Jacques Le Cube

I'm a bit surprised he was given a 3 year deal. That's quite a commitment to a player who is untried at this level but is already 25. It will be very interesting to see how he performs

Isn't it 1 goal scored from open play in 6 games?

When a City player has the ball they don't know where any of their team mates are positioned or where they are moving to because have no system for when we have the ball. The player looks up, doesn't see any obvious options in front of them, waits for someone to move for them but no one does and then goes sideways or backwards.

No need, I can answer that one for you. We are not getting a stadium.

When He first got the job he was interviewed on RSN: Harford (host): The position; Do you apply for these types of positions or do the City Group come looking for you? Joyce: Ummm . . . theres a bit of both really. You know, obviously, I've known Brian Marwood for a long time, um, from football in varying jobs and varying times. Source: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=106223 Lavicka won the double in his first season at Sydney. Well we don't have a game plan for when we have possession of the ball. Is this the players fault too? And while I'm on a roll, he doesn't make tactical changes, he makes personnel changes. Isn't it strange how we are able to keep possession of the ball and move it forward when the likes of Carrusca, Brattan, Budzinski and Kilkenny are on the field late in games.

From what I can see, as long as Fat Ross is starting, Mauk will start with him. We need someone up front to run their guts out to make up for Fat Ross waddling about and not putting on any defensive pressure. Budz doesn't seem to be particularly athletic and Carrusca is getting old, has had a few injuries in the last couple of years and never had a big engine to begin with. Of course, if we had more players further up the field, our attacking players would be able to share the load a bit more. And I don't mean to shit on Celo and Ross, they are fine players but not workhorses. Brisbane have set up so Maccarone barely has to run but the way we have set up requires our attackers to run a lot.

FFV has loaded up with 'old soccer' types with links to South Melbourne. For a while now its been rumoured that FFV is going all out to get South in the A League. My best guess is that the FFV see a new look FFA as the most likely option to get South into the national competition.

I think it would be less shit if the FFA/Foxtel coughed up the cash and put some cameras on the far side of the ground. Last night, the cameras view of the handball was obscured by Mills' body. Its really hard to overturn a decision when the replay can't clearly show the incident.

https://soundcloud.com/fnr_footballnationradio/fnr_football-football-extra-25-october-2017-archie-fraser If you get a chance, have a listen to this interview with former head of the A-League Archie Fraser. He goes into great depth with his struggles and frustrations with the FFA whilst trying to improve the league. He compares it to his extensive experience in the corporate world and the AFL. It is fascinating stuff.

I've been wondering if there is something going on behind the scenes with Killa. I don't think he has appeared since the Sydney game where he remonstrated publicly with our coaches. Surely he would be the first player picked.

The thing is, we never actually played beautiful football. This forum spent most of last season complaining about a lack of creativity and a reliance on set pieces to score, not just our poor defence. And while we didn't concede against roar they cut us open several times in the first 30. Our defensive effort was great but the organization was poor. Our pressing was uncoordinated and chaotic, leaving massive gaps off the ball and free opponents in the centre of the park. If we were playing against an actual football team we would've been destroyed. We have always had talented players but we have always been disorganized. When we come up against well coached teams we struggle and have no mechanisms to combat our opponent's system. How many times have we complained about city players who performed better at their other A-League clubs? It shouldn't be a discussion about an attacking philosophy vs defensive philosophy. Nor should it be a discussion about ideology vs pragmatism. It should be about a poorly coached team that relies on individual brilliance to compete with teams with far less talent (and far smaller wages on and off the field).

Adelaide did. Croc media radio stream: https://tunein.com/radio/Radio-2SM-1269-s7643/

Stefan Mauk interview with Francis Leach on SEN. Interesting comments on JVS. https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=145909

1. SFC 2. AU 3. WSW 4. MV 5. PG 6. WP 7. MC 8. CCM 9. BR 10. NJ Champion - Adelaide (ACL to take its toll on Sydney) Golden Boot Winner - Berisha (Lots of penalties) First coach sacked - Merrick (only because Aloisi has recently signed a 3 year extension) Bold Prediction - Rhys Williams to play for the Socceroos in the next 12 months Sum up City's season and finishing position - We will look very dangerous when our forwards have the ball in our attacking third. We will have difficulty getting the ball to our forwards in our attacking third. Our midfield will struggle to protect our defence.

Did anyone hear Wazza's interview on RSN yesterday? For some reason the interview wasn't uploaded to the RSN website.

We are averaging 2.25 goals conceded per match against A-League opposition this pre-season. We also conceded 2 goals against Hakoah.

Broich and Berisha left B2 for Australia and spent the primes of their careers here. Andy Keogh came straight from the championship to Australia when he was still in his 20s. Bort and Wout Brama are both in their prime and have come to Australia straight from the Eredivise. Xavi Torres is only 30 and has come straight out of La Liga to Australia. I could go on...

And our players hamstrings. I think Galekovic, La Rocca, Jakobsen, Brattan, Malik and Mauk have all missed pre season games. We know Malik had a thigh strain, I wonder how many others have had soft tissue injuries that could be attributed to Joyce's training 'methods'. We have an old English coach doesn't like sport science or video analysis and his instructions to players only concern effort. It seems we have ourselves an old-school, bona fide, lower-league hoofball merchant from the dark ages.

https://soundcloud.com/sbstheworldgame/breakdown-of-australias-loss-to-japan-and-what-it-means From the 53 minute mark they spend 10 minutes talking about youth development. Foz has some great insight from dealing with families of current Socceroos when they were juniors and also from being a coach at Football NSW. Fwiw I am also for implementing the 3+1 import rule.

For the last 2 seasons we have we have won the yellow card count and the total bookings for each season. Kilkenny and Brandan are 2 of the most cynical players in the league. The likes of Franjic, Muscat, Jakobsen, Bouzanis, Fornaroli and Fitzgerald never take a backwards step. Hell, even Luke Brattan seems to pick a fight with an opponent every match. We have had mongrel and fight (and individual brilliance) for years but we consistently get out coached by opponents. We have no tricks up our sleeve other than blind effort.

@bt50 I admire your unwavering optimism but to my eye there is no way LaRocca, Brattan, Fitzgerald are anywhere near the level of Buijs, O'Neill, Brosque. And yeah, LaRocca has won the ACL but so have Haliti, Shannon Cole and Daniel Mullen. For mine the real danger this season is the Wanderers, their squad is ridiculous.

He is the last player I expected us to sign. Some people may have forgotten how well he played the season before last. Here he is making a great run and neatly finishing THAT pass from Mooy against Victory: And here is the diving header from a Ben Garrucio cross in the next derby: Here is his great goal against Newcastle, he wins a tackle, beats his man, plays 2 wall passes and scores. And here he is for Adelaide cutting through the centre of the CCM defence and scoring:

I think most people agree, but we already have 2 'squaddie' centre backs in Malik and Tongyik which suggests that La Rocca will be first choice and a lot of us find that disappointing. La Rocca is not in the same class as the centre backs of our rivals (Wilkinson, Buijs, North, De Vere, Williams etc.) Also, its not like our squad lacks experienced players I'd actually be happy if we signed players AND coaches who are at a similar level to those in the top half of the league.

Technically Jamo is ex-Adelaide as well, and is old mates with Petrillo: Jamieson made his A-League name with Adelaide, having joined the club as a teenager when he returned from a stint at then English Premier League club Bolton Wanderers. He has had a long-standing friendship with City's recruitment boss Michael Petrillo, so that made it a simple decision when he opted to return to Australia from his Swedish club, IFK Gothenburg, for family reasons. http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/melbourne-city-new-boys-look-to-make-immediate-mark-as-warren-joyce-assesses-options-20170704-gx4k4l.html I think that makes it 6 players and an assistant coach from Adelaide in less than 2 years since Petrillo took over.