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Andrew Durante (Melbourne Victory | A-Leagues)

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Posted July 19, 2018 05:51 · last edited July 19, 2018 05:52

Bullion wrote:

valeo wrote:

Bullion wrote:

Leggy wrote:

martinb wrote:

Thought he did well against Peru.

Agree, but he  had a lot  better players around him and that in itself will make a big difference.

He's generally been pretty good for the AWs. Decent at the confed cup too.

I don't think correlation equals causation in that Dura has played about 75% of the games in the past 2 years and our defense has been poor - Ridenton has played the same amount of games; how much blame does he carry? Tom Doyle has played 70% of the games in the past 2 seasons, is he to blame? Scapegoating one player is a bit shark.

I would argue that defensive personnel changes is a bigger issue - we went something like 20 games in a row with a change in defensive personnel last season and was similar the season before. Is Dura secretly injuring players, getting them suspended or AW call ups?

By the same token, you can't completely admonish him of the responsibility. The fact is that he's been our most senior defender and leader, and he's overseen poor defensive records for a number of years. Yes, a lot of that is due to poor structure but a lot of that has been due to poor individual defending as well; I don't think that can be ignored.

I also don't think we can ignore the fact that he's in the twilight of his career; I, for one, was surprised he didn't retire at the end of last season. I thought it was about time.

Re: Doyle - he's a full blooded defender who still has the same old positional deficiencies. I've always seen his characteristics as suiting the CB role rather than FB, personally. He constantly fails to track his runner and gets caught for pace. 

What about Rossi, he has played 72% of games and was our big foreign, ex Serie A defender. How much blame should he shoulder? What about 3 different head coaches in 2 seasons? And his performances for the AWs the past couple of years show that perhaps he is a decent defender but other issues - personnel changes, defensive transitioning of the team, defensive ability of midfield etc. are possibly a bigger factor for our defense than scapegoating Dura.

I still think Dura was an equal to Fox last season as our best CBs; Fox being able to recover due to his athleticism but let down positionally at times while Dura was better positionally and better with the ball. 

Can we please stop comparing Dura's performances for the AW's (which were mediocre, lets be honest; though his last handful were better) to his Nix performances? In the All Whites setup, we're usually forced to play overly defensive football because of the opposition we are up against. In the A-League, this is not the expectation as it's a salary capped league where every team should realistically try and setup to attack the opposition.

Personally I just think Dura is a spent force who has given his all for the team. I feel a little sorry for him that he hasn't been able to experience any success with us, as his commitment could never be called into question; but his performances have largely been poor.

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Unknown editor edited July 19, 2018 05:52
Bullion wrote:
valeo wrote:
Bullion wrote:
Leggy wrote:
martinb wrote:

Thought he did well against Peru.

Agree, but he  had a lot  better players around him and that in itself will make a big difference.

He's generally been pretty good for the AWs. Decent at the confed cup too.

I don't think correlation equals causation in that Dura has played about 75% of the games in the past 2 years and our defense has been poor - Ridenton has played the same amount of games; how much blame does he carry? Tom Doyle has played 70% of the games in the past 2 seasons, is he to blame? Scapegoating one player is a bit shark.

I would argue that defensive personnel changes is a bigger issue - we went something like 20 games in a row with a change in defensive personnel last season and was similar the season before. Is Dura secretly injuring players, getting them suspended or AW call ups?

By the same token, you can't completely admonish him of the responsibility. The fact is that he's been our most senior defender and leader, and he's overseen poor defensive records for a number of years. Yes, a lot of that is due to poor structure but a lot of that has been due to poor individual defending as well; I don't think that can be ignored.

I also don't think we can ignore the fact that he's in the twilight of his career; I, for one, was surprised he didn't retire at the end of last season. I thought it was about time.

Re: Doyle - he's a full blooded defender who still has the same old positional deficiencies. I've always seen his characteristics as suiting the CB role rather than FB, personally. He constantly fails to track his runner and gets caught for pace. 

What about Rossi, he has played 72% of games and was our big foreign, ex Serie A defender. How much blame should he shoulder? What about 3 different head coaches in 2 seasons? And his performances for the AWs the past couple of years show that perhaps he is a decent defender but other issues - personnel changes, defensive transitioning of the team, defensive ability of midfield etc. are possibly a bigger factor for our defense than scapegoating Dura.

I still think Dura was an equal to Fox last season as our best CBs; Fox being able to recover due to his athleticism but let down positionally at times while Dura was better positionally and better with the ball. 

Can we please stop comparing Dura's performances for the AW's (which were mediocre, lets be honest; though his last handful were better) to his Nix performances? In the All Whites setup, we're usually forced to play overly defensive football because of the opposition we are up against. In the A-League, this is not the expectation as it's a salary capped league where every team should realistically try and setup to attack the oppoisiton.

Unknown editor edited July 19, 2018 05:51
Bullion wrote:
valeo wrote:
Bullion wrote:
Leggy wrote:
martinb wrote:

Thought he did well against Peru.

Agree, but he  had a lot  better players around him and that in itself will make a big difference.

He's generally been pretty good for the AWs. Decent at the confed cup too.

I don't think correlation equals causation in that Dura has played about 75% of the games in the past 2 years and our defense has been poor - Ridenton has played the same amount of games; how much blame does he carry? Tom Doyle has played 70% of the games in the past 2 seasons, is he to blame? Scapegoating one player is a bit shark.

I would argue that defensive personnel changes is a bigger issue - we went something like 20 games in a row with a change in defensive personnel last season and was similar the season before. Is Dura secretly injuring players, getting them suspended or AW call ups?

By the same token, you can't completely admonish him of the responsibility. The fact is that he's been our most senior defender and leader, and he's overseen poor defensive records for a number of years. Yes, a lot of that is due to poor structure but a lot of that has been due to poor individual defending as well; I don't think that can be ignored.

I also don't think we can ignore the fact that he's in the twilight of his career; I, for one, was surprised he didn't retire at the end of last season. I thought it was about time.

Re: Doyle - he's a full blooded defender who still has the same old positional deficiencies. I've always seen his characteristics as suiting the CB role rather than FB, personally. He constantly fails to track his runner and gets caught for pace. 

What about Rossi, he has played 72% of games and was our big foreign, ex Serie A defender. How much blame should he shoulder? What about 3 different head coaches in 2 seasons? And his performances for the AWs the past couple of years show that perhaps he is a decent defender but other issues - personnel changes, defensive transitioning of the team, defensive ability of midfield etc. are possibly a bigger factor for our defense than scapegoating Dura.

I still think Dura was an equal to Fox last season as our best CBs; Fox being able to recover due to his athleticism but let down positionally at times while Dura was better positionally and better with the ball. 

Can we please stop comparing Dura's performances for the AW's (which were mediocre, lets be honest) to his Nix performances? In the All Whites setup, we're usually forced to play overly defensive football because of the opposition we are up against. In the A-League, this is not the expectation as it's a salary capped league where every team should realistically try and setup to attack the oppoisiton.