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Round 13: Newcastle v. City, Tuesday 30th Dec, K.O. 5.00 p.m.


jw1739
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Mate is devoid of confidence, should've had 2 goals but seemed happier to stick his thumb up his arse rather than score. As much of a fan as I was I think his time is up, doesn't have the pace or the skill to beat an opponent on the wing and has the finishing abilities of a three toed tree sloth.

Have to agree sadly, his form is just too up and down. For the rest of the season i'd bring him off the bench baring injury.

Has Tando been a revelation or what? Sure, sometimes he can't catch a ball but fuck, can't he make a save or two eh?

Melling needs an anger management coach or to take up boxing in his spare time or some shit, he's a great player and i love his grunt but I feel watching a game every week that this guy is going to get sent off. Love him though and deserves to keep on starting.

1 point off 5th, getting nervous Cadete? :)

With all due respect, if Dugandzic was playing at the other end of the ground, I'm not sure many people would be shedding too many tears at his current predicament. If Hoffman, or Ramsay, or Wielaert, or Kisnorbo play three shit games out of four, people are screaming for them to GTFO and never return. As I remember it, Dugandzic has pretty much been doing that since his return from injury a year and a half ago. Our coaches have been extremely patient with him, his bursts of form have been fleeting and now he finds himself with an uncertain future as a starting eleven player and potentially sitting behind three players that could be three of the top ten players in the competition by the end of the season. Boo hoo. Put the work in, get your confidence back (at NYL level, if necessary), wait your turn like everyone else and then seize your opportunities when they are presented to you on a silver platter. Bit harsh on him tbh. I've met him personally and he seems like a pretty good bloke.

I agree though that he hasn't been consistent enough ever since he came back from injury, its just a shame before the injury he showed so much potential but he has never been able to reach those heights again.

Still pops up and does some good stuff though (derby assist to Paatluu) but i agree, i think we can do better.

It's not personal. Redmayne is a ripping bloke, by all accounts. I think everyone wanted to see Mifsud succeed, partly because he seemed like such a good guy. But if the team will be stronger with a different player in it, well, see you later, I'm afraid. He's had plenty of chances. And if he turns it around after the break and cements himself in the XI, there'd be no-one happier for him than me.

He did have a nice assist tonight to Koren for his second, as well, but he's simply not doing enough. That passage towards the end where he and Williams were piss farting around, passing it back and forth inside the box (and, of course, eventually turning it over), rather than one of them taking the responsibility to shoot was almost a cry for help. Yes, none of our criticisms are about these guys as people, only about their effectiveness in delivering the game that we want to see the team play.

I would of liked to have seen Mifsud playing with this type of game style we are playing atm and maybe not as the no 1 striker getting the ball woofed up to a bloke that makes Massimo look tall.

I cant name a player that played well for us last season except maybe Williams and Hoffman last season.

Lets put it this way. I'd take him over bloody Ramsey thats for sure.

Ramsay stays onside

 

No point staying onside when you provide shite when your there.

 

in regards to him being offside, did you watch the midfield at all? If you did you'd see half the time it was the midfield were taking too long to put half the balls through that he was offside for. Ok he should adjust his runs for a shit midfield, but he isnt totally to blame. Especially since he never had this problem either playing for Malta or other clubs. 

 

Lets move on from Mifsud.

 

Great win yesterday. Cant believe the transformation of the side in the last month. With Jesus to come in, we will have no issue in scoring goals.

 

Still think Kisnobo can go missing sometimes down back and even though The Hoff has been solid down at RB, but if Germano is fully fit (i know its not likely), he would strengthen us down back

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I have to say I haven;t read any of the last 5 pages of comments, but I for one am pleased, no ecstatic with this win. Newy may of played poorly, the ref made some questionable decisions but for the team (Koren and Duff) to push and keep pushing that scoreline to 5 is fantastic. 

A shame that we couldn't keep a clean sheet though. 

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We had a couple of Squadron members join us second half after their drummer apparently cracked the shits by halftime and decided to fuck off home.

By all reports it's not just the general Jets fan that's feeling up the duff about things, the squadron is going downhill fast apparently.

That's fucked, but it's hard to blame them. That club needs a really big shake-up, probably starting with Robbie Middleby getting the flick.

Yeah I can't see how Robbie got the job to be honest. Watching the game yesterday and being at the ground with such a quiet crowd I kept saying to myself 'How the hell did Heskey play for this club'

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Well that was bloody enjoyable.

 

Koren clearly the biggest positive of the day. His finishes were so clean it was fantastic to watch. Defense still a bit shaky but I'm not too concerned about the two late ones conceded. If we beat central coast on sunday that gives the boys a lot of confidence going into the break. 

 

Just on the Jets fans, had a quick look on their forum and it's all pretty familiar to us. The difference is though, that we're a big city club that are guaranteed big drawing games with the derby and the like. In that respect off the field I have some sympathy for them but certainly not on the field, I mean come on, nobody's had it worse that us!  

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Well that was bloody enjoyable.

 

Koren clearly the biggest positive of the day. His finishes were so clean it was fantastic to watch. Defense still a bit shaky but I'm not too concerned about the two late ones conceded. If we beat central coast on sunday that gives the boys a lot of confidence going into the break. 

 

Just on the Jets fans, had a quick look on their forum and it's all pretty familiar to us. The difference is though, that we're a big city club that are guaranteed big drawing games with the derby and the like. In that respect off the field I have some sympathy for them but certainly not on the field, I mean come on, nobody's had it worse that us!

I don't have sympathy, I wish we got over 9000 in attendances when we were struggling last season under JA. They should be easily getting 15-20k crowd figures if they could get results.

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Well that was bloody enjoyable.

 

Koren clearly the biggest positive of the day. His finishes were so clean it was fantastic to watch. Defense still a bit shaky but I'm not too concerned about the two late ones conceded. If we beat central coast on sunday that gives the boys a lot of confidence going into the break. 

 

Just on the Jets fans, had a quick look on their forum and it's all pretty familiar to us. The difference is though, that we're a big city club that are guaranteed big drawing games with the derby and the like. In that respect off the field I have some sympathy for them but certainly not on the field, I mean come on, nobody's had it worse that us!

I don't have sympathy, I wish we got over 9000 in attendances when we were struggling last season under JA. They should be easily getting 15-20k crowd figures if they could get results.

 

I think some of their membership categories are very cheap compared with ours. $135 for an adult reserved seat, for example.

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We had a couple of Squadron members join us second half after their drummer apparently cracked the shits by halftime and decided to fuck off home.

By all reports it's not just the general Jets fan that's feeling up the duff about things, the squadron is going downhill fast apparently.

 

Sound like a bunch of sooks tbh.

 

Try watching your team tie the longest losing streak in Australian sports history if you want to know what true hardship is. Never saw yarraside pack up and go home 20 minutes into a game any season.

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On Dugandzic, I agree he hasn't been as consistent as many would have liked (myself included).

 

But still his stats are respectable:

 

29olhnd.jpg

 

 

Fox Sports Shootout even said on Sunday that Dugandzic has provided the most assists over the 2014 calendar year.

 

 

And Mate has stepped up multiple times this season, with instances like:

 

- his good assist for Koren's 3rd goal yesterday

- his assist for Paartalu's winner against victory

- winning the pen against Brisbane

- his header against CCM

- his goal and assist against Brisbane in Brisbane

 

Most of the above moments were crucial for Melbourne City to pick up points.

 

 

I think what's a bit frustrating about Dugandzic is the sense that he has even more to give. I don't get frustrated when Hoffman put's in so-so performances at RB, as I just reckon the Hoff's often doing everything or nearly everything that he can, and it just turns out that isn't enough. Whereas Mate looks like he could go up another level, so if he's not providing a killer assist every game, or even multiple killer passes and/or shots every game then he's somewhat disappointing. I reckon JVS thinks similarly about Dugandzic, and he's pushing Dugandzic to play even better, which is why Dugandzic was benched yesterday.

 

 

So I personally wouldn't judge Dugandzic as negatively as I might judge Hoffman, Ramsay, Kisnorbo, Wielaert. IMO Dugandzic has contributed more, and his respectable contributions can be seen with the above stats. And Dugandzic is younger than all of those 4 players, so Dugandzic has the time to get even better, and I'm tipping Dugandzic to get even better and more consistent. Therefore IMO the only thing that's actually disappointing about Dugandzic is that he hasn't lived up to the significant amount of potential he has quicker.

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We had a couple of Squadron members join us second half after their drummer apparently cracked the shits by halftime and decided to fuck off home.

By all reports it's not just the general Jets fan that's feeling up the duff about things, the squadron is going downhill fast apparently.

Sound like a bunch of sooks tbh.

Try watching your team tie the longest losing streak in Australian sports history if you want to know what true hardship is. Never saw yarraside pack up and go home 20 minutes into a game any season.

Fuck oath we still showed up thinking we could win to be dissapointed time and time again. In my eyes that is what makes a true supporter.

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Interesting question, in the past would this have been a game we lost or would we have still been able to beat this Newcastle team as the Heart?

The big difference yesterday was not in the way we have been playing  but that we had a front three who converted our chances. Our successful conversion rate has been one of the lowest in the league. It reminds me of a game at AAMI against Jets when we dominated the game, had 25 shots to 2 and lost the game 0-2

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Watching the replay.  A few random things:

  • first goal was Duff, Duff, Duff.  Nothing was on when he got the ball.
  • second goal was a very fluid movement (up until Brown crossed it into Madaschi anyway)
  • fourth goal Koren started when he robbed Caravello, Willo showed good awareness to play in Duff.
  • Duga had such a good chance at about 65 minutes but instead of shooting allowed himself to be tackled in the box
  • Their first goal was due to Chapman ball watching and drifting off his man, Kisnorbo left his man to go to Chappy's (but didn't get there in time), Garuccio left his man to get to Kisnorbo's but couldn't do anything. 
  • fifth goal Duga did a good run and then had the presence of mind to play in Koren.
  • as we all noted Chapman needed to deal with the ball on their 2nd, but didn't, then Paartalu wasn't much help
  • on 82min when Willo shot, it was a tap in for Ramsay if he's followed it in (that's the thing about tap ins, you need good players to be there)
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On Dugandzic, I agree he hasn't been as consistent as many would have liked (myself included).

 

But still his stats are respectable:

 

29olhnd.jpg

 

 

Fox Sports Shootout even said on Sunday that Dugandzic has provided the most assists over the 2014 calendar year.

 

 

And Mate has stepped up multiple times this season, with instances like:

 

- his good assist for Koren's 3rd goal yesterday

- his assist for Paartalu's winner against victory

- winning the pen against Brisbane

- his header against CCM

- his goal and assist against Brisbane in Brisbane

 

Most of the above moments were crucial for Melbourne City to pick up points.

 

 

I think what's a bit frustrating about Dugandzic is the sense that he has even more to give. I don't get frustrated when Hoffman put's in so-so performances at RB, as I just reckon the Hoff's often doing everything or nearly everything that he can, and it just turns out that isn't enough. Whereas Mate looks like he could go up another level, so if he's not providing a killer assist every game, or even multiple killer passes and/or shots every game then he's somewhat disappointing. I reckon JVS thinks similarly about Dugandzic, and he's pushing Dugandzic to play even better, which is why Dugandzic was benched yesterday.

 

 

So I personally wouldn't judge Dugandzic as negatively as I might judge Hoffman, Ramsay, Kisnorbo, Wielaert. IMO Dugandzic has contributed more, and his respectable contributions can be seen with the above stats. And Dugandzic is younger than all of those 4 players, so Dugandzic has the time to get even better, and I'm tipping Dugandzic to get even better and more consistent. Therefore IMO the only thing that's actually disappointing about Dugandzic is that he hasn't lived up to the significant amount of potential he has quicker.

 

I've been hard on Duga because as you say he clearly has more to give but he doesn't do it consistently and at the standard that we know he can. In my opinion, the problem lies not with his technical ability but his belief in himself - the bit between the ears. He needs to want to succeed so badly that he puts in the extra yards on the pitch and goes in for the hard ball. He doesn't do this and so it appears often that he is too easily brushed off the ball. The reality is that he doesn't impose himself on the opposition players. He needs to have a "no more Mr Nice Guy" approach just like JVS's recent conversion. More self belief, mongrel and grunt to go with his undoubted talent.

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I've been saying it for years and I'll say it again, he needs to bulk up by about 5kg to go to another level

Well you have a good point.

A top striker never would have been pushed off the ball like he was in the second half when he only had the keeper to beat. The guy is such a slender build, when I first saw him around the club house I thought he was someone's kid.

A few kg of muscle would make a big difference.

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Absolutely. Maybe I'm wrong and he is hitting the gym, but by the look of him I doubt it, or at least he isn't doing it enough. The two major qualities that a player in any league but especially the Aleague needs is strength and speed, and he obviously has the speed but seriously lacks any strength on the ball. A simple test would be to see what he can lift when squatting, as a professional he should be able to lift at least double his body weight, but I'd very much doubt he can.

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When chasing and pressuring he's been good and a marked improvement over having Villa there, defensively anyway. He's provided the most assists as well so he's not doing that badly either. But I'd like to know when he going in for the ball in a 50/50 challenge how many times he ends up winning it? It would have to be easily under 50%.

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Sam Gallaway to be picked up by the Wanderers is the talk in the Newcastle press up here.

Talk during the CCM v Wanderers game was that both teams are looking at a type of swap; Galloway to Wanderers from Newcastle with Daniel Mullen going the other way

Would probably be a lot calmer for Daniel crowd wise given tonight's spectacle.

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