and we did well because of the players he had, and the resources at his disposal, despite his lack of tactical nous. He was a fackn horror show to watch at times during match day with his sideline antics, and his tactics and lack of subs killed me. Go back and watch his pressers, compared to Rados ... that tells you everything you need to know I've said it before, I think PK would make a great coach (not manager) ... he'd probably be a decent asset to the Socceroo setup In terms of his French experience, I hate to say it, but it was always doomed

Not so fast. They actually came at us up at their place. They are better than just parking the bus. We need to play well.

I thought that it was, perhaps, an ironic commentary on our ability to defend.

Apparently so. And so Metro decide that buses will replace trains between South Yarra and Moorabbin (Frankston line) this same weekend. Congratulations to all the highly-paid suits who make these decisions. Well done chaps!

He was immense for the Socceroos ... cannot see us being able to hold on to this guy ... he's ready for overseas.

Very true. The A-League and the clubs - if City is any example - don't really engage with the fans, so we create our own engagement, both at the ground and via this Forum. It's very reminiscent of my English non-league days. No on-line then of course, but every fortnight at the ground the same old fans, half the time you didn't even know their names, but you looked forward to meeting them and chatting with them, and we all "belonged" in that strangely unique way that football brings. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

If we did away with our yips in front of goal we'd have won that game 3 times over ... especially if we scored first. They parked the bus, and welded up shop like in Mad Max 2. Our issue at the moment is not tactics. Its squad depth and player availability through injury, and like i said ... the yips in front of goals!! The big problem is that these problems could cost us the plate as Adelaide and WSW look to be on a hot streak ... the tards are also on the mend, so our catch up game against them could be difference (so it becomes the only thing they have to play for ... gonna be huge). Be great is we grabbed a proven striker on an injury loan ...

The most frustrating part at the moment is what I see square pegs into round holes lineups were going with. The system we have works, that's undeniable but at the moment we are trying people in unfamiliar roles and positions. The main example is Jamo as a 6, he hasn't done anything really wrong there but to get him there we have moved 3 players out of where they were most effective 12 weeks ago. If next game we still have the same injury problems and have roughly the same squad, it makes much more sense to me to play Jamo at LB, ONeill and Berisha in midfield with Tilio ahead of them and Bos on the wing which he has played many times during games this season. That system has 1 player in an unfamiliar role, not half the bloody team which is what I feel happens some games especially when subs are made.

I'd love to know the rush to sign Rado.

Maclaren needs to sit. He's clearly in pain. Why are we risking him out there. Fuck jamo off too. Surely we have a youth product that could come in and do the job for us instead An absolutely pathetic first half. All the play and no finishing. Need to pull our finger out here in the second half, the good thing is that their is heaps of time left.

I certainly won't be going to Sydney should we make it. But I do feel conflicted regarding any home game we get in the semis. Our players don't deserve an empty home game for what the APL has done

And after last night's fame Sydney FC gave away Calum Nieuwenhof and Aidan Simmons. But at least they kept Joel King 😆

Unfortunately @citypool there is no "should" about it. The problem with the A-League is that people are interested in A-League football, but they are not emotionally invested in it. They go along to watch rather than to support. And if City is anything to go by, the clubs do little or nothing to encourage emotional investment. The two most recent emails I have received just illustrate the point - one advertising a brand of menswear and today's about "pride." For me, these things have nothing whatsoever to do with football. Do either resonate with our junior members? Nothing about how various players are going with their injuries, and the club can't be bothered to check its cut and paste job on the squad for the Macarthur match. I feel that I am being addressed more as a customer of a bank or a retail store than as a fan. And, IMO, that is why slowly but surely people lose interest in the club. The reason I keep going on this Forum is that I find out on here more about "what is going on" than ever I do from the club web-site or club correspondence.

It would be nice to know that instead of getting an email advertising menswear. FMD this club sometimes.

Kind of explains why he has looked a bit off as late.. have said this time and time again that we don't have a genuine back-up for Jmac.. Rodrigues gets no game time and apart from that who do we actually have that can play the striker role? Yeah of course you can play Tilio or even Nabbout up front but they aren't strikers as such.. such a shame to see Colacovski getting screwed over at Perth.. He would be getting alot more time if he was still with us albeit it off the bench it's still better than getting nothing at all! Crazy to think between himself and Tilio they won that game against Macarthur in the semi and then he set up that goal that Atkinson scored in the GF and now he is getting no time at all!

not sure where to post this so will post here. can someone please explain how come Canberra lose the 3 points from their A League Womens game on the weekend for possibly an innocuous 4th sub in 90th min injury time, yet the tards aren't forced to forfeit the Xmas derby for bringing the game into disrupt, causing a game to be abandon and injury to people on the field through the stupidity of their fans? edit: it just seems like complete and utter bullshit https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-06/canberra-united-a-league-women-stripped-points-substitutions/102058184

How am I meant tell my future children that Maclaren was the greatest striker in A-League history but he couldn’t shoot to save his life?

Rado has us playing more aggressively in attacking transition: that's great if we can keep the ball; we are far more likely to create attacking overloads. The problem is that we often lose the ball on our second attacking transition pass and are then overloaded ourselves, with defenders out of position. Opposition coaches have realised this and good counter-attacking sides know just when to press us. we either need to get better at keeping the ball or adapt the tactics. We are still likely to win the Premier's Plate, but unlikely to win the Grand Final, or even win our semi.

We're members of the AFC and so we would have input to decisions that it makes. IMO aggregating the two seasons is a sound and fair decision. It's up to us now to 1) make sure that we do get the points necessary to qualify for the ACL and 2) whether it's the ACL or the Cup that we end up in to do a lot better than we did last time. If we do collapse on the run in and it's the Cup then we ought to win that. We've got to take AFC competitions seriously from now on.

Great lesson for Tillio against Ecuador. He was up against a world class defender who gave him ZERO time and space. He was still able to have a few touches. but because of the intense pressure, when his one or two good opportunities came to create something positive, he was too rushed, or missed the opportunities. At that level, you have to make your chances count

As much as we'd like to, he really does deserve to go to Europe and give it a real good crack! He's done enough for us and needs to work his trade overseas...

Performances have usually been good until about 4-5 weeks ago, but 18 goals conceded in 10 games is worrying

The front line is not clicking without Leckie that is evident, But we are too leaky in defence, and that's not a personnel issue it's a structure issue which Rado can easily fix imo

Ligue 2 is the pits. TBH at the moment I don't think he's good enough to go elsewhere and he would be better served by staying with us. We tend to forget that for every one of our promising young players there's another 100 already in the country they're thinking of going to.

I think we have to remember that we had two penalty calls overruled by the VAR, and on the bench just two senior players in Galloway and Hall (the letter with little experience). It didn't really leave Rado many options in terms of substitutions, but that said, he seems to be persisting with the PK approach of not giving the youngsters any chance. Statistics don't win matches. They are useful only for analysis. and if it isn't obvious to Rado then even Blind Freddie can see that for weeks now the majority of our possession has been sterile, much of it passing the ball backwards because our players are so static. Our conversion rate of goal-scoring opportunities is awful, and much of the time we don't even attempt a shot. Further, our defence just leaks like a colander. I said some time ago that if we didn't end up Premiers it would be because we lost it rather than anyone else won it. However, we now have two weeks to get some players back on the park. FMD I can't help thinking sometimes that these footballers are mollycoddled. A point is better than nothing. Move on and let's hope that the club can get itself into gear for the remaining matches.

Week in week out we absolutely dominate the first 10-15 minutes and fail to capitalise.. then we get caught out on the counter attack and concede.. teams have worked out how to play against us and it is starting to hurt us.. Jamo in midfield baffles me.. you nailed it @Tommykins it is exactly that! He is so slow and seems to stop the build of play. You can clearly see Jmac is in pain with his toe and yet rather than giving him a rest we persist with playing him.. I absolutely love this club but at times I really do question some of the decision making that gets made behind the scenes!

As ever, Victory fans are very thin on the ground when they aren't doing well. Twice as many will claim to have been at this match than were actually there...

I agree. I will go to as many matches that City play at home as I can, consistent with health issues with big crowds (such as derbies with MV), whether they be league, finals, FA Cup, ACL or AFC Cup, but I draw the line at going to Sydney if we get to the GF. And my position won't change. A pity, because it's something that a couple of us said we would do because we are getting older of course. APL may yet see the folly of their ways and end the Sydney deal after the three years, and revert to the real tradition that we have.

Never a fan of PK myself (as this forum would show) but I believe that the reason for Melbourne City success was Erik Mombaerts (whom I believe is also at Troyes). Erik created the core of the squad and built a team spirit. Unfortunately Erik had to return to France and so his assistant PK took over. With Buckingham by his side and still being mentored by Erik, the club has found success. By the sound of things PK has lost the players and his limitations are being rudely exposed.

Fixed it for you.

As far as the Plate is concerned I think it is in our hands. As for finals.. We really need to tighten up our defence and stop conceding so many goals! If we come up against Adelaide in the finals that honestly worries me!

The squad for the Ecuador matches reads like a "who's who" of Heart/City. Included are: Atkinson, Behich, Bos, Gauci, Goodwin, McGree, Metcalfe, Mooy, O'Neill, Redmayne and Tilio. Congratulations to them all, especially our three current players.

Wrt to Patrick Hogan...just for your information...I'm trying to keep the Youth Squad updated as team sheets are issued. You'll find the list in the Youth Teams sub-forum. This may assist you in working out who is who on the seniors' bench.

Vs Brissy 2. o'neill 1. aiden

Reduce pressure on the calf's or some shit like that.

Not sure how it took 4 months but anyway

I don't think CFG are known for dismissing staff at the drop of a hat, but IMO relegation to Ligue 2 is not going to read well on his CV. Maybe CFG looked too much at results rather than man management, and I'm not particularly surprised that PK's style hasn't produced the goods yet. CFG don't get everything right - as Soriano admitted that about the investment climate in Australia - but I wouldn't write off PK just yet.

teams are pressing against us differently now. No longer do they sit back and park the buss and allow us to control the game, but instead they try and press us as we move the ball from defence, and especially on throw ins. This creates a lot more 50/50s and we are having to work harder to win possession, and as a team seem to be running out of puff by around the 60 minute mark. This style of game makes it easier for teams to counter against us. The way we turned it around against Adelaide was to go with two holding midfielders ... when Jammo came on it changed the game for us, but by that time the match was already lost. I dont think we can afford to play with Van Der Venne in a free role ... I would actually play with two holding mids, have Valon in front of them and VDV as our striker ... JMac needs a spell on the bench, he seems to be carrying a niggle. Also, I'd have Flo out wide, also coming in for attacks, with Tillio on the other side

One further thought - while the Perth Glory payment rule breach, the Sydney breaches of the squad/U-23 rule, and now the Canberra breach of the substitutes rules were and are purely a local issue, the scenes of the "blackest day in Australian football" were seen around the world. When placed in that context IMO there's every reason for MV to have forfeited that particular match, and in fact to have received a points deduction for next season as well.

Yes, but I think this directive hss come from CFG, as opposed to the league. CFG really do dislike any sort of negative attention and try to limit/reduce reputational risks (see Novillo being moved on after the rumours/allegations of DV).

@Tangerine Yes, that's certainly a worthy explanation. I just wonder whether that answer is wholly consistent with the decisions regarding the non-complying payments to Andy Keogh by Perth Glory, where no points were actually deducted but irrespective of their points total Perth were demoted to 7th position on the ladder at the end of the season? Either way it would appear desirable for the administrators to "turn their minds" to this sort of thing and be better prepared should similar events happen again. The test is really "how much control does/did the club have?" IMO the sense of indignation that MV have not lost any competition points over the incidents is that apart from a few individual bans (which cannot be enforced) MV fans in general will not suffer any consequences from those incidents, whereas in the cases of Perth and Canberra they did/do.

In a way, I keep harping on about movement, but it was the biggest difference between the two teams on the night. A lot of our players were just plodding around, where Adelaide were constantly on the move creating blocks or passing opportunities. Total freedom is bad if players are just going to wander around aimlessly, standards must be put into place, Bos, Lam and our subs were the only players who reached standards I expect, not want, everyone else had a bad game. It's no good if the team doesn't have the tools to use, or the impetus. Games were good in this regard when Rado first came in, but the team seems to have collectively relaxed over time and it's getting towards complacency. This is on the coaching team and they need to rectify it, we'll probably top the table, but not reach the final of the championship otherwise.

06/03/2023 @malloyJust to head off the inevitable questions after the latest downtime...I don't know. After the first 48 hours I contacted the site owner and made him aware of the outage, but it has taken a while for him to get it back on-line. Other than contact the site owner, there's nothing else that the moderators can do.