R4 vs Melbourne City | Fri 9th Nov | 9:50pm | SS1 | Four Kings

Less sharkness please

Us or the team?

The weather

City will have VAR and the Ref on there side, Its gonna be a tough game.

As someone who goes to most of these games, you're not wrong

Maybe we lost because of 'dance cam' as long as Melbourne has no dance cam we're taking away all three points fire up! 

I'd take another nil all draw thanks.

Cmon Nix, City will be vulnerable. Early goal and out the heat on them.

5 nil city unless rudan sorts out midfield

They will no more be vulnerable than us. 

Exactly

Could have been fun to have gone to the MC and then this match, make a week of it.

Of course I avoided the R3 game thread, but I'm kind of heartened to note that #RudanOut isn't trending yet.

I think most people realise that we have severe limitations within our squad, and Rudan can only do so much.

I would be surprised if anyone thought that. He is young-ish new coach with little experience (relatively speaking) but has already shown that he is probably well above the level of Greenacre or Buckingham, let alone the level (?) of Darije.   He has a new and rather patchy squad on his hands and some of his tactics will possibly backfire (like against WSW), but I expect Rudan to learn from these mistakes.  He also seems to have team's loyalty which is a huge bonus.

I am really curious what his lineup will be against the Jamtards. I would be happy with a scoring away draw and a decent effort on our part. And if Fornaroli is booked for diving that would be an icing on the cake.

Jamtards? Where does that come from?

used to be Melbourne Heart - Hearts = Jamtarts, Victory called the Tards so City the Jamtards

Tards = Melbourne Victory.

When City were "Melbourne Heart", they had a red-and-white strip (which is still their second strip, I think). Hence, "jam".

In conclusion, the worst nickname ever

Kopa was pictured at training so he ain't being ditched just yet... must be time to give him a go surely? Would also love to see Foxy in too with Doyle going to LWB, although Fox made a mare of a backpass during the reserves game which led to one of them getting sent off and conceding a pen...

He can't be blamed for the weather, nor match officials. But on a side note, every close up camera view of him and he is so passionate about the game. Good to see a coach that gives a sharke. Leading by example.

I hope he won't be the youngest coach ever to get a sideline apoplexy.

I would be interested to see Kopa in for Mandi. I think Rufer has been the better DM if we're comparing him to Mandi. Mandi is spent at the 60 min mark.

If you told me that we would go into the season with a former champions league Legia Warsaw defensive midfielder and a seasoned Spanish mid who played for Real Madrid B, and both were behind Alex Rufer, I would've laughed. I think that's both an indictment on Kopa and a compliment to Rufer in equal measures. 

Rufer is an interesting case - covers a lot of ground and physically is capable at this level but often is unable to move the ball out of danger quick enough - whereas while Mandi is clearly not fit you can see the quality he has to get a half turn in and play out the other side with a simple ball.

I dislike the term defensive midfielder as there are so many people who translate that into a defender playing in midfield when actually that role is so much more than that.

Having said that there is so many unknowns about the nix this season I'm open to a little experimenting from Rudan so he knows what he guys are capable of ahead of the transfer window in Jan.

I agree, which is why a loss at home to WSW is also a lesson and should not be read as a season's mark of quality.

It showed (or confirmed) that we have a weakness upfront - not only we are not scoring much but can be torn to pieces on the counter when pressing high late in the game.  Part of that is weakness is the mystery of Burns, but also how best to utilise Williams and Singh with Krishna.  Not sure if Rudan has seen enough from Nicholls yet.

That front line could be solved if he dropped a defender and played a 4-3-3 with Burns-Krishna-Williams at the top, now that's some serious firepower. Its the middle of the park then that becomes the puzzle with 1 unfit import, 1 questionable import, a surprising local and 3 threatening attacking mids. For the backline we have some quality CB's in Taylor, Fox, Dura, Doyle, Lowry just pick your pair. The wingbacks are about as good as any other in the league. That spine needs some work both for controlling the game, retaining posession and creating chances. I can see why Rudan moved the balance to favour the backline at this time of the season.

In days gone by that might have been a good forward line..best we have currently.

With you until you mentioned our wing backs. For me, this is our weakest link and the reason so many of our attacks are breaking down

Wonder if Bruno Fornaroli will be wearing a swim suit, VAR to score his dives.

Disagree that Burns-Krishna-Williams would work. They are

1) All wide strikers naturally.

2)Aside from Krishna, not exactly in goal scoring form.

I would trust Williams to score over Burns, so he'd get the nod for me. Singh is needed to orchestrate things and pass through the lines.

They could play a front three of Burns, Krishna, and Williams but it would require a shape that lets Singh support the counter. I actually think it's a better approach than putting Singh in the front three because the required change in shape would result in a much more balanced side.

Referee: Adam Fielding

Assistant Referee 1: George Lakrindis

Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Ilievski

Fourth Official: Jack Morgan

VAR: Nick Waldron

Melbourne City FC squad: 1.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 2.Ritchie De LAET, 3.Scott JAMIESON (c) , 4.Harrison DELBRIDGE, 5.Bart SCHENKEVELD, 7.Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 8.Riley MCGREE, 10.Dario VIDOSIC, 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON, 15.Kearyn BACCUS, 17.Anthony CACERES, 18.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 19.Lachlan WALES, 23.Bruno FORNAROLI, 25.Iacopo LA ROCCA, 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Florin BERENGUER-BOHRER, 34.Connor METCALFE

**two to be omitted**

Ins: 13.Nathaniel ATKINSON (promoted), 34.Connor METCALFE (promoted)

Outs: nil

Unavailable: 6.Osama MALIK (calf), 11.Michael O’HALLORAN (hamstring)

Wellington Phoenix Squad: 1.Filip KURTO (gk), 4.Mandi SOSA, 5.Ryan LOWRY, 6.Dylan FOX, 8.Mitch NICHOLS, 9.Nathan BURNS, 11.David WILLIAMS, 13.Liberato CACACE, 14.Alex RUFER, 15.Michal KOPZCYNSKI, 16.Louis FENTON, 18.Sarpreet SINGH, 19.Tom DOYLE, 20.Oliver SAIL (gk), 21.Roy KRISHNA, 22.Andrew DURANTE (c), 23.Max BURGESS, 27.Steven TAYLOR

**two to be omitted**

Ins: 6.Dylan FOX (promoted) 15.Michal KOPZCYNSKI (promoted)

Outs: Nil

Unavailable: Nil

Kopa promoted to the bench! That's great, I think he just needed a bit of time to adjust and I reckon we'll see a lot of him very soon!

Two to be omitted

He was in the squad last week too

City are giving away free family tickets to this game, if any Melbourne based Nix fans are wanting to go https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/414510

I haven't really seen any decent attacks through the middle though so if we're solely relying on wingbacks to do the attacking job then we have one hell of a problem. I suppose its how the current formation is set-up but that still doesn't excuse them, we had the same sort of fluff last year with Galloway and Abbas. Fenton has done pretty well in defence at times and even saved a goal for the first game but has lost some pace. Cacace is who I expect to be doing better and had some shockers one on one at the back but saying that he's still probably only 17. They can still improve but i'm wondering what Rudan will differently on the flanks as the season progresses, he might just keep things the same and hope that they hit their targets or change up the formation and line-ups.

It's not all that bad,  there's been 2 good performances and that game against Brisbane we should have won but that's football. We were just outplayed by the better team last weekend.