playmaker

Well done Metcalfe great goal and great assist by Noone

Typical Smurf FFA bias. This league is a joke.

Jamo is the weakest link in our defensive chain. Good move to drop him from the team and hopefully we move him on in January.

Haven't seen it with my own eyes yet. Has done Good things on occasions, better than Metcalfe, but the bar is pretty low imo

Let them go. Not worth keeping.

Ibrahimovic to Milan. Get used to our lowly crowds. 🥺

Our defence out wide needs to be fixed. Mombaets need to realise out weaknesses and fix it. I am afraid I can't see this happening and Jamo won't be able to cope with the onslaught of Grant. Our midfield is not working and there is no wide overlap play to drag their defenders out. A lot of things need to be fixed if we are to have a chance and 70% of our problem is our tactics and positioning. 30% is Jamo, and tbh I don't know how they are going to fix this one.

And Jamo looking in the opposite direction as the ball gets released. Hopeless.

IMO the reason we play the way we do is because we have no CM. We have no CM that can take on opposition, control the ball and open up play. Hence, we have no attacking momentum developing from a neutral possession in the middle of the park, therefore forwards can't receive the ball at their feet. Metcalfe is not a midfielder, he doesn't play like one and doesn't think like one. To me he is an wide overlapping type player. So to try and compensate for this team deficiency they have Jamo making up central number which just doesn't work as he is not a midfielder is poor in all the attributes a CM should have, and it leaves a major weakness on the left side that continually gets exploited and is how we have lost games. This needs to be fixed asap. Tbh I would play Metcalfe as a wide FB and get rid of Jamo as he has been extremely poor in most facets of his game and Metcalfe just doesn't belong central.

Summary of our loss is that we got killed on our left side again and is something that every team has exploited in our losses this season, We have no CM playmaker that can open up play in the attacking transition and get the ball to our attacker's feet, Florin not being played is just a joke. We play with a high ball to small forwards which just doesnt make sense. Jamo, Mombaets, and Petrillo out Drain the swamp

Exactly, even our defenders were caught by surprise. That's the term I was looking for 'Businesslike'

The box was his all night, he commanded the defenders and took control of everything in his space. Our most solid goalkeeping performance since Thomas. Well done.

It's interesting that the only times we looked ok was when our FBs overlapped wide rather than centralise. Problem with centralised FBs is that our wings are forced wide and the midfield is forced up hence why we have no midfield territory and we go back to our defensive line. With the FB over lap our winger can cut in and we have numbers forward and central and our mids are still in position to retrieve a back pass which draws out opposition defenders and this creates space. What I am saying is that if Mombaets wants to play the long high ball as a tactic then we structurally (formation) should have a target forward with JMac and perhaps Cabrera running through the aerial contest to receive the 'knock on' It is still the same formation but with a tweek where the wide wingers become more narrow or a second striker type position. Griffiths or Delbridge could have gone up there for a little while to see if they could break the defensive block. From memory Fellaini used be used in this role on occasions

It fits JMac. He is fast and if he plays a bit deeper he can run onto the ball which suits him to a tee. The tactic will work in the system we play atm.

He is the last player I would be pointing the finger at.

I thought Galloway was the best of the worst. But again he was just part of the system that didn't work.

I happens in real life. Go and watch Italy at the Euros a couple of years ago when Pelle was feeding Eder, Insigne and Florenzi as just one example of 100s more.

When opposition use these tactics sometimes you just need to give them the ball and sit back, get them to stretch their midfield and press their FBs and then exploit the space, because trying to break a 9 player defensive block is hard to do at any level. So the manager needs to be smart. To add to the problem is the fact that we were attacking with 4 in defense and 6 players up on their defensive line, so please tell me how we could possibly stretch their defensive lines if we had no midfield and they were double marking our wings. Then as a result, the only passing option available was a high ball into their towering defenders. Absolutely hopeless and incompetent tactics. This is my biggest fear.

Post match with Mombaets https://www.a-league.com.au/video/mombaerts-xxx-press-conference-hyundai-a-league-1

If Mombaets is going to play the hoofball game then we need a tall strong target CF with passing skills to feed Jamie.

This is disputable and an overestimation IMO. I actually started head counting every section I could see because I couldn't watch the game anymore and I guesstimated 4500. I don't know where the other 2000+ were hiding.

I am also scratching my head right now. Don't know what I just witnessed. I also left at the 70th minute. There is absolutely nothing positive about what I saw for 70 minutes and I wasn't going to watch one more second of it. Absolute shambles

Mombaets pre game interview and I quote..... EM: In our style, we take some risks. In saying that, in some situations we need to be better defensively. We are continuing to work on this and we are definitely focusing on this. And EM: We never change our style. We will set up as we do normally and keep our offensive options. We know Perth will be tough and want to win but we keep our match principals. Summary Out classed Out played Out coached. Rubbish

What midfield! We play 4 in defense the rest of the team rushes forward and we have no midfield to link passes so we go long and turnover the ball. Absolute garbage tactics.

Sorry I should have elaborated. He needs to assess that he is able to do his job on the pitch. His job is to score goals. Remember that fat Scotsman that came here and destroyed the league? I do. 14 goals in 17 Appearances but let's not play him because he had a large pizza and 4 pots the night before the games.