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2021 Finals (& impact of international duty, coronavirus etc.)


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I'm not at all surprised they are taking Metcalfe, give him expirience in the squad, and he possibly could get some minutes. He deserves the opportunity on his form. 

I thought there was a chance that Glover would go as well for same reasons, but doesn't look like it 

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3 minutes ago, neio said:

I'm not at all surprised they are taking Metcalfe, give him expirience in the squad, and he possibly could get some minutes. He deserves the opportunity on his form. 

I thought there was a chance that Glover would go as well for same reasons, but doesn't look like it 

Sydney loosing grant McGowan redmayne 

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1 minute ago, Shahanga said:

Will he be on the bench? You sure?

No chance he makes the midfield  with Hrustic, Mooy, Luongo, Irvine, rogic 

1 minute ago, Mr MO said:

Curtis Good is our defence!

Good has been immense but Griffiths and Reis not a bad to defence to have with Jamo and Galloway, Gooch, Georgiesvki and maybe even Atkinson, midfield has taken a hit without Metcalfe let’s see if Florin can play the best 2 games of his life 

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4 minutes ago, Imtellingyou said:

Any official FFA source?

Just the age so far apparently getting announced tomorrow. 

Might be a blessing in disguise that injury  if Nabbout is fit for finals. Tilio Nabbout Noone still formidable 

Edited by CityBoyz
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39 minutes ago, CityBoyz said:

Probably our best XI if Nabbout is fit and that's the big question mark if not then its Tsubaki or Cola up front 

Bench would be Sutton, Garruccio, Georgiesvki, Colakovski, Gomulka, Tsubaki, Caputo/Lesiotis 

5D785354-6621-4231-A32F-6B4982DBE59F.jpeg

Still a damm good team on the pitch there.

No reason whatsoever we shouldn't be holding up the dunny seat if we get a line-up like that out there.

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15 minutes ago, rass said:

Nabbout looked like he was still limping during the celebrations Saturday night. Really doubt he'll be ready for finals - that adductor tear nearly split him in half.

I know that the pro-finals lobby won't agree, but for rest of us, the trophy that needed to be won to take us into the ACL Group Stage proper has been won, and there's no need to risk Nabbout's injury being aggravated by bringing him back too soon. We owe it to him as one of our players. And I think we've always done the right thing in that respect so we should continue to do so.

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1 hour ago, CityBoyz said:

Might delay finals till Socceroos get back if it goes further like a lockdown 

Well, don't we then have a potential conflict with the ACL? Given that there's nothing riding on the Finals these days - except tradition and prestige - I wonder whether they will take place at all? IMO it's going to depend on how this latest outbreak goes. SA has already closed its border to anyone who has been to the various potential exposure sites in Melbourne's north.

Thank goodness the Premiership is already ours!

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Squad:

Aziz Behich, Brendon Borello, Martin Boyle, Milos Degenek, Kenneth Dougall, Mitchell Duke, Denis Genreau, Apostolos Giannou, Curtis Good, Rhyan Grant, James Holland, Ajdin Hrustic, Chris Ikonomidis, Jackson Irvine, Fran Karacic, Mathew Leckie, Awer Mabil, Jamie Maclaren, Ryan McGowan, Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Andrew Redmayne, Nikita Rukavytsya, Mat Ryan, Trent Sainsbury, Brad Smith, Harry Souttar, Adam Taggart, Lawrence Thomas, Ruon Tongyik, Danny Vukovic.

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26 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Squad:

Aziz Behich, Brendon Borello, Martin Boyle, Milos Degenek, Kenneth Dougall, Mitchell Duke, Denis Genreau, Apostolos Giannou, Curtis Good, Rhyan Grant, James Holland, Ajdin Hrustic, Chris Ikonomidis, Jackson Irvine, Fran Karacic, Mathew Leckie, Awer Mabil, Jamie Maclaren, Ryan McGowan, Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Andrew Redmayne, Nikita Rukavytsya, Mat Ryan, Trent Sainsbury, Brad Smith, Harry Souttar, Adam Taggart, Lawrence Thomas, Ruon Tongyik, Danny Vukovic.

Ruon Tongyik is an interesting one. A season or two ago I'd have had him heading for NPL. But found the right club and coach and fulfilled the potential many of us felt was there. And good for Genreau too.

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40 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Squad:

Aziz Behich, Brendon Borello, Martin Boyle, Milos Degenek, Kenneth Dougall, Mitchell Duke, Denis Genreau, Apostolos Giannou, Curtis Good, Rhyan Grant, James Holland, Ajdin Hrustic, Chris Ikonomidis, Jackson Irvine, Fran Karacic, Mathew Leckie, Awer Mabil, Jamie Maclaren, Ryan McGowan, Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Andrew Redmayne, Nikita Rukavytsya, Mat Ryan, Trent Sainsbury, Brad Smith, Harry Souttar, Adam Taggart, Lawrence Thomas, Ruon Tongyik, Danny Vukovic.

By my count, 7 of the 31 are either genuine City youth products or players who arrived at our club as young players / developed into solid players after joining us (the players bolded, underlined and in italics).  I'm not including JMac in that bracket since he came to us with a number of Socceroo caps.  so it could be argued that it is 8 of 31 City have had an impact on.  

And Mooy is missing too (anyone heard why - troubles getting in and out of China maybe?).

11 minutes ago, fensaddler said:

Ruon Tongyik is an interesting one. A season or two ago I'd have had him heading for NPL. But found the right club and coach and fulfilled the potential many of us felt was there. And good for Genreau too.

yeah, i'm surprised too.  maybe Arnold is wanting to see how Tongyik fits into the squad.  i've never thought he was that good (always thought he read the game poorly when he was at City), but good on him for persisting 

 

** Edit **

just checked the fixtures for this week and Adelaide host Sydney.  both have one game left after this weekend, and Sydney are 3 points clear with much better goal difference.  a Sydney win or draw and they will be second since the chasing pack is too far back.  

Sydney have lost 3 themselves, all of which play in the backline.  maybe we're not in such a bad spot (despite losing 3).

Edited by mattyh001
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Squad is overkill 31 players. 6 CB, 4 GK list goes on could have easily done a 23-26 man squad like normal. Not Arnold fault but could have picked an overseas squad. 
 

be surprised if Good plays any minutes and Metcalfe tbh which will just anger city fans more. 

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39 minutes ago, mattyh001 said:

And Mooy is missing too (anyone heard why - troubles getting in and out of China maybe?).

From Graham Arnold: " some challenges with COVID, as well as some injuries and personal circumstances, have meant some players were ruled out of the final reckoning "

Looks like he's back in the UK, according to his instagram.

Maybe gave it a miss to spend time with wife/kids, who haven't seen him since he left for China last September. (again going by his insta)

 

Edit: Somewhat confirmed

image.png.2dce9e19c4c6d66ec443e61423e92880.png

Edited by bellydrum
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44 minutes ago, CityBoyz said:

Squad is overkill 31 players. 6 CB, 4 GK list goes on could have easily done a 23-26 man squad like normal. Not Arnold fault but could have picked an overseas squad. 
 

be surprised if Good plays any minutes and Metcalfe tbh which will just anger city fans more. 

Arnold has previously said he intends to use most players. 
4 games in extreme heat with a short turn around 

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9 minutes ago, kingofhearts said:

Such an amateur hour move by the league honestly. How are they going to hype up the finals when most of the best players are away on international duty ffs.

No McLaren for us will be rough too. How we are going to score without him?

Yes. I don't agree with the "finals" concept myself, and now with the changes to ACL qualification they mean less than they did before, but if you're going to have them at least make them a decent competition.

Could they be deferred until after the international window? Until the start of next season? I suppose "no" because of the deal with Fox.

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1 hour ago, kingofhearts said:

Such an amateur hour move by the league honestly. How are they going to hype up the finals when most of the best players are away on international duty ffs.

No McLaren for us will be rough too. How we are going to score without him?

 

 

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Yes. I don't agree with the "finals" concept myself, and now with the changes to ACL qualification they mean less than they did before, but if you're going to have them at least make them a decent competition.

Could they be deferred until after the international window? Until the start of next season? I suppose "no" because of the deal with Fox.

the league is between rock and a hard place.  we have this WC qualifying period plus the ACL games straight after.  3 of our clubs are required overseas for those games. you can't just keep postponing the a league fixtures (regular season or finals).

remember too that the a league grand final is normally around early to mid May.  The delay to last season (finish in August), the resulting delay to the start of this season and delays throughout the season thanks to lockdowns, etc., has forced this season into a later than normal finish.

as frustrating as this is, i don't think you can put it on the A League / people running the game.  i'd actually be gutted if we didnt get the chance to play in a grand final.  

my thoughts about the finals has always been they give the game a focal point for the casual fan at the culmination of the season.  you're right that you want a quality product (which is not helped by players being out for international duty), but i don't see teams being completely decimated here either.  as i said before, the game is in between a rock and a hard place - compromises need to be made 

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1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

Don't think any of us are going anywhere fast - completing the season, finals, anything much at all. 12 new coronavirus cases overnight and we're going into lockdown very soon - details to be decided today.

Smart move from paddy heard he was the source so we can go do the double with all our Socceroos 

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Just now, Missing_Moy said:

Smart move from paddy heard he was the source so we can go do the double with all our Socceroos 

Yep let's pause the season and not commence it Ti everyone is back from socceroos duty 👍 

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Sydney is looking very good going into the final series. That forward line is going to be hard to handle. Come grand final time it might all be about Sydney FC again in the media.

We might regret not looking at replacement players for Jmac and Nabbout. Our 2 highest paid players and rules allow us to replace, whilst the other leagues are finished. Do we have so much confidence in our youth?

Edited by Mr MO
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34 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

Sydney is looking very good going into the final series. That forward line is going to be hard to handle. Come grand final time it might all be about Sydney FC again in the media.

We might regret not looking at replacement players for Jmac and Nabbout. Our 2 highest paid players and rules allow us to replace, whilst the other leagues are finished. Do we have so much confidence in our youth?

When it’s a tight affair and they have a shonky defence might be a different story 

 

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IMO we're going to be up against it in the "finals" if, as and when they take place. Sydney, Central Coast and Brisbane all looking very strong. Even our home semi will be hard work, even if we do actually play it at home.

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  • jw1739 changed the title to 2021 Finals (& impact of international duty, coronavirus)

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