Torn Asunder

The most dominant game I've ever seen us play. A win only soured by Archie's horrendous commentary. If the boys can keep this level of attack up and keep winning, then I guess PK can stay.

PK 'promoted' to set pieces coach City Group Asian Contingent and head motivator of the 'boys' in the gym. Des to Manager

... Dea communicates very well ... why not make PK his assistant?

Rostyn was immense. Boys looked sharp and seemed a little more assured without being micro managed from the bench. Des looks and acts the part ... makes an immense difference when JMac takes his chances

My god it's good to beat Shitney. With our team fresh, and Sydney a bit flat, we were lucky that Ninkovic needed a spell, and even more so when Bratts came off injured. With fresh legs we took compete control of the midfield, both in attack and in defence and on the counter. Caceras and Retre come back to the pack without Ninkovic taking most of the defensive focus. What worked very nicely was Florin being creative and attacking in midfield, and Nabout adding another attacking dimension that freed up Mclaren and Noone. Atkinson also looked much sharper, and Metcalfe was playing closer to, and under the direction of Griffith. He was immense. Luna was also very aggressive and had a good game. Jamo also played a lot more centrally, which helped both in an attacking and defensive sense. Despite everything going right initially, when Ninkovic came on, as others have mentioned, a bunch of our players were cooked. Florin, Metcalfe, Noone and Nabout were dropping their heads, hands on knees and Sydney quickly grabbed control of the midfield and game. PK was looking panicked on the sideline and was too busy directing his players, rather than looking to his bench, which he clearly needed to do. To his credit, moving RG into midfield did shore things up a little, but honestly we were at serious risk of dropping 2 points. A good turnaround in form to win, a great performance by the players, and just a pass by PK.

Throw a Castro, or Dimanti into our midfield, and put one of Alen Stajcic, Rudan or Ufuk in charge and I reckon we'd be killing it. I hate to say it, I just dont think PK has what it takes ... to me he lacks managerial intelligence and sophistication (even worse than JA)

Our squad is weaker in key defensive positions, the other squads seem to have improved on last year, we have no genuine no 10 playmaker, and our rookie manager is, and IMO, will never be up to the challenge ... I said it before, we need to head hunt the best Aussie manager, not try and fabricate one from scratch. We should also be aggressively targeting to sign some of these new kids comming through at lessor clubs who have great potential. With CFG as our owner, we should never languish in this league.

I posit that if Manchester City FC started the EPL season as we've started the A-League season, their would be a very different response. 2ndly would they ever put a rookie coach in charge and lessen their current squad in terms of key positions? This is what we've been treated to. Simply put, if they invested in 2 key players, a proven manager and a good youth coach, we'd be top 3 in the league without question. Instead we are racing the tards to the bottom ... they have a few key players to return (as we do), but i think their returning players are better than ours.

I avoided posting on the forum last night as my brain needed a break from the anger and disappointment after having to endure another horrible performance ... and with our club chalking up another effort of being the loser in a milestone game for an ex-player who was a constant disappointment when he played for our team. That being said, I was not surprised by how we played or the result. No doubt, as a squad we were fatigued, and the conditions looked hard to play, but that was no excuse. Firstly, to me it seemed that we went too hard early on, and with no goals for reward, we pretty much lost our energy, which allowed the Jets to then control the majority of the game. I agree fully that PKs sideline approach looks desperate. Micro management from the sidelines to that extent means the players are always looking over their shoulders,waiting for instruction, rather than being able to focus and take full responsibility for their own game and the game plan in general. Dragging the Japanese kid was not a good move, as people have rightly pointed out, when Jamo was arguably more of a liability ... it should have been that PK put a rocket up the captain, and with an instruction to sort out the issue of controlling the Hoff. Our midfield is insipid at the moment. The game plan seems to be push everything out wide for all our attacks, and only go through the centre for long balls, quick breaks or turnovers. This lack of game plan will produce chances, but it seems that all our chances will need to be a degree lucky, rather than from solid, clever and constructive team play. Look at clubs with good creative midfielders, like Castro, Diamanti and Ninkovich ... they make chances from their skill and how they bring other players into the game, and when these chances eventuate, they look more likely to score ... and often they do. Other than the odd killer ball from Luna, we are not able to consistently create threats from midfield. Given our inability to make good chances, our players become desperate, especially out wide, with NA, BG and CN being our main creative threats. But these attacks, especially when its all we've got, become predictable, and easy to defend, and when they break down, we are exposed. Throw a marquee quality midfielder into our team, along with a proven CDM, and Momberts back in the chair, and we'd be a fair chance for the title. Without this, and based on the current state of play, we're in for a season of pain. Can we turn it around under the current scenario? Maybe, and only if JMac starts putting aways a few more of his chances, although with our toothless midfield, and PK in charge, I doubt it.

I never thought when CFG did their takeover, that lack of investment in quality players and coaches would be an ongoing problem. One positive of recent is our ability to now loan out our players to other clubs. But clearly, as was mentioned before, the best of these players, and others we discard, tend to come on once they leave with much greater promise ... and this is at arguably less well off clubs ... its because their coaches are better!! Just on this pipedream that CFG has to nurture an unproven Aussie coach in the ways of CFG football, and turn them into a coach who can deliver championships ... well, in all honesty, its an absolute fallacy! As a comparison, think of any club who signs a youngster as part of their youth academy setup. Very rarely will one of these players make it to the senior 1st team ... and this is from a very large pool of kids with raw potential. In developing a coach this way, we put all our eggs in one basket, when really the chances of success are less than a million to one. Championship managers are not created in this type of environment. They must have the right attributes inbuilt as part of their personality, they must develop themselves and find their own path to success. They seek out mentors who will help them, they are obsessive in learning things for themselves and making their own decision. They are unique characters. I argue that this cannot be fabricated through CFGs current model. Our club needs to find the best young manager who already has proven themselves at some significant level. This type of manager would be able to align their ideals with CFGs style of play, but still be smart enough to know what calls need to be made based on the squad, the opponent and whatever challenge is at hand. They need to have supreme confidence in themselves and their own decisions. ... we need to find someone that already has shown their potential.

CFG has an ambition to win the league by having the best Aussie players (especially youngsters) and for us to be managed by an Aussie coach nurtured in the ways of CFG football. We do have a bunch of really good youngsters, but do we absolutely have the best compared to other Aleague clubs? In terms of more senior Aussies, McLaren and Good are really our only genuine tier 1 players who would walk into a starting spot for any other Aleague club. I think there are clearly better Aussie coaches at other Aleague clubs and PK does not strike me as ever being able to be an elite coach. CFG should have the best Aussie coach. If we can't have the best Aussie coach, we should have a foreign coach who is the best in the league. CFG should have the best visa players. CFG should have the best marquee player in the league. CFG should dominate the league. Unfortunately, all we get is continual failure and misery ... we are the other teams' highlights package, because when it really counts, we inevitably lose. Their strategy here is doomed to fail and will only turnaround if they buy in talent. The other successfull clubs have learnt to be the best they can with what they've got, because they have no other option. We run on business plan that restricts the potential that could be unlocked in a second, if the organisation allowed us to fulfill our genuine recruitment potential.

Really truly pathetic. We're in serious trouble this season. We need more quality in midfield and it was always on the cards that our defence would be stretched with no experienced cover for our CBs. NA was not ready to play tonight. A shocking game. PK is out of his depth ... not sure he can turn it round. This club really knows how to maximise the suffering of its supporters. At least we gave one of the biggest fucktards in the history of the aleague a memorable milestone match. FMD .... the gloom has set

If JMac had just tucked away one of his chances in the 1st half when it was 0-0 ... different game. I also think they should have marke Castro. He always cuts us to ribbons.

Very poor loss. Nothing positive or constructive to take from that dribble, except Chris Beathe is a genuine fuck

We should have 3, instead PG have 2 ... and geez they were fkn softly conceded goals. Would be nice if JMac got his eye in. Expect no changes from PG, they'll happily sit back and try and pick us off with a counter or free kick ... and why not? We seem incapable of not conceding soft goals

Man, it was a tense game to watch. We looked quite vulnerable down the left side for the 1st 60 minutes, and turned the ball over quite a few times unnecessarily rushing for attacks that probably weren't there. Diamanti is really quite an amazing player. He is such a massive outlet for them and he was able to have a big influence on the game. JMac is just off the boil at the moment with his finishing. In reality, if his eye was in, he could have had a hat trick. With Rostyn going off, Good did an immense job marshaling and controlling the defence. It really was only after our subs that we looked dominant, and from that came our world class team goal with Luna's sublime pass setting it up. TBH, it was a relief to win.

I really dislike Sydney and lafawnduh ...although ...

"The first 10 minutes saw four Sydney goal kicks, which took an average of 36 seconds from the ball going out of touch before the kick." Sydney do this all the time, with or without ball boys ... they do it for free kicks, they do it for throw ins, they do it in a way that is not within the spirit of the game. Whatever happened to the 7 second rule? Also, it is super frustrating to watch, plus it gives more time for the likes of Harper and Speed to speak rubbish. Like the time the league rallied against Bruno for his free kick inducing play, there should be a public stance taken against Sydney for this horrible tactic that just kills the game as a spectacle. But of course, currently it is FFA Sydney ...

Big Boy H's goal should have stood. VAR should have been put out to quarantine for the finals, and Chris Beath can eat a turd. All the ex City players at Sydney can also get fckd, especially flappy clappy Redders and smiling spanner Brats. ...and Andy Harper can eat Chris Beath's turd. ...as you can guess, I'm still smarting from the loss

Grants goal looked offside. No proper replay on it. No VAR, and our goal would have stood. Fuck FFA Shitney and the commentators can all fuck off as well. Fuck Redders the time wasting shit fuck. Fuck Corica, fuck em All.

Not good for the ticker

Hell yeah, J Mac is the man. Wins the penalty and like ice never looked like missing. He is quality ...as is Glover. Our bookends won us the game.. I think we are a very good chance to win the final. So up until the plague, I missed only one home game .. 2020 can so and suck a dick, cos now I'll miss our 1st GF ... but if we win it, who fkn cares

WU sitting back and waiting for their Italian to unlock the game with a killer ball. They look the more likely atm, we need our Frenchman or Noone to break open the midfield. Game is 50/50 right now

They have nothing to lose, we have EVERYTHING to lose. We'd never live it down if they knocked us out in their inaugural year. That being said, we should win