The Aardvark

Lol since when has PK winning stopped criticism? As others have mentioned our form has made it hard to include him as a starting member (and going down to 10 killed his chances against Brisbane) but if an opportunity comes up to move abroad even as a bench player it would be hard for him to turn down on the basis of banking gametime here.

Voting closed for the Brisbane game, understandably a lower amount of votes given out considering the forum was down for most of the important days. Leckie was best performed with 8 votes receiving votes from all but 2 posters. Maclaren and Lam both scored 5 votes, Jamieson managed 2 and Talbot had another week where he snagged one. 2 votes to Leckie, 0.5 each to Maclaren and Lam Leaderboard after Round 1: 2. Valon Berisha 2. Matthew Leckie 1. Tom Glover 0.5. Thomas Lam 0.5. Jamie Maclaren

Thoughts on the Tilio predicament? In the Socceroo squad but can't get more than a mid-late sub appearance for us. Was his one minute appearance last week a bit of a show of power by PK or just what circumstances dictated? Should we be cramming him into our midfield instead of Gomulka/VDV? Should he be replacing one of the wings? Should he be looking for a move elsewhere in the league or even overseas? Kisnorbo has doubled down obviously declaring that he isn't gonna play him if it isn't the best thing for us, but what does that mean for him? He's fighting for a World Cup spot and is not being given a lot to work with.

VDV surely takes Gomulkas spot. I assume he is our first choice there anyway and just wasnt quite fit enough to start the first game.

Awkward timing for this with the forum going down. Round 1 saw 15 sets of votes handed out with Berisha winning the field with 22 and scoring at least a vote from all but 2 voters. Glover managed to hold off Leckie in a pleasing return to form with 13 votes. Leckie matched his number with 7, while on debut both Talbot and Lam earned mentions with 1 vote each. 2 votes to Berisha, 1 to Glover. Leaderboard after Round 1: 2. Valon Berisha 1. Tom Glover Votes for the Brisbane clash below please. I'm having a hard time remembering it, gonna go with 2 for Maclaren and 1 for Leckie

Any interest in doing a best player award this season? Can keep it all contained in this thread. Each game can vote for two players, one gets 2 votes the other 1. An extra player hopefully means the love is shared around a little more. Voting closes day before the next game or a week after the game, whichever is earliest. For the Western Utd game my votes are: 2. V. Berisha 1. M. Leckie

Really happy with that. Berisha looked great and very dangerous. Thought Leckie was very good and influential. Jamieson is actually a pretty handy CB, although helps we were up against a very small attack. Talbot was lively on the right and reminded me a little of Atkinson, while aesthetically looking like a face merge of JMac and Leckie. Usual lack of subs from PK, and Tilio was mostly unsighted except for two very good opportunities, one of which should have been a red to Lacroix. Also pleasing to see Glover have a good game and he would've deserved a clean sheet.

Lol. They released the squad yesterday, and have already had three players withdraw and one player come in who wasn't named in the squad? This league is terrible at giving supporters information. Also Tilio bench behind Bos?

The only notable absentee is Raphael. Good to have the full squad to choose from.

Again I have my doubts as well and he comes across as a very stubborn manager. In the past Momboarts has seemed to help in a mentoring role, and Des Buckingham seemed to give him a good influence on the bench. Whether we can replicate that with another appointment I don't know, but definitely the club should be trying to address his many weaknesses. It is delicate because he has accomplished so much already that it must be difficult to put someone in place to fix his bad areas and get buy in from him.

Hopefully this leads to a touch more gametime for Connor. They aren't a heavy possession team through the midfield but in this 10ish minute stint it's probably the most involved I've seen Metcalfe in possession with St Pauli so far. It's a very good step forward at least in putting his name in the mix for an earlier substitution or as someone you can put on when chasing a game like what happened this week.

I understand the frustration with PK, I share all the forums concerns, but realistically the discussion should be around how can the club make him better rather than how soon can we sack him. He has had two full seasons for two Championships and one Premiership (or is it the other way around), I know the signs are there but no club is gonna be sceptical about a coach with that track record regardless of how good a position his predecessor left the club in. Calling him incompetent is clearly wrong, he would be one of the most successful managers in the league ever already and results should always trump any general feeling that they are undeserved.

Not the most impressed looking bunch

Have been wanting to find another club to support for a while, and after a few attempts with the EPL and briefly Bundesliga feel like I've actually got one with St Pauli. For a pretty reasonable fee you can watch full replays on their website of every game, so I've just been avoiding the results and watching them the following day (English commentary too, except the bloke that does it is horrendous and says "Boys in Brown" at least twice a minute which is infuriating). Sundays performance was much better than his first showing for Metcalfe. His first game he basically only touched the ball in aerial battles from goal kicks and spillages, Sunday he actually got to get in attacking positions and receive passes (and really should've scored). They're a pretty good side so no issues with him not having broken through yet, and the fact he has been on the bench in every game and is someone they seem to be trying to sub on bodes well. He is facing some good competition in the midfield, and unfortunately the mids all seem to have big engines and are rarely subbed off which makes it harder for him, even on Sunday he was brought on for a striker. There'll be an injury at some point though and I'd expect he is first in line for two of the midfield spots though so I guess he just needs to take that opportunity when it comes.

I watched the whole game. St Pauli's keeper was terrible, I think I'd back in Matthew Sutton to put in just as good a performance.

Birrighitti Vacant Hughes Gray Vacant Meeuwis Koren Budzinski O'Halloran Cabrera Pucciarelli All somewhat hyped signings, mostly with big expectations (possibly three designated players in there, one "star" GK, some talked up wingers), and all barely played even when fit (and only Hughes was consistently injured of this lot).

Gomulka has played the Metcalfe role when used, especially lately as a sub. Metcalfe dropping back has worked well previously whenever O'Neill has been unavailable and allows us to get Tilio on which is usually a good thing.

How the fuck did we not concede. The non goal, Davilax2 straight at Glover, Ruhs stepping on the ball, Gomulka goalline clearance. Really impressive display. Happy with Gomulka and O'Neill in the midfield. No idea why we would start Stokes over Hall, the latter is great. Leckie changed that game and we were dominant for most of the second half until we got to the end.

All over them here. Need to put another away.

Hall for Stokes and Leckie for Raphael. Two good subs. Sure they're obvious, but good to see PK actually make them ,

Stokes is 100% gonna get another yellow. Take him off and push jenkinson wide with Hall in the middle.

Looks like Jenkinson is playing CB and Stokes staying at RB, which explains that change as I would've picked Hall over Stokes for the CB position. Excited to see Raphael get a start in a good lineup, think he offers something different to our other wingers.

I think we'd all agree that Tilio needs another season to consolidate in the A-League befire moving on, and certainly has the taleent to play at a higher level. How do we get him that gametime though? Nabbout and Leckie are both locked in starters for the next few years. So is Tilio constrained to the bench still unless these guys are injured? He has been decent in the CM role, can he take Metcalfes spot and does that work considering Metcalfe does a lot more defensive grunt work than Tilio in the centre?

Has really struggled to get going this season. Whether the lack of gametime is the cause or not it's definitely not helping him demand more.

Again what is the point of signing Endoh if he can't game a game when 4 attacking Socceroos come out?