Darije Kalezić: We hardly knew ye.

I'm not totally convinced that he is not what we need. There have been commentator comments to back up the view of some on here that applaud how he has changed his game plan according to who we were playing and/or how any particular game was balanced - to me that is a sign of a better than average coach. How many times did we rip into Ernie and Rikki because he wouldn't do that? I think he's showing something we haven't had before and he deserves a chance to get the type of players he needs/wants. The time has never been better with so many contracts finishing this year, its not a situation a new[ish] coach would normally be in.

Exactly. I’m 99% behind Darije and i trust his ability, he knows better than all of us how to run the club (except Parkhouse on the right)

I agree 100%

Has it occurred to anyone that Des and Greenie picked up an utterly broken team and did much better than Kalezic despite not being able to recruit and with no pre season?

Personally, I enjoyed watching the football we played under Des and Greenie. We were not consistent, but they took Merrick's plan and added the concept of crossing to the mix and at times were were very dangerous.

as some one said before it was a pure commercial decision and not a footballing one.

In short taking the cheap route hoping the Kmart strategy would work out 

It wasted 6 months of a license that is ticking very loudly now

You don't know that at all, it's just bias talking. And, as been pointed out, the team performed a lot better under Des and Chris than under Darije. Maybe they should have got the head role.

To be fair, there were some personnel differences between that team and this team.

Footballing decision/ Commercial decision.... I prefer to call it what it was. A shark house decision.

We look nothing like that at all at the moment.

Agreed.

Then why not appoint them instead if DK

The whole problem is we threw away literally 6 months when we do not have the luxury of time

Has he gone yet?

Based on my vague thoughts of him arriving etc, he has recruited the following

Andreja Kaludrovich, Scott Galloway, Daniel Mullen, Ali Abas, Goran Parascki, Nathan Burns, Matije Lubijijc, Keegan Smith, Tando Valaphi, Monty Patterson, Sarpreet Singh, Libby Cacace,

Admittedly Patterson and Flappy are newcomers but it is still 12 players. He also supposedly agreed on extensions given players that were resigned before his arrival. And that is not counting Dario Vidosic

Amongst the "others", the following would be considered to be at least "servicable at A league level, no mugs and able to adapt to a new system:

Dura, Doyle, Fox, Rossi, Wee Mac, Ridenton, Krishna

So that is 18 or 19 players he has either recruited, or considered to be adequate footballers.

How big a crack of the whip is this bloke going to get?

We are going backwards at a huge rate of knots,

If he has we’ll be told in the regular Friday email. Like all important announcements. 

I think that is true, but he has also failed on his own terms by not being able to set up a team to consistently defend which is what he said what his priority.  So much chopping and changing at the back too - some of it from injuries but no consistent selections.  Goalkeeper doesn't help

Andrew Voerman has looked at this before, and tweeted last night that it was the 14th different defensive combination in 19 games. Also mentioned that Mullen coming off would about the 5th time we've had to rejig our defence in the 1st half of a game this season.

Kalezic has to go. Replace him with a A-League coach not that guy who was sacked by Newcastle in 2006.

What about Myron Blyberg? (Spelling?)

I think you answered your own unposed question here.  Not really adamantly defending him, as I have no idea if he has the goods or not, but he has been hamstrung by a) the personnel and b) injuries to the already somewhat inadequate personnel.

I know that Darije has basically said that the squad is not HAL quality, and that is true to a point, but last night was not great for him either.

A coach should be able to setup the team so that they can consitently transition into the attacking third and be better at reducing the number of shots faced. Last night we struggled to transition the ball into the attacking third. WSW pressed quite high and we turned over the ball far too many times, adding to that problem is that our FBs are anticipating an attacking opportunity and pushing forward only to be caught out when we turnover trying to play out. And it's not like we were trying to play around too much with the ball, a lack of decent options plus pressure from WSW meant the defence had to play low quality passes forward which resulted in turnover in possession. Often we were able to find space in wide areas but with little option for the wide player other than trying to beat their opposite, again, many times resulting in turnover of possession. When Galloway was about to come on I thought we were moving to a back 5, possibly replacing an attacker, which may have helped as it would have meant that we would have an extra deeper player which would have made pressing harder for WSW and if our FBs are caught forward when we turnover possession there is more cover in wider areas - Mullen's injury meant that was not the case and not sure if it was something Darije contemplated. Basically WSW had us figured out and there was little to no adjustments made, we were not able to consistently move forward with ball movement but quite often having to rely on players consistently having to beat their opposite with ball at their feet or play low percentage passes due to lack of options.

Just great, now I have to dry the coffee from my screen and keyboard. PMSL

the formation without Krishna doesn't work... but he persists. Need a change

Bleiberg, for all his colour and fizz, has put an end to his coaching career and is happily specialising in vinyl and carpets now.

He has not coached since he threw his toys out of the cot after Clive Palmer decided to show him who's the boss.

If you are really into recycled Queensland coaches, I would be prepared to give Mike Mulvey a go.  The problem is, I do not know if it is enough to have a different coach.  maybe we need a new team. Maybe we need a new club. My head is still hurting after the WSW game last night, and there is a head-shaped dent in my coffee table.

Might as well suggest Frank Farina.

Isn't Mulvey in Thailand? Made it to the end of season & through off-season, so must be going well there.

lets just face the facts - DK is here to stay for at least next season. the management has said as much. win, lose or draw he has been given the opportunity to change the club for the better - which is apparently what he is good at. I he cleans out the players that arent good enough and brings changes that work I'll keep backing him and club. If however this demise continues then I doubt we will be here in 2020.

agreed,

this has been our issue for a coupe of seasons now - finding players that  a) are at a-league quality or better b) actually want to play here

Get rid of DK and the bulk of the squad(inclues the deadwood players)

He worse than that guy that was incharge of Newcastle in 2006(not Richard Money) the other guy who was axed after 7 games.

I remember reading before DK came that he wasn't much of a recruiter and failed in the UK because of it, he's used to the manager and coach being seperate. He preferred to be a pragmatist and build a system around players rather than players around a system. 

Of course when he came he also said that he never was the full time manager at Stockport County and that he was the manager for a few games as a favor for a friend. So who knows what the truth is.

On one hand I like how blunt and honest he is, I like how he seems tactically aware and flexible, and I like how he can inteligently disect the game.

On the other hand is this team that much worse than the team that Greenacre and Buckingham almost took to the finals last year (and was also one of the higher performing teams for the second half of the season)?

Thanks. I was slowly recovering from the spectacle last night, and now I read your post and I am feeling much worse all of a sudden.

My issues is, the team doesn't seem to be making progress - he got rid of some dead wood in the transfer window, brought in a few players, but if anything we have gone backwards.

Also, I worry about the culture he is building, yes I like the fact that he is honest, but since he has arrived, he has a falling out with his assistant and some players and has publicly questioned the ability of his players publicly. I'm not sure the environment he is contributing to is condusive to positive change.

Well, the quote about him not being able to recruit was related to his failure in the English system at Stockport County, but he said that he was never the manager there anyway just a short term coach as a favor. That kind of makes sense seeing as he'd been coaching in the Eredivisie and Stockport County probably are in the lower leagues.

The immense elephant in the room is Krishna. 

He's our best and hasn't been playing.

Plenty of mixed messages 

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/9439...

"That was me doing a favour for me friend," he said.

"After two premier league clubs you don't go to the fifth level in England. I was there only a couple of weeks to do a favour to my friend, one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the world, Raymond Verheijen, so more than that I cannot tell you."

He's already cut a lot of dead wood and we are still crap. Are the replacements also dead wood?