R21 v Mariners | Fri 23 Feb | 9:45pm | SS3 | #AvoidTheSpoon

Very interesting to see the lineup after Saturday's game. 

Midfield definitely wasn't very functional. I prefer Ridenton in his usual role, with Paracki behind. 

Singh can't be dropped after that, so I'd say no room for Ljujic in midfield, based on form. 

But I like him on the pitch, he's got something about him, I'd prefer him in a more advanced role. I would drop Burns right now, he doesn't look good. Maybe for a bit of motivation, he'd probably be dynamite off the bench against a tiring defence as well. 

I'd go with;

                       Velaphi

Galloway Durante    Fox  Doyle

              Ridenton Paracki

           Krishna Singh   Ljujic

                          AK

Yeh it will be very interesting. Burns is a connundrum, he needs to be playing to build up his skills and confidence.

Blacktown with Seagulls!

You're just like Blacktown with Seagulls...

Krishna - Patterson - Burns

Well, if we've given up on the season and are doing "natural selection" (whatever that is) then Burns and Krishna are signed for next year but no one else in the frontline is, so surely they start.

Spot on. But burns has to start. Singh to the bench.

That's what will happen and probably should happen.

AK imo has to stay as our 9. May not have scored in a while but still needs to be there with Krishna back

Darije has said Singh will start.

Both teams are gone if neither win.

Battle of the spoon, COYN!!.

I doubt at 29 he needs to build his skill, but confidence for sure.

I got hands on the board meeting agenda last week, it just had one point and some explanation for non english speaking attendees:

Meeting agenda:

 1. Avoid the Spoon

_______________________________________

wooden spoon

NOUN

British

An imaginary prize said to be awarded to the person who is last in a race or other competition. ‘they finished with the wooden spoon after losing a penalty shoot-out

I can potentially see a clean sheet win on the cards. 

• Mariners don't have a striker and have scored the fewest goals in the league all season, their goals against the reds coming via a free kick and a lucky own goal
• Their confidence will be low following a 10 man Adelaide side coming from 2-0 down to draw level against them  
• I know he wasn't tested on Saturday but Tando looks steady and solid
• Our defence limited their goal scoring opportunities to mainly set pieces, and apart from Doyle all had a decent game
• Both Ridenton and Singh were immense and bossed the defensive and attacking aspects of the midfield respectively.
• Krishna looks a man possessed to score 

knowing us we still might manage to gift them sloppy goal, so I'm predicting either 2-0 or 3-1

I will settle on 2:3 to us - achievable provided CCM do not foul Krishna early in first half and also do not get a soft penalty against us late in the second half.  Burns will hopefully show off more of his skills as CCM is not Sydney FC.

Only one team i think has been worse than us.

I was at the game and watched the full replay on TV. Sarpreet Singh scored a great goal, showed some nice touches, good ball skills and vision, and has heaps of potential. “Bossed” the attacking end of midfield though, he did not. Let’s not get carried away . . . 

There is always the risk of getting a young player overexposed / injured, especially against a physical team like CCM, playing at home.

Some of the passes from Singh were quite brilliant I thought; but he struggled at times with the physicality. Did well tracking back though. I think it should be;

               Velaphi

Galloway/Mullen Durante Fox Doyle

Ridenton Paracki

Ljujic Singh Krishna

AK

So, agree with the poster above. Ljujic seems more like a winger that cuts inside rather than a CM to me.

Just wondering why everyone thinks Paracki will be straight back into the team. If we are playing a 4-3-3, with Burns, Krishna and AK up front, the midfield imo will/should be Ridenton, Singh and one other. That other is between Paracki and Ljujic, both of whom are yet to impress me.

Also, we often complain about our defence/goalkeeping (and rightly so) but do we have the worst (foreign) midfielders in the A-League? 

Both of them started well. I think we have to give Ljujic a couple more games, it's a big step up in quality for him.

Paracki is still our best holding midfielder, despite being relatively poor still. Our midfield balance was all wrong v Perth; we were lucky to get away with it, but Castro dominated.

Really..A league aint that great.

it's pretty good i reckon

heaps more high quality games this year too IMO

normally things turn to crap right about now with player injuries and the lack of squad depth makes the league look like a joke with some terrible players getting game time and too many crap games, so watching the next few weeks will be interesting

...and horrific.

I am following league 2 side Crewe now.

So, with that ex-cyclone weather moving in to Wellington, will that affect anyone's chance of getting to the game in Auckland?

De Silva Vs Singh should be good viewing.

There’ll be frigging in the rigging

Wanking on the planking 

Cos you’ve fudge all else to do

.

.

EDIT: not sure if Wout Brama will be out still or not but if its just Hiariej with an average aussie in their midfield we might be able to cobble together some possession football with Singh, Ridenton and Ljujic 

There was someone in our goal that night

Gave Castro a fright

It's Tando

It was flapping there for you and me
For all to see, our Tando
Though I always thought that we would lose
There's no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, oh Tando
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend oh Tando

These bullet points are magnificent.  I'm not commenting on the content, just the bullet points themselves.  There are not nearly enough bullet points in this forum.

Between round 21 and 26 -6 games

WSW sitting on 26 points at 6th on the table at present, Phoenix sitting on 17 points

Looking at the next 6 games for both teams -Over those 6 games WSW could get only 6 points, if we bet them.

Phoenix could (I know, but anyway) get 12 points over their 6 games

That would give WSW 32 points and Phoenix 29 points.

Win the 27th game and WSW lose theirs and we finish on the same points as WSW.

Do something about the goal difference over the next 7 games and the impossible becomes a possibility-top 6.

Id given up but now realise theres still a chance - unbelievable as its seems -all is not yet lost this season.

Stopoing this to yourself (and us)! It just hurts more when hope disappears, yet again.

What about Roar and Perth?

Ignore this, guys. I'm an idiot :)