For me Kopa isn't good enough to hold a visa spot, if he could do a job at DM as well as CB then I could see him being good enough for the squad but doesn't stand out enough for me.
really??, until he moved into the CB role our back three looked awful. His playmaking ability form the back allowed Dura and Taylor to focus on defending instead of Dura bombing up field and being caught out.
I'd actualkly like to see us try and keep all the imports - excluding Kurto if he's already gone. It would be great to build a team around the foundation we've worked on all year. Rather the spending another season rebuilding.
The thing is, with or without Kopa, our backline was still pretty bad. We gave up by far the most goals of any team that made the top 6, and were significantly worse than Newcastle in that regard too, and that's despite having an above-average A-league keeper between the sticks for most of the season.
The problem with Kopa is, a) he couldn't do the role that he was brought in to do in the central midfield, and b) proved a decent option in the back three because of his passing ability, but his inexperience in that role shone through enough over the course of the season to suggest that a better solution is required. To top it off, he's an import player, and even if he's willing to take a pay cut, he may not accept that much of a pay cut.
To me, Kopa (and Sheridan too) are very similar to the imports we had last season - tidy players, who can do most things right, but not real difference makers, or guys you can build a team around. Players like that are basically dime a dozen in Europe, so you're better off rolling the dice in the hope of finding another Berisha or Fornaroli, and even if you don't, the chances are you're not gonna end up with much worse than with what you have (at least with the likes of Kopa, Sheridan, Paracki, Ljujic, etc).
Mandi is one that I'm a bit more on the fence about, we were definitely a much better team with him on the park, but he only really had legs for 60 minutes, which basically meant that you either had to take him off, or basically concede the middle of the park in the final stages of the game, and brace yourself for an errant pass or three. The problem there is that finding players who can be effective in the middle of the park is very hard even in this league, and they also cost money. So then you have a much more difficult to decision to make, because going to the market in that scenario means that the potential for a miss is higher, but then it also means that if you can't count on Mandi as a 90 minute player, you have to find a way of holding your own in the middle of the park in the closing stages of games, especially against better sides in the league. The good thing there is that Talay we'll be able to get a sense (and maybe already has) of how he wants to deal with that situation so that we're on the front foot there, unlike in the previous couple of seasons.
Nailed it. Our season pretty much succeeded on the back of two strikers who had the goal scoring seasons of their life (Williams and Krishna) and a goal keeper who played very well.
In the big games our midfield and defence was well below the level of the teams capable of winning the competition, and our defence particularly got bailed out by a keeper who made some absolute worldies. Overall our defending wasn't great, we only kept 4 clean sheets all season and we had to outscore teams to win.
I doubt we can get a goal keeper as good as Kurto (Marinovich I am a bit dubious about because frankly his club career has been pretty weak and it's hard to judge him at international level). We really need to get another centre back to replace Kopa who isn't good enough, and for all the plaudits for Dura I think even in a three he's teetering.
Sheridan never seemed to fit with our system.
I'd keep Mandi personally, I think his range of passing makes him worth sticking with despite the fitness issue.