Matchday 12: v Sydney - Sunday 29th December 6.30 pm at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium

[Harrison]

Probably our most important match of the season after a bitter loss. A win keeps us within three points, a loss makes it nine. A six-pointer that we can’t lose if we want the Premiership. 

[belaguttman]

14 minutes ago, Harrison said:

A six-pointer that we can’t lose if we want the Premiership. 

Oh, OK. We all know how the men's team always responds when in this situation😧

Edited December 26, 2019 by belaguttman

[HughJass]

1 hour ago, belaguttman said:

We all know how the men's team always responds when in this situation😧

Will beat Sydney then lose the next 2?

[belaguttman]

2 minutes ago, HughJass said:

Will beat Sydney then lose the next 2?

There are many possible routes to the 'snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' destination. Over the years, we've chosen them all

[Harrison]

Unlikely to happen but maybe a change in shape could help us here. I think a 4-2-3-1 might give us a bit more defensively and might open up the field for us in attack. Griffiths and Brillante could do the dirty work together and chop off as many passes to Le Fondre and Kosta. Let the three attacking midfielders find space between the lines and stretch their midfield four. The Uruguayans might prefer to play a bit closer together where they can combine more quickly. Maclaren gets more direct service from players behind him.

[Dezy94]

We must have won one of our last six/seven against Sydney. Games like these make me wish we had a hard kunt like Brandan who could get under their skin. As it stands, I expect them to be far too good and it be a Ninkovic/Le Fondre exhibition 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Dezy94

[jw1739]

Past three seasons: W1-D1-L7. Our record against them as Melbourne City is 3-4-8.

I fear that last week was the beginning of a slide down the table.

[belaguttman]

48 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

I fear that last week was the beginning of a slide down the table.

That always happens this time of year, then, a recovery of form in February, then a final drop off before the finals (that we exit with a pin dive)

[neio]

We beat them last season when shayon scored twice and I remember James brown scoring a late winner against them. Apart from that it's been pretty rare we get anything from them

I can't see us winning this at all unfortunately. Grant is going to run absolute riot down the Jamieson highway on the left 

[citymad]

51 minutes ago, neio said:

We beat them last season when shayon scored twice and I remember James brown scoring a late winner against them. Apart from that it's been pretty rare we get anything from them

I can't see us winning this at all unfortunately. Grant is going to run absolute riot down the Jamieson highway on the left 

This will also show Noone's defensive efforts as pretty lame also. If i was Mombearts i would cease the Jamo 'dropping in to midfield' rubbish to make Jamo focus on stopping these right  sided attacks. I think Jamo's ego is being stroked a little too much with this midfield stuff. He should focus on defending and being a true Captain by practcing what he seems to preach at others all the time. 

[Imtellingyou]

Sydney didn't play well last two matches. We are in LWL cycle. 

[playmaker]

Our defence out wide needs to be fixed.

Mombaets need to realise out weaknesses and fix it.

I am afraid I can't see this happening and Jamo won't be able to cope with the onslaught of Grant.

Our midfield is not working and there is no wide overlap play to drag their defenders out.

A lot of things need to be fixed if we are to have a chance and 70% of our problem is our tactics and positioning.

30% is Jamo, and tbh I don't know how they are going to fix this one.

[rass]

Grant will be a key, so why dont we make him accountable before he gets to Jamo and that line. 

I'd put a special emphasis on our wingers to hold him up at every possible opportunity. Perhaps even a 3-4-3 or something where we can also blunt them through the middle.

[Imtellingyou]

Grant value is that he's an extra player in many positions due to his mobility.  Jamo will be busy with Kosta primarily and then overloaded with Grant. 

[Tommykins]

1 hour ago, rass said:

Grant will be a key, so why dont we make him accountable before he gets to Jamo and that line. 

I'd put a special emphasis on our wingers to hold him up at every possible opportunity. Perhaps even a 3-4-3 or something where we can also blunt them through the middle.

This seems to have been the way to make him struggle the most (easier said than done!), keep that left winger nice and high and make Grant accountable for him. 

[Shahanga]

A 0-2 victory. Mark my words

[kingofhearts]

1 hour ago, Shahanga said:

A 0-2 victory. Mark my words

I second this.

Guaranteed W

[JMSTEP123]

2 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

I second this.

Guaranteed W

Depends which City turn up. At our best we are the best, but we are not consistently at our best and will struggle against the most consistent team in the league.

Are we making progress? Yes. In the right direction for sure. But I cannot see us doing Sydney over, nor having a clean sheet. Still, my PL team is Watford and we did Man U over at 2-0. Stranger things have happened in football than City beating Sydney away.

[mus-28]

Galloway to LB, Atkinson RB, Griff back in DM and Wales on the left to nullify Grant's effectiveness. Change to a 4-4-1-1 with Luna offering Macca some support up top.

Without O'Neil they're defensively weak in the middle of the park if we can exploit that we might be lucky to lose 2-1. I'm predicting a 3-1 loss.

[HEARTinator]

 

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/something-has-to-change-mombaerts-wants-city-s-big-game-frailties-to-end-20191228-p53naz.html

'Something has to change': Mombaerts wants City's big-game frailties to end

By Anthony Colangelo

December 28, 2019 — 1.36pm

If Melbourne City lose to Sydney FC on Sunday and miss another opportunity to cut the six-point gap at the top of the A-League table that separates them, the race for the premiers' plate and grand final success is by no means over or impossible.

However, if the Victorian sky blue team put in another underwhelming big-game performance - as they did in the Melbourne derby last round in a meek loss to Melbourne Victory and earlier this season in their FFA Cup final loss to Adelaide United - the long-standing and serious questions over City's aptitude for success will remain.

City coach Erick Mombaerts seems well aware of this.

"Something has to change," Mombaerts said on Saturday of City's poor run in big games this season, and of the club's history of wilting in high-pressure matches.

"As a first way for me is to be more consistent mentally. First thing is always start with the players, they have to understand and now they have also got to agree to change something. To improve. We have to improve this.

"If not? OK we have to change the player or the coach. We need to find solution.

"Sometimes we are doing so well but sometimes mentally we drop a little bit. If we drop a little bit it is not enough. So we need to work on this. To be more consistent about mental aspects. We failed on this against Victory."

Mombaerts flagged changes to his starting 11 for the game against Sydney at Kogarah, against an opposition who drew with Wellington Phoenix last round in a game they could have easily lost.

Names like Lachlan Wales, Rostyn Griffiths and Ramy Najjarine are at the head of the queue to come into starting consideration. Najjarine certainly deserves his chance and gives City a Daniel Arzani-like burst of flair.

But fundamentally City need to be more aggressive in their press and less easy to break against, Mombaerts said.

"I think we can break their block but we have to be very consistent defensively because they don’t need to have a lot of chances to score," the Frenchman, who used to coach Yokohama F Marinos, said.

"Against Sydney it is very important to find good balance … you have to be strong offensively … but they can break [you] also.

"If we play at our best level we can challenge every team."

An Olyroos squad for January's Asian championships Tokyo Olympics qualifying tournament will be named on Monday. Mombaerts said he expected to lose four players, likely current starting goalkeeper Tom Glover, Denis Genreau (pending his shoulder injury), Connor Metcalfe and Najjarine.

"My first idea is to play with the players we have," he said when asked if City would need to go to the transfer market to replace his Olyroos.

Independent of those player unavailabilities, he said City's squad could use more attacking players - maybe a winger or attacking midfielder - if they were to enter the January market.

“We want to score more. We need creative players," Mombaerts said.

[Harrison]

I’d love to see Najjarine be given another start. I don’t know what is happening with Berenguer but he might make us a bit less predictable. Windbichler for Good is the other change I think we’ll see. 

[haz]

[jw1739]

14 hours ago, HEARTinator said:

 

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/something-has-to-change-mombaerts-wants-city-s-big-game-frailties-to-end-20191228-p53naz.html

'Something has to change': Mombaerts wants City's big-game frailties to end

By Anthony Colangelo

December 28, 2019 — 1.36pm

If Melbourne City lose to Sydney FC on Sunday and miss another opportunity to cut the six-point gap at the top of the A-League table that separates them, the race for the premiers' plate and grand final success is by no means over or impossible.

However, if the Victorian sky blue team put in another underwhelming big-game performance - as they did in the Melbourne derby last round in a meek loss to Melbourne Victory and earlier this season in their FFA Cup final loss to Adelaide United - the long-standing and serious questions over City's aptitude for success will remain.

City coach Erick Mombaerts seems well aware of this.

"Something has to change," Mombaerts said on Saturday of City's poor run in big games this season, and of the club's history of wilting in high-pressure matches.

"As a first way for me is to be more consistent mentally. First thing is always start with the players, they have to understand and now they have also got to agree to change something. To improve. We have to improve this.

"If not? OK we have to change the player or the coach. We need to find solution.

"Sometimes we are doing so well but sometimes mentally we drop a little bit. If we drop a little bit it is not enough. So we need to work on this. To be more consistent about mental aspects. We failed on this against Victory."

Mombaerts flagged changes to his starting 11 for the game against Sydney at Kogarah, against an opposition who drew with Wellington Phoenix last round in a game they could have easily lost.

Names like Lachlan Wales, Rostyn Griffiths and Ramy Najjarine are at the head of the queue to come into starting consideration. Najjarine certainly deserves his chance and gives City a Daniel Arzani-like burst of flair.

But fundamentally City need to be more aggressive in their press and less easy to break against, Mombaerts said.

"I think we can break their block but we have to be very consistent defensively because they don’t need to have a lot of chances to score," the Frenchman, who used to coach Yokohama F Marinos, said.

"Against Sydney it is very important to find good balance … you have to be strong offensively … but they can break [you] also.

"If we play at our best level we can challenge every team."

An Olyroos squad for January's Asian championships Tokyo Olympics qualifying tournament will be named on Monday. Mombaerts said he expected to lose four players, likely current starting goalkeeper Tom Glover, Denis Genreau (pending his shoulder injury), Connor Metcalfe and Najjarine.

"My first idea is to play with the players we have," he said when asked if City would need to go to the transfer market to replace his Olyroos.

Independent of those player unavailabilities, he said City's squad could use more attacking players - maybe a winger or attacking midfielder - if they were to enter the January market.

“We want to score more. We need creative players," Mombaerts said.

I don't know why it seems to take the club so long to work this sort of stuff out. IMO most of us could see before the season started that we didn't have the creative player(s) we needed up front. Even thinking about the January transfer window means we haven't got things right before the season starts.

[Nate]

fire up everyone! 1v2 away, this game will tell us exactly where we're at.

[Dylan]

You watch us pull our best performance of the season out of our arse 🙄

[belaguttman]

57 minutes ago, Dylan said:

You watch us pull our best performance of the season out of our arse 🙄

No, we reserve those for when we have zero chance of meeting our season goal

[JMSTEP123]

3 hours ago, Nate said:

fire up everyone! 1v2 away, this game will tell us exactly where we're at.

We know where we are at. This game will tell us where we are not.

[neio]

Jamo is out, not in squad at all. Atkinson starts 

[rass]

8 minutes ago, neio said:

Jamo is out, not in squad at all. Atkinson starts 

He's ill apparently...

[Afif Adam]

Midfield 2 defensive 

[playmaker]

17 minutes ago, neio said:

Jamo is out, not in squad at all. Atkinson starts 

Jamo is the weakest link in our defensive chain.

Good move to drop him from the team and hopefully we move him on in January.

[Mr MO]

1 minute ago, playmaker said:

Jamo is the weakest link in our defensive chain.

Good move to drop him from the team and hopefully we move him on in January.

Not if he’s sick. Regardless it’s a good opportunity to see others play.

[n i k o]

"Illness" 

[Harrison]

Hoping to see a lot from the wingers and Metcalfe. Need a lot of support from the fullbacks with Griffiths and Brillante in the midfield but hopefully they both put in a huge defensive shift because Sydney can cut a team to ribbons. Good luck to Atkinson, really want him to kick on. 

[Tommykins]

Really think Brilliante and Griffiths aren't suited to playing together. 'Mon City. 

[Harrison]

2 minutes ago, Tommykins said:

Really think Brilliante and Griffiths aren't suited to playing together. 'Mon City. 

Not in a 4-3-3 but let’s hope it works.

[kingofhearts]

Metcalfe overrated as hell, should be on the bench

[moops]

wow Jamo is out, good move.

[Shahanga]

Grant should have got carded for that

[haz]

Noone, not good