R10 v Melb Victory | Fri 28 Dec | 9:50 | AAMI

Lets make it four in a row!.

Heads down and keep working at it, no room for complacency and they will do very well. Feet firmly on the ground time.

At the very least Sarpreet Singh can have a good look around the training facilities in Melbourne this week!

Huge game! Victory have been playing really good football. Nearly as good as us!

Would be nice if Honda is out again for this one.

If Victory want a Singh, they can go find their own. Plenty around, leave ours alone and stop the speculation or you may get what you really don't want.

Especially the corridor of fame, including a memorial plaque to those who, spurred on by bad advice, did not linger on in HAL and went on further afield, to warm the benches forever.

Agreed. And also, both under Ernie and Rudan, we can take credit for promoting Australian youngsters who would not necessarily get a chance to play at HAL level in their own backyard. The opposite is not necessarily true except Kosta.

On the one hand, I really doubt Marco is regretting his life choices. Sitting on the bench in the Eredivisie probably pays better than starting for the Tards and the lifestyle is probably all a young man could dream of.

On the other hand - there really is a problem with young Kiwi footballers thinking they're too good for us, many even before they get here.

Sarpreet will not have his father interferring like Marco's did.

Pretty sure there are injury clouds over Baena and Niedermeier, so that's handy. Would certainly help if Honda had to manage a Cambodia match over the weekend, too!

Stating the obvious really, but these next 3 can be pretty defining for rest of our season. I'd honestly be happy if we walked away with 4 points from this set - nice if we can get more of course (and we should set up to play for more too).

Starting 11 from Saturday probably get another go, although close call if Kopa is back and fit - if so, I'd be tempted to put Doyle on bench. And, maybe Williams starts over Burns to give us a bit more physical presence in front 3rd. Tough on Burns though - I'm in the camp that says he's bloody close to producing magic again.

I'd stick with the same XI and I think Burns is getting there. Really hope he gets his goal this time around. Hard to not give Williams a start though after producing what he did. 

Also, really hope Singh does decide his immediate future lies here rather than there (if true). Need young kiwis to stick around to help promote the game here. 

See it's like Paco Alcacer at Dortmund - he's so good off the bench that starting him might not be the best tactical move.

Burns works his arse off and gets the oppo defence ragged for Williams to get on a cause havoc.

Kopy straight back in, other then that as is, think Williams plays well as an impact striker coming on after Burns has run out of steam.  Pity the Nix don't have a friendly lined up for Burns to practice shooting/scoring in.

Couldn't agree more. 

Burns deserves a couple of goals but on a team level I like what he brings to the games. 

Normally I just write off any game in Melbourne as a loss but I'm actually excited to see how we got this Friday, this will be a real test to see how the "Rudalution" is going.

Over the past 3 seasons our record vs Victory is W4, L5. In fact, going into this season they were the only team we'd beaten 4 times in the last 3 seasons.

Draws between us & them have gone out of fashion, the last one being November 2010!!

Despite us being a bit of a bogey team for Victory, we've only ever won twice away to them. (P17, W2, D3, L12). 

Was interesting watching the replay. I know we are all excited about that 2nd half but we were actually quite ordinary until Williams came on. He instantly changed the game in our favour, started combining really well with Singh, Krishna and Fenton and was the catalyst for Singh hitting the accelerator. 

I know everyone, me included, wants Burns to do well and the general consensus is that he is 'nearly there' but frankly I'm not sure I agree. A performance like Williams' can't be ignored and he should start the next game in my opinion.

Or don't change a winning team?

I actually agree with Williams starting for two reasons. The first is that the goal he scored would never have been converted by Burns and if Burns has the bulk of the game time and those situations don't come around often then we want the most clinical finisher to be the one on the pitch. The other reason is that Williams deserves the start, as a substitute he has limited time to perform and win his spot. It is fair to reward him and out the onus on Burns to win his starting spot back. 

At the end of the day Krishna is really the only one of the strikers who looks like scoring from open play. I think we need Williams and his ability to score over Burrns just being another playmaker. 

Balance of the team with Burnsy has been good 

I think for this game start burns because hes been really good in the link up play and bring on williams early second half if burns isn't playing well and maybe start williams in a easier game 

I  would be careful with diagnosing   our win over Brisbane as due  to  "Williams over Burns" decision.

We won this game because Brisbane tired late in the game. We maintained our pace and energy.. 

Whether we start Williams or Burns against Victory has less importance than how to contain Honda and Kosta.

Victory is simply a better team than Brisbane, Sydney or Perth and have excellent firepower.

Fingers crossed, let's just wish the boys the best and see if we can take all three points.

I agree, while we want Burns performing well and need to try and play him into form, Williams made such a huge impact on the whole team you can't ignore it

True, it will be interesting to see how Rudan approaches this.

Williams is a worse version of Krishna.

Burns offers something different.

Give Burns the first hour then Williams as an impact player at the end.

Not sure of these calls for Kopa over Doyle - Doyle is doing pretty well.

Good defender but not used to centreback and he showed it. His tendency to hoof shut down the entire left hand side of attack and Cacace could barely do anything forward. He also tended to drift too far left which dragged the Roar markers with him making Cacace's attacking job even harder.

Kopa's eye for a pass could be excellent in this setup going forward. Taylor's comfy with the ball at his feet but Kopa's the only proper ball-playing defender we have.

Aye, Doyle's passing range is limited in comparison to Kopa - I noticed it against CCM, when Kopa recieves the ball with a man closing him down there's no rush or hurry - with Doyle he always has an edge of frantic about getting rid.

Kopa always makes the pass and immediately moves into position to receive the ball back if needed. He has been well coached.

I've been eating my hat with every pass Kopa makes, very intelligent passer and has been key to our ability to build through the flanks and midfield. Really impressed with how Rudan has tweaked his role.

Doyle can do a great athletically strong job. But it's worrying when he panics as he's closed down with a hoofball down the flanks. I do like him as a player, I just think with the way this team is humming at the moment I'd throw Kopa straight back in to LCB.

Whoever plays, it's good to see a bit of valid competition for places. My preference would be to have Kopa back purely because of his composure on the ball, which is precisely what we'll need on Friday. 

we have depth we have depth... in a couple positions anyway!

Genuinely excited rather than apprehensive about this game, which isn't normal for playing away v. Victory. 

This will be a good test - their midfield / front third is obviously strong and will provide a stern test for Rufer, Mandi, Singh. Really looking forward to seeing Taylor match up v. Toivonen. There'll be some chatter between them for sure.

And, by the way, it's been mentioned a few times, but still not enough for me - how good is Kurto?

No excuses. COYN!

Agreed.  If nothing else, we are going to be competitive, at least, if Rudan's game-plan is correct.

I am happy to see Kopczynski back in the backline for this game. We need a cool head and good ball control against Victory especially when playing away.  Although many see Perth as the likely winner this year, my own quiet prediction is that Victory will challenge for the top honours in the GF.

36 degrees today in Melbourne. Obviously will be cooler come a 6.50pm KO.

Hotter again in Adelaide at 41 Celsius where the Nix play next Saturday. Which I note at this stage is a nasty 4.35pm KO Adelaide time, so the sun will still be belting down.

A challenge to play 90 mins of high temp football in that.

yep, ouch. 

Perhaps won’t be soooo bad. Still lot warmer than Welly.

Forecast temp at 7pm tomorrow in Melbourne is 27 degrees.

Forecast 32 degrees in Adelaide for Saturday week.