R3 vs Melbourne City | Sat 21 Oct | 7:35pm | SS2

Possibly harsh on AK after just 3 games, but I can't help but think how much more effective A-Rod would be with the way the team is now set up to play.

Great stuff loads of positives from tonights game ,I think we will demolish Brisbane at home on the 28th,this is an organised team playing with confidence the goals will come!

I have that feeling I had before the famous 6-0 vs Gold Coast in the 09/10 season. Look out Brisbane!

So to sumarise- this season Krishna has 0 goals and Vince Lia has two? I'm very confused

I'm confused that we let Lia go

He should of had 1 more year here

Talking to City fans after the game they thought we played the better football but lacked a cutting edge. Nothing we haven't seen for ourselves, but they were genuinely complimentary.

I thought we might have been in for a tonking, but was quite impressed with how we played, even after their goal, we still stayed composed and did not panic. passing around at the back was good although one or two were risky. I didn't think City offered that much. a 0-0 would have been a lot fairer result imho. We had difficult chances, normally shots like Krishna's would have hit the bar and gone in. great shot it was too. That performance has made me feel quite upbeat and our current position does not really reflect either the Sydney game nor this game and how we played.

Never been so positive after a loss. We're just a totally different outfit. Slick, composed, assured, combative in midfield and all that. 

They are going to worry a lot of sides away, and be hard to stop at home. Goran Paracki will be a star in this league, and Keegan Smith deserves a lot of praise too.

May take a while to climb up the table as it's a difficult period. But once clear of WC, it could get interesting.

Only worry is the defensive injuries, but have great confidence in this new coaching crew to sort.

Can't wait for Brisbane.          

Looking good in defeat..

Like to see Parkhouse earlier on the field, brought a lot more danger from the left in the final minutes. Hope Finkler will back soon, we are lacking the final pass.

Agree with most of you, we see some promising football and gets better week by week.

I would like to try Parkhouse starting with Ridenton on the bench to see how that works.

Not wanting to dwell on the negatives but where the hell was the wall for the free kick?

Have waited 10 years to see a Nix side that was exciting to watch. Great football and although it was the wrong result I feel now that we can go into the rest of the season with confidence. I knew this would happen when we signed Rado Vidosic. The teams he has been involved with have always tried to play attractive football.

Darje said at the press conference that this is just the start, he's surprised that we're getting compliments at this stage of the season because we have so much more work to do but it's going to take time and they're not rushing.

He also said while it's going to take time he came here to win trophies and he thinks the team will be there in a position to win trophies by the end of the season.

I really like what I've seen of him and Rado.

The funny thing was yesterday I was convinced we were going to get an injury time equaliser, I can't say I've ever had that confidence before.

!00% did not deserve to come away with no points form this match. I thought that we played some of the best football i have ever seen from the Nix.

I am just loving what the new coaching setup are doing. This side looks organised, there appears to be an obvious game plan and all the players are well drilled. At the start of the season I thought that with with us being seriously underdone and with away games against Sydney and City we would get spanked. But we seriously outplayed  a very good City for large periods of that game....they just couldn't get their play going....Paracki and Ridenton completely dominated the midfield. We will win plenty of games this year.

We still have work to do on the play in the final third. There were plenty of passes and crosses that were just not accurate enough. Considering that we have so many new players I guess we will have to wait for them to gel on attack. The quality is there, the players a good enough, they just need to coordinate better. I think an in form Finkler could be the key to getting a sharper edge on attack.

Big rap for Keegan Smith. When I watched the first game I thought what are they doing playing a schoolboy as keeper. But he was excellent in this game. He distributes well, is commanding in the air and generally bosses his zone. Still a work in progress but I can see why Darje selected him. If he keeps developing he will be a major asset for the club.....and still only ferkin 18 years old....Smith is only half the age of the City keeper There was a lovely moment after the game where Timmy Cahill went over to Smith and patted him on the back and offered him encouragement...class!!!! 

The last two games we have played well but one point from three games is a very poor start. Unfortunately we are already playing catch up.

Paracki is making a massive difference to our team - love to see him receive more when playing out....

Except for Villa obviously, interestingly article here says he was on 45k quid a week there, wonder what Mel City are paying him...

I said the same thing to my wife just after the game on Saturday

It's ok, they are allowed to break a celery cap, they are the blue-eyed boys ahead of WSW now. Timmy plays for them after all.

Don't worry about the dropped points - good times not far away. Have been waiting a decade to see us play like this.  

I agree, but I think we can all also agree that we really need to stop thinking a 0-0 draw is a result for us. Let's start thinking we can beat these sides, home and away.

Do you not think we went out to win or?

He was worth 11m about 2 seasons ago so not surprised really 

I'm not as positive as many on here. Whilst there was plenty of good play, the wastfulness when playing forwards into their half was dreadful. And we started to get predictable playing out from the back, and the opportunity could push numbers forwards to close us in. And there is no point pissing around with it at the back if you can't find a forward in the box, like Newcastle have already done several times in 15 mins tonight.Yeah, we were organised, and we do seem to be improving, but it's no more than hopeful promise at the moment.

Yeah, but the thing is we've been promised more. The team has said since before the season that we're going to start slow as we have had almost no preparation. And Darje himself has said he's surprised at the kudos we're getting because this is just the beginning.

If we were playing like this at the end of the season we'd all be disappointed, but we've gotten steadily better each game and there is no reason to think that this won't continue for the next few weeks as the team gets more in tune with each other.

Melbourne Heart do have a quality defence though. Brisbane couldn't score against them and even Victory with all their attacking talent only got 1.

Impressed with Keegan.  Am worried that Huddo will do one of his odd calls and make him bench warm against Peru.  Could well be class for NZ down the road though.

Great to see he was MoM too.  How often do we get a genuine MoM, especially when we lose.

Was great to see the way we passed but we felt SO slow to get that ball forward meaning that City/Heart had their defence organised enough to close down our front three.  Also too many final balls played in the air, resulting in us losing the ball.  It’s clear to see our  attack likes the ball on the ground played in behind the defenders.  Work on that and we will be leathal.

Watched game on MySky.  Annoying thing about the free-kick for the goal, if you use the pattern caused by the lawn mowing as a guide, the free-kick was taken 7-9m forward (1.5 patterns) of where the offence took place. 

As players taking up a foreign spot.

If Rado chose him that's good enough for me

I thought A Rod was a good player just not quite fast enough

ROUND 2

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Some reasons we won't win:

-Brisbane have an exciting, youthful side, full of promise

-We struggle to dominate games, I know possession isn't everything, but if we can't hold the ball we'll never win games

-Our midfield lacks bite and physicality. What about Singh? He looks a specimen.

-Keegan was either Better than Jesus or worse than Tando. Can't remember what Cahill and the Forums said.

-Maccarone doesn't look like he's a dried-up, money grabbing, Italian stereotype, and shades of Piovaccari (The Terminator).

-They have two solid, dependable keepers who don't ship easy goals. Young and Theoklitokliosiousimariam. Ask Photomac, he couldn't stop trying to show off on the pod.

SOME POSITIVES AS WELL:

-Kaludjerovic has been clinical. Red hot in front of goal. Ice in his veins.

-Our defense has been consistent in personnel with Rossi finally gotten over his injury.

-Rossi might know​ someone who can smash in Fahid's legs. Or he could bribe the referee. Fudge if he did bribe Chris Beath who would actually notice if he was extra shark.

-Who saw Goran's long distance thundercod. Galekovic was shaken. Lol what doesn't scare Eugene these days.

- It's Bardys birthday! ??????

- The Aloisi effect could still kick in. Especially when the players carers make them go back to the retirement home.

TRANSFER WATCH:

-Jacob Burns (@HardNews)

-Some Fudgeing Peruvian. Newshub cares more about the Peru team than the All Whites.

-Ronald Vargas. he's looked sharp. Especially considering he's playing for Newcas-

Oh.

No.

Christ.

Oh God.

I just saw it

I need to vomit

Is there a Bathroom?

Even a public one?

I'll ask Patrick.

He'll know.

He likes his dates there.

(Poor Ernie)