MTP Posted January 25, 2014 Report Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) Whoever put the Man City flag up on the fence, fucking end yourself.Was an Ace of Hearts member. Knew it would've been someone with half a brain. Edited January 25, 2014 by MTP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silva10 Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart of Melbourne Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. It's pretty much our style with an improvement when john aloisi was the manager. We are lacking a number 9 and some creativity in the midfield. I was wondering if there are players at city who could come to Melbourne and play those roles. Is there players in you reserve team that you think could help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silva10 Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. It's pretty much our style with an improvement when john aloisi was the manager. We are lacking a number 9 and some creativity in the midfield. I was wondering if there are players at city who could come to Melbourne and play those roles. Is there players in you reserve team that you think could help? Unfortunately I don't watch the reserves or youths these days. So it's difficult to say if we have. The two lads who have played in the Cup games this season are Marcos Lopes who has just turned 18 and is Portugese. The only thing is I can see him being involved with the first team next season. Also Emyr Huws who is 19 and Welsh. He maybe a realistic option. Other than that I would say Jordy Hiwula who is 19 and has pace and scores quite regularly for the reserves. But it would be a gamble to take young players to another country and expect them be an instant success. It sounds like you guys need a bit of experience in your team to go with your younger players. I am sure there will be youngsters going over there and coming over here, but maybe just for learning purposes, rather than being part of your squad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belaguttman Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. What you don't appreciate on TV is that these games are played in summer and it was around 90 degrees F for the whole game. It's pretty hard to maintain the intensity for 90+ minutes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silva10 Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. What you don't appreciate on TV is that these games are played in summer and it was around 90 degrees F for the whole game. It's pretty hard to maintain the intensity for 90+ minutes Yes I can imagine how hot it is over there in the summer. That is why I was surprised they were pressing so much in the first half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belaguttman Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 (edited) It's always a balance between not allowing a team that is good on the ball but average without the ball like Adelaide a chance to impose themselves on the game early and risk not being able to get back into the match, and conserving your energy. Teams like Brisbane are very good at knowing when to press during a game, and to play high up the park during those times, and when to recover. Our team has had 2 years of clueless devolution that resulted in either frantic team pressing that squeezed the life out of other teams (but we couldn't score) or disorganised spasmodic pressing with a high line (and slow CBs), or just defending from the 6 years box. JVS is a much more astute coach and has much better man management but it will take time to evolve the team into something more sophisticated. Most European players who come over here comment about the heat, the travel and the higher fitness level of HAL players, although we've always complained that our players are not fit enough in comparison to the better teams. The heat problem is compounded by having the match scheduling dictated by Foxtel programming so matches often kick off during the hottest part of the day, especially in places like Perth who are 3 hours behind the east coast. Edited January 28, 2014 by belaguttman 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yampy Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Great weekend, well done everyone who made the journey. Not easy working at the hospital today with no voice. Good work by the boys on the field and the boys and girls off it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF33 Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 watched the game live then had to go back to bed for some kip! Impressions: - better standard then I expected (sorry if this sounds patronising, its not meant to be); - Kewell really put a shift in - impressed; - Really important to recognise that Heart came from behind to take the lead away from home- credit deserved for that; - last minute goals always a risk - I think Heart sat back after scoring and invited pressure. Knowing when to control possession is also part of this; - Engelaar needs to dominate midfield more - I assume he's getting back into match fitness, but he needs to bully the other midfield when fit; - Mifsud didnt impress - ignoring the 'miss' before the penalty, he didnt seem to make runs to anticipate balls, often just standing there to see where the ball ended up - as a result, he was often behind defenders; - Felt sorry for Behich - clearly lacking confidence and this affected him I think. Next game on TV is Vs Sydney at 8:30 am next week - I'll be up for that cheering on my new second club! keep the faith guys, things are looking better. Awesome post. Not sure how much research you've done on the club/league, but the bolded is especially important. Unless I'm very much mistaken, Heart managed to salvage exactly one point from that position throughout Aloisi's entire tenure (one and a half years). While this result wasn't ideal and a bit disappointing, it should be remembered that we've now got four points after giving away the first goal in the past two weeks. The team is starting to show a bit of resilience. And it is sad to watch Mifsud and Behich at the moment; two blokes who are just absolutely bereft of confidence. Kewell must be retained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heart of Melbourne Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Watched the game on Saturday and thought you played quite well first half without creating much. They seemed to be pressing high up the field in the first half. Is this the normal way you play? They did tire in the second half but could have easily won all three points. A nice introduction to Aussie football. It's pretty much our style with an improvement when john aloisi was the manager. We are lacking a number 9 and some creativity in the midfield. I was wondering if there are players at city who could come to Melbourne and play those roles. Is there players in you reserve team that you think could help? Unfortunately I don't watch the reserves or youths these days. So it's difficult to say if we have. The two lads who have played in the Cup games this season are Marcos Lopes who has just turned 18 and is Portugese. The only thing is I can see him being involved with the first team next season. Also Emyr Huws who is 19 and Welsh. He maybe a realistic option. Other than that I would say Jordy Hiwula who is 19 and has pace and scores quite regularly for the reserves. But it would be a gamble to take young players to another country and expect them be an instant success. It sounds like you guys need a bit of experience in your team to go with your younger players. I am sure there will be youngsters going over there and coming over here, but maybe just for learning purposes, rather than being part of your squad. Jordi Huwalu must be at least better than Mifsud. He is always caught offside and the media take the piss out of him here. Send him over please... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silva10 Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 I wouldn't mind Jordy coming over and playing for you. It would be a good test for him. However, I am sure the owners will go out to sign the best young Australian players they can. Especially has they may be restricted to signing overseas players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murfy1 Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 A quick look at our last game before tonight's match. Possession-wise we were ok, and were better in the first half than the second, but we really struggled to get the ball into the final 3rd: Our first half passing, 132 of 159 completed (83%): Our second half passing, 75 of 107 completed (70%): Our passing into the final third, 36 of 66 completed (54%): Here's a comparison, Adelaide's passing into the final third, 83 of 116 completed (72%). Both much more successful in quality and quantity: IMO, Engelaar significantly explains why we were so much more successful in midfield in the first half compared with the second half. Also, the team still needs to significantly improve with getting the ball from midfield into our final third. Otherwise our passing is pretty solid. But the likes of Dugandzic, Ramsay, Massimo and maybe Kewell need to do more to ensure we get the ball into the final third. So the midfield battle is going to be massively important against Sydney tonight, IMO. Engelaar could be real important for us, if he can play a lot of minutes and if he can play well. Also, if our midfielders can move the ball better then we should be able to overrun Sydney like we did in the second half of our last match against them. IIRC, Sydney now plays with a midfield diamond as well, but hopefully because we've been playing with the formation longer we can beat them with it. I'm pretty optimistic that our midfield will tick, and we'll beat Sydney fairly comfortably like we have a number of times before at AAMI, assuming our defence doesn't make any really stupid mistakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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