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Winger Harry Novillo playing for Melbourne City career in clash against Sydney FC

 

David Davutovic and Matt Windley

March 4, 2016

 

ATTACKER Harry Novillo is playing for his Melbourne City career when he returns from a club-imposed ban for Saturday night’s high stakes clash with Sydney FC.

Novillo copped a two-game suspension and a fine of half a week’s wage after a domestic dispute with his partner that saw him detained but not charged.

The incident was not looked upon fondly by the City Football Group, who are now considering the Frenchman’s future despite him having another 15 months to run on his contract.

As Melbourne Heart, the budget-conscious club focused on signing the nice guys, good guys, the low-maintenance players.

After City Football Group’s $11.25 million buy, they identified that bigger personalities were needed in the change room to deliver success.

Novillo’s acquisition in March last year was in line with that policy, which was also a factor in the signings of Premier League veterans Thomas Sorensen, Robert Koren and Aaron Hughes and Socceroo Ivan Franjic.

With that comes a greater importance on man-management and Novillo, who’s usually the most vocal at training, has been cut more slack than any City player before him.

He’s delivered, scoring nine goals in 15 games, and Novillo’s on-field quality is unquestionable with the France youth and Martinique senior international providing an exciting X-factor to offset Bruno Fornaroli’s predatory instincts and Aaron Mooy’s sublime creativity.

But the lenience doesn’t extend to off-field indiscretions, with CFG holding the same high standards from Manchester to New York to Melbourne.

So much so that, now available once more, there is a suggestion Novillo may have to win his way back in to the starting line-up from the bench.

That, or the 24-year-old was being kept on his toes by training with the seconds during the week, although coach John van’t Schip was more than cagey on Friday about Novillo’s starting prospects.

“Harry’s been training the whole week with the team,” van’t Schip said.

“He was out, he’s been training since we came back from Wellington with the team, so he’s involved with the squad.”

The effectiveness of Novillo’s partnership with Fornaroli and Mooy in particular rings true when taking in to account the side’s record when all three play.

When the trio has been in, City has won seven of 13 games and only lost on three occasions.

But in the eight games when at least one of the three has been out, the team has only won twice — both times at home to bottom side Central Coast.

City lacked a cutting edge up front in last week’s 2-1 loss in windy Wellington, but van’t Schip denied Novillo’s absence was the defining factor.

“Harry, we know what he can do, but we can’t make anything of that,” he said.

“We know that he has some qualities so we’re happy he’s back in, but now it’s up to him and the group that we make sure we get a good result.”

 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/a-league/winger-harry-novillo-playing-for-melbourne-city-career-in-clash-against-sydney-fc/news-story/b8578135036551233a778b0d78ea70b7#load-story-comments

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4 minutes ago, NewConvert said:

I agree but we are about to find out about how CFG deals with off duty indiscretions.

I also hope Harry doesn't end up going, but the article does say:


 

Quote

The incident was not looked upon fondly by the City Football Group, who are now considering the Frenchman’s future despite him having another 15 months to run on his contract.

 

And I agree that we will just have to wait and find out how CFG deals with off the pitch indiscretions. I don't know a lot about CFG with Man City, but CFG seem pretty image-conscious to me. So who's to know for sure whether CFG are considering terminating Novillo's contract or not.

Edited by Murfy1
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2 hours ago, hakz7 said:

"playing for Melbourne City career"

Bit of an overreaction...

None of us know what really happened so its difficult to say (if its an overreaction).

In my view of the world though i would see it like this:

  1. He transgressed and was punished.  That is therefore the end of the matter.
  2. He is a contracted player who is fit and is in our best XI, so he should start.  Starting him off the bench to effectively punish him twice is just stupid, he's either released or selected on ability/form.
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3 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

None of us know what really happened so its difficult to say (if its an overreaction).

In my view of the world though i would see it like this:

  1. He transgressed and was punished.  That is therefore the end of the matter.
  2. He is a contracted player who is fit and is in our best XI, so he should start.  Starting him off the bench to effectively punish him twice is just stupid, he's either released or selected on ability/form.

Agreed. Double jeopardy. If his transgression was bad enough for termination of contract, that's what CFG would have done. It wasn't, and he's received the maximum non-termination punishment. I'd say he's on a CFG-imposed equivalent of a good behaviour bond.

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Tonight showed what Harry brings to the team. He can be spectacular, outrageous,exciting and provides us with the X factor - the unknown that the opposition can never predict. To my mind we (and Bruno and Aaron) have missed him over the last two weeks. I hope he stays or we get someone else with his talent.

Tonight showed what Harry brings to the team. He can be spectacular, outrageous,exciting and provides us with the X factor - the unknown that the opposition can never predict. To my mind we (and Bruno and Aaron) have missed him over the last two weeks. I hope he stays or we get someone else with his talent.

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As I've mentioned before, Bruno performs better when Harry is on the field and draws out a defender or two.  Most of Bruno goals this season have come from the opposition being split from trying to cover Mooy, Fornaroli and Novillo. Hence when Novillo was out, the opposition was able to double up on Bruno.

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18 minutes ago, haz said:

As I've mentioned before, Bruno performs better when Harry is on the field and draws out a defender or two.  Most of Bruno goals this season have come from the opposition being split from trying to cover Mooy, Fornaroli and Novillo. Hence when Novillo was out, the opposition was able to double up on Bruno.

Edited. I still think Bruno's had enough opportunities to score without Harry, but I agree with what you've said though. 

Edited by n i k o
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7 hours ago, loriente said:

This bloke continues to frustrate me.

Never ever gives a second effort and rarely tracks back. Whines and moans when he doesn't get his way.

Couple of telling moments of quality, still very influential. He could be so much better though. 

Yes but probably won't be because he doesn't have ..

36 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

You can see why he's playing A League instead of Champions League. He has the raw ability but not the mentality. Harry is the A League Balotelli

Harry has been missed in the last few weeks and yesterday showed why. The inch perfect pass to Bruno for the third was quality and also showed that these two guys are on the same wavelength. Having said that Harry needs some fitness under his belt rather than a Michelin tyre. I'd rather have a Harry 'Balotelli' that can turn the game with a few quality touches than a team full of Hoffmans.

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10 hours ago, loriente said:

This bloke continues to frustrate me.

Never ever gives a second effort and rarely tracks back. Whines and moans when he doesn't get his way.

Couple of telling moments of quality, still very influential. He could be so much better though. 

Yeah all that.

But he was still key to 2 goals, including the all important first.  For the first it was his clearance, that instead of just a wild boot, was rather a long pass to Fornaroli, who immediately attacked and eventually played Mooy in, before getting it back to finish.  

The second - that pass was sublime.

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54 minutes ago, Shahanga said:

Yeah all that.

But he was still key to 2 goals, including the all important first.  For the first it was his clearance, that instead of just a wild boot, was rather a long pass to Fornaroli, who immediately attacked and eventually played Mooy in, before getting it back to finish.  

The second - that pass was sublime.

That is exactly my point. 

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12 hours ago, loriente said:

This bloke continues to frustrate me.

Never ever gives a second effort and rarely tracks back. Whines and moans when he doesn't get his way.

Couple of telling moments of quality, still very influential. He could be so much better though. 

Harry's a great talent, but IMO he's a bit of a problem child. He needs to work harder if he's going to get the best out of himself for his career, and for whatever club he's playing for. He was missing for much of the first half yesterday, and I reckon he's at least 20 minutes short of a full match fitness. He has to chase back, to cover and to harrass the opposition if we are to get the best out of the team. Some strong personal guidance and coaching and he'll be a tremendous asset and fulfil that latent talent.

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1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Harry's a great talent, but IMO he's a bit of a problem child. He needs to work harder if he's going to get the best out of himself for his career, and for whatever club he's playing for. He was missing for much of the first half yesterday, and I reckon he's at least 20 minutes short of a full match fitness. He has to chase back, to cover and to harrass the opposition if we are to get the best out of the team. Some strong personal guidance and coaching and he'll be a tremendous asset and fulfil that latent talent.

I'd like to be proved wrong but I don't think Novillo will ever fully reach his potential. He's had enough wake up calls that if he was going to knuckle down and really go for it, he probably would have already.

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If Novillo was to play at a much higher level than he currently does, he's only 24 so he'd easily get better offers from overseas. You gotta realise that if he had lived up to his potential at Lyon/Europe, we wouldn't be able to even think about signing him.

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15 hours ago, belaguttman said:

You can see why he's playing A League instead of Champions League. He has the raw ability but not the mentality. Harry is the A League Balotelli

I know what you're getting at, but I think Balotelli is a harsh comparison. I don't think I've ever seen a more 'me first' player than Balotelli in my life. Novillo has some issues with his attitude, but I think he's a good team player and I think his teammates like him. I don't think he's a lost cause, like Balotelli appears to be. Balotelli must drive his teammates absolutely mad.

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He showed his importance tonight. Skipped past defenders at ease ( 3 at one point in the first half i believe?), and even though bruno wasn't having his best game tonight, he doesn't have to stress too much because he always knows harry has his back.

His shot was a bit off tonight, but is our x factor. (Just imagine of gamero was healthy :( )

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