Glory vs LOLington - Match Thread

Gao, Daniel and Bertos still haven't started together during the season proper.

Agree with this except Siggy for Mulligan.

After his performance coming on on sunday I'm still tossing up with wether I'd prefer Mulligan or Siggy at RB, but for the sake of continuity and his freekick ability I think Mulli edges it.

Top news lads, it looks like a 433 and Coveny left out of the squad. The bad news is that Kwasnik appears to be fit and I'm worried that Ricki is considering giving him a start. Also Leo is out and Ferrante and Brown look a good chance to start as well.

Here's how I'd line them up in a 433:

                        Moss

Sigmund - Durante - McKain - Lochhead

                         Brown

                Ferrante - Daniel

Hearfield            Smeltz                 Gao


Bench:
Paston
Dodd
Mulligan
Kwasnik

However I can't see Ricki starting Daniel as one of his 3 CM's so unless he is actually going to play 4231 again (with any one of the 3 AM's in the hole) I suspect Johnson or Dodd will start as the DM and Brown and Ferrante will feature as the two CMs. This leaves a likely front 3 of Hearfield, Gao and Smeltz. Not a bad lineup when I think about it but I would prefer both Gao and Daniel on the pitch at the same time.

Also Mulligan will probably start again in place of Sigmund, if this does happen lets hope that he at least takes some set-pieces this time.

So therefore, the formation I think Ricki will play looks like this:


                        Moss

Mulligan - Durante - McKain - Lochhead

                   Dodd/Johnson

                Ferrante - Brown

Hearfield            Smeltz                 Gao

Bench:
Paston
Sigmund
Daniel
Kwasnik
                        

I just hope this 4-3-3 doesn't signal a plan to just completely bypass the midfield and hope one of the three front men can run onto long balls...

I'd get rid of Hearfield and Ferrante and replace them in the starting line up with Mulligan and Kwasnik.

 Are we gonna keep changing formation every week? The formation isn't the problem.
valeo2008-09-18 12:25:05

After the Adelaide debacle Herbert and Durante agreed inconsistentancy of formation and selection were contributing to the substandard football being played by the Phoenix and the poor results.

nightz2008-09-18 17:13:20

Given what Rickis said this is what I think will be played:

GLLLOOOORRRRYY
HHHHHHHHHHOLE Cosimo2008-09-18 18:36:27

I originally said Costa should be played, and I still think that. However, if he is not the best around, then it should not matter about the youth status as to who plays. You play the best players week in week out, regardless of their age.

we haven't got two currently prolific strikers, or a proven strike partnership...so 442 seems a bit sillly considering we do have an alleged weallth of attacking midfield/midfield players.

Kwasinik has to play I guess, and hopefully contribute sooner rather than later. He was in preseason ?

As a coach i'm feeling Herbets pain! When you've got fresh blood coming in trying to re-jig the formation to suit your players strengths is a pain in the ass, let alone trying to accomodate their preferences! Took me 4 games to get the formation right with my juniors, and that was after 2 "friendlys" allowing me to experiment! Hopefully Herbert finds his straps soon, the boys are just a fraction off clicking, KEEP THE FAITH!

A fraction? I think it could be another couple of weeks before they even look like they're going to be playing attractive football about five weeks after that. We went back to square one and really looked like it against the salty sea dogs, it was first pre-season game stuff.

The more I think about it the more I think that we have the players to be successfull and top four probably wasn't unrealistic initially but the pre-season was far too long and we didn't even peak because the players were so tired and bored of constant friendlies.
The management probably saw that we had no build-up last year and went overboard this time (didn't they start training in April???!!!), I guess we chalk it up as experience and hope they get it right next year.

Sixth, and possibly even fifth is very possible but it will take several weeks for us to get to a point where we will be up to the standard of the other teams. I think the observations that Ricki is looking for a 'silver bullet' of a formation are correct and I also think that he is still fixated on reaching the top four, which lets face it, isn't going to happen without a dead-set miracle.

If I was Ricki I would forget about the top four and concentrate on getting the team playing good football again, like we saw at times last year and in the preseason, and then focus on results and set sixth place as the minimum, 'must achieve' benchmark.
Critical_Lemon2008-09-19 03:00:11

thank god some of the people on here are not football managers is all i have to say

Agreed, some of this Costa 'logic' is mind boggling. I'm not saying I know best but seriously guys this game against Perth is an absolute must win and you are suggesting we pin our hopes on a largely untested kid who by all accounts didn't really do a great deal when playing for the Rams and shone in one game right at the tailend of last season when there was nothing to lose.

Hearfield, Bertos, Gao and Daniel have all shown they have the skill and ability to go beyond a player at various points this season, haven't you been paying attention? All these players also have more experience, in some cases probably a similar amount of pace (Gao, Bertos, Hearfield) and quite probably more skill on the ball as well. Have a look at the squad I suspect Ricki is likely to field again. There might be a case for putting Costa ahead of Kwasnik on the bench but to be honest I'd say this is not the game to do it. Perhaps later in the season if we are actually in a situation where there is nothing to lose by playing Costa, an injury crisis or we are confident of a result, say at home to an injury ravaged Perth team once we hit a strong vein of form. Otherwise, lets give our established players another shot to find some consistency and prove their form.

I agree, pinning our hopes on Costa is beyond stupid and into the realms of Brick Tamland. Sure Frank Farina has blooded some talented young guys but they don't play 90 minutes every game and the Roar are a very strong side with good depth from what I've seen. Kruse and Zullo do not have the hopes of the entire Roar fanbase rested on them.

Having said that, I really want to see Costa and Draper get more game time this year.
Critical_Lemon2008-09-19 15:24:07

we've got one goal down in our biggest game for a long time and suddenly we've got nothing to lose? Might as well throw on Hard News and hope for a lucky bounce off his belly?

I'm now seriously looking at this formation working. It's called the double L formation and is rarely used

No it's not, every side has right sided players....

Now if you could send them down the left you'd run in to Hyphen who is kind of rubbish.

Royal2008-09-19 16:35:25

Nikolai Topor-Stanley.  Purf gLOLry Left Back.  ex-Sydney.

Ah

I like the Kwas, let's give him a chance to find his spot in the side.

God, I'm dreading this game. Do not have a good feeling about it at all.

Kwasnik's rubbish.

Have we got an email addy for the team hotel to send good luck messages?

There is no real reason not to blood Costa from the bench. A 10 minute at the end when in a stable/controlled game with clear results is never a bad thing.

The thing is we haven't been in that state in any of our league games to allow that as much as the other franchises because we have a couple of seasons behind them. Granted we are under more pressure in terms of development to quickly blood someone but we are still concern about results in the first prepared season and giving our first lineup players more game time is the best way about it rather than starting an unproven kid.

He's not really turning many heads and still very young. Maybe he's a premature footballer because he wasn't able to nab a OlyWhite spot. If he had nab an OlyWhite spot, then maybe he is bench ready.

But as it is, too young, premature, not even benched ready. When Ricki thinks he is ready, you will see him on the bench ahead of another player and not by default on someone's illness/injury and not before.

BTW Development phase is an ongoing thing you know. There should be no such thing as a rebuilding period, it is always a bit of natural rebuilding at any time of the season.AllWhitebelievr2008-09-19 18:16:42

I really do think that Kwasnik should be used as an impact player, I think he'd give a lot more coming off the bench when we need an attacking boost than drifting around in the general vicinity of the oppositions third of the pitch for 90 minutes

Look we need a win here big time, a draw doesn't help us or the Glory, I hope we go out with an attacking mindset especially after last weeks negative tactics.