Phoenix Transfer - speculation (Part 1)

Well about as much depth as you can get in this league. I hope that one day the salary cap increases and teams are allowed 25 players in their squads, I don't think 23 allows for a completely full depth of players.

whoever we sign for the last places, I'm pretty sure most of us would agree that it looks a stronger squad than last season

Definately - especially in defence. More confident that we wont be looking like a bunch of headless chickens back there now.

Yeah, IMO it's a stronger squad now than it was when we played Melbourne last August.

you guys think we can make the top 4 with the current squad?? 

i think we could give it a good shot i think our recruitment hass been up with the best in the league this season

Whitby boy2008-06-20 17:52:54

I dont like Kwasnik as a player, at all. But when he's all thats left, what can ya do?

I think we can.

good points mate, i think as far at right back goes, if lia fails we still have dodd to look at, and if he fails we have christie, who, after all the bemoanings, wasnt actually that bad, and would be a lot better with a solid central defence next to him. also cover for lochhead is daniel, he's played there before, and we have enough attacking mids to cover easily.

o and also, everyone is so keen on costa, if god forbid something happens to smeltz, play covs for 50-60 and bring on costa, problem solved

lookin good to me, team looks more balanced  and overall stronger.

Here's a general highlights clip of Kwasnik:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=or5ZN3VqrjY

Doesn't look too bad to me, he has an eye for goal and can also play down the left wing and send in a decent cross. I think he would be an ok signing, don't think he'd make the first team, but I don't think we want to start with two strikers anyway because if we want to play Gao, Bertos, Daniel and Ferrante with Dodd holding we need to line up in a 4231. Therefore I see Kwasnik as a bench player and as injury cover for Smeltz and our wide players.

Unless we can find someone better (and that isn't looking very likely now), then look at things this way. Would we be stronger with him, or without? He certainly scored quite a few more goals than Coveny did last season....

If Kwasnik can hit his boots, Smeltz wasn't just a one-off and Durante/McKain live up to the hype, Nix will be one of several teams in the mix for top 4/2.

Dont go off the highlights packages please, HN can be made to look good that way...





... or not :)

He may of only netted once last year but Cov worked his ass off. Got us a couple of penalties if I remember right.

Yeah covs' gangly strides put the defender in two minds wether to commit to the tackle or not and when they go for it covs will win the free kick more often than not,

Id like to see :

Smeltz will be very tightly marked this season - even more so than last season as teams will know from the first game what a threat he is. We need a second goal scorer who can knock in 5 or 6 to complement 7 or 8 (hopefully more) from Smeltz and also drag some defenders off him. Bertos scored 1 in 35 games at Perth, Gao 1 in 7 games at the Knights, and Ferrante 1 in 15 games last season - they will chip in with a valuable goal here and there but they are providers not finishers. Daniel scored a credible 4 last year but that contribution plus Smeltz plus a second scorer contributing 5 or 6 is what we need. I expect Dodd, McCain, Durante will contribute from set pieces not open play.

Sure, Covs did some good work last season, but you wouldn't want to rely on him to score much this year is all I'm saying, he's a year older as well remember! If Smeltz got injured you want somebody young who can last the 90 minutes and give you a constant goal threat.

I'd say Kwasnik probably offers a little bit more in that respect than Covs, and Costa doesn't have the experience yet, although who knows, he could be fantastic for us. It's just that I wouldn't want to start the season with just those two as the only alternatives.

Oh and in response to Whitby, I'd say Ferrante will score more than once this coming season, Daniel will score at least 4 again and that Gao and Bertos will also score more than one goal if we play 4231. A formation like that brings your wide mids into dangerous positions far more than a standard 442 or 352 (the formations used predominantly throughout last season, with the only variation being Felipe in the hole from time to time instead of a 2nd striker).

Under 4231 you want your wide attackers pushing in to support the centre forward and sometimes cutting inside when they are in possession as well, creating space down the flanks for the fullbacks to exploit. I'd say we have a pretty good set of players to execute the formation and consequently our attacking mids should be able to come up with enough goals to decrease our reliance on Smeltz somewhat.


KTBW2008-06-20 20:06:40

according to HN he's more of an attacking midfielder.

I think Daniel will be in the middle in a sort of free-reign/playmaker role and Leo and Gao will play off him down the wings. All three may even be encouraged to swap positions during play.

Yes he is.

hearfield aussie stats appearences (goals) - off wikip and up til november i think tigers2008-06-20 20:44:09

The thing is, we actually scored enough goals last season. If we were to play 2 up front in a traditional 442 then we would be opening up the midfield and would run the risk of teams dominating us in the center, putting extra pressure on our back four.

If we score the same amount as last yearand can just concede less then we should be in contention for the top 4. Look at the Jets, they won the whole thing and basically had one player who scored all their goals. Our defense should be as good as anyones with the additions of McKain and Durante. If our attack can be as effective as it was last season then we will be fine.
KTBW2008-06-20 23:29:02

Didn't we kind of drop off with the scoring rate in the last 1/4 of the season?

I'd be very happy with Kwasnik, he was always a threat playing against the Nix and the Knights, as either a replacement for an injured Smeltz or either partnering him up front i think he'd be great in a Nix shirt.

Announcement Monday morning?

Gao will score a few, he seems to find the net well enough ...

You can't just go and discout penalties first of all, its not like we won't receive any this coming season! Secondly, who would have thought Ross would have scored those goals, he hardly had a pedigree for scoring when he joined us. You can't base everything on a players track record. I am actually pretty confident that the likes of Daniel, Bertos and Gao in particular will come up with some goals, with further support from Ferrante, Costa (off the bench) and our center backs from set pieces.

I have no problem with signing Kwasnik, we need him to provide cover for Smeltz or as an attacking substitute if we are chasing a game. You seem to be arguing that we need to play with two strikers up front though. If that's the case, who will you drop to the bench? You can't play 2 up front and also have all of Gao, Daniel, Bertos and Ferrante on the pitch at the same time. I'd say dropping Ferrante would be a bad idea because he is a genuine central midfielder. Bear in mind that you need to fit a holding midfielder in there as well. That leaves one to drop out of Bertos, Daniel and Gao, and frankly, I doubt we can sign somebody more deserving of a place in our starting XI than any of them.
KTBW2008-06-21 15:03:31

You guys sure you got Kwas see below

WG:

Five Central Coast Mariners players - including key midfielder Mile Jedinak and striker Matt Simon - have signed two-year contract extensions.

The A-League Premier has also tied up midfielder Mile Jedinak and Brad Porter and defender Nigel Boogaard until the end of the 2009/10 campaign.

"Nigel, John, Mile, Brad and Matt have each made noteworthy contributions to our A-League successes this season and I�m certain that they will all play a major part in the future success of the Mariners."

Boogaard, 21, has been one of the club's unsung heroes this season and should be part of Australia's Olympic Games squad in Beijing come August.

The consistent performances of Hutchinson, 28, were rewarded with a Socceroos training camp call-up - although he has subsequently missed out on being part of Pim Verbeek's provisional squad for the World Cup qualifier against Qatar next week.

Defensive midfielder Jedinak, 23, is one of Lawrie McKinna's key men and has firny established himself in the starting XI after joining the club on a short-term deal.

Simon, 22, has impressed with his performances this season and McKinna has even used the Olyroos forward ahead of the more experiences Sasho Petrovski during the campaign.

Local product Porter, 20, has yet to crack it as a permanent first teamer but has time on his side - being the club's third youngest member of the Central Coast�s current squad.

"As we�ve said from day one, the Mariners are not about instant success, we�re very committed to ensuring long-term success and stability and it is very much with an eye for the long term that we�ve re-signed these players," Gorman added.

The quintet join Dean Heffernan, Adam Kwasnik, Paul O�Grady, Greg Owens, Sasho Petrovski, Danny Vukovic and Alex Wilkinson who has already committed their futures to the Mariners for season four of the A-League.

This was quoted in our squad thread on Feb 1 this year.

Sounds like he is on contract to me!!!

I give up...

pledging future doesnt mean anything anymore, what was bertos saying befor his transfer? he wanted to stay at perth. we'll see what happens, could go either way

thats exactly the reason im giving up guessing anymore

Yeah... well we didn't want Kwasnik anyway (in the voice of an 11 year old)