dr lime

Was thinking exactly this myself. A less dangerous Kamau. Looks skilful and like he might do something dangerous at any time... yet just doesn't. And absolutely no physical presence. Send him back. Players like this are dime a dozen at this age. Has done nothing. it seems like if you run around a fair bit Joyce loves you.

I'm really not sure. Of course he is better than JVS and we are third on the table but our playing style is fucking boring. It won't win us anything this year. I'm worried he is just a Magilton with slightly better defensive organisation. But kudos for getting rid of Cahill after all his sooking and perhaps Macca and Fornaroli can form a partnership that makes us a tad less boring. The worry is that he will want our number 9 to do more defensive work so will keep Bruno on the bench and will play Malik or Jakobsen there....

This.

Hmm. If Mauk is playing at Number 8, who is at 10? Surely Malik and Brattan are 6/8, which leaves Mauk as our nominal 10. I take your point that he seems to be there for his defensive/running donkey work. But I don't think number 10s are, or should be, judged on their defensive work. This is one of our main problems, IMHO. We have a 10 that doesn't create anything. If we had Maradona playing there I don't think we would be grizzling if he didn't track back enough. And yes, Bud is obviously no Maradona but we have seen so little of him that we don't really know what he is.

I believe it was fracture of the fibula. If fractured right through (as opposed to a crack) this needs plate/screws to hold it together which I believe was the case with Bruno. This is because the ankle becomes unstable when the fibula is completely fractured, especially if it is low down close to the joint. Hard not to have significant ligament damage as well, although it depends on how it occurred. That is, an impact from the side directly onto the bone may not affect ligaments as much but spraining your ankle so badly that it creates enough sideways force to fracture the fibula obviously creates a lot of ligament damage also. But usually some ligament damage involved in any of these. But the time it takes for surgery to put the plate/screws in, wait for the bone to heal and then take the plate/screws out again is usually more than enough for the ligaments to heal reasonably well. It's more an issue of getting the ankle functioning well again after a long period of inactivity, etc. Unlikely to be any major issues with the joint surfaces as the tibia (the other bone in the lower leg) supplies almost the entire articular/joint surface in the ankle. Fingers crossed he is back soon.

Wow. What a surprise. The bloke that knocked back a string of opportunities to come to the A League and reacted as if he was smelling dogshit every time he was asked if/when he would come to this League and only came once the FFA changed their rules to stump up some extra cash has put his own selfish (end of) career prospects ahead of the club and the local game? Geez couldn't see that coming! I know, I know , sarcasm is the lowest form of wit...

I'm really not sure. I think that he has been given so little opportunity that it's premature to just write him off. Now what he's doing at training so that he gets so few opportunities is an issue but I don't think Mauk is a Number 10's arsehole. Just a fucking donkey that can run box to box, which Joyce seems to prefer. Not saying he's a bad player , just not a Number 10. But based on Mauk's anonymity in most games and his performance in the Derby tonight I would just start Bud at Number 10 for 2-3 games. If he's shite then offload him late in the transfer window. There are piano players, piano tuners and piano movers. Mauk is a piano mover. Not sure yet if Bud is a piano tuner or piano player. I would give him a chance to play the piano. If he turns out to be a just a tuner then piss him off and find a piano player instead.

Lack of a good #10 has hampered us going forward. Mauk does good work closing down but is largely a workhorse and doesn't really create an outlet target, hold the ball up, create chances with good through balls, etc. Not sure why we are waiting so long to play Polish there. Perhaps next week.

We will Improve.. I think. Our bench tonight plus Fornaroli, Killer and Brandan would probably make the basis of a top four team.

Great win. Defending really well this year. Galekovic is a rock. Muscat was very poor tonight though. Everything dangerous from Adelaide came through him, caught in no-man's land a lot and is still too accident-prone. Would like to see Schenkeveld at right back and Jakobsen back in the centre of defense once Jamo is over his injury. Other than that, very happy. They had some half chances and Eugene was very good but we also created the best chance of the second half, Mauk should have scored. The Malik yellows were two of the softest ones ever and Bruce's at the end was even worse:, he cleared the ball, Adelaide guy got him late and a yellow to Bruce!! Ref was poor in that regard. But happy with the three points! Would love to beat Sydney in the battle of the two boring defensive teams ...

What a relief it is to have a keeper who is unobtrusive, capable and no frills and just saves/catches what he should, organises the defence and is still sharp enough to read the game and make the odd good save. Of course we have defended better overall, which helps, but at least some of that is down to him. Just hope he doesn't get injured or sent off, although I don't think Wazza is a JVS/Valkinis i.e. not stupid enough to make a decision along the lines of the Sorensen benching debacle.

Solid defensive performance, if uninspiring. But very happy with the 3 points, especially to stick it up Aloisi. Some random thoughts My initial impression was that, without Fornaroli there seemed to be no enthusiasm on the pitch, just going through the motions... reminded me of the Socceroos, slow ball movement and no ability to get past people. But got better. Just wonder how bad Brisbane are, they looked like they could play for 3 weeks without scoring. Hopefully that's our good defensive set up rather than their lack of quality. Eugene's distribution is nearly worse then Boutsianis' but I liked his calmness and organisation at the back. Glad he has relegated Boutsa to the bench. Mauk's workrate is admirable but as a Number 10 has no creativity. Is a harder working Caceres with less skill and I wasn't Caceres' biggest fan. Hopefully Budzy fills that role from now on. McCormack will be good, made a lot of good runs that others weren't clever enough to see. Has to lose a few pies but should get better as he gets to know the players. Will be interested to see how him and Cahill can work together. McCormack seemed to be more effective late in the game when he got tired and started coming deeper, playing almost as a number 10. Perhaps Cahil can play high with Macca just in behind. Although having said that, based on one game, seems to be a "run away from the ball asking for it over the top" kind of number 9 rather than a target man. Jacobsen at LB? Actually he was okay but not sure I'd like to have him there regularly. Will get done for pace a bit too often I reckon. But much better than anyone we had there last season. Schenkeveld looked to me to be more of a RB than CB in playing style so hopefully will go there when Jamo starts and Jaco comes to CB. Although Muscat wasn't too bad, just don't trust him and Schenk looks classy. I like it when Malik plays it simple in defensive midfield. Did that last night and looked good. If only he would keep doing that, which he never does. Brattan is also much better playing deeper. He was great there for Brisbane in their Championship years as a young kid and looked like that again last night. Forget about playing him higher. But I am quietly optimistic as we could field a quality side with players that were missing or started on the bench.

Agree with most sentiments here. I have been grumpy with Ange but he has been very good for us. The playing stocks are very very poor though. Even so, my worry is that Ange rates them more highly than he should. Despite our very large patches of poor form, you hear players and Ange talking as if we have dominated all matches. I was very very scared when they were talking about "winning in Japan". That one tactical blunder has cost us. Why not go to Japan, sit back and play on the counter and get a draw? We were always going to beat Thailand at home, just not guaranteed of beating them by plenty. So you get a cynical point away in Japan and destiny is on your own hands. Misty-eyed schoolboy optimism and a basic inability to tailor tactics JUST ONCE to suit the circumstances cost us.

Have struggled to score all campaign outside of goalkeeping errors. Why would that change now? Rogic hanging onto it too much, take Cahill off and bring someone sharper on, he's cooked at this level. Degenek and Wright: Dumb and Dumber. We will win but not sure if we will get more than a couple. Hope I'm wrong.

Do we really think we can score enough goals to get us to the World Cup? I suspect the Saudis will probably drop their bundle and fail to win against Japan. But as we are playing first and they will know what they need to do, I'm not confident we will be able to score at least a 3-goal win to get past them if they win by a single goal. Our recent form in official games suggests we are hopeless in open play: World Cup qualifiers v Iran home (W2-0): Luongo -open play, Juric-from a corner v UAE away (W 1-0): Cahill-last gasp winner from open play when we could easily have lost. v Saudis away (2-2): Sainsbury -from a corner, Juric- from open play; could easily have lost this one. v Japan home (1-1): penalty v Thailand away (2-2): 2 penalties v Iraq away: (1-1): Leckie from a corner (should have lost, keeper was great for us) v UAE home (2-0): Irvine from a corner; Leckie from a corner v Saudis home (3-2): Juric from open play (GK blunder); Juric-open play header; Rogic-open play (GK should have done better, wasn't exactly in the "top corner"). v Japan away (0-2). Confeds Cup v Germany: Rogic from open play (GK should have saved it); Juric a tap in after GK just dropped it from a set piece. v Cameroon: penalty v Chile:: Troisi from open play after a poor GK clearance. So, the tally: total goals: 18 from 12 matches; goals from penalties:4 ; goals from corners:5; goals resulting from poor opposition goalkeeping: 5; "remaining" goals from open play: 3 So, what this tells me is: we need the Thai Goalkeeper to have a nightmare Don't shoot when we get in the box, just dive and try to get a penalty. need to forget about trying to cross the ball in from advanced positions, just play for a corner Juric must play as he's the only guy likely to score from open play. Okay, this is tongue in cheek, but we really have been very very poor in the past year. Ange's "possession" game has turned into "try and keep the ball and do fuck all with it, but make sure you move it around very, very slowly". To be honest we haven't even done that very well! Not sure why we thought we had to "go for the win" in Japan when we have never done it before and a point would have been very very valuable, leaving our destiny in our own hands. 3 at the back away from home? Madness! Athough I understand why he doesn't want to play with traditional full backs when you have Smith, Degenek, Behic, Bayley Wright etc. to choose from: all of them defensive dunces. As I said, I think the Saudis are a bit weak mentally and probably won't be able to beat Japan anyway, especially if we can win by a couple of goals and put some pressure on them. Which, if we can't do against the bottom side in the group, well what right do we have to be going to the World Cup anyway? Hopeful but pessimistic all at the same time. But overall just depressed at how shit we have been for the whole campaign. Even the games we won we were very very poor for at least half of each game. If we don't get to the World Cup, keep Mooy, Irvine, Luongo, Sainsbury, Spiranovic and the keepers and fuck everyone else off and play the Under 21 squad for the next 4 years. Okay, keep Leckie as well, he has the touch of an elephant and the decision making of a cretin but can scare Asian opponents with his strength and running power and does score from corners.Sigh...

I blame "The Curse of the Green Socks". Need to get back to "traditional values" ... Gold/Green/white - the strip that won us the Asian Cup!

How bad do the Socceroos look with the green socks? No surprise that we have been playing shithouse since the green socks arrived. Have to get back to the gold shirt/green shorts/white socks... simple!

I wish I could say I was surprised. Been listening to the fuckwits on Channel 9 saying "we have goals in us". Really?!! During the Qualifiers, go back and have a look at how many goals we have scored in open play that weren't opposition goalkeeper blunders? We score from the occasional penalty and corner but other than that, goals have been very very few and far between. Which is why we are now two goals behind the Saudis. So if they can beat Japan we need to win at least 3-0 against a team that we couldn't beat last time around. On paper we should beat Thailand easily but in attack we are useless. Our form for 70% or more of the qualifiers has been very very poor with only a bit of luck and the occasional bit of individual good play saving us. Not confident that we can do anything meaningful even if we scrape our way through to get to the World Cup. The worst of it is that we are so fucking BORING to watch. I haven't missed a World Cup qualifier in Melbourne for more than 40 years (and only missed one other Socceroos game in that time-couldn't bring myself to go to a Paraguay friendly after the Iran debacle in 97) but won't be going on Tuesday. Wouldn't cross the road to watch these boring twats play at the moment.

I am very worried about the Japan game. We have played very poorly for most of our past 5-6 qualifiers despite getting some (pretty undeserved) results at home. I was becoming annoyed at Ange but I think now that we are only as good as our players, who are generally not really at a reasonable international standard. What has really worried me is our lack of pace, which has been quite obvious in the past few qualifiers against ordinary opposition. Our players with decent pace (Smith, Leckie) have very poor skills and decision making for this level, but our better ball players (Mooy, Jedinak, Rogic) are not overly quick. The only way we score is via set pieces or opposition blunders because we can't beat anyone 1v1 due to a lack of pace. Which is why Kruse has to play, although his crossing is ordinary at least he gets past people. Glad Spiranovic is back, hope he plays because we have have little class at the back, although Sainsbury is pretty good defensively. Our fullbacks are very very ordinary. Degenek is a hack and choosing between Behich and Smith on the left is Sophie's Choice. Rogic could be a great player but is the laziest guy I have seen at international level for many years. Would not rely on him digging in and producing when things get tough, he was hopeless against the Japanese at home. Which means if Mooy is marked out of the game we are relying on.... Irvine or....... Luongo to crack open defences. Hmmm. Hoping that the Confed cup has raised our level a bit but I'm not confident.

Haha. That's what happens when you don't read the Forum for a while. Of course my memory has now kicked in after the fact. Whoops! Funny, now that I remember he's gone I'm starting to miss him....

Squad player. Becomes invisible when we go behind or if the game is going against us. If he is our starting #10 we are in trouble.

Happy he didn't sign. He is one of those archetypical softcocks that plays well when the team is playing well but goes missing when things get tough. We have a few too many of those types already...

Thought he was very serviceable as a fullback apart from lacking an extra yard of pace to be able to keep up with the really quick wingers. Given that he is nominally a number 6 he did well there and was more than serviceable when given the opportunity in midfield. . But if he couldn't get much of a run when Rose, Franjic and Muscat were generally playing like useless pricks at full back this season then it is no surprise he could read the writing on the wall and is looking elsewhere. Good luck to him. Always gave his best for us so hope he does well elsewhere.

Exactly

Another chapter of the "not really his fault but nowhere to be seen for the goals" and "look at how stylish I look kicking it long... oh it went to the opposition" Bouzanis performance. Having said that, a typical gutless performance from the midfield. As soon as things get a bit tough they all go missing. No Jakobsen, no Kilkenny, no Fernando = our soft underbelly exposed. Although given Muscat's previous form at Centre Back, why would you play him there against Sydney? He is psychologically shot. Was always likely to commit another brain fade. Valkanis is a sycophantic Assistant at best.