vs CCM Friday 4th 7:30pm

Can someone please explain our tactics to me?

Time after time after time after time we hit the flanks and if our cross is lucky enough to not float out, it ends up headed away by a defender.

We go up the middle a couple of times at most and we score a goal from one of those. then we revert back to the flanks to put more aimless crosses in???

Pls, someone explain why we do this, please?

Never really been a fan of Greenacre but have to admit he's impressing me atm. He's not going to score headers though.

So frustrating.

Really? I blame the sh*t off season hirings by a financially stretched CCF ltd....

Bugger bugger bollocks

Surprised Timmy stayed on the pitch today the way he was getting around and niggly with the opposition players in that first half, thought I saw him elbowing their No 2 at one point as he ran past him...

Was really dissapointed Ricki didn't fundamentally change the set up of the team when it clearly wasn't working for us today, perhaps moving Smith forward to support Greenie up front may have been an idea when we were chasing a game we were losing?!?!

Brown is just not up to it. Can somebody PLEASE explain to me why Brown is guaranteed a starting spot every week when he is simply not good enough? Lets be honest, there needs to be a squad clean out. Look at it this way. If you take Brown, Bertos and Daniel, tell me which other A-League side that they would get it. None. The bar has been raised and we are trailing behind, living in the past. If the new owners want this club to go anywhere they have to spend money, its as simple as that. The brand is going to suffer and interest + attendences will drop if we put in performances like we did today.

Smith was almost in the back 4 all game, he needs to get further up the park. It was almost like watching how we played with Elliott last season. Pass the ball to him, then he passes the ball to the fullbacks.

Not blaming him for the loss or anything, just when Manny plays DM he is alot more mobile up an down the park, and would like to see Smith do the same.

It did seem as though we were playing a 5-0-5 formationTegal2011-11-04 23:32:56

I mentioned this about Tim two years ago and copped a barrage of abuse.

Tonight was the clear evidence that this current squad is just not up to it. Not enough players, and not enough quality.

Smith scared to make a tackle? Hilarious!

The night before Guy Fawkes shall now be known as the "Night of the Grumpy Men".

Smith was our best player tonight. A good signing and hope he sticks around for a long time to come.

Daniel on the other hand is incredibly frustrating to watch. How many times did he thump an attempted cross into the body of a defender?
SC032011-11-05 00:00:47

Tough day at the office. The boys are showing the will to win just lacking a bit of cohesion at the front and a bit of skill....we can build on this. With Ifill and Lia and Siggy etc back we can compete.

I have paid my season ticket money THIS season, so I really don't give a sh*t at this stage about the Welnix plans for next season. i hear ya man

What was up with our tactics of putting in crosses only giraffes can get onto...put it into the box on the ground and thinngs happen, as CC showed. What is Ricki teaching these guys..?

Sack greenacre

I assumed the same players who arguably outplayed Perth and Melbourne in consecutive weeks would be picked for this game. But whoever those dudes were that turned up tonight in Phoenix shirts clearly weren't that same bunch. Simply not up for it this week.

Crap result and an ominous sign, particularly all the passes from Central Coast which dribbled across the goalmouth unimpeded. Play like that next week against Brisbane and even Alelaide will be laughing at the scoreline.

Unfortunately not too much to look upon favourably apart from Sanchez's potential, Greenacre's work rate (I'm sure if everyone in the country worked as hard as him we'd have one of the best performing economies in the world) and the lack of red cards.


I dismiss this season entirely in terms of title contention, but retain faith in Welnix because they are clearly successful in their other business interests and I trust that they know plenty about growing a business. To that end, I'm mentally prepared for a season of extreme pain and several months of feeding from the wooden spoon if it means long-term gain and financial security for the club. There just better be that long-term gain.

What concerns me more in the interim is the damage to the brand. Already low crowds will inevitably fall further without on-field success. However, with the right long-term strategy in place in terms of youth and development, it is certainly recoverable, e.g. the Warriors.

If we are poor and turn into last season's NQF - support and therefore crowds will be seriously, and possibly irrevocably damaged. Even now, with a 3rd loss in a row this early in the season, the crowds have dropped sharply. Today's crowd of just over 5000 isn't far from the worst crowd we had last season - only a couple hundred in it.

All I hear from Welnix is the word "profit". Well there won't be any f**king profit when we turn into the new Gold Coast. Infact - worse - at least they perform.

/end angry rant
Therk2011-11-05 00:57:18

I think tonight showed we need Smith playing forward with Sanchez, and get Siggy back, keep Manny in DM, and Tsats on RB.

Greenacre plays like a man possessed, but it's very frustrating watching him compete and miss a lot of headers he'll never get to.
And when he gets the ball on the ground, it's usually running the wrong way and he can't turn with the ball to play forward.

But the passing across the back tonight was very frustrating to watch, it really did look like they had no ideas or options.

And Warner's kicking tonight was pretty terrible also.

In all seriousness what is rickie thinking. The squad is clearly very thin with pav, lia and pant all out long term. Why doesn't he do something about it. Its embarassing and we're becoming a laughing stock. They should move smith onto a full time contract for the season then make 3 injury replacment signings. I could name plenty of aussie players plying there trade in the victorian state leagues who are more then capable of filling the spots.

I couldn't figure out what system we were trying to play.  Looking at the line up I thought it would be a 4-3-3, but then Sanchez was playing so far forward and seldom bothering with defensive duties so assumed it was 4-2-3-1 with Brown and Smith holding to allow Sanchez to be be as attacking as he was.  But as the game went on Brown was less and less bothered about defending, with him and Sanchez often higher up the pitch when an attack broke down than Leo or Daniel or even Greeny, and not really making an effort to get back.  That left Daniel and Leo to defend the flanks and Smith defending CM by himself, which  I think he did bloody well in the circumstances. 

Maybe they were deliberately trying to play 4-4-1-1 with Sanchez playing off Greeny and Brown bombing forward as Leo and Daniel more defensive than two wing forwards.  Or maybe they just didn't have a clue. 

And I couldn't believe Tsattlios coming into an attacking role when we're trying to win the game.  You know you're in trouble when in the last 5 minutes you need a goal but you've got the previous week's right back blasting over from a good shooting position, a centre back looking to whip in a cross from the right channel and messing it up and the closest you get to a goal is a header from your keeper.

I agree with the calls for Tsattlios to RB, Manny to DM for Brown.

As always, 100%, totally utterly, spot on. Agree with every word.

Please send your CV to Welnix ASAP.

My biggest worry is the fan base shrinking to bugger all if something is not done urgently- then there won't be a club left to save....................

Why not? better than Downey or Tats up there.

I was calling for Paston up front most of the second half!martinb2011-11-05 08:51:32

No Siggie

Exactly.

If you squander your existing position (like we have, unable to continue to defend our fortress, not winning with a lucky headbandage) you have to work hard to get that back. The only thing I can think of is that they will pull a Clive Palmer and limit fans or some such thing to limit costs rather than maintain and build interest in the club.

Not having read the thread, I just have to say:

Why has Nicky Ward beeen on the bench for last 2 games?
CCM play the best of the away teams when they come here - we had no space anywhere on the park. It's hard to play against teams like that, they shut us out.
Blaming the passing, the performance etc on our team being flat isn't fair on the way CCM played, give them some credit for our loss. Our team will still beat most others here.

Have woken up confused about last nights result.

Not sure if it was as dire as everyone is making out but am positive that action needs to be taken immediately off the pitch to ensure we are competetive and challenging for our Top 6 spot this season.

To be fair I think when he came off the bench against MV he showed why he'd been on the bench.

OK, I'll put it another way.....what has Leo been doing better?

Fixed it for you.

Basically we got out coached last night.

There you go spoiling all the doom sayers fun. You must realise there is a gun striker somewhere just waiting for the call that will fit into our budget.Mind you once he finally arrives the next problem will actually getting him the ball.What with the slowest wingers in the league whose idea of attack is to head back to their own goal first,thats if they manage to hold possesion.

I agree that last night Ward looked at least as good as Leo when he came on.  But against MV Ward gave the ball away repeatedly in abject fashion.  Leo usually manages to keep the ball, he just doesn't run at people, beat them and get decent crosses in, which he appeared capable of doing a season or two ago and which is pretty much a job requirement for where he plays.  Nicky Ward doesn't do this either.  For me he's a Sanchez replacement rather than a Bertos replacement.