R2 vs Perth Glory | 9pm Sun 18th Oct | Prestigious Distance Derby

Maybe we haven't spent the whole cap?

Maybe Roly/Mcg are on deals that go up in the second year?

Maybe Sarpong is on a lot.

It's confusin.

Considering we freed up the cap from Burns, Boxall, Cunningham, and Brockie/Griffiths plus a couple of young guys, and have only signed young guys + Sarpong, that's an interesting statement.

Question then is, is spending that much on Sarpong (assuming we are spending most of that money on him) really worth it, considering he has not played at A League level before and quite a few imports with seemingly good pedigrees have been underwhelming in the A League?

Effectively you're then gambling that two ageing, slowing CBs will make it through the season with few injuries/suspensions, or that young guys with f-all pro experience or older guys who aren't naturally CBs (Muscat/Lia) can step into that role.

Could we have signed a less expensive not-a-striker to ensure we had a solid backup CB?

On top of all that, if the club's management knew that they likely couldn't afford the CBs they wanted, why didn't they sign a young CB sooner so he could have some chance to play a few preseason games with the first team at least?

On The A League squad details it says Dura is not travelling, out for up to 3 weeks. Doh.

Bit of a surprise that Dura seemingly didn't think it was that bad. Guess that's why he's not a medical professional!

Ideally we would be giving Fox some experience straight away; but I guess Ernie is playing it safe with Manny there. Just thinking; if Dura or Siggy goes down late in the season i'd rather have a young guy who is actually a CB (who now has a few games under his belt) come in, rather than again have a choice between someone with 0 A-League experience + Manny.

We have been gambling with those two CBs for a while.

Manny at CB really is not good.  Is A-Rod fit?  We need to get him back in the midfield.  Lia's passing is sooooooo slow...

I wouldn't be as concerned if Manny was playing with Dura instead of Siggy. Of our two regular CBs Dura is the one who organises, reads the game better and covers those moments when Siggy flies out of position to try and win the ball. Basically  now Sigmund has to try to do Dura's job because Manny can't be expected to. So it's almost like having both CBs doing roles they aren't familiar with.

Fox played the NSW 1 final on Sep 13th.  And, if I recall correctly, it was his coach that recommended him to Ernie.  I doubt he was keen to loose him before a final, so I suspect he's only just come on our radar for a look. 

Maybe it's just a case of him being the first decent young CB we found that we could afford and Ernie was going to make do with Doyle and Manny until someone came up.

Can't say I'm surprised he's not starting.  But I'd have preferred to be surprised the other way and see Ernie throw him in against Perth.  Would have been a big vote of confidence. 

I liked the look of Danaskos in the game vs ACFC too.  Looked organised, pacey, was getting his head up and scored a goal, and adds a bit of height.  One swallow and summer and all that but I thought he looked good.

I'd be very happy to see both these kids develop and show enough to earn Ernie's confidence and be playing regularly during the season.  Succession planning for Manny/Dura/Sig.  If they get some time on Sunday I'll be keen to see them do well.

Tend to agree.  But any time we are saying Manny is the right option at CB we are potentially in the shark. 

And I agree with Conan's comment, that it is worse that he's playing with Sig rather than Dura. 

COYN.

I agree.  Personally I'd be going with Doyle at CB, Manny at LB and Danaskos on the bench.  That way if Doyle has a howler (which I don't actually expect) Ernie can yank him, put Manny into CB and Danaskos onto the flank.  Either way I saw enough from Danaskos that I suspect we'll see Manny come under pressure for a starting spot sooner rather than later.

Quite happy to let Fox learn our structures for another couple of weeks before he gets thrown into the cauldron of an A League start.

I was actually quite impressed with Doyle when he came on in a pressure situation against Jets. I'm comfortable with him playing at FB; I'm just not comfortable at all with Manny in the middle.

If you meant "against Jets" then I agree with you.

It does have a nice ring to it tho.

We have to win that game, we will win that game 3:2

Not yet a 6 pointer so not must win

 battle of the cellar dwellers..

Yep - wine,cheese & Monica

COYN

Balls/word or stfu

Firing up!!!

Perhaps he should appear on Shortland Street again for a second opinion?

What does COYN mean? calling out you  nutters?

Come On You Nix

Melbourne Victory started 18 year-old centre-back Thomas Deng in his first A-League start for the club last night in the 3-2 win vs. Melbourne City and it worked out okay.

He came on for his A-League debut as a sub last week to replace Bloxham after he was sent off.

So they seem fine with the idea of throwing in an inexperienced centre-back as a temporary replacement for the established centre-back.

Interesting that the reigning champs are happy to have a green 18 year-old as their centre-back cover. 

I watched the Breakers on TV lose narrowly in Perth on Friday night to the Wild Cats.

Hopefully it won't be a clean sweep for Perth teams this week.

One thing costing the Breakers is their woeful free throw shooting (averaging about 50%)

The Breakers were the worst free throw shooters in the NBL last season.

The Nix of course were the worst penalty-takers in the A-League last season.

Oh well,spose I better fire up then

Melbourne Victory started 18 year-old centre-back Thomas Deng in his first A-League start for the club last night in the 3-2 win vs. Melbourne City and it worked out okay.

He came on for his A-League debut as a sub last week to replace Bloxham after he was sent off.

So they seem fine with the idea of throwing in an inexperienced centre-back as a temporary replacement for the established centre-back.

Interesting that the reigning champs are happy to have a green 18 year-old as their centre-back cover. 

The difference is that Deng has got gametime in the FFA cup and has been in the youth team also - so has trained with the squad for an extended period and likely knows exactly how they play. Fox just came in.

The difference is that Deng has got gametime in the FFA cup and has been in the youth team also - so has trained with the squad for an extended period and likely knows exactly how they play. Fox just came in.

Pfttt - Perth as a distance Derby. If we played Real Valladolid then it would be a distance derby!

Big win for Nix.

Off to the game today, had the opportunity to watch the Nix train at NIB yesterday. Players interacted well with us supporters especially with the young boy that needed his football signed. The team even let the young fella kick the ball around on the side of the pitch while they trained.

Weather forecast is high of 23 with 80 percent chance of rain between 3 to 6pm, go NIX

Great line up of evening's entertainment:

7 pm Roar vs CCM (dodgy stream)

7:30 pm Dr Who (Prime)

8:30 pm  Roar vs CCM (dodgy stream) or Famili Baby Car Seat (YesShop)

9 pm The True A-League Derby (dodgy stream)

11 pm Angst City (YF Forum)

That last one is the dodgiest stream of them all!

Anyone got one of those dodgy streams?

Edit - Oops. Time wrong. I'll wait another couple of hours. Now I have time to shower. Hooray!

If you guys want, I'll provide a live analyses of tonight's game right here in this thread.

Starting:

Moss (GK), Muscat, Bonevacia, Sarpong, McGlinchey, Riera, Fenton, Lia, Sigmund (C), Doyle, Krishna

Bench:

Gulley, Rodriguez, Appiah-Kubi, Powell, Italiano (GK)

Fire up! 

damn straight

I think that says that Powell is not the striker Ernie is looking for.

Sure its one game but against one of the worst teams we will encounter.

yeah and we need a big performance against perth, cos they aint gonna be up there either.im not confident after last week, id love to be proved wrong.