R14 v Melbourne City | Sat 6th Jan | 9.50pm | SS3

I don't think he's been organizing the team well. A good coach can turn a shark team into a decent one, but we havent even looked decent of late. We need someone to turn this season around and if Darije cant put a team together to win a home game then I think its more than justified he gets the sack

Had the chances to put the game away but didn't and paid the price.  

If it was earlier in the season I might be encouraged by certain aspects of that performance - unfortunately all it means now is we continue to be rooted to the bottom of the table & the play-offs are a distant hope.

I think Darije got the tactics right. But he can't control what the players do in front of goal. Krishna had a good 1v1 and blew it. AK fluffed some good chances. Doyle with a close header at the end.... Other than putting his boots on and kicking every ball for the team, what can Darije do?

We sat back and hit on the counter, had more than enough chances to put the game to bed before City scored their first goal but the players failed to take the chances.

Go to the basketball - Saints are pretty handy.

Either way we lost. I'm gonna hit the sack and hope I forget about this game.
Gnight all

What Have I Done To Derserve This

If Kalezic is insistent on these defence/counter attacking setups, is someone able to remind him we still have to be able to defend proficiently enough to at least make the other half of the gameplan viable. Really hard to watch this week in week out.

Just glad it wasn't Dario 'with arms wide open' Vidosic who scored either goal. small consolations

I wonder if the 532 will persist, I feel that Darije is doing what is needed until Burns and the new midfielder are available to start - then getting them all on the pitch at the same time will likely require a change in shape. Singh, I think, doesn't suite this shape and with the less subs available in the HAL you try and cover all your options.

Only pro football teams I've ever supported are Kingz, Knights and Phoenix... I hate to think what I must of done in a past life.

We had the chances to win it tonight but fked them all up. Sick of losing games in the 2nd half.........

I'm so sick of this shark. Unless being fudgeing awful so the Aussie sides look better in comparison was one of metrics we're staggering towards oblivion right now. The rot seems very, very deep. Even with significant squad and management changes we're just fudgeing terrible. I dread our games now. 

The key metrics for the FFA were membership numbers, bums on seats, and tv viewers. This shower of shark will drive them all away.

Personally, I don't think we can lay the blame with Darije. We lined up defensively (5-3-2) because we are susceptible to poor defense. It wasn't pretty, but it worked for the large majority of the match. We hit them on the counter well several times and if not for poor decision making/finishing, we could've been 5 up. To be 3 up wouldn't have been unfair. We lost today due to lapse in concentration - players losing formation. 

Look at this for example. We have 8 players around the box. 2 to each Melbourne City player in the shot.

Galloway drops his player and we concede. 

The second goal, again, we outnumber City players 2 to 1. Doyle is the main culprit, but Durante leaves Rossi on his own marking two.

I'm not sure what Ridenton and Mullen have been smoking, but we have 3 players marking 1.
 

Just to highlight how poor our defending was for the second, look at the players here: 

If the players can't defend 2 to 1 situations, we're never going to win games. I appreciate we invited pressure by sitting too deep, but you can't really blame DK for trying to limit our shocking defending - especially given it nearly worked. 

I understand the tactics of 5-3 -2 because our defending is so poor.

However arent you as a coach saying  you have no confidence in your defence. Which whilst probably true, it seems to me it just breeds, further self doubts in the players. And then they cant defend with 5, what do you do as a coach? Play 6 at the back? 

Yes there were goal scoring chances stuffed up the team. But  I think its the wrong approach at this point in our sad season.

Accept that we cant defend, because we cant, and revert to either a back 4 or back 3 and try and create a very attacking mindset team. We will still lose games, but at least we might win the odd one.  This sitting back in our half, letting the opposition continuously hit us, is strange, when it requires a strong defence that tactic and the ability to take every counterattacking chance, and the team have proven all season we dont have a strong defence, and it regularly misses its counterattacking chances/finishes. Sorry but i dont understand it.

I was also interested in krishna's lack of reaction to scoring his goal. More relief than joy i thought. Maybe the heat, i dont know May be indicative of the pressure the squad is under. Im a bit worried Krishna might have had enough.

So what you're saying is accept we can't defend, forget about it and go on all out attack? Sure it'll make for entertaining football, but we'll concede like crazy.

Last night we limited their creative chances and hit a better team on the counter all game. Was it shark football? Absolutely, but it was effective (until we showed why we needed to play so defensively). Ultimately football is results driven - it doesn't always make for nice viewing as a spectator. 

As the match coverage on Stuff said this was a dour and defensive Phoenix. My concern is that if we play like this tactically at home then people will stop turning up in even greater numbers. Losing is bad enough but losing ugly is even worse, especially at home.

I also wonder if attack minded players like Krishna will soon get disillusioned with the non-possession, reactive style of playing we have reverted to. 

Melbourne City were a beatable team. As others have said it is ironic that they brought on a young, skilful, attacking player in the second half which helped turn the game in their favour.

Sure we need to tighten up on defence but with Krishna, Singh, Burns, Kaludjerovic and hopefully the new guy, surely we have a team that is capable of more than this? We need an energetic, positive spark in our next game which can come from a more positive style of play.

Thought it was a get through game, as there's clearly so much going on internally. Darije has at least the midfielder coming in to start, along with Burns, and setup accordingly last night to suit what he currently can start with. And it should've worked. We created enough clear chances to win the game comfortably.   

Darije post-match talked about needing to bring in more quality players in each line in this transfer window, so hopefully this week, we'll find out more about whatever shuffling's going on.  

Fairweather fan

I don't know why Darje took off Krishna when he set us up to play counter attacking football. Why would you take off our quickest and arguably best counter attacking footballer? Krishna had a good game and looked incredibly frustrated on the bench. This coach has absolutely no idea.

I personally think the 5-3-2 could actually be to blame for the poor marking. We play a zonal marking game and with an extra CB and more advanced fullbacks the zones of responsibility for each defender change significantly. Without a long time practicing it it's easy for defenders to get confused about who should be marking each man. On top of that, Galloway and Mullen particularly aren't positionally disciplined on defence - they have a tendency to ball watch or press to aggressively.

Considering we struggled to put a consistent back 4 out for the first ballf of the season due to injuries and internationals etc I think the formation change has just disrupted our defensive patterns even more. Better to have just settled on a back 4 and had them get used to playing together for a while.

Also, can just say I'm sick of hearing that we were unlucky or deserved more or are just close to clicking or whatever. Been hearing that shark for 3 seasons. Enough already. We lose games because we suck, not because there's a cosmic conspiracy against us.

Nah. It really does seem like it to be fair but I explained why I’m not one of them. Last year was a deadass crazy one in my life and i’m trying to get rid of negativity, even if it’s things I love. Even if we end up losing every single game, at least if we start playing well after all that’s been promised to us I’ll be happy.

Also a bit hard to be a fairweather fan when your entire tenure of support has been grey and gloomy with light showers and a strong easterly

This! This has nothing to do with luck, for both goals the young boy had a positive approach and a great delivery (plus some shots on target), our defenders can't defend to slow and worthless going forward. On the other hand we can't score. McGlinchey is not creative and everything is route one predictable football. Ridenton and Paracki had some positives, they tried, but in the case of Ridenton he can't carry all of the team, maybe in a few years. I scapegoat Galloway, I'm not sure what people see in him, I feel he is involved in all goals we get. Burns angle running left turn running right into space, Galloway doesn't not pass the ball instead running into another defender, useless. Everything they do is to slow, predictable not creative spark. I hope we get 3 instead of 2 new players.

Krishna's goal, great skill, imagine him in a good team.

After watching the Greece national team, I'm used to this defence/counter attack game plan. 

It almost worked against a good team.. I'm more losses away from losing my shark, though.

Yes Greece is good in this, it's a valid tactic but not one I like to see over a longer period of time.

Greece is the word

I actually think the coach had his tactics spot on last night. City are a much better team than us and we are playing away from home.

He set up to score on the break and it worked once and should have worked at least once more.

Two lapses in defence and some poor finishing is not the coaches fault.

He did what he had to do to try and get a result with the players he had available 

At home however, I hope that he is much more adventurous 

Also, well done to Mambo who I think is improving every game. Although must take some of the responsibility for the 2nd goal

Agree. This or a similar team is not performing since a while, Ernie, now in charge of a team who currently plays the most attractive football, yes the Jets, literally gave up on them because he could not coach them. I think Darije approach is very pragmatic and I hope players learn from it.

Remember David Dome said we are close to clicking so it's all going to be fine

We can string a few wins together on the trot. I think we can, anyway. Nine points in three games changes the whole table for us.

I don't think the season's doomed, not with Burns starting and scoring.

This is so poor by the Nix defenders all just watching the ball! In particular Galloway (who's been shark this season on multiple occasions) was half asleep and allowed McCormack to ghost into the far stick. Also Rossi (who doesn't look like he wants to be here, and makes silly errors) is fully asleep not to see McCormack peel off him for his second.

Krishna walked off very slowly with his head down too.

Something is up with him. Hope it is just his barber still on holiday!

Watched the game today.  I thought it was better than last week in that we actually had a plan to try and score goals.  I don't like the plan (it appears to be lump the ball long and hope Krishna and AK run on to it), but at least there was one. 

We are still pretty terrible though sadly.  Not exactly the 'total football' the board were aiming for when they sacked Ricki.

I feel that Ernie was the 'tap and go' man. That meant an enormous wage bill for poor results and ego clashes.

Darje I think is an attempt to restore discipline and a solid defense. I think he said when he signed his teams tend to win 1-0 rather than 5-2. Plan on a knife edge at the moment. Also a tad ironic given our best result. 

We've put in great 70 minute performances, but seem to lack the belief or the ability to close out a game. 

Puts on mental helmet... City under Joyce are beyond boeing   to watch their only saving grace they try and play out from the back ..

You guys playing 5 at the back with 3 holding to screen the five backs and hit on the break..

Playing and broadcast on FTA when we are experiencing issues in the style you did does SFA for expanding and growing the gaqme.

More absolute nonsense from you.

But broadcasting the mighty Mariners would bring in the viewers like moths to a flame?