mattyh001

Shit marking from Ugarkovic

Well fuck me dead. Sort of came from nothing. Still doesn't excuse the bullshit misses

Broadcast just said excluding today, WSW hav conceded first on 13 occasions this season, drawing once and losing the rest.

Fortunate small deflection there but Natel finally finding form And Jakolis can fuck off too

quite a few outcomes, and that's not even taking into account that we could still finish higher than 6th. sad that we have been so fucking inconsistent and injury prone all season. then again, the three big wins we have had this season has really skewed our GD. take the 7-0, 8-1 and 8-0 out we have played 22 games for 6 wins with 25 Goals Scored and 36 Goals Against. makes think we will win this and then lose to Western Utd

Great goal by Natel and quality as usual by Arslan If only we did this every week

agree with the fact some of the new ones haven't lived up to the bill. and considering that we started the season with Nuno Reis, Souprayen, Arslan and and Sakhi as our visas (Natel replaced Leckie or Nabbout as an inj replacement, Fernandez replaced Behich with the spot left by Sakhi) then you do wonder wtf was the last visa spot during preseason? i think that adds to your point TBH of course, Arslan is the one stand out. i feel he has more than surpassed VDV, Berisha and Berenguer in those two advanced spots. where people see his offensive output vs O'Neill's defensive dominance would be interesting. and that's were i would maybe reframe some of the debate; how do we compare the efforts of VDV and Berisha (with Berengeur as the alternate) vs Sahki/Jeggo and Ugarkovic (with Lopane as the alternate)? what's interesting there is that we are talking about one offensive trio made up of visa players (who should be better) vs a midfield trio that's predominately Aussie (again we did leave a visa spot free so ...). so does that mean the local talent for pick up (or at least the current ones available) are just shit? is it a fair comparison as O'Neil is effectively a walk up Socceroo - putting him on the level of most visa who succeed in this league. maybe we were just so bloody lucky with him? not trying to make excuses there either. i just think there is so much to delve through

hope people havent interpreted my rant as me asking for one more season for old times sake rather it can be very hard to take stock / break down our current predicament of our current season vs (a) the last two seasons and thereby (b) the reasons those players were given three year deals in 2021. yes we can say with hindsight this season may have been one too many, but IMO it's a part of the broader aleague challenge of how you manage aleague rosters, salary caps, etc. the only real way i could see long term deals (three years +) work is only the first two are locked in. aka players are offered 3 or 4 year deals as 2 year with 1 (+ 1) year options.

i'm not sure there is an easy, quick to fix answer here. to highlight this, i'll start with our three "big" name attackers going into this season (MaClaren, Leckie and Nabbout). they were all signed to three year deals (from my understanding via the pinned current squad thread) when they were 27, 30 and 28 respectively (as signed in June - Sept 2021). MaClaren was a Socceroo with little injury issues (or at least at the time from memory). Leckie has been a star at a WC in the time since despite injury issues while Nabbout was a decent age. also remember this also includes two league premierships in that time where those players have featured prominantly (even with Leckie and Nabbout being injured at times). so i don't think the 3 year deals those players signed is all that bad. three current defenders that were signed at the same time in mid 2021 was Good (3 year deal at age 28), Nuno Reis (3 year deal aged 30) and Galloway (aged 24 with a 4 year). given that defenders tend to play better to an older age, i'd argue those deals have actually been fairly reasonable given the players in question and the success we have had over the last two seasons. the other risk i foresee here the the Richie Garcia dilemma. you can offer shorter term deals (Garcia only had a one season deal given injury history) with the risk the player comes really good and then fucks off to a bigger deal. so you're dammed if you do when Garcia leaves and you are dammed if you don't (ie Leckie) when the injuries get the better of them on a longer deal. and that doesnt even take into the Richard van der Venne / Thomas Lam fuck around. you do your research, sign a quality player to a decent deal and get the goods during season one only for them to fuck off home sick. you can probably add Sahki to that - was finally coming good so we buy out his deal only for some sort of bullshit to occur within two weeks later. secondly, (and i've said something elsewhere that) having a mass change over with a loss in culture and a head coach whose too laid back (didnt or couldnt set a high standard / level of responsibility) makes it hard to keep players accountable. the club should have taken that into account with how we set up going into the season. if Rado needed a couple of proper hard nose pricks on his coaching staff then that's what should have happened. edit: sorry for the long response; again no easy fix

I'd make a point that part of the problem was that the previous strong club culture had been lost in the wash. Be it appointing a coach too laid back, be it letting players exit the club because could without resistance, the club needs to do better. We have had a poor culture/attitude from so many this season that we have folded in so many games

Good finish by Arslan but fuck me that was a shit turn over by the tards backline. Eat a dick Arzani can eat a big bag of shit too

We were also due to play the Mariners but they were in India last night. It's been pushed back to April 2nd

in a nut shell, the injuries, player & coaching changes et al have lead to a very inconsistent and incohesive line up week in week out. give current line up (particularly with Arslan to come back) an uninterrupted two months together and we would have a solid grounding and style between the group

thought the Lam departure was later, happy to be wrong here. in terms of the other two, my point is that having young players come through takes time to get them into shape consistency wise. take a look at Talbot; he's has essentially been the player to replace Atkinson. blokes played over 40 aleague games for us (which doesnt even include cup or champions league games) and yet the guy is so inconsistent. throw in the fact young players come cheap when they sign, you cant just throw money at the situation when Bos or Atkinson leave since their low wage helps offset the bigger wages we spend elsewhere in a salary cap and frankly, Talbot is by far the best young defender we have seen come through recently outside of Atkinson and Bos. in a way, i kinda see a perfect storm again, not trying to give a free pass to the recruitment team or players; just dont think we can put this down to one simple solution.

starting with the keeping spot, others have covered it well. Young has always been signed as a short term option where there was probably not much better on offer (particularly from a domestic signing perspective). on top of that we lost Bos (21) and Lam (30) last season and Atkinson (24) in December 2021. replacing quality (particularly youngsters in the form of Bos and Atkinson) from the youth academy is never easy. even signing them from another team's youth academy is no guarantee either - just look at Talbot (22). he is so inconsistent. plus the likes of Bos and Atkinson would have been cheap from a salary cap perspective, so it's not like our club can just throw money at it. Lam is a rather frustrating one for me since he left so late into the post season. no issues with his reasons for leaving, just the timing. our club has tended to find some absolute gems (ie Arslan, Sahki) when they have the chance to do their due diligence. finding a like for like player with such a short turn around for ACL duties (where we had to sign within the registration deadline) was always going to be risky - hence the signing of Souprayen. i'm not trying to justify how poor we've been; rather there's probably been a few mitigating events.

had a 7.30 booking for dinner last night so got to watch that lovely first half before going; stellar stellar choice for sure fuck me our midfield is shit. while it doesnt help to have your best player out suspended and have had our next best leave mid season for personal reasons, any good team can cover. they have depth. we dont. any individual defending Lopane can join Lopane and get the fuck out. guy is fucking shit. for all the shit Lachie Wales coped, this guy is 10 times worse. why the fuck was he signed? their second was essentially walked into the goal. FMD - how can the players be this apathetic?? two goals from outside the box doesnt help (sometimes opponents just lucky with a well taken shot) but still, where is the pressure?? season is well and truly over. i just hope we can get / keep a fully fit and firing front third for the rest of the season. will be great to see us finally play with some intent, some way of putting our opponents under constant pressure week in week out.

agreed. can see a number of factors at play, including something like an out of the blue cancer diagnosis. and in a number of situations, a mutual termination works out the best. Sahki gets to move closer to home and be with his family, we get to sign a replacement more easily given the transfer window. as sad as it all is, just wish him the best. i doubt he has done this with any malice what so ever. why would he sign otherwise only to get a small (if any at all) payout two weeks later?

agreed. our wide attacking players are not what they were last few years (hard to plan for when the three we started the season with in Leckie, Nabbout and Jakolis have been injury prone), while our midfield three hasnt settled. plus the loss of Lam and Van Der Venne when they did leave meant the club was scrambling to replace them.

Lol lmfao

the difference for me between good managers and great managers is their ability to get the best out of their players irrespective of style. good managers tend to be stubborn and struggle to change things up - even when it's in the best interest of the squad. the other thing to remember is that one of our great advantages in the aleague is our scouting network. that includes our ability to bring the best young Aussie talent through as our youth academy should be a massive draw card for all young Aussie hopefuls. so while players may have bad games or poor stretches of form, the manager needs to be able to work with the players they are given. of course, the club shoudlnt just blindly sign players without thinking of the strengths, weaknesses and philosophy of it's coaching staff either. it'd be like asking a classically trained violinist to choreograph a 3 min dance performance for a rap video clip.

remember, that was after Foxtel lost the rights to the EPL. I'm sure that Rupert was happy investing locally as they were getting oodles of eyeballs for the EPL and it added nicely to its portfolio.

Always thought the league benefited from Foxtel the most when our broadcast was coupled with the EPL. Unfortunately the current administration are more interested in making a short buck than solid long term business decisions The sooner we join Optus the better

That's bloody lucky but will take

Plus 1. Couldn't agree more

wouldnt be surprised if he simply wanted to try a new challenge. same here; one's one hell of a signing. my understanding is that he's on a two year deal. hope that we sign him him longer soon.