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Manchester City vs Melbourne City - Saturday July 18 at CBUS Super Stadium, Gold Coast

Cityscape

By Cityscape,
in Melbourne City

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loriente
loriente

True. Melbourne's winter is brutal. Good thing they don't get any of this crazy cold weather over in Manchester.

mus-28
mus-28

Novillo to destroy the Messi/Ronaldo stranglehold on the ballon d'or. Probably win the Brownlow as well.

johnno cpfc
johnno cpfc

Well good for you, i have just paid for our two season tickets to the tune of $500.00 and now we are being asked to fly/travel to Brisbane to watch a FRIENDLY for what would quite conceivably cost me

jw1739

jw1739

Posted
Posted

Enjoyed the game

Good work out for both teams

I thought Novillo, Retre and Dekker played well for Melbourne and enjoyed the performance from the youngsters Garcia and Humphries from City

IMO when you consider how many of our first team squad couldn't play because of injury, especially up front, then this was a pretty good result from the Melbourne perspective even though I doubt that Manchester ever really had their foot on the pedal.  At times in the first half we really did look good, but we need to find more in the front third of the pitch if we're going for a top four position this season. These matches are always a bit tame in the last third as all the substitutions are made. Overall, nothing to be ashamed of from Melbourne City, and with up to six signings still to be made and the same number coming back from injury I'm happy with where we are.

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Melburnian

Melburnian

Posted
Posted

For this stage of the pre season, the players available and conditions, could not be happier with the performance. 

Mauk missed a sitter but what was impressive with his run. Knocked the ball out and made a great run. 

Novillo is the type of Visa player needed. He's quality.  Will frustrate but is a match winner in the A league. A full pre season and he'll be great.

Get this tuna guy in if he can finish. 

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rass

rass

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Posted

Lots of good signs for the season ahead but not happy at all with Koren. He was awful. F%#k I hate him, he better turn it around soon. 

Such an easy target to dump on.

I thought he was ok. Seemed to be more urgent than last season and played the ball well. 

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Tony999

Tony999

Posted
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Such an easy target to dump on.

I thought he was ok. Seemed to be more urgent than last season and played the ball well. 

l agree. He got stuck into it after 5min into the game. Gave some decent balls but dropped off in the second half. But then again, so did the rest if the team.

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mattyh001

mattyh001

Posted
Posted (edited)

can only comment on the first half, but was fairly happy / satisfied with the first "game" of the season.  Novillo didnt look out of place against some very handy opponents, Dekker looks similar to Marino in that he is a solid young player, and overall there was some decent movement.

i think that some of the criticism of Clisby is well and truly over the top.  as we found last season he is a CB cum LB; put him against world class opponents and of course he is gonna get smashed up a bit.  as a back up to Zullo he'll be quite serviceable.

Koren looked out of it; sadly something we are accustomed too.  that said i hope he gets a full preseason - i feel that will make all the difference; particularly when we have a more settled structure than last season (after all it took us until the final third of last season to really hit our straps - and that was with a very defensive mindset too).

Paartalu look shite.  if someone said one of him and Trifiro were trialists tonight and people didnt know better, some would have thought it was Paartalu.  Trifiro looked ok but i question if we actually need him.  given some of the already contracted players, i'd hope than any decision on Trifiro is held off until a much later date so that squad space isn't filled too rashly.  not saying he would be a bad player for us, i just think we might have a few too similar players already.

lastly, Velaphi should be starting keeper this season barring an absolute peach of a keeper coming up (a Schwarzer, Mat Ryan, etc.)  the 18 games for 9 clean sheets last year meant he has earned a fair crack at this season alone; tonights effort deserves more chances than Shane "LBW" Watson.

With the results of this game and the Liverpool/Brisbane game, surely the All Stars concept is dead and buried

 

Isn't the FFA charging individual teams $250,000 to play friendlies with these big European Clubs in order protect their All Stars concept?

 

Did a good job of protecting for this off season

dont know about any charge but i'm sure the FFA have a way to get some coin outta these games.

i think the bigger picture for the FFA is that they actually have three ICC games at the MCG over the next week.  80k fans tonight, with certainly more to come next Friday.  puts the game on front page and on the front foot as a means of broadcasting the sport in Oz in a way that the FFA / Socceroos / A League can't.  

the way i see those All Star games, it is all about branding.

as such i actually enjoy the All Star games, just wish the FFA made more of the opportunity.  to play just the one game every year baffles me; seems to defeat the purpose.

when you add our game against Man City and the Liverpool tour to the ICC games, it is a massive coup for the sport in a month that our game has no real expose, and stick it up those flogs in the AFL to boot.

Edited by mattyh001
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Shahanga

Shahanga

Posted
Posted

Only saw the first half.  In regards to Clisby, I think the criticism is a bit over the top.  He was against a world class opponent who he was left 1 on 1 with.  Truly how many other A league left backs would have dealt with that?

All that proved to me was that Clisby is not off to the EPL any time soon.

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AaronAV11

AaronAV11

Posted
Posted

Only saw the first half.  In regards to Clisby, I think the criticism is a bit over the top.  He was against a world class opponent who he was left 1 on 1 with.  Truly how many other A league left backs would have dealt with that?

All that proved to me was that Clisby is not off to the EPL any time soon.

If it was just that he was outclassed by a skillful winger then I would agree, but it was mainly his positioning. He was out of position so many times and they constantly took advantage of it

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Nate

Nate

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Posted

If it was just that he was outclassed by a skillful winger then I would agree, but it was mainly his positioning. He was out of position so many times and they constantly took advantage of it

Yup, and it's an aspect of his game that we've already seen in the A-League. 

Zullo and Garuccio are both better options.

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n i k o

n i k o

Posted
Posted (edited)

Clisby is average at best and he proved that playing against a league opposition last season. No need for an EPL team to prove this fact. It's not personal at all but if he's going to be spoken of as a starting eleven player then he deserves all the criticism he's getting. As a bench player he's 'ok.' Paartalu is another that deserves a lot of scrutiny over the coming preseason. Koren even more so. 

Edited by n i k o
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KSK_47

KSK_47

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Posted

If it was just that he was outclassed by a skillful winger then I would agree, but it was mainly his positioning. He was out of position so many times and they constantly took advantage of it

Exactly. I thought I must have been watching a different game to others who are saying the criticism is harsh. I wasnt criticizing him because players managed to get past him easily. I was criticizing him because players often didnt need to get past him because he simply wasnt there. 

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Shahanga

Shahanga

Posted
Posted

If it was just that he was outclassed by a skillful winger then I would agree, but it was mainly his positioning. He was out of position so many times and they constantly took advantage of it

my opinion probably isn't so far away from everybody else to be honest. He's a no 2 left back right now.

in regards to positioning, he was certainly exposed but Navas made life very difficult for him to position well. Fullbacks are expected to sit tight enough to support the central defenders but still keep an eye on their man. Navas sitting high and wide made this pretty much impossible. Now if he goes and stands with Navas he leaves a massive hole inside him (disaster against that side) plus in any case he is 1v 1 against a much better player, which is asking for trouble. If he takes up a position wider he risks doing neither job. An experienced left back would be able to reduce the potential damage by finding just the right balance, but Navas was way too much for Jack.

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jw1739

jw1739

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Posted

my opinion probably isn't so far away from everybody else to be honest. He's a no 2 left back right now.

in regards to positioning, he was certainly exposed but Navas made life very difficult for him to position well. Fullbacks are expected to sit tight enough to support the central defenders but still keep an eye on their man. Navas sitting high and wide made this pretty much impossible. Now if he goes and stands with Navas he leaves a massive hole inside him (disaster against that side) plus in any case he is 1v 1 against a much better player, which is asking for trouble. If he takes up a position wider he risks doing neither job. An experienced left back would be able to reduce the potential damage by finding just the right balance, but Navas was way too much for Jack.

So we opted for the best strategy for a side that was heavily out-gunned. Keep it tight in the middle and crowd them out - and that largely worked for 85 minutes.

IMO harsh criticism of any of our players is unwarranted for the first preseason match. Granted I only watched the first half and the final 10 minutes, but from the 5-minute mark or so we were playing really well and stretching them with our attacking moves. Mauky will have nightmares about his miss and Harry N. almost scored as well.

Based on the stream I was watching, people complaining that some of our players were invisible are not being fair. Most of the time our boys were ignored by the commentators, who were busy wetting themselves over the Manchester players. 

No, with signings to come and players to return from injury we should not be disappointed.

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