R25 vs Melbourne City | Mon 28th Mar | 9:30pm | SS4

That's pretty far out

I'm not part of the complete new team brigade (if there is one) btw

I'm part of the 'our midfield is pretty good ...but everything else was sharkhouse. (except Krishna) So why are we wasting our last import spot on strengthening our strongest position' brigade

I hope we can magic NZ or Aus defenders out of thin air

Boxall and Themi please

Anyone sharing my baseless suspicion Ernie is at least considering playing a back three next season? 

the pen was soft, Fornoroli (sp) like any good striker plays for the contact, and beath fell for it every time. It staggers me that one player gets the "protection" that he deserves ie Fornoroli gets the whistle in his favor when he is touched, yet Roly who is barged chopped every game gets very little in comparison.

Roly needs to get chopped in the box.

City's strikers are divers, but the reason they succeed is that they had possession in and around our penalty area. They deserved to win, sadly.

Eyes wide shut?

Pretty interesting debate over the last few pages. It seems as if certain people remain entrenched in their positions on the reasons for the recruitment issues we've had this season, although, knowing some of the people involved in this discussion, both sides probably appreciate that the problem is a bit more nuanced.

I don't think you can just dismiss the recruitment problems caused by the licence issue, especially once that issue became well publicised, and I'd guess it restricted any bargaining power we may have had, particularly in the January window. But placing all the recruitment problems on that alone is overly simplistic.

The licence issue wasn't a well known one until the season started, and like JD said, it didn't prevent us from signing Sarpong for two years. Would some of the players we had been targeting before the season started done their due diligence and realised the club officially only had one more year to go? Maybe, but it's an issue that could have been explained away at that time, especially since in the last off-season, the view generally tended to be that it was an annoyance that needed to be formalised as quickly as possible, rather than being a potential death-knell for the club.

I think there is probably a good element of truth in the scenario that JD described - the season last year went well, so with a replacement for Burns and few tweaks here and there we should be OK. The problem there, of course, was that Sarpong was nowhere near a good enough replacement for Burns - was that foreseeable? Perhaps. But on the other hand, Burns was in some ways an 'out there' signing too - at the start of last season, few would have thought that he'd have the goal scoring impact that he had. In some ways, both the Burns and Sarpong signings were rolls of the dice - and we rolled a 7 with one, and nowhere near it with the other. But in other ways, that's been the pattern of signings across the league: who'd have thought that Fornaroli would be the player he turned out to be this season? Berisha is another guy with a very humble record in Europe who's had a massive impact here, yet you look at someone like Piovaccari, with a decent pedigree, and he hits struggle street straight away and fades into oblivion. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that signing players outside of this league is a big, big lottery, and will continue to be. You have to try to find a player who looks like the best fit, but success is not guaranteed to anyone.

One final issue with the recruitment that I see - and I've said this a number of times before, so won't labour it again: I think the club made a mistake in heavily investing in Dura and Siggy (and probably Manny to some extent) 3 years ago. It was a very risky move at the time knowing what the age of these guys was going to be at the end of this season, and it's certainly restricted our manoeuvring space in upgrading and replenishing our backline in a planned and rational way. It's been a lesson in how things you do now can have a large impact on what things you can do in the future, and the club may have learned that the hard way.

Yes, it's been a difficult season, and it really sucks going to games (or even watching them on TV) when you expect (or even worse, know) that you're in for a hammering. But that's what being a fan is all about, and you have to endure the tough times, as they make you appreciate and truly enjoy the good times. Hopefully they're not too far away.

Oh, and just another observation - based on the evidence from the last two games especially, we must be the slowest team in professional football right now.

I agree with this one 100%.  This is a comment I made a couple of times in the past season already - the game has gone up in speed considerably, while not losing much in terms of accuracy, and we have not really kept up. 

Slowest team as moving the ball or slowest players as with pace?

But we are the quickest team at passing the ball across from one side of the field to the other and back again as well as passing it back to our center backs.

Slowest at moving the ball. Claiming we are the slowest in professional football in the world though is ridiculous.

I know we complain about our NZ TV commentators, but Ned Zelic was at another level on Monday. Watch his antics at the half time chat. He's a total duck.

He looked as though he was off his head on P. 

Martin Tasker during the America's Cup regattas, anyone?  During the final races he honestly sounded like he wore a pith helmet and a safari suit and just realised another hunter had shot the rhino he was tracking for hours (or something in that trope).

Sure, Zelic may be quite eccentric, but he is even-handed and not a rabid type like Slater or Bazza who never notice there are actually two teams on the park, and one of them is the Nix.

I like Zelic, he oozes enthusiasm for the game.

When you think you've had enough and can't go on, just recall or read about Doncaster Rovers' 1997-1998 Season, losing 34, out of 46, games. The season ended with the owner being arrested for attempted arson on the home ground  (No I'm not a Rovers fan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997%E2%80%9398_Donc...

that explains a lot about some peoples heads.

It's not necessary though ... if you're not adding anything to the spectacle on the pitch, then don't say anything.

We can get excited by ourselves without Ned telling us when he is ...

... would much rather have Mark Bosnich or someone with similar tactical nous who can explain how and why one team has the advantage.

I think Ned has as much nous as Bosnich when it comes to football unless you think 200 games in European competition  don't count.

Well, whatever Zelic sounds like he is on, at least he never got busted for it like Bosnich. 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/30/br...

Zelic is a legend, and is one of the only ones who call the Sydney-centric media out on their bias.

Lol! So who among us might be, say ...  Big Kev?Dawkins?Calcott? .... Andy Martin?

Anyone who has recently stopped posting?!

Junior82. Outed.

Gotta be - if Morgan lives in Karori. But then he has to have a sense of humour... Hmmm....

I remember J82 saying he hated hornets with a passion. Code for #cats?

Off topic but I don't think he lives in Karori, I've never seen him in any of the Karori supermarkets (I see other Karori celebrities like the deputy prime minister) but I have seen Gareth in the city new world a few times. I thought he lived in what used to be the overseas terminal?

doesn't he live in a giant shoe?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/77162988/Sir-Bob-Jones-mocks-Gareth-Morgan-in-5000m-statue-proposal

Mad thread btw