Defibrillator

Hang on. Chicken or cheese Twisties? Not partial to the chicken. Big difference and we don't want to be short changed!!

Works the other way around too!!

The fountain of all football knowledge, ps4 Fifa 15, has Brown as a CAM. Drop him into the middle. Surely they know what they're doing at EA Sports ..........?????

Surely Paartalu is begging to be "Abba-fied" with Waterloo. Paartalu Hacks them down when we go to war. Paartalu Terrace will love you for ever more. Whoa whoa whoa whoa ................ (Apologies if already suggested).

I've given up saying "surely" with this club only to be repeatedly disappointed. "Surely" implies insight, forethought, logic, perception ........................ you get the point.

If they picked Germano I think he would replace Garruccio rather than Hoffmann. I don't think Koren should start. He looked really underdone to me and was struggling aerobically towards the end. He is a huge factor going forward and I don't think should be risked now. Along with this, the idea of bringing Duff and Germano back together off long injury breaks as well is really dangerous, but if Germano can get through 70 minutes of a youth game, at least he's had some sort of test. A grade 1 calf in a 35 year old is generally 3 weeks minimum - we're cutting it very fine if we try Duff. If Germano starts at LB, you then have the option of picking Garruccio on the wing or as a LB sub if injury blights Germano again - he gives us huge flexibility off the bench. The other contentious issue I could foresee on the weekend is whether to start Brown over Williams (and before the howls of laughter hear me out). There were two clear opportunities for Williams in the first half to play early and easy through balls as the no 9 which would have given us clear 1v1 with the keeper and he had no insight or skill to play them. I think Brown is a more instinctive player and has better vision and certainly better touch. I think with Dugandzic and Garruccio, who are seriously quick either side, we can exploit this pace much better with Brown rather than Williams. I know Brown is not everyone's favourite, but on the weekend he would have served a better role given how we set up. So: Velaphi Hoffman Kisnorbo Chapman Germano Paartalu Melling Mooy Dugandzic Brown Garruccio Bench: Redmayne, Koren, Williams, Weilardt, Mauk. My 2 cents worth.

Really agree with this. We should all enjoy the warm inner high last night gave us, but I hope CFG has its eyes surely fixed on the future with a clinical dispassionate stare. We've all seen wins and "false dawns" multiple times with this club, but it's a long season and this alone will tell us the story. A good start would be testing the league leaders this Friday and putting in a good display, followed by two very winnable away games to show we can take our "form" on the road. I think we'll have a much better picture of where we're really at before the Asian Cup break. The passion shown last night should be the baseline and not the exception. Will be fascinating to see if we can replicate it and start producing consistently. My scepticism levels are still high but more than happy for them to be reduced!! And how frustrating is it to know we can play with that passion but rarely do!!! Does my head in..

I'd hate to say it but Melling had to come off. He was too fired up and risked getting a red. Lucky to avoid a red in the first place really.

Their "goal" was offside when played. Chapman shaky early but the one thing that was clearly different was his closing speed - he's lightning quick and changes the back four immensely. Garruccio not a natural LB obviously, but also quick and a better motor than Ramsay. Still our weakness and Barbarouses had his measure clearly, but to his credit he persisted. Tando take a bow and Mooy and Melling showed the grunt and mongrel we've been missing since Sroj - and have the advantage of having class! Koren clearly underdone and Williams and Ramsay usual lol moments. Good goal from Paartalu but I'm concerned at times how far forward he pushes in general play - needs to be organised a bit better with Melling especially not wise to covering quite yet. He'll learn. Lucky not to be sent off too and wouldn't be surprised if the video review results in punishment - as said above a good ref would have stopped the problem earlier but that won't help him. We were the better team I thought but it could have gone either way. Take the Christmas present early! And loved Berisha's yellow after the final whistle. He is a competitor but showed a distinct lack of class at the end which consistently lets him down.

THERE REALLY IS A SANTA CLAUS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never felt so ambivalent about a derby. Our form, our year, our injuries, rolling the dice on an injured older marquee, Duff most likely missing, their form, our coach, our defence, the Villa farce, the tifo farce. Hard to get fired up with all the crap that's been going on. The expression "learned helplessness" comes to mind. Kids keen and missus keen and we'll be there. Santa give us a chop-out and arrive five days early. We've all been "good" and "nice" and Muscat is a prick. Make it happen!!!

He's 188cm, Mifsud was a towering 165cm Sorry Mus. Fox sports app says 170 cm. I suspect you're right - he's not Mifsudesque.

It's an early call but Chapman has been really good. More pace and his distribution has been quite good. Good luck to the kid. Ps looked at his stats. Didn't realize he was so short. Only 170cm. Hardly a towering presence.

From The Age article: "Perhaps more attention should have been paid in the off season to stiffening the porous rearguard." Perhaps!?!?!? Perhaps!?!?! Can someone in the media just call it for what it is: a season defining monumental fuckup!! Many of us on the forum were talking about this in July.

You wanker !!!!!!!!

Fair call and like it. Not beyond the realms of possibility - time will tell.

It seems we're all pretty down about our current predicament. I've been really enjoying the insights from Falatsur and fellow Mancunians about CFG and their optimism towards where we'll end up. Whilst I understand the role of incremental change, I also think this needs to be balanced with action to prevent loss of good-will from fans and potential lost marketing opportunities if it takes too long to get our house in order. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking about what CFG should be doing - plenty of vented spleens above would confirm that!! But I'm trying to think broadly about what CFG can do and what they can offer. When you boil it down, CFG can bring four things to us that other clubs in the A-league can't access, or access to a lesser extent. 1. Money - and lots of it. Valuable especially for marquee players, coaching staff, administrative staff and facilities. 2. A global scouting network - I suspect only valuable for visa players. 3. Unique opportunities (like Manchester training camps and access to top flight coaching) which would be attractive especially to younger talented players. 4. The ability to loan us players from one of their three other clubs (if you include their Japanese interests). Whilst we've seen our team head off to Manchester, the other three points of value adding have largely been ignored (I don't think the Villa "loan" was fully realised obviously). So I think we're coming to the crossroads to see how serious CFG are to this project. I would hope that in the (very near) future they will start exercising their advantages. So what could they do? 1. Bolster / rebuild / change the coaching (the latter preferable to me - one place where money can make a huge difference and I'm thinking seriously high profile), local scouting and football administration. Our five years have shown administratively we've been poor. The aim of this club is to win silverware - turning a profit should not be the primary reason to put a team on the park like the previous administration. Don't forget a high profile and excellent coach would be a point of difference to any developing player starting out on their career. If you offer a young player the ability to be mentored by a renowned coach and access to Manchester opportunities, it becomes a point of difference to attract better players. 2. An overhaul of the squad - especially focussing on visa players who are young enough, talented enough and fit enough to be on the park every week. Here the global scouts come in to their own. If we opened up 12-14 positions in the squad at seasons end, every player manager with a player coming off contract in Australia would surely be talking to us. Pick the best available 6-7 and fill the rest with the best youth as above. In all honesty, bar Mooy, Koren (b/c of contract), Paartalu (who I think will come good), and Melling, everyone should be looked at with a very critical eye. (Personally I'd keep others obviously, but the previous players mentioned are probably the only walk up starts or show great potential). I know you can't replace everyone, but I think someone needs to look ruthlessly at the market and become ruthless in trying to shift non performing contracted players. A top administrator would go a long way to achieving this. 3. Access one or two (sequentially if necessary) reliable, young, resilient loan players with a guaranteed tenure and commitment. Can value add in marketing and obviously to the squad where unexpected deficiencies come to light. 4. Upgrade our facilities, either current or a new location. Whilst this has been happening at LaTrobe, I think the City club should be located in the City. Obvious. Are CFG up for this? Time will tell and I get the feeling we'll know sooner rather than later. I'm ignoring the cultural/historical issues here, which is another topic in itself, in order to concentrate on getting a competitive team on the park. As we all know, a competitive team has so many spinoffs obviously including marketing and membership. I'd be interested in other people's thoughts.

From what I can see, the players whose contracts end in 2015 are as follows (this list may be a little wrong, but hopefully it's mostly accurate): Wielaert Ramsay Murdocca Duff Germano Retre Velaphi Dugandzic Kisnorbo Everyone else is a 2016 end, except Garuccio who is 2017 and Paartalu who is 2018, plus of course Liam Miller who is supposed to leave before the end of the year. Duff has already said he's only here for one year (this was before the season started, can't see him changing his mind now) because he doesn't want to have his family out here for more than a year. You'd have to say Germano would be going. Wielaert would also seem likely to go given he's on a visa spot, but who knows. In all seriousness all of them should be gone (the only exception I could foresee would be Duga and Duff, but he'll be pretty old). And surely we have the ability with CFGs experience to find creative ways to shift any other deadwood still in contract (Brown, Redmayne, Hoff ideally - it can be done - other clubs seem to manage moving on players they no longer require). The idea of too many changes creating no continuity is moot to me now. We have a bad culture, an average squad and a poor manager and hierarchy resulting in a shit club at present. The idea of there being "too many" changes just can't be correct. It's time for a TOTAL rebuild and start from the ground up to rectify this mess. We tolerate mediocrity far too readily and this can't last.

A good day for the ALP yesterday winning over the voters. A bad day for JVS today looking like he's lost the players. "IT'S TIME!!!"

You may be right about Ramsay, but two things really, really piss me off about this. Firstly we'll never know if any of the youth fullbacks are better because no one is prepared to roll the dice. Sometimes opportunities are grasped by kids in spectacular style. "The definition of insanity ................" concept keeps ringing in my ears - it's not working (in fact I think it's failing having him at LB spectacularly, repeatedly). The opposition know it, we know it, Damien Duff shows it on the pitch and no one has any faith in him. It's got to the point it's embarrassing. Secondly, how much worse could a raw kid do? I think it's at the point where if it's worse we should take it on the chin. But to not try is helping spread the cancer of no accountability and no consequence through the team. If people aren't performing, they should be replaced repeatedly until someone is found. There may be initial pain in this but you end up with the product you want. Postecoglu was and is a master of this. And before anyone argues we shouldn't "sacrifice" a kid's career too early, it's only one game and what the hell is JVS doing to Ramsay? Once any suitable replacement is found, he is on the A-league scrap heap. I'm at the point of feeling sorry for the prick he's so out of his depth. And FFS play Duff on the left. A natural left footer to give us width, and tracks back better than Duga so provides better cover to our obvious weak side.

Add to this surely one of the youth specialist LBs has to start in front of Ramsay (and Garrucio). For seven games it's just not working and costing us games. Every other team in the league now knows it and targets him. Give a kid a crack much like Goodwin in the derby a few years back when he shredded Kewell. I honestly think it's that bad that something just has to be tried. We may be surprised but, in all honesty, they couldn't be too far worse if they have a poor game.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if our lads train together in light blue tops (similar to Sydney's shirt)? We certainly warm up in light blue tops on match day. I'm trying to explain to myself why Weilaedt would pass to Janko. It didn't look like a miskick and was pretty well weight perfect. If the training brainstem response is to cross to a teammate in light blue then this is an obvious problem. Don't get me wrong, it was a total fuck up and inexcusable. And every other pass for the night seems to have been directed roughly to where it should. Just don't want it to happen again.

Ok, here we go. Open forum, pick any post match forum bar Brisbane so far this season. Open page. Find a post. Here we go, this will do. "Ramsay is shit. We have the worst keeper in the league. Defence too slow. Williams hit a fucking target!! JVS is running out of time!! How the hell did we get Brown? Mooy is a gun!!" Ok, Highlight text. Cntrl C. Open post week 7. Cntrl V. There, that saves time.

Is that you dad?? Mum says we better win or don't bother coming home........................!!!!!!!

Everyone knows surveys are a managerial tool to make everyone think they're doing something. "Look, we've asked our stakeholders!!". It's closing the loop, feeding back the results and telling people how management have learnt from this, and then changes to be implemented, that seems strangely to go missing........... God know how many local council surveys or work surveys I've done which resulted in sweet F.A. Surprisingly the first CFG survey follows the script. Can't be fucked to be honest. I'm over the delusion they give a crap. But they are "doing something"..........................????????????