History for Mainland FC

I am with NZPower on this - while the first half was pretty bleak to watch I can understand what Darije was trying to do.  This was however predicated on a low-speed game, with heat and our defensive formation forcing the opposition to do most of the work in the field and with us relying just on AK and Roy to threaten on the counter.  We might have won the game, deservedly or not, had this setup continued.  

This was undone by Melbourne City bringing on one single fast player (Arani), very much like Singh I would say, who made all the difference to the speed of Citeh attack which we could not counter.

While it is easy to criticise Daije on his defensive tactics, I actually disagree with his critics. 

I still maintain Ernie Merrick is a good coach, and Darije seems a decent coach too. What each of them can/could achieve with limited resources, human and financial ones, is borne out on the pitch.  At this point I would say that we just do not have enough players who are good enough at this level, and this has only got worse with time. Even the good players (Rossi, Krishna, AK) can make mistakes on the night, but the not so good ones around them won't be able to fix the problem or provide an alternative.

When were we playing consistently well last time?  Was it when Burns was here?  Take out Burns from the equation and let me know when was it last time we played well without the old Burns. 

I am with NZPower on this - while the first half was pretty bleak to watch I can understand what Darije was trying to do.  

This was however predicated on a low-speed game, with heat and our defensive formation forcing the opposition to do most of the work in the field and with us relying just on AK and Roy to threaten on the counter.  We might have won the game, deservedly or not, had this setup continued.  This was undone bu Melbourne City bringing on one single fast player (Arani), very much like Singh I would say, who made all the difference.

While it is easy to criticise Daije I disagree with his critics.  I would say that we just do not have enough players who are good enough at this level, and this has only got worse with time. Even the good players (Rossi, Krishna, AK) can make mistakes on the night, but the not so good ones won't be able to fix the problem or provide an alternative.

When were playing really well last time?  Was it when Burns was here?  Take out Burns from the equation and let me know when was it last time we played well without the old Burns.  I still maintain Ernie Merrick is a good coach, and Darije seems a decent coach too. What each of them can/could achieve with limited resources, human and financial ones, is borne out on the pitch.