Player ratings v WSW

A poor first fifteen minutes then, hey.... we can play

Mossy 6 Apart from letting that shot in, when he would have seen it late, a good performance
Leo 6.5 Saved our bacon clearing off the line, combined qu well with Siggy
Siggy 7.5 No charging forward, some excellent work
Dura 8 Led by example, top work
Caira 6 Only got beaten a couple of times and was calm on the ball
Cunningham 5.5 Finding time to fit into the team play
Carlos 9 Some magic hold up play, so calm on the ball it infects his team mates, a great shot that deserved not to be saved
Manny 7 Great in centre midfield
Vinnie 6 Had a terrible first fifteen minutes, but helped keep our midfield tight, unlucky to have shot saved at point blank range
Stein 5.5 Was doing his job OK, but subbed
Hicks 6 Energy, a couple of dodgy moments, but mostly fitted in nicely to team pattern
Jezza 8 Wasteful in the beginning, but much better when up front, great goal
Ifill 9 Fantastic impact, set up the goal, great double save denied him a goal
Reira 5 Did OK, not quite up to speed yet.

Ernie 10 Excellent management

Come on Caira is horrenous, so is Sigmund. Sigmund without Durante would be even worse!

I still worry about Caira. He (and I) seem to panic when he's on the ball and he rushes it back to Dura or boots it out. He doesn't offer much going forward. Don't think he's a A-League quality leftback just yet.

on  Caira, you do realise its only his second start and has come up against Roar and WSW in first 2 games . Roar who just pumped sydney 4 nil . He did not get much help in defence from cunningham in the first half and when hersi was replaced fox compliment caira and hicks for keeping him quite . lets give these boys a chance to settle there nerves  , hicks included

Carlos was brilliant again. The ball seems to stick to his feet like glue. I only recall him getting tackled twice. Ifill setting up the goal was just amazing. Like playing FIFA 14 or something. For me, Kenny has a lot to prove. Mind you, not exactly big boots to fill am i right ?

Lia is just.........................dogshit*

*apologies to any dogshit that was offended by that comment.

Also played a nice cross field ball to pick out Brockie who then couldn't outrun the defence.

I posted last season that Ifill's passing (and reading of the game) was pretty darn good.

Hopefully the team only gets better throughout the season as combinations gel and newbies settle in. 

Caira- hasn't been much worse than Lochy, if at all and has been better than Hogg's performances for us. And probably on much less coin. Remember he got forward once and put in a good ball. But was defending against one of the top wingers in the league, and held on.

Caira was 10x (slight exaguration i know) better than their LB who got skinned constantly . Done well up against hersi imo

I think Caira did pretty well given his lack of experience, as per the first post.

Lia worth a six? Did you miss the decimal point off the front?

Lia was absolutely poor.. Again. He cannot pass a ball to save himself, which is a real problem for a central midfielder. Brockie was his usual uninvolved for 89 minutes self, but his goal clouds everyone's judgement on his performance. Caira is not up to A-league standard. Defensively he's all out of sorts, gives you nothing going forward either.

Hernandez was pure class today. The way that guy can hold on to the ball in tight situations and then play a quality pass is incredible. Dura was solid as always at the back, and Ifill looked quality when he came on (nice to see he remembers how to get past his man again!). Thought it was rather harsh on stein getting dragged and would have dragged brockie myself.

I have to keep telling myself it's better to watch an attempted good brand of football being played poorly than it is ugly football being played almost as badly.

Hopefully Merricks persistence will pay off and we see tje likes of Sigmund and Caira learn how to stay composed at the back with the ball at their feet and play 10yard passes instead of aimless long balls.

I don't get all the hating on Caira. He defends well and does the basics, he's only a young player on a his first two league starts.

He will get better and contribute more going forward and make better decisions on the ball as he grows in confidence

He did a pretty good job tonight against one of the more threatening wings in the league and that is a positive sign.

I thought Caira looked alright, I thought that Cunningham wasn't providing much option for him, thus all the 'saftey' passes to Durante.

My top 3, Ernie, Iffy and Dura.

Agree with this.

I like Caira. Whilst he hasn't yet done a lot going forward - as has been mentioned he's had some pretty tough opposition and hasn't always had as much support ahead of him as we'd probably like. Once things settle over the next few games he'll only improve as he gains experience and confidence.

I think Caira has gone really well defensively, looks relatively decent on the ball as well although could get forward more. Overall good start, good signing.

I thought that Caira startedoff quite nevously and hersi isnt the easiest to defend against, even the seasoned professions havent foundhim easy to contain. As the game went on he got better (in my view)

 I would like to see Reira get more game time as 5 minutes here and there wont show if he can play at this level or not

bump siggy up one more and leo up .5 maybe many down .5

please note I said lia or manny, too leave a striker at the top of the box alone is daft!

Haven't read the match thread yet but in case no one has said it, I thought Leo was very good at RB again.

I don't rate Lia, but I think he is proving a lot more effective this year than last.

Still can't pass, but he is making tackles and tracking well. 

I thought Hicks played some nice balls through and I like the look of him. Needs to release the ball a little earlier, but is developing well.

Great to see a manager ready to make changes early if things aren't working. Riki would have never pulled a player after 30mins.

Ciara did well, sure his passing was mainly backward, but he contained a fairly dangerous player for 90mins. Still yet to make an attacking cross however, which I find a little funny.

Lia = 0.5

Agree Lia has been crap, but imo in order to drop him we need manny to play like he was a couple of seasons ago. If hes anything like he was last season there will be way too much space in the middle.