2017/18 Season - Lineups, tactics, Predictions

Interested to see what people believe to be our strongest or most likely starting team, what style of football we can expect to see, and where we will end up on the table - a return to finals footy this season?

Our best XI for mine

Italiano

Galloway, Rossi, Durante, Doyle

Paracki, Abbas,

Krishna, Finkler, McGlinchey

Kaludjerovic

I don't know Kalezic's preferred system, but that's how I'd line up. Alternatively, Abbas to LB, McGlinchey beside Paracki and Vidosic onto the wing.

I think you'll see this in the midfield and pointy end:

                 Kaludjerovic

Vidosic                              Krishna 

                Finkler

Paracki                McGlinchey

The backline is the only open area, and it'll depend on who the fullbacks are, and also whether Darije is looking at Mullen as a potential CB too. That should start to crystallise over the next few weeks.

Quite a nice lineup but I don't see Vidosic as having been signed to warm the pine.  Just where exactly he slots in I don't know however.

I would be happy with these two lineups:

Italiano

Galloway, Durante, Rossi, Doyle

Paracki, McGlinchey

Vidosic, Finkler, Krishna

Kaludjerovic

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or if Finkler or McGlinchey are playing badly (surely one of them will be poor at some point), a 4-2-2-2

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Italiano

Galloway, Mullen, Rossi, Doyle

Paracki, Abbas

Mcglinchey/Finkler, Vidosic

Kaludjerovic, Krishna

I also think 3/5 at the back is a very real option, given our abundance of CB and lack of proper wide players.

Italiano

Galloway, Dura, Rossi, Mullen/Doyle, Abbas

Paracki, McGlinchey

Vidosic

Krishna, Kaludjerovic.

You might be right about this, simply to utilise our existing talent in their preferred position.

I also agree there is no way Vidosic is going to be an impact "off the bench" player. He'd be a starter, otherwise it's an absolute waste of money to bring him here. We need to field our strongest squad unless injuries / suspensions play part.

Whats our injury situation like at the moment? Read somewhere that everyone is about to come back from injury soon? Is anyone carrying long injuries? obv bar Louis. Is vidosic training? Rossi? Dura?

Italiano

Galloway, Rossi, Durante, Doyle

Paracki, WeeMac,

Krishna, Finkler, Vidosic

Kaludjerovic

Believe we will play defensive and mostly on the counter.

I think our formation will feature a goalkeeper and 10 outfield players.

Two of whom will refer to themselves, each in their mother tongue, as "Italiano".

Italianovic

Gallovic, Rossivic, Durantevic, Doylevic

Parackic, WeeVic,

Vichna, Finklic, Vidosic

Kaludjerovic

Just want to say that I'm loving how our team looks going into the season. All these line-ups look copetitive at least.

We're a definite Top 10 side this season.

Funny how all the experts in the media are picking us for the wooden spoon.

Moss

Lochhead Cleberson Dodd Old

Christie Aloisi Ferrante Daniel

Coveny Smeltz

6th for me..more goals but not enough.

Italiano

Mullen, Fox, Rossi, Galloway

Paracki, Abbas

Krishna, Finkler, Vidosic

Kaludjerovic

I know they do it every year, but this year it seems even stranger.

  Krishna will be away against fiji won't he?

Italiano

Mullen, Fox, Rossi, Galloway

Paracki, Abbas

Vidosic, Finkler, Parkhouse

Kaludjerovic

I realise that, although Perth wasn't a huge step up on us last year. It just feels like there's a lot of energy and positivity around the club and it's funny that it always gets dismissed.

The wellington phoenix 2017-18 season. Meh.

Is that helping or just neutral historically?

It's a reflex response whenever they see our name at the beginning of the season.

IMHO we could be fielding a whole line up of Bayern, or Barca, and the media would still say we're wooden spooners.

Just dabbling with what might be reasonable, roughly, based on historic stats:

Krishna (12), Vidosic (4), Finkler (6), McGlinchey (2), will all score a few for us.  AK (9) is just the decoy in the middle. ;)

Something like that;

=> 33 goals

Non starters, FBs and the other mids should be able to pick up a half dozen between them over the season, and the centre backs are a fair chance to get a couple.

So that'd get us to 41. That's the same number of goals as last year and we were 6th for goals scored.

Maybe there is a sliver of optimism in getting to 41, and an injury to either of the double Ks would hurt.  But not too far away from a reasonable assessment?

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Goals conceded last year was 46, 5th, 1.7 per game.

And that got us 7th, with a goal difference 5 away from 5th and 6th, who were both on a zero GD, 10 away from fourth and 11 away from third.

On that somewhat wet finger exercise I'd say we have a pretty reasonable chance to be competitive for the top 6, and to go a bit better than that, assuming Paracki with the rest of the D are more solid than last year.  I think apart from a bit of concern with Italiano and maybe counting chickens for Paracki improving things, plus throwing in that the expected increased focus on the defensive coaching this year should help, you'd expect we should be significantly improved defensively.   So I am hoping for a base performance around 5th or 6th, but room to slip if we have a key injury up front. 

From there, to push towards top four it's all about the obvious - the D performing extremely well and being tight as, and/or we get an extra half dozen or more goals out of that front five and the rest of the squad.  And doing all that in the right games.

An interesting season coming, I think, with some fine margins between being outside the six and pushing top four, and a fair bit depending on the spirit of the squad and how Paracki goes, as much as the performance of the front third players, I reckon.

Should be fun.

That looks pretty strong, only question for me is about Roy's effectiveness in a wider position.He's not a great provider even though when he's out wide his speed starts to shine through

I thought last year Krishna played quite a few nice balls in from the byline back towards the 6 yard box... it just lacked a striker hungry enough / good enough to get to the ball first.

I like the idea of him playing wider and isolating the full backs more.

Is anyone actually making ladder predictions in August? 

That's all fine and good, but we need more than one plan. 

In the past season or two, not having a plan B proved to be our undoing.

I think as others have also been saying we potentially have real versatility this year.  Abbas and Paracki at DM to close up shop against top sides and work on the counter is another.  Target man, front three, front two, overweight midfield, back three and wing backs, we seem to have the players to do any of that. It'll be interesting how Darije sets us up, how he varies that for specific opposition and how many options he thinks the squad can handle.  I'm wondering too if those infamous last minute goals against might get dealt to as well, with his defensive options for the bench.

I reckon our problem the last two seasons was that our Plan A was shark.

Brisbane only had one plan and they dominated the league.

Luckily no longer

Good teams tend to only need to use the one plan.