R26 vs Sydney FC Sunday 6th 7pm

I heard a stat last week that Siggy and Dura are #1 and #2 on the list of interceptions this season.

For me this shows the ineffectiveness of our midfield in stopping the play early and reducing the pressure on our defence.  Riera was king at making those interceptions before it reached and defence. I miss Albert.

4) Riera is not the messiah and he's not going to singlehandedly solve the midfield. Clone him so we have a injury backup.

Reckon the shite on display is an inevitable consequence of the string of injuries and suspensions, I don't think we've had a settled squad for months, still sucks though.

1) Start Boyd, Brockie is only a bench player and he does not work well unless he's running at tired players. Boyd creates more.

2) While I think Stein is good and should be offered another contract, he is slow. If you're trying to break the offside trap with him, it's basically a waste of time since the defender is likely to catch him up. Krishna, on the other hand..

3) Siggy is "passionate" but needs to suck it up and realise that "passion" loses games if you give away stupid fouls in a fit of (justified) rage. Send him on an anger management course or he's out.

4) Riera is not the messiah and he's not going to singlehandedly solve the midfield. Clone him so we have a injury backup.

Our number 1 problem is the area just in front of defence. Lia is swamped and so looks rubbish even though he's doing OK. 

I understand Siggy's rage, though, after the ADP dive he said "every week" and it does seem like the trajectory of many of our games goes like this:

1) We dominate for 20-30 minutes but don't put away chances

2) A dodgy penalty/free kick is awarded and we go 1-0 down

3) We impatiently try to get one back, leaving holes at the back, and suddenly we're 2-0 or 3-0 down

4) Heads drop; game over.

Agree re: Stein. He was terrible last night. Any good chance to break and he was offside (i counted 5 very good chances for a 1-on-1 with their keeper), and any other chance he was just far too slow. Its almost as though he was too eager to catch a break to make up for his lack of pace and just kept catching himself out. He's very hot and cold as well. Did almost nothing last season, started to pick up this season, before fizzing out.

Out of the other atackers only Cunningham has proven to be able to score goals.

Waffles has been in the lead of or around the top of the golden boot race most of the year. Brockie did so last year. Weird statement. 

If Stein had been quicker to his feet when we had that ping pong in their box in the first half he would have got a tap in when Brockie's shot stopped in the mud.

Instead he was sitting on his bum.

Anyone who's ever played at Happy Valley knows to be alert to such possibilities.

My point was simply (I thought) that I don't think we should keep both Waffles and Carlos as they can't play together with their limited pace - giiven how we are apparently trying to play.

And nor was I implying we don't get another striker - merely that we have some younger ones (and Brocks), dump either of the above and replace with a "proper" striker. Y'know, that scores goals - reasonably consistently... like that Kiwi/Aussie/German bloke we had a while back... whatsisname? (lols) and play either Waffles or 'los behind him.

And no, that is not Kosta either (to clarify again - before someone else jumps... I am not saying we don't get him if available, simply that he's not an out and out striker).

Keep Steyn to play behind a striker (and if he's not keen let him go). 

Let Carlos go. 

Alternately - 

Keep Carlos to play behind a pacy striker (and if he's not keen let him go).

Let Steyn go.

Keeping both (being Visa players) isn't sustainable whilst we have such glaring weaknesses defensively, and some half decent attackers coming through (and no, I am not referring to el Brocko).

I think there is a lot of emotional angsting after this loss which is really knee jerk.

Our defence was not an issue until we got tonked by the Heart. We bounced back and did CCM but then got the same from Adelaide. We had kept it very tight at the back and that was in part because the guys in front of them did their job and stopped play getting there. It is obvious that Lia is not a DM stop gap which is not his fault - he is just not that type of player.

Sigmund and Durante are aging and are not the quickest but if they had the midfield in front of them that did their job, then all of those things are a lot less of an issue because they get protection from guys who are doing their job. At the moment, opposition stare solely at our CBs because that's what they can see. There is no defensive line between them and the CBs. Break that line with some slick inter play (or allow players to hit shots in from outside the box) then yeah, Sigmund and Durante are going to look past it.

I'm not a Sigmund fan but I don't think its fair to go 'well you are past it' when the help he is meant to be getting from the guys in the DM position in front of him, he is not getting. Its effectively a black hole position for us on the field cause the guy that is in there, is not his natural game and I think it is a little unfair to smash Lia for that when its not his game. He has been asked to play there and he has gone 'ok boss'. If Leo was asked to play there, he would go 'ok boss'. Both would be effective as each other in that role.

This points back to recruitment. As JD reminded me, we lucked into Riera and prior to that, we were content with Manny and Lia. Ernie needs a DM recruit this winter pure and simple and these defensive woes go away.

Thought Stein unusally slow last night.. 

There was one point where I really noticed.. 

All of this was fine when we we're holding possession better but we've now got the lowest average possession in the league.  ...

I've had a long think about this and I think we have a big problem with our tactical set-up in the second half of the season - and it came from watching Neil Lennon (Celtic manager) talking about playing with a 4-4-2 diamond on match of the day last night which is basically what we're playing.

He identified the major weakness of playing with a diamond with your fullbacks playing high as being susceptibility on the counter.  If you look at the last few weeks we've been cut to ribbons and our central defenders have been left one on one and two on two time and time again.  Neither are that comfortable defending one on one and it's showing.

He said it can work if you have someone super mobile in the def midfield role to cover when it breaks down, but that's just not what Vince Lia is.  He's too slow and is just simply unable to disrupt attacks.  Self-evidently Riera was better at that job, but I don't think it's sensible to try the formation with the personnel we have available.  We just aren't able to put any pressure on in midfield and we really look like conceding in every match.

Couple that with a complete lack of pressure from our strikers whose work rate seems to have dropped off massively, and this is a bit of a recipe for disaster.  We're not pressing in midfield, we're going man on man at the back and we're playing a fairly high line.  It's incoherent and this is a coaching issue.

Finally, we're getting so little end product from Boxall and Timmins I don't understand the trade off.  If you have 2 great attacking fullbacks, fine, push them on and hope that leads to you scoring more goals.  But neither really effect the game in an attacking sense so I think we need to be a lot more circumspect.

All of this was fine when we we're holding possession better but we've now got the lowest average possession in the league.  We give the ball away constantly after 5 or 6 passes, players are caught up field and we're just not able to get back.  We're far too easy to beat at the moment and I think Ernie has to take his fair share of the blame for the game plan and the tactical set-up.