Match 10 vs Perth Glory | Sun 7th Mar | 6:05pm | SS7

Glory have been rather good this season, their lack of games played hides that fact when you look at the table.

Perth are scoring goals for fun and i don't see that stopping against us, They are with out doubt the top side this season and nothing more then a narrow 0-3 loss will be a success. If Sail stays in form then maybe a 0-2 loss.

I'll wait with any opinions until I see how their game against CCM pans out.

PDBS

red card for Castro, groin injury for Fornaroli, fallout with the coach for Kilkenny and we are in with a shout

not overly confident with this one. Shame it’s them as they’re a bit of a tough cookie for us at the best of times.

We're 1W 1L vs Perth in neutral Sydney venues. (unless we randomly played them in Sydney a while back)

They have to travel further than we do. 

We have a longer rest.

We're acclimatized to the weather and conditioned to the timezone.

We have a Waine Train.

They'll be coming off a shorter break between games and having to travel from Perth so hopefully that'll work in favour to us

and coming off a loss to the matt simon crew

Lol they travel to the east coast often enough to acclimatise, it’s only a 2 hour difference, their away form isn’t terrible also. It’s not like the Nix have been in red hot form while in playing in WIN Stadium this year either

Yea mate, i'm scraping the bottom of barrel for some positivity 

So, Perth are not different from our performance against CCM then...

We seem to play better against inform teams (see us vs CCM and us vs MV) so I personally rate our chances of at least a draw.

Hope they start with the same XI that started against CCM. 

how have they got Keogh and Fornaroli under the cap?

Yes, salary cap is a joke.

if the clubs own the league they have to enforce the cap I guess 

Hemed to score!

... how much is TAB paying for a draw?...

How much is the TAB offering on Hemed scoring a goal? Or Scoring a goal and getting a yellow card? Or scoring a goal and getting caught offside at least 5 times??

any news on the injuries front? is Hemed or Devlin back fit to start?

I'd bring McGarry in and move Laws back to CB with McGing going to the bench. If Devlin is fit then he comes in for Lewis. While Waine has his +/-'s, Id still keep him in over Hemed but would understand if Uffie made the call to start with Hemed. Otherwise, keep the setup the same.

I think McGing will hold his spot, Tim Payne might well keep the other centre defence spot too.Yes Devlin for Lewis and McGarry to start. Agree, give Waino the start. Cmon boys!!

Not sure Devlin is my first choice midfielder now. Our midfield has been much better with Lewis/Rufer. Devlin has a fantastic engine and presses well but his passing is poor and doesn't shield the back four. Without Steinmann to cover for him, he just isn't the same player.

Controversial! Lewis is improving every part of his game all the time and has even tested the keeper a few times, which is more than Rufer and Devlin look like they'll ever do. 

On the other hand not sure I can agree Devlin's passing is poor, just that Lewis's is a little better. If there is an issue for me with the midfield it's that Piscopo is not really cut out for the amount of defensive cover he's being asked to do and this often leaves a large hole in front of the left side defenders.

Happy to see that competition and that's tough news for Matty Ridenton, but he's guna have to do more or reinvent himself to get in the team.

You do have the feeling that Devlin and Rufer are competing for one spot. Still some questions over Lewis' fitness and engine for mine, but it makes us a more dynamic team with him in there. 

RR makes a good point about piscipo's lack of natural defensive discipline.  Add davila's to that mix, and we do look fragile in midfield.  Maybe we stop playing a two DM's and push Rufer (id actually prefer Lewis) higher into a orthodox CM role??.  Ps Devlin is still pretty close our best player.  Players like him are very hard to find, and keep....

Another theory is pick your best 11 players and figure out the formation that will work for them. Can't figure how we can get 3 Cm/dm types in though. Rufer back to CF?

It's a test for Uffie I guess. 

I liked Lewis in the CM role, Rufer plays the DM role ok but he isnt really a play maker like lewis, neither is Devlin. Id like to see a lewis/devlin mix.

Lewis was better in the last game, but still has nothing of Devlin.

We have dominated teams in the middle all season and lost, last week, we were dominated for large parts and manage to win with a fair bit of luck going our way.

I think people are reading the scoreline, more than the actual impact of the player.

I like Lewis, but there is daylight between him and Devlin currently.

Taylor's return adds a new twist now as well. He's already waiting in isolation and I wonder how long before he can step in.

For me, Devlin is more combative, and brings a bit more steel and energy in defence, which when he's not there we miss. As a combo Lewis and Devlin are both quite short, so is Payne for a CB. That's why I feel the Rufer Devlin combo is still our number one DM pairing. But good to have options and it depends really who we are up against and at what stage a particular game is at. Also think Lewis has played well and deserves to be in the conversation.

looks loike he'll be in the squad for the game on the 21st

suddenly we have 4-5 CB options! 

Tayls might score some goals too. And he'll sharktalk Matt Simon and his ilk

Devlin is ahead of any other central midfielder in this team by an incomprehensible margin. Would like him in a midfield three though, as you're right, he usually needs a holding mid to make up for his roaming tendencies. 

Lewis and Rufer is more conservative, as even though they're two attack-minded midfielders they don't have high work rate/field coverage. Rufer's quite bad positionally, so he's a bad fit with Devlin; putting Lewis next to Devlin doesn't make the best use of his ability imo, though he might be nice as a deep playmaker. Just miss Steinmann man...