AzureKingfisher

City member living in Sydney and managed to get a ticket to the semi final and grand final (hoping we make that one!) Excited to see live football! Any other City ‘expats’ living here?

I agree the signings of Koren and Colazo turned out to be mistakes...I'm just arguing this would be yet another one.

This gives me hope he won't sign with us. I mean why, when we have a marquee spot available, would we use it on someone who isn't quite good enough to command a marquee spot? He would have been a good signing when the rules mandated one marquee spot for an Australian player. But when City have such an extensive worldwide scouting network and the possibility of signing any player in the world who would want to play for us, why would we look to Troisi? The guy who Victory weren't convinced of as a marquee? To me, the most depressing thing to come out of this is that Troisi was nearly given our second marquee spot. I'm concerned that City have really lowered their sights and spending this season, and this signing would have been the clearest indication of that yet. Remember when we were mentioned with the likes of Villa and Lampard?

Everyone in the media seems to want City to take on the burden of bringing Cahill to the a-league...how many of the media are City fans? Fact is that I can only see this being detrimental to the performance of the team. Knowing our luck, could be Josh Kennedy 2.0. The media know this! If City are sensible they'll prioritise building a winning team, trying to find the next Bruno, over bringing in an over-aged player who certain won't be worth his wages in footballing terms. You build crowds by winning...have we not learnt our lesson from the Villa debacle??

Can't believe we lost this game. Mathew Ryan was simply outstanding - future Socceroo in my opinion!

I guess the best thing about a home final is that we can't hide behind any lame excuses...going to Perth would have been met in the media by the typical "it's tough over there" statements in the paper and from JvS. If we lose it's entirely because we're damn well not good enough and deserved to, just like we did in Perth.

Last night, with a limp 2-0 defeat at home to Adelaide, we waved away our season and any genuine hope we had for silverware. What a difference two weeks makes in football. If there’s one big thing I’ve learnt about this club over the years it is this: never, EVER, believe the hype. We are the definition of flattering to deceive. It doesn’t matter how many excited City fans call up SEN in jubilation after a good home win. It doesn’t matter how many articles appear in the Age or the Herald Sun talking up our chances of silverware after we beat Wellington or the Central Coast. It doesn’t matter if we have a stretch of two or three weeks where we look virtually unbeatable, and our next game is season-defining. It won’t last. There is only one time I will ever, truly, believe in this club’s chances at the bottom of my heart. That moment is precisely when the final whistle has sounded in a grand final and we have secured a championship. Nothing short of that will convince me and doubtless many others of our long-suffering supporters that we are the real deal. I should have known better when I stared at the table with joy over coffee the Tuesday morning after the Wellington win eleven days ago. I should have reminded myself that we still have John Van’t Schip at the helm, that nothing is won in Round 25, and that we can and will always find a way to blow it. I feel like a fool. I’d suggest to all of our players – every single one – that they take this same advice: never believe the hype. When I saw every single Perth player last week winning every one-on-one battle, fighting tooth and nail for their manager, their fans, their club, their city and their state…I could only stand back and admire. Because no money, extensive scouting network, training facility, marquee fund or player CVs can buy that. Only a strong manager, a professional environment and a club culture of accountability and responsibility from the players to fight TOGETHER in every game can achieve this. I’d like to congratulate our fans and especially the Melburnians for their fantastic support and noise throughout the season. While we were pissing our season up a wall on the pitch, the fans put on a real display last night. If our players matched your passion for this club, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. All of this last week we were reminded by the players to show up in big numbers for this crucial game. That, we did. It’s a shame they forgot to. Still, I continue to dream. One day, I imagine us being a TEAM of fighters, as Adelaide and Perth are, together as one, ready to give their all for the badge. I imagine us with a real manager at the helm – someone with the ability to motivate a team to work as a unit, who will stand up when the chips are down, who will fight together with their players for the fans, and who will make us greater than the sum of our parts. One day, perhaps, our time will come, and we can look back over these lessons and wonder why it took so long.

I thought Perth were absolutely brilliant tonight. What a team, at least at home! Kenny Lowe had our game-plan down to a tee, and if it weren't for their sloppiness near the end I would have assessed it as a perfect performance. With 14000 raucous home fans behind them and the energy and confidence they have, there was no way they were dropping points in this game. They're a bunch of fighters with a couple of real flair players and we had no answer. A disappointing result and performance, certainly, but we can't throw in the towel. This is probably the toughest fixture in the league at the moment, and we still managed a couple of goals. It looks unlikely but I'm still positive we can snare a top-two finish. If that happens, nobody will want to come to AAMI for a semi final. I feel if we finish outside the top two, however, it's probably curtains for our championship hopes. Western Sydney, Perth and Adelaide strike me as teams that can win away from home in a big game, but us and Brisbane are really reliant on finish top 2 to have a genuine chance. I feel that WSW are too professional to drop points in Wellington, meaning that we'll have to be raucous Victory supporters on Saturday night if we managed a win on Friday.

Thank you all for the feedback and taking the time to read - it is greatly valued! I might try my hand at a few more casual articles/posts, perhaps on the Fox Sports crowd, and see if I get into it properly. Then I'll consider all options/suggestions made

Fellow fans! I'm thinking of starting a Melbourne City-centric (and totally non-profit!) fan blog in my spare time. I want to do this as a hobby (because of my passion for the club!) and also because I've felt that City fans are generally starved of in-depth material and reading during the week and off season (apart from newspaper articles and general blogs like The Roar). I'm not especially bothered by views or traffic yet as it's just a hobby and anything would be a bonus. But if you have time (can totally understand if you don't as it's long!) I'd really appreciate if you could read the following sample post and tell me if it's any good and whether this is an idea worth pursuing. Let me know if it's something you'd potentially read! Thanks heaps Malik for Mauk – a good trade-off for Melbourne City? The early signs suggest that all parties have benefited from this January deal In January, many Melbourne City fans were disappointed to hear that it was Stefan Mauk, not David Williams (as earlier reports had suggested), who would be making his way to Adelaide United in a swap deal that would see Osama Malik arrive at City. Though highly-paid Williams had been a fine servant to the club in years gone by, his contribution to the first team was steadily declining following the City Football Group takeover and the subsequent emergence of Harry Novillo and Bruno Fornaroli as key attacking weapons. Mauk, on the other hand, was having his best season yet, impressing City fans with his direct running and off-the-ball intelligence as he grew into a regular first team player with great potential. What initially seemed like a sensible deal suddenly became a controversial point of discussion among City fans. Why were we letting go of one of our most promising youngsters in return for a seemingly unfit player presently out of favour in an under-performing Adelaide United team? Suspicions that Mauk might leave the club were heightened following news in early January of contract extensions for promising youngsters Chapman, Melling, Clisby and Retre. Mauk, with only six months to run on his contract, was conspicuous in his absence. With no new contract on the horizon, the swap deal was sealed and Melbourne City announced the arrival of Malik. The response on social media from numerous City fans was rather cool, perhaps unjustly so. While it was disappointing to see Mauk leave, we were gaining a player of strong pedigree in the A-league. Only last season, Malik had been a cornerstone of the largely successful and richly re-energising era of Josep Gombau at Adelaide United. In Malik, we were gaining a versatile ball-playing defender who could operate both in central defence and as an anchor in defensive midfield. To my mind, he was exactly the kind of player we needed to add depth to our leaky defensive structure, and his ability to recycle possession and relatively elegant technique for a defensive player seemed perfectly aligned with the attacking philosophy of the club. Technical qualities such as these are very difficult to find in central defenders at this level. Additionally, he seemed a potential replacement in defensive midfield for the serviceable but ultimately disappointing Erik Paartalu. Though Paartalu was undeniably a strong contributor at set-pieces and in physical battles, and his late header in the 2014 Christmas derby will live long in the memory of all City fans, he frequently struggled to keep up with the pace of City’s short passing game. His inconsistent decision-making and positioning was an obvious flaw which he was ultimately unable to address during his 18 month stint at the club. Perhaps Malik would add important mental and technical qualities to such a crucial position in defensive midfield? As it turned out, Malik was first used by John Van’t Schip as a central defender in the ultimately ill-fated 3-5-2 formation of early 2016, horribly exposed during his first proper runout in the 4-3 defeat against Western Sydney Wanderers. Here, it was obvious that he had yet to gain chemistry or understanding with his team-mates and he was unable to adjust to an unfamiliar system. The more impulsive and impatient City fans among us were wondering what they’d got but I felt great sympathy for Malik. Here was a player who hadn’t played a full ninety minutes for months, thrown into the starting XI away to one of the very strongest A-league opponents in an unfamiliar tactical system, playing for a team which had significant pre-existing structural and defensive deficiencies. Malik needed more time to show us his best football. His best football soon arrived in the crucial 1-0 away win against his former club, Adelaide United. While the general media perception prior to this game was that Adelaide got the better end of the deal in signing Mauk, this match did much to balance out those perceptions as Malik played a nearly perfect game, making plentiful interceptions at the base of the midfield diamond and providing a solid platform for his attacking team-mates to commit forward. Arguably best on the park that night, Malik had begun to endear himself to the generally skeptical City faithful. Though he is yet to reach such heights in a subsequent match, he is beginning to grow into the defensive midfield role vacated by Paartalu. Without a doubt, he has made a contribution to our improved defensive record late in the season along with recently-arrived Socceroo Alex Wilkinson. With more games under his belt, his confidence will grow and we will soon begin to see the more technical and creative aspects of his game flourish. As for Mauk, he too has grown in confidence following the move to his home-town club, contributing crucial goals in Adelaide’s title charge with no small degree of flair. While it is a little difficult for City fans to see Mauk doing so well, Melbourne City undoubtedly improved the balance of the team in the January transfer window and we’ve become genuine championship contenders as a result.

I'm quietly confident for this game. This season, City have tended to struggle in games where not much is on the line and we're away to weaker teams (e.g. Defeats in Newcastle and Wellington). I know our squad should see those games as important, but the performance in Newcastle in particular was disgusting. In my opinion, a lack of motivation and effort was shown, and these factors should be a given for any professional club, regardless of the final result! But we've performed well in nearly all of the big games this season. The 4-3 defeat in Western Sydney is an exception but, to be honest, we were a total shambles defensively back then and the problem seems to have been addressed. We also had a very poor second half in the Christmas derby, but again that was largely to do with our previously dreadful defending as a team. Since addressing the issue we've still managed to score plenty of goals (10 in the last 4) and put together four straight wins, which is very pleasing. Perth were very unimpressive in Newcastle last weekend and were fortunate to escape with a win. While this will no doubt be a tough game, the lads are playing with enormous confidence and without fear at the moment. Nearly every player looks comfortable in possession and little has been said about the form of Fitzgerald and Zullo (both are riding a wave of confidence in my opinion). Statistically, it is very likely that we'll score at least a goal (we've only failed to once out of the 25 games I think?) so much rests on how well we can marshall Castro and Keogh. I believe it's equally likely statistically that we'll concede (being in Perth and with these two on fire!) so our best shot is probably a score draw or a 2-1 win. I believe a draw would be an excellent result. It would keep us above WSW, and mean that a home win against Adelaide would guarantee top two. The only team to worry about then would be Brisbane, who would need to take the full 6 points against Newcastle (H) and Victory (A) to finish above us. I can see Brisbane dropping points in at least one of these games (Newcastle always give them a headache at Suncorp while Brisbane have travelled poorly against top 6 teams nearly all season). The lads should be extremely fired up about this game and will give everything for the cause, with so much to play for. This is the least we can ask for and I know we have it in us to take something away from the game. Yes, Perth have been on an incredible run, but so had Adelaide when we showed up a few weeks back...

It was hard to know exactly how I felt at the full time whistle last night, but seeing the glum faces of Victory fans as we walked away from the stadium put a smile on my face. I feel truly proud to be supporting this club and eventually came away from the game feeling upbeat and positive. Firstly, the Melburnians were magnificent. It seemed like a larger contingent than usual but there was terrific noise from our end (and I was sitting reasonably central in the stadium for this match). And I think that last night was as close to a 50/50 turnout of City and Victory fans I've ever seen at a derby. Secondly, it was a magnificent moment of instant karma to see Bruno head the ball in as the smoke from the flares of idiotic Victory supporters still hung in the air. I feel proud that our Melburnians were sensible and that not a single flare came from our end, inside or outside of the ground. I can only assume that the FFA will be handing a suspended sentence of three points and a fine to the Victory. I almost feel like they deserve worse considering the publicity and focus on fan behaviour over the past week and the failure of Victory fans to learn an important lesson after the RBB incident and punishment last week. As for the football itself, it was a massive improvement from last week and the kind of team effort and spirit I demanded after that insipid effort. Despite Victory's dominance of possession for large periods, I felt we kept our shape much better than the previous 2-1 derby win and it was a better performance overall. Wilkinson was magnificent and his performance gives me great hope of a defensive improvement. The 4-3-3 system gave us a stronger shape and defensive stability but did little to improve our ability to control possession. Novillo was notably a lesser influence on the wing. Fitzgerald was full of running, had a number of skilful contributions and deserves a run in the first team to prove his worth. Malik will come good as he begins to gel more with his teammates and is given a more consistent role. Our midfield in general still needs time to gel. Caceres, Mooy and Malik are all good individual players in their own right but they have yet to form a strong understanding. On numerous occasions they were spread quite far apart or were unable to anticipate each others movement to win the second ball. Take a bow, Bruno Fornaroli. I already believe he is the best and most complete player this club has ever had and if he can sustain even 80% of his current form through to the end of the season and into next (provided we can keep hold of him!) he will soon become the a-league's greatest ever player. It is an immense privelige to be able to watch a player of his quality, week in week out, in the a-league. Just imagine if his name was David Villa but he was producing the same kinds of performances - we'd be averaging 20k at our home games! As for the incorrectly disallowed goal...I'm surprised more attention isn't being given to the fact that it was never a foul in the first place so no free kick should have been given. The refereeing overall last night was one of the worst performances I've seen by an a-league referee this season (ironically, I don't actually blame him or the linesman for missing the goal as I doubt anyone bar a couple of well-placed fans could have been certain). There was no consistency in the yellow-card decisions, and on numerous occasions our players were punished for simply holding their ground. Equally, there were numerous bizarre decisions given in our favour. We are a work in progress, certainly - progress being the operative word. On the other hand, the Victory seem to be regressing - their revered trio of Finkler, BKF and Berisha aren't getting any younger, their crowds are on the slides and their fans continue to be filled with idiots. With their upcoming ACL schedule, we have a great chance to finish above them this season and, should our trajectory continue, we may eventually be able to create a period of lasting dominance over our cross town rivals, just as City have done in Manchester. We've well and truly arrived as a formidable force this season, and Victory are hating every bit of it.

It's been a long time since I've felt this angry after a football match. For me, there was one thing that really separated the two teams today: desire. Never mind for now that we have clear and still unsolved tactical deficiencies in our team shape. Never mind for a moment that our incredibly square and over-rotated back three has no cover from midfield. Never mind that our fullbacks are not getting forward enough to attack nor tracking back enough to defend thus rendering themselves useless, and never mind that our attempts to hold possession or a clean sheet have been woeful in a majority of this season's matches. There's one thing that's far more inexcusable than all this which was abundant today and to an extent last week: a lack of effort. From the first minute, we showed up in Newcastle thinking we already had the win. We thought that Newcastle's form and our last visit (a 4-0 triumph) dictated that we must surely win. Complacency from top to bottom around the team. I was disgusted at half time already. By full time, despite the contentious sending off, we deserved every ounce of what we got. Desire is Franjic running at his opposing full back with pace and purpose as opposed to receiving the ball on the wing, slowing down the play and passing sideways. Desire is looking before playing a pass towards Sorenson rather than playing a brilliant through-ball into Trifunovic. Desire is respecting all opposition, no matter their run or recent results, and recognizing that in the A-League there are no easy games. I don't care that we lost in Newcastle. I wouldn't have cared if Newcastle played a great game, building on their performance in Adelaide and being rigid and composed in defence before countering with great effectiveness. Teams lose matches - it's part of sport, especially football. But complacency from a team that has so much to prove is, in my view, inexcusable. I'm not going to overreact yet or call for heads to roll (I don't blame anyone who wants to see the back of JvS after the last two weeks!). But I think all City fans will agree with me that a response next week, and in the coming weeks, is simply mandatory. Anything less than full application from the team is unacceptable. It probably doesn't help that I watched the personification of desire last night: Leicester City's players. It just emphasises how crucial a factor it is in games. We are so far from winning the title it's not funny. I hope our players and coach realise that a title is something to be fought for, something to be earned. No team has ever cruised to it. It's just disappointing to see this mentality from a team of relatively strong talent in the A-league.

It's not surprising that other clubs are showing an interest in Fornaroli. It was simply bound to happen. What is surprising is that I've seen so many City fans worried about the rumoured interest from Uruguay. My dad came home and it was the first thing he mentioned, with a great deal of anxiety. I'm surprised it's being so widely reported. Geez, interest is exactly that, just interest. It has no bearing on the position of the club or indeed the likelihood of a transfer (which I would say is around zero just 6 months into his contract). The club was correct to simply dismiss it and not engage with the rumour. Bruno is going absolutely nowhere, at least until the end of the season. Even then, I think it's more likely that he'll be offered and accept a vacant marquee position than him moving elsewhere. He's never had it so good in his career, and everything indicates he's happy at the club and happy in Australia. City don't need the money, as they proved with Mooy. Guys, it's not gonna happen.

What a fantastic day for Melbourne City Football Club. First, the record-breaking women get over the line in front of a great crowd in the most tense of circumstances, and then the men put on one of the best attacking displays in the a-league I've ever seen in front of a great crowd of nearly 11k (at least for 60 minutes). No amount of unfair negativity on this forum will take away from my pure and unabated enjoyment of the spectacle and the teams yesterday. Surely plenty of those fans will be coming back after that display. Before I continue about how good yesterday and how good this club is becoming, I'd first like to acknowledge: Yes, we are still a work in progress and there are weaknesses. Paartalu still can't pass or keep up with the speed of the game, we failed yet again to keep a clean sheet and who knows how we'll back up on Friday (though our record of 1 defeat since that 0-3 reversal against WSW makes me more confident than I would have been in seasons past). But show me an a-league team that doesn't have weaknesses that are equally significant (the fact we are two points off the top proves they ARE equally significant). WSW can never get the goals their dominance justifies and have a muppet for a striker/marquee, Sydney are dead-boring and their reactive style feels unsustainable, Victory still haven't convinced me they're out of their huge form slump/championship hangover, and Brisbane are starting to tail off and feel too rigid and predictable for the style of football they want to play. And we're consistently involved in the most exciting games in the league, which makes us by far the most watchable team for neutrals (and hopefully, soon they'll be neutrals converted to fans!) When I say work in progress, PROGRESS is the operative word. Let's be honest, we've been on an upward trajectory ever since the takeover. No, miracles haven't happened, and CFG have made some mistakes (Koren and Villa for starters). But it's hard to argue that the takeover has been anything but fantastic for the club. Gone are the days where we wouldn't score for 6 games or win in 17 - now we seem to score 15 goals in 6 games. The CFG recruited trio of Mooy, Novillo and Fornaroli are simply the most menacing and skilful attacking trio I've ever seen in the league (I mean this, I don't think I'm just getting overexcited - though out of these players, Novillo has probably the greatest risk of a form slump). CFG group retained Mooy after an offer that any other a-league club would gratefully accept in a heartbeat, they made a sound decision (IMO) to payout Koren which no other a-league club would have even thought of doing, and their scouting has been quite exemplary (yes, I know it hasn't been perfect but who can argue that it hasn't been successful overall?). We have genuine depth now, and I felt genuine joy to see someone of the ilk of Malik come off the bench (surely he's here to plug the weak link of Paartalu! What they've done for women's football is simply unprecedented in Australia, and they should receive nothing but praise for how they've raised the bar, regardless of how commercial their motives might be. The match itself showed improvement in our 3-5-2 structure. We still need to work on covering for the wing-backs but, when fully fit, Franjic and Zullo have the potential to be the best full/wing-back combination in the league. We have so many players who are comfortable on the ball now and that has been to our eternal benefit. One thing we need to work on is controlling the pace of the game - while lightening attacks are great, we need to work on slowing the game down and not always be too eager to get into the attacking third. Once our opposition has a spell, they seem to have a spell for at least half an hour. Calmness and slowing down of the play is an effective solution to this problem, and will also prevent us from running out of steam as we are undoubtedly tending to do. I was really impressed with Caceres' solid contribution. It wasn't spectacular, but the kid only arrived a week ago and will get much better with a few games under his belt. Despite releasing Mauk, there's no doubt we've been strengthened by this window and if we can start to get consistency and continuity in defence, we will have a genuine tilt at the championship this season.