R8 v Sydney FC | 10:00pm Thursday Nov 26 | Sky Sport 3 | Four Kings

Sorry got that wrong it was 29-14

I watched the game here at work at Heathrow and all the other boys kept saying how sharke Sydney was as a side for resorting to fouling. Another biggie, if not the biggest gripe was "where are the fans"?  A very good question me thinks.

Didn't think Doyle, Gulley, Krishna or Bonevacia had games to write home about today.

Am I the only person who is usually very worried when McGlinchey gets on the ball?
I think he's overrated and pulls some great things from his arse every fortnight/four weeks.

Seems like I'm in the minority. Roly had a pretty bad one for his standards and the Chris Beath should get with the times and PLAY ADVANTAGE EVERY NOW AND THEN.

He is often unfairly picked on. 

Question is, who gives away more footballs? Alex Rodriguez or Santa?

Actually I thought A Rod was pretty good last night, yep he did give it away a coupe of times, but nowhere near as many as our outside backs. Riera did too but he was excellent

Alex had better passing accuracy than Roly And Weemac 

yea thought a-rod was one of the better ones last night

Is no one else happy with the way Manny has stood up in the centre of defence? Apart from getting stuck into Brosque (which I have to admit I enjoyed immensely. I've never liked him as a player), he was solid and showed a real leadership we needed badly.

Brosque comes across on the field as a guy you just want to hurt just because of his attitude. He really does go down quicker than  $2 hooker and often when there is no player contact, yet the referees seem to fawn all over him. Perhaps he does them favours before the game? I will never forget that penalty at the ring of dirt. It did not look like one then and the TV replay endorsed that fact.

Regretbly the 2 FBs are getting woefully exposed every single game and either we do not seem to be learning from a teams and tactics approach or the players themselves are not learning.

Did Fenton offer anything last night as an attacking threat?

Rod has some great touches and can find space in tight spaces.... but what we are really missing is that foil for Krishna. Our attack over hte last couple of weeks has looked one dimensional.

However, I don't think it's really a fair comparison. A Rod is a midfield workhorse who makes a lot of passes so of course he'll give a few balls away. Santa, on the other hand, doesn't exist so isn't really in a position to misplace a pass very often.

Doyle's inability to use his right foot is embarrasing

Is Rodriguez becoming the new Lia?

"Being" kicked out on and off field....

We have unused height in defence in form of Fox .

A-Rod and Riera the only positives from that game for me. Rest of the guys were pretty poor; but to be fair weren't allowed to get any sort of rhythm because of the anti-football Sydney were playing.

I can see why some people don't like Rod - he does lose the ball a bit more often than he should, given his ability - but he has really quick feet and can definitely pick out a pass. The issue I have is that he usually overplays things - he takes one touch too many or he takes a split second too long to release the ball. He just needs more time.

Arnie didn't show up for the press conference but his assistant did. He was complaining about the amount of fouls that were called in the game and how it affected their rhythm, to which Joel pointed out that Sydney conceded most of the fouls.

Arnie has been on a rampage talking about other coaches being too conservative and conceding fouls left right and centre because they feel threatened for their jobs.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Weird A-Rod the focus on here, I thought he was excellent.

I'm loathe to blame refs but that refereeing performance had a materials impact on the way the game played out.  The fact that no bookings were given for repeated fouling determined the way the whole game played out.

I am becoming a huge Gulley fan.  He is rock solid where Louis always had me on edge.  Manny was an absolute rock as well.

Does Arnold have a game plan other than kicking people?  That was really unimpressive from a team with that much talent and cash.

I am pleased we managed to get a clean sheet but if we are going to play on the break our transition really needs to improve, some good possibilities went begging yesterday.

Is it just me or does McGlinchey seem to disappear in the second half of games?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Santa_Claus

Santa Cruz

On the contrary, when there was no Lamborghini down my chimney last Xmas morning (despite me specifying it in my Santa request list), and then I saw one parked in town outside a posh bar, I took it as a clear evidence of a misplaced pass by Santa.  

So have you got your present now?

He did against WSW, and justifiably so after returning from Oman cattle class courtesy of NZF. He did OK last night but Ernie subbed him early to park the bus in the last 10 min (or so I thought), not because WeeMac did anything foolish.

Nope, his passing accuracy is still shark.

I still think our shape is wrong and we are easy to defend against because of it. I'd like to see us play with more width, or failing that, with our midfield and strikers dropping into space and moving around more to try to confuse the defense. At the moment it's all very linear passing and running in the middle of the park for very little gain. I think we actually look like our best goalscoring chances are on counterattacks but we seem strangely reluctant to really open up our legs and stretch defences when we have the chance. Our through balls in those situations seem to come too late and too slow, and our runners on the break seem hesitant and unsure of where they should be going. 

Having said that though, an away draw with Sydney after a quick turnaround from the last game is still a pretty decent result overall.

Thats was Rodriguez's best game for us last night. We have to remember he is still a kid only turning 22 in August. Yes he gives away a bit too much ball at times , but he is a work horse, and works very hard to make himself available. Given his limited pre season hopefully he will continue his upward trajectctory

I thought Fenton did a good defensive job further up the pitch (working hard, harrasing, pressing), not to play down Gulley's performance but Fenton certainly helped and definitely something I noticed compared to Sarpong - who seems a little timid.

With WeeMac, he needs to better manage his work rate. He runs and presses so much, and probably annoyingly for him, the pressing is not always well synced and ineffective - maybe he and the team need to pick their moments to press a bit better to make sure they are not spent towards the end of the game and when we have possession. 

Overall, we worked a bit harder off the ball than the last game - Roy making huge efforts to get back (sprinting 60m-70m a few times) to close down any counters but then either not in position or lethargic in the next phase of play when we had possession. 

My positives are that we passed the ball very well for a long time and our defence was solid.

The front third is what worries me, except the one through ball to Krishna, nothing really worked. We need to give Sarpong more game time, Fenton and Powel added not much, Sarpong showed at least in the Adelaide game some glimpses on taking on a man or play a quick pass.

The fouling was very annoying, shame on you Sydney. We need a rule that the player who did the 21. foul for one team gets a red card, maybe the opposite team gets a penalty.

Best this season.  He had some massive games last year.

Agree about Gulley JD

A lot seem to be giving a general opinion on both fullbacks as a unit, rather than Doyle and Gulley individually, which is especially unfair considering the amount of errors Doyle made all by himself. I still think there's something there with Doyle but the constant giveaways are looking really bad right now. 

DP

A pretty torrid game, but a well earned and very important point away.

After Roly's repeated and cynical clatterings, does FIFA have a rule that would allow him to carry a gun? Only a small one, perhaps in a little holster?

Or maybe  taser?

Doyle, is...how do I say this nicely, bad...

A Rod is the sort of player that doesn't get much attentionif he does his job well because he's always a link in the chain before the killer ball is played, or is providing an outlet for another player under pressure. If he does something wrong it gets a disproportionate amount of attention relative to some other players because some people are forgetting all the other good work he's done before that. I also think that the type of player he is is quite different to most mids in Aus or NZ - that type of constantly linking passing and intercepting player isn't as common in the game here or even as much in England as it is on the continent. Maybe people are expecting him to be something he's not.

I think so too - he's the best example of 'pass and move' that I've seen in the a-league.

Don't quite agree with the Gulley love - I'd like to see the stats on how many times he was beaten 1on1; definitely a handful, maybe more. Most of Sydney's best attacks came down his side.

He has more promise as a FB than Doyle though. I still think Doyle looks like a potential CB playing out of position.