R10 vs Roar Saturday 5:30pm

What was the marquee match for this round cause I can't see it.

Am I the only one who thought the pitch looked like absolute shit? Folks around me were commenting on it, but haven't seen anyone here talking about it.

We've got WSW on NYD and that'll be our 3 games against them done before the half way mark.

Where can I find some stats on this game? I need to see if it will prove me wrong. Happy to admit that if the stats show something different to what I thought I saw. To me it seemed like a hack fest with lots of missed chances and a lot of wayward passing.

Hopefully they get rid of the chick who was doing the ground announcements or at least get her to watch some football games before next week.  She was announcing subs before they actually occurred and in the TW vs Wanderers game told the crowd that TW had "two points" and Wanderers had "one point" after TW went 2-1 up.

You have to wonder how people get such a job. It did appear that she'd never attended a match before, it became comical

Just another point, Broich pisses me off.... gets breathed on falls over and then Berisha and Smith come charging in towards the referee claiming he has been knifed in the back! Apparently the most fouled player in the league. Also the player least able to ride any sort of challenge. His default position is always fall over!

It'd almost be better if we were getting hidings in these games because it'd be easier to argue for wholesale changes. I think that what's happened this year is that we had a disrupted start to the season thanks to AWs games and the travelling roadshow games, and we never quite clicked. Now it's been too long and the confidence is down and even when we play well for periods the moment something goes against us our heads go down and we go into our shells. Ernie/Welnix's failure to recruit a quality DM hasn't helped because we've had to put an extra man in the middle to help out which has made us play a narrow brand of football, which then doesn't suit our attacking stocks. The decision to pass on Matt Thompson has cost us - he might not have been exactly what we were looking for but nor was Cunningham and we signed him despite having a bunch of wide attacking players on the books already.

I also think the Brockie situation is tough - if you look at his career prior to last year he's never really played a lot as a striker and his goalscoring record is not that flash. Maybe last year actually was just an anomaly and now we've put all our faith in him as a striker when it's really not who he is. However, who do you replace him with? Where are our goals gonna come from with or without him starting? 

I think it might be time for some changes for the sake of it just to try and jolt the team out of this rut. Start Ifill, start Boxall, give Fenton a crack up front, play Stein in midfield, play a back 3....  I don't know just do something  to try and shake things up.... 

I'm interested that a few people are calling for Ifill to start. Completely love the guy, but haven't been super impressed by him coming off the bench in recent games. Is it just me or has he lost a bit of his touch? He has the capability of doing something magic, but also seems to give away the ball through bad first touches or running into players quite a lot.

On the positive side, I think Riera is developing into a really good midfielder for us. He still gave away the ball a couple of times in very bad places which wasn't flash, but watching him at the ground, he was doing a lot of running and closing down for us as well. It can take a while to adjust to the next level up, but I think he's starting to get there.

I agree absolutely, but even ADP picks his time to fall over and when to ride a challenge, such as his goal on Saturday v Heart. I just think he could be so  much better.

Start Ifill and Hernandez off the bench as the impact sub would be the way to go I think. 

(---)

[/quote]

Actually I think putting Stein in midfield, with his ball holding skills and passing ability, might not be such a bad idea. Also I still think Fenton is best attacking out wide, rather than trying to shoehorn him into being a defender, as happened to Bertos. Then try Cunningham as a out and out striker in place of the fading Brockie. Sooner or later someone is going to catch a hiding from this Phoenix team, I hope it's sooner.

 Not sure where the praise for Lia is coming from, once again he misplaced a quarter of his passes.  Hicks doesn't look like the answer either.  

but he sees the most ball, his name is always big on the app and it says his pass sucess rate was 80% - the usual resons from the Lia lovers out there, oh and the he has a big engine and never gives up is the other.....this one I just don't see as relevant. Nor do I really believe the others.

Riera had more passes, made more tackles, attempted more tackles, had a better passing percentage, committed same number of fouls fouls and even had a shot cleared off the line.  He covered more ground as well (look at the stats zone for the match) - I cannot understand your position on this one.  

Riera had more passes, made more tackles, attempted more tackles, had a better passing percentage, committed same number of fouls fouls and even had a shot cleared off the line.  He covered more ground as well (look at the stats zone for the match) - I cannot understand your position on this one.  

.  Fenton is not a right back, hes made a name in what little career he has had as a forward, he was a gun playing in the vpl in attack and then he looked great last season with us in attack.  he should not have been changed. 

Riera had more passes, made more tackles, attempted more tackles, had a better passing percentage, committed same number of fouls fouls and even had a shot cleared off the line.  He covered more ground as well (look at the stats zone for the match) - I cannot understand your position on this one.  

just watched Luis Suarez miss an empty net, and he's in the form of his life, so I feel we should cut the Brockstar some slack...

just watched Luis Suarez miss an empty net, and he's in the form of his life, so I feel we should cut the Brockstar some slack...