Marco Rojas - The retirement of the Kiwi Messi

Did your bad german tell you that? My bad german said that as well, something about a penalty and punishment

The Penalty was handball outside the box. Rojas shot beat the goalie but not the crossbar. Thun had a lot of chances, and the the result should have be much higher. The coach complaint about the unused chances and that the next time they don't get away with not using them.

his connection to Stuttgart is definitely starting to fade into the past......can't imagine him ever returning there

3-3 draw so out of Europe. Marco played 46 minutes and then was subbed.

The Hobbit from the Tron, subbed on at 46mins during FC Thun's 0-1 loss to St Gallen.

Thun (in blue) miss a penalty and I think Macro is shrugged when St Gallen score, but it could be my cataracts playing tricks

http://footballhighlights24.com/highlight/switzerl...

Full 90 in a 0-1 loss to BSC Young Boys. Thun are just above the relegation zone on goal difference (7 pts) after 10 games.

Marco involved in most of Thun's chances:

Rojas is certainly a fantastic dribbler of the ball but he needs to shoot earlier. His coach should be telling him to run at players, cut in/out then shoot earlier. It's like he is trying to dribble it in. His best goals at Victory were a result of shooting early- he can do it. 

Yep, playing well but holds onto it that fraction too long. His head is usually down, which is a bit of a problem

Thun seem to be paying the price of losing last year's manager Urs Fischer to mighty Basel.

If Basel signed him, then he must have been the best available manager in Swiss football.

Basel only sign very good managers.

Marco Rojas probably got the gig at Thun last season on Wynton Rufer's recommendation.

Urs Fischer was Wynton's team mate at FC Zurich in the 1980's.

Rojas to Basel, you heard it here first.

Scott Chipperfield will recommend him on twitter (as he did with Adama Traore, former MV player)

68 mins in a 1-1 draw at FC Vaduz. Thun were leading until an unfortunate own goal cost them 2 points.

Marco an unused sub for the 5-1 home thrashing of last-placed FC Zurich on 18 October

Not even on the bench for the 2-1 home win vs. Lugano on the weekend.

Injured?

Thun sixth on the ten team table:

http://int.soccerway.com/national/switzerland/supe...

Marco is only getting intermittent game time for Thun .

Started and lasted 57 minutes in the Swiss Cup win away to Wettswil-Bonstetten on October 27

But was an unused sub in the 2-1 away league win vs. Grasshoppers on the weekend.

http://int.soccerway.com/teams/switzerland/fc-thun...

Has appeared in only eight of Thun's 14 league games so far this season (6 starts, 2 as a sub)

Not exactly setting the Swiss league on fire...

His real level seems to be as an average Swiss league player.

Similar career path to the young Aussies who were standouts in the A-League but have struggled in Europe.

Robbie Kruse interestingly is unwanted by Leverkusen so they've loaned him to Marco's parent club Stuttgart where he's played just 35 minutes so far in the Bundesliga (one sub appearance for Stuttgart in September).

Kruse made four sub appearances totalling 46 mins for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga last season.

Like Marco, he's pretty injury-prone.

come home little man, come home

From Marco's FB page, dated the 29th:

Game has kicked off against FC Wettswil-Bonstetten
Great for Marco to be back from injury!
Hopp Thun! ⚽⚽⚽

Fark. 

Was on the bench for the Nov. 21 game.

Remains stuck on 8 appearances this season (6 starts, 2 as a sub)

Thun only have two more games before Xmas after this morning's fixture.

They then have a winter break until  February 5 2016.

His ankles an on-going problem or is that just me?

Desperately needs to return to the A-League, would do well to work under the Phoenix medical staff.

Why?

Injuries are a part of football.He's more likely to be spotted playing in a decent Europe league than in the A League.

Well he isn't exactly getting game time in Europe is he? And the nix have a good record of keeping players fit. (knock on wood)

not a striker

Ifil - Griffiths... 

it doesn't matter how good your staff is, they can't predict and can't protect against bad luck.

Well both of those players were over 30, of course you can only do so much. 

If you compare how healthy the Phoenix squad has been over the last few years compared to other teams in the comp (Sydney, and Melbourne City come to mind) then they have been one of the squads with fewer interruptions due to injury.

To measure accurately the success of a medical staff you need more than a few years history... telling a player to come back because of injuries is silly IMO.

The injury thing was a throw away line, the main point was for him to come back and get game time. Focussing on one half of a sentence that obviously wasn't the point of it is in itself silly.

The people that say you have to go to Europe to succeed are just euro snobs. You can develop in the A-League and even get the eye of foreign scouts much easier than in europe because you actually get game time. 

I'd rather be playing in the A-Leage 90 minutes week in week out than getting a few minutes here and there in Europe. It's not like he's getting lots of minutes in what is a pretty poor league by European standards. I could see the argument for being a bench warmer if your playing in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Russia, The Netherlands, etc. But not if your a bench warmer in Switzerland, or in the 3rd division in France like Tuiolama then come home and get some game time.

Just look at young players like Bonevacia and Rodriguez who come from Europe to the A-League specifically to get first team football.

Left too early, or went to the wrong competition. But there is no harm coming back and being a big fish in a small pond for a while to rebuild your confidence and career. 

Kosta is a good example as is Burns.

Troisi too

To be fair, he has been involved in 17 games this season at an average of 68 min per game.

http://www.transfermarkt.com/marco-rojas/leistungs...

They had to go and try their luck. It hasn't worked out. Come back to the A League and re-establish yourselves. No shame in this.

They play 30 odd matches a season? That is more than I thought he was getting.

Looks like 36 games in the league then add in Europe and Cup comps and will be over 45 games this season:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/fc-thun/spielplan/ver...

Thun have played 26 games this season - Marco has played in about two thirds of Thun's games.

And been away a couple of times with the All Whites 

Yeah, thought he had been going alright until this injury by all accounts.

probably on a pittance tho compared to Rojas...

Money is the key issue when you have a window of 10-12 years to earn the bulk of your lifetime earnings. I imagine his contract at Stuttgart would have been about £10k a week, so he will still be on that at Thun. It is probably 2 or 3 times he would earn playing for the Phoenix.

I don't understand what Marco Rojas would have learned from playing another season in the A-league? When Rojas left he was the best player in the competition. If he stayed for another year he would have just dominated again but known nothing about how to perform in a European league. His problem was that he didn't go to Europe when he was younger and given proper strength and conditioning. When you consider the expectations that were placed upon Rojas getting 2/3rds of a game 2/3rds of the time for a mid table team in the Swiss League was not what anyone wanted or expected from him. I think the difference with Burns and Troisi is that those players never dominated in their first Australian stints but always seemed to have potential. 

Rojas always has the fall back option of being a marquee player in the A-league. People are kidding themselves if they think he would come here without the big money. I think he should stick it out in Europe for a bit longer