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

Being a midfielder in the midfield.

We play 3 up top, so de laet ran past one of them to get there in the first place

The angle, height, and direction of the arm when jumping can vary considerably depending on what you're trying to do. Not all arm raises when jumping are considered equal under LOTG.

Sadly I think Louis Fenton is a trick or two short of A League standard at the moment. Likewise, Doyle played a ridiculous one on one when at the back as the last line of defence and nearly gave a goal away. I thought he had ditched ridiculously risky decision making after last season, Overall, City pressed Phoenix hard to mimise control time and thinking time on the ball. Apart from Williams and Khrishna on occasion, Phoenix stood back and admired City, allowing the wing backs to cut inside unchallenged and, without any pressure, find a midfielder. At least when Kopy came on he looked sharp and composed and very nearly scored. Forget tactics, Phoenix need to scrap for every ball. If they give the Adelaide midfield and especially the crazy Spaniard, the time and space to play we will see the same result next week. 

Once again, let's stick it to the NZ side. We don't help our cause with sub par performances but I like how Aussie officials like to drive it home with inept standards.

Very average performance live I must say. That’s a very organised City squad with good depth but they are unspectacular. Thankfully we have a quality keeper otherwise that was 4-0 minimum. If we play like that against a team who is flying they would put 5 passed us. Sadly lacking a playmaking mid. Even Ljujic would make a big difference to that team last night and I’d look for a Ljujic upgrade before continuing this search for a striker. In the short term I’d put Burns in behind, play the ball to him and tell him to turn on a dime and run at the defenders and see what opens up. Hopefully things look more positive with Burns and Carace back.

Kinda glad I missed this one and accidentally saw the result before watching replay..

Seems like the worst case scenario has come true - Rudan's tactics found out early in season, with seemingly no real way out, and completely ineffective up front.

Surely we change to a 4 3 3 and actually utilise what players we have. The wingbacks experiment has not worked as we do not have the players to do it. Fenton looked awful AGAIN. Play four at the back with Dura & Taylor as the centre halves and Doyle and Fox as left and right back, with Kopa & Mandi in front and let Nichols play as the 10. He looked very good in the last 20 when he was free to play his proper game and not being forced to play holding mid. Then lastly play Krishna RW, Williams ST and Singh LW. I know Singh on the wing is a big call but we are severly short on wide players and an out and number 9 who can play back to goal and feed the wide players. Interested to hear your thoughts on this. We just simply cannot allow the opposition defense, especially fullbacks free roam because we are playing a formation which means our attackers are too narrow. 

I don't want to see Dura in a back 4 ever again tbh.

A lot of talking points from this game, but for me the main things I learnt were a) Fenton did himself no favours with that performance, b) Kopa didn't seem any less effective than Mandi, and c) our attacking tactics aren't working I'm starting to doubt we will even score a goal from open play this season. Seriously, 4 games with none from open play

So it was an obvious error to every ref then? He reversed his decision of a foul. Are you saying for you that it's clearly not a handball?

I think that  the problem is that we have a far higher expectation of our ability than is the case.

Both goals came from not shutting down a player at the top of the box. With 7 defensive positions we can expect someone there surely? I That's not an ability thing

I get what you are saying, but most on here think we are better than we actually are.

And some think we are worse than we actually are. Some really clever ones on here think we are exactly as we actually are.

Kurto has been good 

The team spirit is good. Every stone has been turned.

Play Mandi Kopa and Rufer?

I feel your pain we are going thu the same thing.

A long long long time since I feel so poorly towards my team, we are not even a shadow of the club we were before Charlesworth took over.

I fear, he wants to sell us, and is cutting his losses as much as he can... I think he is deluded and thinks when the clubs take over the media deal will explode and he can sell the club for heaps more ...

Wondering aloud if you guys think the same about your owners ... Charlesworth is good with the lip and what should be done but it never quite seems to happen... 

352? Moving defensive solidity to midfield and keep wingbacks? Back 3 will be better with Doyle back, though I think hes also a better attacker than Cacace on the little I've seen of Libby.

David Williams at wingback? Can he defend? Can he cross?

We do we have such a wait between games? 

Has Rudan spoken to the press following this game?

Largely agree.  And what you say about players not having gelled yet obviously means that there is more in us.

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We don't look all that well drilled for the obvious exposure behind the FBs.  The urgency to cover (our slower) CBs when drawn wider and the organisation to fill the gaps when getting stretched that way doesn't look as good or instinctive as you'd like.  I think there is still major improvement from just working that more in training, getting that better organised and allowing faster decision making and more urgency in game play.  

Plus I thought Kop looked a decent improvement coming on.  Haven't seen enough yet, but Rufer and Kop interests me as a combination.

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Up front?  I think that really starts from the back.  We look like we're panicking again when put under any sort of pressure. And forcing wild clearances or half baked attempted fast break releases that are really hit and hopes.  Much more of the time we'd be better to just hold possession and play out.  

We had that one little period of play when we were more patient holding possession and moving it out and back, waiting for an opportunity to get a good ball to Singh - who nearly got away with support either side.  But too often we just hoofed it and lost posession.  And when the front three get so few real opportunities you can't blame them getting desparate, impatient and individual and not using each other well nor being prepared to reset with enough calm when we need to. 

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We may not be the best squad but there's more we can do with what we've got.  

I wouldn't give up on a solid mid table finish yet.  We won't get there if we don't improve, but you'd expect that's exactly what Rudan and the squad is working on. I'd like to think so anyway.

He moaned about the var and said the difference between the teams was down two two strikes by two marquees. Otherwise he seemed happy enough.

I found his half time comments to be a bit bizarre and this makes me wonder if he is watching the same game as me

Hopefully he's well aware of what is going on and is just trying not to destroy confidence

I would find it bizarre if he just came out and said "we played like sharke".  

Accentuate the positives in public. I wonder what he said in the dressing room though.

Absolutely, yes

But I'm not sure if you heard his half time comments, there was something about them and it is hard to explain, but they were so very wide of the mark

You're right I missed that. So was he just as flabbergasted as the rest of us as to why we came up with this dross of a performance?   I mean he might have just said that "we're still short of a striker but the rest of the plan will eventually fall into place", etc.

There was a moment in the second half where he was stood in the technical area, mouth agape, for a good couple of seconds before the director cut back to the action. He looked totally clueless, and the fact he did nothing to change the game until after the second goal makes me think he really did have no idea.

I think Rudan is an inexperienced coach, who is fine when things are going well but has no real plan B. Good coaches have one philosophy they stick to - sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't. Great coaches (and usually more experienced ones) are able to adapt on a game to game basis.

If only we could merge Darije and Rudan into one coach - Rudan's man management and Darije's actual technical coaching ability. Whenever Darije spoke after a game, he made a lot of sense.

You may be right but personally I enjoy hearing from our coach at half-time to hear what he has to say and what he thought of the first first half performance.

"Uh, based on the first half performance, we really need a centre-forward"

Rudan shows his frustration on the side... saying he doesn't have the nous to make changes I think is a little off the mark - hard to change a set up if you don't have the players for that.

Yes I know, its his team, his players... but he has tried to get a 9 without luck.