Not suggesting he absolutely did match fix to get Victory instead of Adelaide, but he didn't exactly confirm that we were trying to win in the press conference. When asked if we were trying to win he said that we did what we needed to do, which was prepare for Melbourne victory. Very weird press conference, not many coaches are so indifferent after a 5-0 humping
The worst i've ever heard was Mark McGhee after we (Aberdeen) got pumped 9-0 at Celtic Park. His response? It's just 3 points. Needless to say, the support went apoplectic at this.
But agree, bizarre thing for him to say, and you'd say he was clearly hoping for Victory, probably based upon our results against them this season.
Maybe a masterstroke to play against Victory, but I doubt it, they will fudge us so hard, nothing in the last 5-6 games shows us that we can win this.
I do not listen to him anymore, but I read last weeks pre-game article that he is close with Poppa and he wanted to win. Then I saw the lineup and the result is worse than I expected and killed my otherwise brilliant sunday.
I prefer coaches who always want to win and I can't see anything in playing kids against top opposition, this is not a training match, this supposed to be entertainment. Screw this.
I don't disagree with the line-up we had last night, there was nothing to be gained by playing guys at risk of suspension, or exposing Krishna to injury in a game with very little meaning (and I wouldn't have brought him on at all). In terms of our opposition, once the results went the way they did prior to Sunday, the prospect of going to Melbourne became very real, and I suspect it would have likely been the result even if we'd played the usual starting XI.
I can understand people saying that they'd prefer to play Victory over Adelaide, because it feels like we competed better against the former this season. That, of course, completely glosses over two pretty critical facts: 1) Victory have a long history of notching things up a gear or two in the playoffs, and 2) we had the fortune of playing Victory in quick succession while Honda was injured, so he's only played 30-odd minutes against us this season (he missed the first two games, and only came on in the second half of the third).
I guess we'll see how it goes on Friday, but I'm not holding my breath.