bt50

Its coming home lads

Perth always makes me nervous, but i go into this pretty confident. I think win this and the plate is ours.

Absolutely agree with that haha. An uncut gem perhaps, but def not remotely a ready made product like @thisphantomfortressseemed to think he was

Could be wrong re Harrison, but from what i recall both had deals in front of them to stay here and rejected them. Safuwan was interviewed last year I think and said it was his biggest regret in his career that he didn't re-sign here and stay on. My personal view of him is that he was def worth another contract, but that he was also a bit overrated here due to scoring a couple goals and his willingness to dive in to rash challenges, which some people absolutely love as a trait.

Totally agree that this is the best A League season for a while, perhaps ever. I'm probably of the school of thought that the standard, or at least the calibre of player, has actually dropped ever so slightly, but the style and entertainment value is up through the roof. My initial reasoning is that at the start of the season a lot of the clubs lost a lot of quality in terms of Aussies particularly, and so with a bulk of the coaches being Australian many clubs saw it as a window to blood youth and effectively had nothing to lose. I reckon that lent itself to free-flowing football and perhaps now that the wider football community has had a chance to see what that looks like, the coaches have erred on the side of keeping it that way rather than the defensive win at all costs approach. I reckon the other key factor is that the table is so compressed in the middle, and had been all season; clubs understand how a point is going backwards and a win is vital in terms of jockeying for positions.

What bothers me is less the fuck up, and more the fact he nearly got himself sent off again. Dived in on Ruhs after the error and if hed caught him he was gone again. Doesnt suggest he learnt much from the first time tbh.

Most of the clubs didnt carry 2 marquees going into the season, which will be in large part why they can jink their lists around. We were one of the few that did.

Surely you've seen enough evidence by now to realise that that critique of Arzani was entirely warranted and justified? If not lazy then definitely a terrible attitude and ethic.

Looking forward to seeing Gestede at CB tbh

Doesnt need to. signing on as a scholarship player hes an extremely cheap insurance policy. Pretty rare to get someone in one of those slots with 30 senior appearances to their name.

Great post

Dot is average position, size of dot represents degree of involvement in play.

I actually think you could run Stef through there too; in many ways i think hes very similar to Maclaren in style and shape.

So good last night that JMac aside he was nearly motm from a 30 min cameo. Seriously impressing now.

Utterly, utterly filthy

NZ Knights were pretty bad, but they weren't defensively as bad as the Mongs. FWIW Goals scored ave MV 20/21 1.00 goals per game NZ 05/06 0.71 goals per game Goals against ave MV 20/21 2.33 goals per game NZ 05/06 2.24 goals per game

i get the hesitancy to put ourselves out there but i like it tbh. Shows we've grown, and ultimately if we cant laugh at ourselves then we're starting to become more like the Mong fans we hate. And fwiw i dont think any of our squads were ever as bad as THIS victory squad is. The season 4 team obviously was a spud team but they were at least competitive even though they were 'unlucky'. I had far more faith in that team playing well and going down 2-0 than i do this Victory team not getting wiped nearly every week they play.

I love what Luna brings to the table but i feel Flo's creativity is far more important to our performance. In saying that he's an easy first man to hook if its not working and you want to turn the pressure up.

id start reis with good and put griff into midfield as that worked so well last time. luna off the bench for mine.

Cola starts imo, although Tilio would have to be a chance.

fixed

Calves and older guys are never a good mix. Always better to be cautious. Nabbout could go either way id suspect but making sure the mongs are guessing is prob a good tactic imo

Galloway for me, thought he was very good. Good, Griffiths, Cola and Tilio all honourable mentions.

I dont think anyone would argue Natty is now our best full back and we definitely lose a little bit in terms of attacking power when he's out, but the same is also true that Garrucio, Jamieson and Galloway are all slightly above average A League full backs. Perhaps Galloway is right on the average mark, but def still capable. If we had to cop a bad injury, its probably a good position to cop it in.