Semper Cor

Bump! Going by Friday night's game, I think it's a combination of the way we play and also some poor decision-making by some of the defenders. Our inability to play out from the back due to a static and unresponsive midfield, means that when we are pressed in our half or in particular our defensive third, we cough over possession cheaply. This is how we conceded the goal against WSW the week prior, and how we conceded the penalty against SFC. When this happens, it places our defence under more pressure than necessary, resulting in anxious defending and players making the wrong decisions in the penalty box. There was no need for Wielart to dive in on Friday night as there was no real threat, we had more defenders in the box than SFC had players. However this is what happens when you're anxious and you have little confidence in the way we're playing. Nevertheless, an experienced defender should know when to keep their feet and when to make a slide tackle in their penalty area. We've conceded three goals from the spot so far this year and it's only Round 6. At this rate, we could very well be surpassing last season's tally of ten.

That's the way I see it. I also try not to get persuaded by the stats as well. According to this: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/aleague/matchcentre/matchstats/Melbourne-Heart-v-Western-Sydney-Wanderers-Hyundai-A-League/3105 One may interpret the Heart being a lot closer than how the game played out. The reality is Heart only had half-chances despite the dominant possession, the better chances went to WSW. The scoreline could quite easily have been 2-0 or even 3-0 in WSW's favour.

I was thinking Bielsa myself, or at least someone who is Bielsa-like. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the most important signing an A-League club can make is its' manager. V*****y figured this out after the Durakovic and Magilton debacle and subsequently got Ange. Heart now find themselves in a similar situation. Like most other industries, you get what you paid for. If Heart HQ really wants this club to be successful, and I believe they do, significant investment needs to be made into the football department beginning with the manager. If money’s too tight to mention, find other investors to come into the frame. In the end, you invariably reap what you sow. With respect to the manager, IMO he must possess the following proven attributes: a successful track record of coaching according to the club’s philosophy of playing style a successful track record of coaching and developing young players transform the entire football department and culture mentor upcoming aspiring coaches and managers within the club leave a legacy on their respective team and club This may sound lofty, but this is now where we find ourselves and what we should be looking at. Sometimes it’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.

It's this. It's quite simply this.

Okay, not the point of my post, but I digress. Yeah, I agree with everything you guys have said, 100%. We should approach each game with the mind set to win regardless of the opponent, and in a competition with all things being equal, this should be do-able (at least more do-able than what it is now). I think I've made this point in one of my other posts about how attitude should be changed to allow a better opportunity for success. But based on on-pitch performances so far and the latest table standings, the reality is that it's not. We all know this and is why so many of us feel frustrated. The point of my post was that, we're now, over the next three weeks, going to be playing teams who are in a semi-similar situation to us, like it or not. How we perform against said teams, will give us a better insight to how we're going to change our attacking plan and options, because right now, it hasn't been working for us despite what the statistics say.

Pretty much confirms my mode of thinking. The opportunities we do create are 'low percentage' ones, meaning they're confined to either outside the box or from areas where there is a good chance it will be dealt with by the opposition defence. This isn't necessarily a reflection of the players, however at times they may be culpable, but more so the overall style of play we have at the moment. When emphasis is placed on defending in numbers and breakaway long-ball attacks, you soon forget how to think creatively and innovatively when it comes to creating opportunities in your attacking third. So far we've played four of the better teams in the competition, WSW, CCM, v*****y and Brisbane. Our next three games are against opposition who we should at least be with on par: Sydney (home), Newcastle (away) and Adelaide (home). Not only should we be looking to win those games, but to also become more attack focused with respect to creating more 'high percentage' goal scoring opportunities.

R.I.P. Crandall

Agree that results will trump style, particularly in a results-driven sporting environment like Melbourne where winners are a lot more lauded than losers, this being especially important for football due to the limited media coverage. But like your second point, right now we don't have either, results or style, and the pertinent thing is that there haven't really been any signs of either improving. I would feel a little more settled if there were signs, but nothing as yet. Having said that, we need to keep in mind of the Wanderers slow start last season and where they ended up finishing. The A-League is a marathon, not a sprint. Hopefully the team in the meantime, can show more signs of wanting to go out and win games of football, as opposed to trying not to lose them. One of the philosophies I believe the club was created on.

Heart's intention to develop young Australian footballers and help them achieve their career dreams was one of the main reasons why many of us were attracted to the club in the first place. And I agree with you - with the club seemingly moving further and further away from that ideal the disappointment with the present situation hurts even more. In addition to this, one of the pillars of this club was to play an attractive, attacking, European-continental style of football. As the games go by, it looks like we too have moved further away from this by adopting a more pragmatic and counter-attacking approach that offers a lower risk of losing a game of football, but offering no increased chance of winning a game of football.

Wow, not sure what is worse, being accused of a lack of identity or having a hollow one. Yet another unjustified and cheap snipe at Heart IMO. For me, Kewell's presence at Heart is just as much about him stamping his legacy on the Australian sporting landscape as it is a way to get to Brazil. Particularly now with Holger gone, the agenda of the national team may be significantly different to what it was 24 hours ago, especially for Kewell's prospects. He didn't get the opportunity with the v*****y, but he has now with the Heart, and as captain he is positioned to help drive his legacy and the Heart cause in the process. Hope he and the Heart have a great season ahead. Hollow identity... jog on.

Agree, but don't underestimate the influence of mind games, you can ask Kevin Keegan about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO3de_8tZVI

As there are no real articles or sources to back up the claim that Heart is about to be sold either fully or partially, I can only question the timing of yet another rumour of this type, just a few days out before the season proper and the derby. I would like to think the club now knows how to deal with this sort of nonsense.

I have to admit, I didn't know who or what Fred Perry was till I came on this forum. The FFA will fight violence ... that barely exists

Agree with everything you just said, but every game should be treated as a winnable game, not just home games. The first step to winning is between the ears.

Have to admit, it bugged me too...

Just read Chipperfield's tweet... hmmm... not sure what purpose those comments serve. It's always going to be a challenge for any All-Stars Team that have never played together before, thrown together a few weeks before kick-off to come up against a strong and seasoned side like Man Utd, I don't think anyone was expecting any different. It was just a match to further publicise the Man Utd brand and also football in Australia. I suppose it also gives us a baseline to measure any future performances from the better A-League players. Meanwhile found this article regarding possible future teams coming to Australia, there are also some questions FFA Chief David Gallop answers about Heart and the league in general, but nothing of that we're not really already aware: Barcelona next on Gallop's All Stars wishlist

I know Ange is a keen Liverpool supporter, so he'll definitely won't mind getting one over the Mancs, but it will be interesting to see how much game time he'll give a Heart player and how he will play him. At least there will be something worthwhile watching on the telly tonight, I needs my football fix.

I agree with the sentiment that there are a few more Heart supporters out there than what we’ve seen we just need to give them a reason to consistently attend matches. I’ve always believed there are two types of people: those who are Heart fans, and those who are Heart fans but don’t yet realise it. Pound for pound I believe we’re the more appealing Melbourne club than the other mob, as per reasons already stated by way of what we do and represent, but we’ve been unable to capitalise on this because of on-field results. I really would like to see what our attendances and membership numbers would be like if we had a successful season(s), that is we finish with at least 50 points challenging for the Premiership, then we could be in a true position of assessing our popularity. On a side note it will be interesting to see how the free-to-air SBS deal of televising matches will affect attendance and membership numbers, not just for Heart but for the all-round growth of the game. With the cash injection of the new TV deal with Foxtel, it will be interesting to see how the FFA will grow and market the game over the next few years, because I’ve always been an advocate that on the back of the sport growing, Heart will grow as well.

Richard Garcia is the only possible future signing that Scott Munn mentioned in this article. He didn't even mention any other transfer activity. Instead he talked up all of our signings as 'major'. Even if we signed Garcia AND Velaphi, or one of the other 4 GK candidates, we still wouldn't have a large enough squad to participate in the next A-League season. Heart is still some ways away from obtaining a squad size of 20, which is the minimum squad size that's required to play in the A-League. This standstill with regards to our transfer activity is rather disappointing. And this very protracted attempted re-signing of Garcia gives the sense that Heart tried to sign other players, but couldn't get the job done... Heart better understand that we still need to make multiple important signings, and that there's no point wasting any of our 2 remaining VISA spots or our 6 remaining squad spots. If that article is a balanced summary of what SM actually said to the journo then IMO it is a major backdown from what has been said to us previously. IIRC we were promised more resources to the football department, two further major signings,and the distinct possibility of a marquee to follow. I cannot see any hint of any of that TWG article. Indeed its tone suggests Munn is on the defensive about Heart's off-season activities - or lack of them. To say that Ramsay and Murdocca are "major acquisitions" is a distortion of the truth, particularly in Ramsay's case where once again we're going to try to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. If we are anywhere near the salary cap minimum with the squad so far then someone is getting far more than they're worth, and we still have at least two duds in the squad. I'm very disappointed by the way things have gone in the past four weeks or so. I agree that I've seen no evidence of increased resources in the football department. The coaching staff is unchanged isn't it? One thing that concerns me is this: ”First and foremost the person who decides who plays for us is coach John Aloisi,” Munn said. ”He is the one who decides if he wants a player or not. ”I have never sat down with John and directed him to sign any player. ”It has always been a case of 'we'd like to sign this player … what do you think?' ”That's how the club operates.” This isn't Garcia related really. But anyway, as an inexperienced coach, I'd be more comfortable if Aloisi concentrated just on coaching. He needs to decide what type of players he needs in his squad. But beyond that, I think we could do better if we had experienced people dedicated to the actual scouting and deciding which players best fit the bill. JA doesn't have the runs on the board, nor does he have the time to watch a large number of potential recruits while developing as a coach. I'm sure it's currently a collaborative process with JA and JD, but sill, I think we can do better. Recruiting in soccer and AFL is different, but I think AFL clubs (although with bigger budgets) have become much more professional in the way they've expanded coaching and recruiting staff and separated them into related but different fields. Coaches, even very experienced coaches, set the parameters and then trust their recruiters to fulfill them. It's different because they have an organised underage pathway and draft, so the right balance might be a bit different for them. But I still think the principle is a good one. Professional dedicated recruiters do a better job at identifying talent than coaches. We still seem to rely mainly on JA and JD, both of whom have plenty of other responsibilities. Also, Aloisi seems to have relied to an extent on players he knows or has played with (Grella, Kewell, Macallister, Gray), or even who his brother knows. That's a pretty small and diminishing pool of potential recruits. We need to get better than that. Basically, I think we need to start seeing a bit more spending on the football department, and a bit more professionalism. I recall having a discussion about this the other week, about how this is done in the AFL and if something similar (albeit adapted) can be implemented to the A-League, more specifically the Heart. Whilst I don't follow the AFL as closely as some other forum members here, there appears to be a trend of the more successful teams being able to identify, recruit, develop and retain players better than some of the other clubs. Not only this, but they're also able to incorporate these players into the starting line-up gradually, so clubs don't have to 'bottom-out' as they once previously did in order to gain draft picks. The two best examples I can think of are Geelong and Sydney who have been consistently quite successful over the last few years without having to bottom-out. I think there is now a realisation and trend that high-order draft picks doesn't necessarily equate to success, as we've seen with Melbourne and currently Carlton, it takes more, specifically a high-functioning and efficient football and training department who can do the above, identify, recruit etc. How does this apply to Heart? Well, we do have a league with salary cap restrictions, so similar methodology may need to be employed with added investment and emphasis to the footballing department. I'm not sure what the current set-up is like and if they're maximising the most of their opportunities, but it's definitely something worthwhile looking into.

I have to admit I was less than impressed when I first heard Heart was attempting to sign Kewell and subsequently did sign him, mainly for the reasons that have already been posted on this forum. His history of reported ego, narcissism and personal agenda at the expense of the club were all character traits I thought could undermine Heart’s capacity to build a strong footballing team and club culture. In some ways I still hold concern over this. Having said that however, Kewell does bring some positives with which I can’t argue. He has brought media and fan attention to a club that needs it, has signed on minimum wage, brings with him top-level football experience and has a strong will to compete, something that was particularly lacking on-field last season. Whilst not at his peak, a proper pre-season could see him add value on the park, and that’s the key term for me value. As long as he contributes positively on and off the pitch and puts the Heart cause ahead of his own I will have no reason to hold onto any of my pre-conceived concerns, because over the last few weeks I’ve come to accept that my personal views and emotions of Kewell are inconsequential compared to the success of this football club. Besides, the fact that the visitors are upset at Heart signing Kewell and at minimum wage to boot, does endear Kewell to me a little more. I don’t usually engage in 'schadenfreude', but I’ll make an exception when it comes to the visitors.

There it is right there "the ability to make changes when things aren't going well", totally agree. I kept hearing the statistic during last year, that if the season was based only on first half performances, Heart would be on top of the table (or very close to it), meaning our second halves sucked. Not sure if this is totally true, but according to this article, Heart were the only club in the 2012/13 A-League season not to gain a single point after going behind. http://www.fromthestandsal.com/2013/04/01/heart-problems-201213-season-review/ The ability of JA to adapt to the game and scoreboard is something we all should be looking at next season.

Not a fan of F1 myself, but seeing we’re involved in the only A-League match that Sunday, I doubt the FFA and probably Foxtel will want to move the fixture to Saturday where AAMI Park would still be available. The FFA will probably say continuous coverage over the weekend is what the sport needs. What can be done perhaps is move kick-off to a more friendly time, from 5pm to 2pm or maybe even 1pm, not a huge fan of the Sunday 5pm kick-off – I dub this the graveyard shift. This more-friendly kick-off time would be more enticing for fans than the late afternoon kick-off. Also it could allow F1 patrons (some of whom may be interstate or even international) to come to the game if they wish to do so then leave for the race which begins around 5pm. If positioned properly, there’s no reason why Heart can’t leverage off this, those with tickets to race day or even the race trials from previous days are eligible for discount entry to the match. It could be a way to increase crowd attendances against the Phoenix, a fixture that typically isn’t high-drawing. This way everyone wins. Heart may potentially get an increase in crowd attendance, FFA get their match on Sunday, and Foxtel won’t have to compete with sports lovers for live coverage of football and the F1. Just an idea though.

I hear that there were 'dressing room issues' at the end of the season Wouldn't be surprised about that, I guess that's the consequence of poor results and frustrating performances culminating in not making finals. Players looking for explanations and perhaps blame. The only voice that should be heard in the dressing room at times like this is the manager's. It was a poor season last season granted, but it won't be last season that defines us. How the club responds and how JA responds next season will be the one that defines us, at least in the short term.

I agree with the end of last season. Especially with finals to play for, there was an apparent lack of intensity by the players. Not sure if this was a case of losing pride in the shirt, or confidence in each other or even JA and his game plan. A lot of this culture, I believe, is driven by the manager. In addition to tactics, formations, structure etc., there are other measures to influence team performance. Whether JA has these abilities we'll soon discover.

These points are spot on. I am hoping Heart moves away from each season being like a new "Dirty Dozen" movie where just as you get to know a player they are shown the door, and signs players to build a solid, winning culture. Alex Ferguson at Man Utd was able to do this well. As soon as a player looked to get too comfortable or deemed to challenge club culture, he moved them on e.g. Beckham. His ability to rejuvenate a squad again and again over 26 years was one of the keys to Man Utd’s success. This may be more challenging in the A-League where there is a salary cap and player restrictions, but there’s nothing stopping from introducing a club culture where playing for the club is more than just a stepping stone to advancing one’s career or playing for a pay check each week. In a ten team league where the margins are close (if Heart just won two of its’ last few games it would have reached finals), introducing a culture where players feel immense pride and engagement to the club, shirt and its’ fans (cliché I know), could very well mean the difference between making finals or not, reaching the ACL or not or even finishing on top of the table. The best thing about a strong club culture is that it’s free. In a league where there is a salary cap, it could be the best signing a club can make.