fensaddler

Two things can be true at the same time. Mustafa Amini is an evil little troll who does this every match and usually gets away with it. Referees need to get wiser and punish players like him. And also Arslan should know better and not react in such a way that we lose him for a month or more. He's arguably our best player and certainly the creative pivot of our midfield. He has badly damaged us in an already trying season.

He was being wound up all night by that evil little troll Amini. Who should have been sent off much earlier.

Talbot is injured, which is why Politidis starts, apparently. We are very tight on full back resources just now...

Politidis gets a start. Be interesting to see how he goes.

First chance to see Jeggo. Leckie back in the squad and Nabbout must be close to starting. Lots to watch for. And Cola playing against his childhood team.

He'll be hungry and up for it. On his own he could turn Macca's form around as well.

Indeed. But I suspect has to be addressed for the moment with the squad we already have.

Whatever the weakness, I suspect we address that at the end of season and not now. Reasoning is this. Behich is at present planning to come back next season, so any cover for him is likely to be a loan. No loanee is going to walk into an established dressing room and be, or be expected to be, the leader in the room or on the pitch. They can provide experience and attitude, but they won't be captain or the informal leader of the group. And I doubt we've got cap space for a permanent signing of a really big fish.

Fire in the hole!

I suspect we also don't know how long this has been in the works with Behich. There will be lots of irons in the fire this time of year, and Behich going may just have been one piece in a complex jigsaw that allows other stuff to happen. I'd rather be optimistic as it's better than being miserable, and there's enough in the world to be stressed about already.

The financial logic is that CFG have set us up to deliver a return on investment at least enough to justify their investment in the club. So like any small but well run club we develop and sell on to generate revenue. Tilio, O'Neill, Bos etc are all proof of that strategy. The fee for loaning Aziz is bigger than the sale of each of those players, and yet we retain his registration. However tough for us as fans to lose him it's a no brainer in business terms, especially given the financial strife the ALM is in. And we may well have been stiffed over Sakhi as well. So no issues. Not happy to lose him, but understand.

Gutted to lose Behich on so many levels but yes the financial logic is obvious. Fingers crossed for incoming. It's been a bit of a season for low blows and unexpected setbacks but let's see how we roll. You don't always win in this game and we've got to hang in there. We're not Victory fans. We don't evaporate as soon as it gets a bit tough, even if we grumble.

That's a real kick in the nads. Thought we'd got a club hero back for the rest of his career, so apart from the loss of one of our very best players, that's a bit of the heart and soul of the club that has just walked out. Also feels like no one really wants to be here, and I worry that things are far from good behind the scenes. Gutted. Season is a car crash.

We are indeed well and truly forked.

And now Sakhi is gone. We are utterly buggered.

Complete perfect storm this season. Loss of established players, a slew of injuries, a couple of iffy signings and now this. Did somebody walk under a ladder with a black cat?

And he hasn't played there either...

Love it.

https://twitter.com/scout_aussie/status/1747542833115046335?t=anCuCCfy1i1aJlq0Thn_pw&s=19 Jamie leaving??

The best A League sides, such as ours last season, would be competitive in League 1. The lesser clubs would be mid to lower table. But nearly all would be better than League 2, which on the basis of the match I attended back September, is pretty poor. A League is better than a lot of people here think.

I love it that my support, and that of my mates, all supporters since the Heart days, might be considered disposable. We live anywhere from Colac over to the Bellarine. We're not going to make it regularly, if at all, if the club moves.

Re Natel. I suspect if the Tilio signing has legs, we may have to make space in the budget. Natel might be the one that goes to make space. To me he's inconsistent and not a game changer unless he has space. Looks good when things are going well.

We were much better in the second half, especially after Nabbout came on and we reshuffled the midfield. Could have got something out of that.

Just about to post the same. Our player of the match. Has been brilliant.

This formation isn't working. Ball isn't sticking up front and we've got no cutting edge. None of our front three is effective and the mix is wrong in midfield.