R12 v Western Sydney Wanderers | Tues 8th Jan | 9:50pm | ANZ Stadium

No Mandi for probably the next few games, time for Kopa to step up. Also Sheridan is in contention for the squad as his paperwork has been sorted.

Nichols in for Mandi? He's played that role earlier in the season.

I'd like to see Kopa in for Doyle, I think that may have helped us yesterday.

I'd have Sheridan on the bench, super sub for now.

I would hope Williams starts again, he has become a good asset for us (despite not scoring against Adelaide in a one-on-one).

I agree with Colvin at or,  with Doyle we struggle to keep possession as well

 Too many long balls and misdirected passes to Carcace etc

I'm actually looking forward to seeing how wider squad is or isn't buying into the Rudan regime too. One benefit of the yellow cards mounting up. Ultimately, we need a squad good enough to compete at this level, so next 4-5 weeks loom as a test of that. WSW first up.

Kopa definitely comes in. My sense is that Rudan is rating Burgess ahead of Nicholls currently, though that may just be a setup/positional thing. Rufer presumably gets the job of taking care of Roly. Sheridan surely gets a bench spot.

Roger that. My bad - haven't watched WSW this season, so wasn't aware of that. Cheers.

Strange feeling this match coming up so soon. I'm only just firing down from last night and it's nearly time to fire up again.

Reckon we'll see Kopa coming in for Mandi as a like for like swap, annoying as I'd prefer to have Kopa as a CB.

Edit: Wrong Thread

3 match ban for Mandi. So out for this game, vs CCM & vs Victory.

COYN!!

The media reports that he has been found guilty of "assault on a player and while a minimum of two matches is mandatory,  they felt that three was warranted". 

I have seen these things quoted in the past in the HAL as the one match for the red card, plus anything they wanted to add on.

Has that been taken into account or are we looking a four games off here?

With you on this one, as he looked distinctly mediocre at best earlier in the season.  I'd hope that it was just  case of getting up to speed with things and that he'd be an asset wherever he plays in the middle.  He's composed, and we'll definitely need that against WSW.

I love this, 3 Games in one week, bring it on!

I still do not know if Kopa has improved because he was given enough time by Rudan to get up to speed, or because Rudan realised Kopa is better suited to play CB for us.  The game against WSW will hopefully answer that if he plays in Mandi's spot.

At the same time, it would be a shame if after taking nearly half a season to work out how to get him to his full potential he would then return to Warsaw (he is here on a year's loan from Legia).  I agree with others that it would be great to keep him longer; but that's them breaks.

My guess the line up for tomorrow night:
Kurto; Fenton, Taylor, Dura, Doyle, Cacace; Rufer, Kopa, Burgess; Krishna, Williams.

Would like to rest Cacace, but dunno who else could do the job

Hope Singh, Rufer and Fenton play so they can get carded, and sit out the game against CCM. Can't really afford dropping points against anybody else, plus we have the quality to take them out without those three playing

edit: hope that means Elliot will make a match day squad! Keen to see him in a much tougher environment after being a huge fan of him at Tasman

It's interesting - it's never occurred to me that you'l like to trigger the mandatory stand down for a particular match, but this might be an instance of it. Does this happen overseas? Seems like there must be a few opportunities for it in the premier league.

I'm sure it happens all the time.

mandi out for 3 games

Taylor in the paper for personal indescretions. Will he be available - will the club retain him?

Why wouldn't they?

Of course they will. Don't worry about the tabloid garbage that the Herald reposted from 'The Sun'

If the club releases their most influential player over a hit piece from probably the least reputable source of pop media on the planet, I'd just give up. What he did's dodgy, but there are guys in our team who have done much more damaging things to their careers (snoooort), and come away with a little bit of stick and nothing more

has he broken the law? obviously not, so ignore it. Please please please . . . . lets not have one of those pathetic 'role model apologises' live TV fiascos that we've witnessed from lesser sporting organisations such as the All Blacks and B-Listers like Tiger Woods. Steven Taylor has screwed up :-) with his relationships but thats for him to deal with. Let him get on with it.

Nothing to see here. Let's move along please

No Sheridan yet in the match day sqaud for tomorrow nights game. Must be saving him for CCM on the weekend. 

Callan Elliot in though! Happy for him and fingers crossed he gets a look-in

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Western Sydney Wanderers FC squad: 5.Brendan HAMILL (c), 7.Nick FITZGERALD, 8.Jordan O’DOHERTY, 9.Oriol RIERA, 10.Alex BAUMJOHANN, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 13.Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, 14.Mathieu CORDIER, 17.Keanu BACCUS, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 21.Tarek ELRICH, 24.Raul LLORENTE, 27.Kwame YEBOAH, 28.Roly BONEVACIA, 33.Tate RUSSELL, 34.Patrick ZIEGLER, 40.Nicholas SUMAN (gk), 49.Abraham MAJOK **two to be omitted**

Ins: 27.Kwame YEBOAH (new signing), 24.Raul LLORENTE (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 4.Josh RISDON (international duty)

Wellington Phoenix Squad: 1.Filip KURTO, 5.Ryan LOWRY, 6.Dylan FOX, 8.Mitch NICHOLS, 9.Nathan BURNS, 11.David WILLIAMS, 13.Liberato CACACE, 14.Alex RUFER, 15.Michal KOPZCYNSKI, 16.Louis FENTON, 17.Callan ELLIOT, 18.Sarpreet SINGH, 19.Tom DOYLE, 20.Oliver SAIL (gk), 21.Roy KRISHNA, 22.Andrew DURANTE (c), 23.Max BURGESS, 27.Steven TAYLOR **two to be omitted**

Ins: 6.Dylan FOX (promoted), 8.Mitch Nichols (promoted), 17.Callan ELLIOT (promoted)
Outs: 4.Mandi SOSA (suspended - 3 weeks)
Unavailable: Nil

Massive chance to cement our spot in the top 6 if we can get a win over WSW. Will be a tough game, thought WSW played well despite losing on the week end.

COYN

Fitness (recovery) will be the main issue for us. I would rate Adelaide as a harder team for us to beat than WSW so all in all hope to get at least a draw.

This is going to be seriously tough with no one commanding the midfield  - I don't have faith in Nichols or Kopy to do the job.

Looks like no Sheridan in the squad too. Would be nice to know what the hold up is. I am just assuming NZF because of past indiscrections.

He could be a chance to play - Reuben Way played against Perth after not originally being named in the squad. Hopefully a late addition to the bench.

Might be a visa delay given the time of year.

I'd like to see Burgess given a proper run and give Singh a rest but also it may be good for Singh to get a yellow card incase he gets one against CCM so he'd miss the Vic game

according to Liam Hyslop of stuff the transfer has gone through, so we can't blame NZF this time, probably either what 2nd Best is saying Visa hold up due to holidays or they'd rather play him when he's 100% rather than say 80% as he may be having just travelled from europe

Would really like us to give Krishna or Singh a bit of a break to be honest; even if it's just Sheridan coming on for 30 mins for one of them, would be ideal.

I'm going in my black and gold shirt I got from an op-shop.

Let's see if these WSW fans are as bad as they're made out to be and, if so, I'm sure there's plenty of places to hide in that 'too big for their club' stadium.