you guys have watched the nix for as long as I have, so you know how long we soend passing the ball between our CB's and back to the keeper, its frustrating and has resulted in mistakes and errors like the womens team have been experiencing, Hence conceding 12 goals. An average of 2 a game, same as last season which was the worst goals per game in the league.
I actually think the opposite, if we held posession more (i.e. pass the ball around the back as well as take it forward) we wouldn't have conceeded as much.
Our best games this season have been the games where we've had more of the possession.
key thing is to hold posession, our passing accuracy is high which is great, the trouble is most of those passes are uncontested, as soon as we try to get the ball forward we lose it - its a commonality between the women and the men. Passing the ball between the back four gets you nowhere, sure it drags the opposition out of their shape, but unless you can make the pass forward what's the point? We are not consistent enoguh at keeping the posession and end up losing the ball in key positions.
No hugs for the guy who was knocked out. No fouls for wsw shoves in the back and a card for Ball in the second for what wasn’t a card in the first. A more subtle Danaskos!
Dull game. Dunno if it was the camera angles or the colours or what.
Sasse seems to want to play one touch? Was circumspect, didn’t really give the ball away, but didn’t do anything much either. Best moments were quick dabs his teammates didn’t know what to do with.
Kraev quiet but got the goal.
Hope Lewis is okay.
Yengi not available for WSW? Is that who I’m thinking of? Bossed up front on the left in their last win, in Melbourne?
Would need a string of 5-6 wins to get me excited about this team. (Lies probably just one, I’m a sucker)
Ball was average today?
Surely Kosta and Old ahead of Sasse based on the evidence so far? Don’t know about Ball and Zawada up front, but the pitch may have hampered Ball’s game.
Lewis maybe our best today?
We’re not a good head tennis team, we need ball mostly at feet. Though Kraev and Zawada are decent in the box.
We've been changing selections so often. And it seems to me that the players aren't looking too cohesive as a unit. Some good individual skills there but we seem to get our ball carriers isolated very easily.
I suspect everybody is trying so hard that we've got a bit too individual.
Maybe back off a bit with the ball, be a bit more patient and only really break when it's on. We're looking like we're trying to do too much too quickly every possession and loosing support.
Seems to me there's still a lot of room for improvement, but it's coming slowly with everybody out to impress individually every opportunity they get. And not many attacking players getting a steady run.
Some good attacks in first half, good link up play. Defence looked solid and determined. Sasse had a couple of ok touches, but nothing special. One of the moments of the season was him getting confused by what the ref was signalling and he took a throw in from inside the field of play... play on! Lovely header from Kraev to polish off the lovely cross from Lewis. Then instead of defending our lead with sensible play, we start giving away free kicks in our defensive third. Recipe for disaster and after a rugby tackle by Ball (who'd impressed me up till then), they score from the free kick, goes in untouched. Sadly, it was probably a fair result.
Remember how worried and upset we used to be about the possibility of Talay leaving at the end of last season? Looks like we should have let him go. The team's recruitment and tactics are dire and the buck stops with him. Maybe we'll get lucky like we did with Merrick and he'll quit mid-season.
we have one of the best attacks in the league, so at least some of the tactics are working. I would look at recruiting a defensive player in January and letting Sasse go. Nothing against the guy, he could be great, however we have one of the best attacks in the league (by goals scored) without him. We also have a terrible defence, perhaps a rebalance of the squad is what we need. Ufuk saying the players were not directed to sit back and then doing so is a concern though, fairly sure its not the first time he has said that too.
we have one of the best attacks in the league, so at least some of the tactics are working. I would look at recruiting a defensive player in January and letting Sasse go. Nothing against the guy, he could be great, however we have one of the best attacks in the league (by goals scored) without him. We also have a terrible defence, perhaps a rebalance of the squad is what we need. Ufuk saying the players were not directed to sit back and then doing so is a concern though, fairly sure its not the first time he has said that too.
I agree with all of that, in a sense. Do we have a true consistent striker? I feel that we're playing with 6 attacking midfielders with the pretence of a formation.
The most important position in a team behind a consistent striker is the DM (hopefully the playmaker). I continue to argue that Ugarkovic is not good enough in this position. His ppg this season have continued where they left off last season with WSW- 1 ppg.
We finished up last season with 1.8 ppg, and if we'd played our best team in the last match, it would have been better than that. League winning form. We have a better attack now and I'd say a better defence (Surman was not a replacement for Payne or Laws).
Anyway. Nothing is going to change. I guess that Sasse and Pennington will both leave the club.
we have one of the best attacks in the league, so at least some of the tactics are working. I would look at recruiting a defensive player in January and letting Sasse go. Nothing against the guy, he could be great, however we have one of the best attacks in the league (by goals scored) without him. We also have a terrible defence, perhaps a rebalance of the squad is what we need. Ufuk saying the players were not directed to sit back and then doing so is a concern though, fairly sure its not the first time he has said that too.
I agree with all of that, in a sense. Do we have a true consistent striker? I feel that we're playing with 6 attacking midfielders with the pretence of a formation.
The most important position in a team behind a consistent striker is the DM (hopefully the playmaker). I continue to argue that Ugarkovic is not good enough in this position. His ppg this season have continued where they left off last season with WSW- 1 ppg.
We finished up last season with 1.8 ppg, and if we'd played our best team in the last match, it would have been better than that. League winning form. We have a better attack now and I'd say a better defence (Surman was not a replacement for Payne or Laws).
Anyway. Nothing is going to change. I guess that Sasse and Pennington will both leave the club.
I am super disappointed.
I rate Laws, I think he has improved a hell of a lot and still has more potential. Wootton has been caught ball watching in goal saving positions multiple times. He isnt terrible, deffo Aleague standard but he needs someone to kick his ass verbally to keep him switched on, we dont have that right now. Maybe Rufer returning will have the effect. Rufer is a far better player than he used to be and happily does the mundane work, he clearly is listened to and is vocal on the pitch so maybe will make an impact when he comes back. I think Pennington is under rated, he does make mistakes but runs his heart out to make up for it, he is committed and is easily aleague quality. I think he may look worse due to his ability to get around and cover. The mistakes may have been already made and he is stretched to cover it, apart from a few wayward passes and brain fades he is easily aleague standard and would do well in other teams. Also is not an import. Ugarkovic is not an out and out DM, I think he should be competing with Lewis, where Lewis is the preferred starter but close. As for strikers, Waine is an out and out striker. He is joint top scorer this season over all comps I think. He has a lot of talent, combination with Kosta (who I think is doing really well as a team player, looks at his run to draw the CB away for our goal) I think would bring us quite a lot of goals, we are OK for strikers at the moment. I dont think we as a team are using Zawada properly, he clearly has quality but aiming for his head every time isnt the solution, he is a Greenie type. Bring it down and lay it off to a Waine or Kosata type running a diagonal. I cant help but feel if Sutton was playing we would have had the three point there. Gives a lot more on attack and has proven to be decent to good on defence. Not disappointed, the potential and season are still there. 3/4 more games of throwing though and I will join you in the disappointed seats. I thought mid table at the start of the season and we are not too far off that at the moment.
We've dropped 7 points in 3 games where we probs should've taken max points and that would've taken us up to 2nd. We just seem to take the pedal off when we're in good positions whether that's down to tactics or maybe not having that leader on the field like Steven Taylor but everyone can see the potential there and throughout the season we'll get some luck and those games will turn into wins. So i think there's still a lot to be positive about. If we could get another CB in Jan and release Sasse i think it'll be the best for the team tbh.
We've dropped 7 points in 3 games where we probs should've taken max points and that would've taken us up to 2nd. We just seem to take the pedal off when we're in good positions whether that's down to tactics or maybe not having that leader on the field like Steven Taylor but everyone can see the potential there and throughout the season we'll get some luck and those games will turn into wins. So i think there's still a lot to be positive about. If we could get another CB in Jan and release Sasse i think it'll be the best for the team tbh.
We dropped 5 points in the last 3 games didn't we? I think that kind of flatters to deceive though because we beat a depleted Macarthur side who failed to capitalise on straightforward opportunities in the first half. To be fair on Lewis, his amazing free kick allowed us to run away with the game.
The idea of 2 visa Centre Defenders seems a bit ridiculous to me, and why do we need them? The answer is that Lewis and Ugarkovic are attacking midfielders (their tracking back is not particularly fast and gets less and less as the match goes on) . Now we're waiting to see if Rufer can do the job of a defensive midfielder.
I would say though that we're in severe danger of being a long term 1ppg team like Perth.
The positive is that we're now a very attack biased team and that's paying off in terms of goals scored.
We've dropped 7 points in 3 games where we probs should've taken max points and that would've taken us up to 2nd. We just seem to take the pedal off when we're in good positions whether that's down to tactics or maybe not having that leader on the field like Steven Taylor but everyone can see the potential there and throughout the season we'll get some luck and those games will turn into wins. So i think there's still a lot to be positive about. If we could get another CB in Jan and release Sasse i think it'll be the best for the team tbh.
We dropped 5 points in the last 3 games didn't we? I think that kind of flatters to deceive though because we beat a depleted Macarthur side who failed to capitalise on straightforward opportunities in the first half. To be fair on Lewis, his amazing free kick allowed us to run away with the game.
The idea of 2 visa Centre Defenders seems a bit ridiculous to me, and why do we need them? The answer is that Lewis and Ugarkovic are attacking midfielders (their tracking back is not particularly fast and gets less and less as the match goes on) . Now we're waiting to see if Rufer can do the job of a defensive midfielder.
I would say though that we're in severe danger of being a long term 1ppg team like Perth.
The positive is that we're now a very attack biased team and that's paying off in terms of goals scored.
Who said second import CB? Rufer may change everything, nobody knows. If he does we are still carrying an offensive import that we dont need (even if he is good). Currently we have one of the best attacking lineups, minus one visa player that has been a cameo at best. He may be fantastic but we dont need him. What we do need is something(someone) in defence. Nobody is disagreeing with that, however if our attack is so good and we can have a quality import CD/DM with this attack, how is that a bad thing? Agree Lewis and Ugarkovic are not DM's. If we shed a forward that is not required and recruit a quality DM, what happens to the team? I think that is interesting
We have 7 points after 7 games, I hoped for much more before the season, I thought we talked about the title? Did we lowered out expectations? I can’t give Uffi any smart tips. But so far it’s very underwhelming from a fan stand point, sadly the woman offer not much more.
Yeah I can't say I've been particularly impressed this season tbh. I really had us pegged as top four contenders with our squad, I don't think that's at all realistic now. I do think a good part of the problem is on Talay, I don't think he's he's super versatile coach tactically and others in the league have figured him out more or less. I'm definitely not saying he's a bad coach just maybe not as good as he's been hyped up to be. Perhaps some structural changes to the way the team plays is an order?
I'm sure there are reasons for the lack of results, none that we'll ever be told or will know. I'm sure Talay will be trying to work it out - yes he's very keen on the current shape, but he has changed a couple of times so he's not adverse to change. Same as the women, it seems something is missing. Confidence? Combinations? A new CB? although I thought Payne and Wootten looked solid for most of the game. A star striker? The ones we have are ok bu they're not scoring 15+ goals a season. so many questions to which we wont get direct answers.
I'm sure there are reasons for the lack of results, none that we'll ever be told or will know. I'm sure Talay will be trying to work it out - yes he's very keen on the current shape, but he has changed a couple of times so he's not adverse to change. Same as the women, it seems something is missing. Confidence? Combinations? A new CB? although I thought Payne and Wootten looked solid for most of the game. A star striker? The ones we have are ok bu they're not scoring 15+ goals a season. so many questions to which we wont get direct answers.
He's actually not versatile at all. He makes changes temporarily then he goes back to an original plan which simply doesn't work.
At the rate Kraev is currently scoring, he will be a 15 goal player.
We've dropped 7 points in 3 games where we probs should've taken max points and that would've taken us up to 2nd. We just seem to take the pedal off when we're in good positions whether that's down to tactics or maybe not having that leader on the field like Steven Taylor but everyone can see the potential there and throughout the season we'll get some luck and those games will turn into wins. So i think there's still a lot to be positive about. If we could get another CB in Jan and release Sasse i think it'll be the best for the team tbh.
We dropped 5 points in the last 3 games didn't we? I think that kind of flatters to deceive though because we beat a depleted Macarthur side who failed to capitalise on straightforward opportunities in the first half. To be fair on Lewis, his amazing free kick allowed us to run away with the game.
The idea of 2 visa Centre Defenders seems a bit ridiculous to me, and why do we need them? The answer is that Lewis and Ugarkovic are attacking midfielders (their tracking back is not particularly fast and gets less and less as the match goes on) . Now we're waiting to see if Rufer can do the job of a defensive midfielder.
I would say though that we're in severe danger of being a long term 1ppg team like Perth.
The positive is that we're now a very attack biased team and that's paying off in terms of goals scored.
I was talking about the Adelaide, Western, and WSW games just the ones where we really should've taken max points. Two visa CB's could be seen as too much but when we have good local attacking quality, we do need a better defensive to match our attacking quality and a visa CB would be the most assured way of doing that. If we were able to get a Aus/NZ CB that is better than Laws/Payne i'd be surprised so we're kinda forced to go import. But I do agree with I think we're still missing Devlin in this team and i'm not sure if anyone can fill the gap tbh maybe Pennington if he was a bit quicker.
I'm sure there are reasons for the lack of results, none that we'll ever be told or will know. I'm sure Talay will be trying to work it out - yes he's very keen on the current shape, but he has changed a couple of times so he's not adverse to change. Same as the women, it seems something is missing. Confidence? Combinations? A new CB? although I thought Payne and Wootten looked solid for most of the game. A star striker? The ones we have are ok bu they're not scoring 15+ goals a season. so many questions to which we wont get direct answers.
He's actually not versatile at all. He makes changes temporarily then he goes back to an original plan which simply doesn't work.
At the rate Kraev is currently scoring, he will be a 15 goal player.
Sure if he plays every game I can see him netting 15 goals 7 games 4 goals, = 1 goal every 1.75 games. 27 games/season = 15.5 goals Only Roy would be better than that with 19 in the 18/19 season.
We've dropped 7 points in 3 games where we probs should've taken max points and that would've taken us up to 2nd. We just seem to take the pedal off when we're in good positions whether that's down to tactics or maybe not having that leader on the field like Steven Taylor but everyone can see the potential there and throughout the season we'll get some luck and those games will turn into wins. So i think there's still a lot to be positive about. If we could get another CB in Jan and release Sasse i think it'll be the best for the team tbh.
We dropped 5 points in the last 3 games didn't we? I think that kind of flatters to deceive though because we beat a depleted Macarthur side who failed to capitalise on straightforward opportunities in the first half. To be fair on Lewis, his amazing free kick allowed us to run away with the game.
The idea of 2 visa Centre Defenders seems a bit ridiculous to me, and why do we need them? The answer is that Lewis and Ugarkovic are attacking midfielders (their tracking back is not particularly fast and gets less and less as the match goes on) . Now we're waiting to see if Rufer can do the job of a defensive midfielder.
I would say though that we're in severe danger of being a long term 1ppg team like Perth.
The positive is that we're now a very attack biased team and that's paying off in terms of goals scored.
I was talking about the Adelaide, Western, and WSW games just the ones where we really should've taken max points. Two visa CB's could be seen as too much but when we have good local attacking quality, we do need a better defensive to match our attacking quality and a visa CB would be the most assured way of doing that. If we were able to get a Aus/NZ CB that is better than Laws/Payne i'd be surprised so we're kinda forced to go import. But I do agree with I think we're still missing Devlin in this team and i'm not sure if anyone can fill the gap tbh maybe Pennington if he was a bit quicker.
Sorry guys. System won't let me download my screenshot of stats. Anyway it showed Pennington in the top half of the team for speed.
Let's be honest. The reason Pennington is out has nothing to do with anything other than the errors he made at the beginning of April as sole midfielder. He ticks the boxes otherwise.
It's interesting though, in previous seasons, we have not filled our visa spots allocation at the start of the season, last year with only Ball and Hooper at the start was not even close. This has allowed us to identify our major problem areas, and then rectify them in the market in January. Not ideal to wait to fix issues, but at least we had the wiggle room to amend them.
Is it too early to say that we've fudged our visa spots this season? Because let's be real, only 1 out of 5 are playing well (Kraev). Sasse had that disastrous debut, hasn't shown much and has got limited minutes (something up at training?), Wootton is hardly hitting the levels of an average A-League player and for a visa centreback really ought to be making a greater contribution, Bally works hard but continues to have fitness issues and even at his peak is not a top 25% level player for the league, while Zawada isn't clinical and has been merely okay up front.
If we're serious about finishing in the top four and challenging for the title, we can't be carrying 2-4 visa players all season. I think some tough decisions may be in order if we are to rectify our disappointing season to date.
Urgarkovic and Lewis hasn’t worked properly. We’ve coughed up points through their mistakes. When they’ve been on we haven’t dominated going forward enough to compensate for our porous defense.
This has been the change from previous seasons of Uffie’s teams.
The rest is similar to previous seasons. Sutton has had a dip in form. Everyone else, apart from Sasse, has delivered something.
Will be watching closely how Waine and Old go.
Sail as captain has lacked a deputy on the field, whether Wooton is quieter or Lewis is not capable of organising other players too. A lack of a little defensive organisation and calm has also cost us points.
I think our attack is strong, but obviously not enough compared to what we’re leaking at this stage. Is there time for improvement?
Urgarkovic and Lewis hasn’t worked properly. We’ve coughed up points through their mistakes. When they’ve been on we haven’t dominated going forward enough to compensate for our porous defense.
This has been the change from previous seasons of Uffie’s teams.
The rest is similar to previous seasons. Sutton has had a dip in form. Everyone else, apart from Sasse, has delivered something.
Will be watching closely how Waine and Old go.
Sail as captain has lacked a deputy on the field, whether Wooton is quieter or Lewis is not capable of organising other players too. A lack of a little defensive organisation and calm has also cost us points.
I think our attack is strong, but obviously not enough compared to what we’re leaking at this stage. Is there time for improvement?
Ugarkovic and Lewis, in my opinion, going forward are very good. But both, again in my opinion, don't have a clue when it comes to defensive positioning. They fail to disrupt opponents attacks and too often are slow to track back (especially late in the game).
You can disrupt an attack simply by being positioned correctly.
I'm sure there are reasons for the lack of results, none that we'll ever be told or will know. I'm sure Talay will be trying to work it out - yes he's very keen on the current shape, but he has changed a couple of times so he's not adverse to change. Same as the women, it seems something is missing. Confidence? Combinations? A new CB? although I thought Payne and Wootten looked solid for most of the game. A star striker? The ones we have are ok bu they're not scoring 15+ goals a season. so many questions to which we wont get direct answers.
He's actually not versatile at all. He makes changes temporarily then he goes back to an original plan which simply doesn't work.
At the rate Kraev is currently scoring, he will be a 15 goal player.
Sure if he plays every game I can see him netting 15 goals 7 games 4 goals, = 1 goal every 1.75 games. 27 games/season = 15.5 goals Only Roy would be better than that with 19 in the 18/19 season.
He has those 4 goals from only 1.4 xG, so he's well out-performing in that regard, so that could just mean he'll eventually regress towards the mean (or be a star who'll hopefully not be enticed by the bright lights of Syd-bourne)
It's interesting though, in previous seasons, we have not filled our visa spots allocation at the start of the season, last year with only Ball and Hooper at the start was not even close. This has allowed us to identify our major problem areas, and then rectify them in the market in January. Not ideal to wait to fix issues, but at least we had the wiggle room to amend them.
Is it too early to say that we've fudged our visa spots this season? Because let's be real, only 1 out of 5 are playing well (Kraev). Sasse had that disastrous debut, hasn't shown much and has got limited minutes (something up at training?), Wootton is hardly hitting the levels of an average A-League player and for a visa centreback really ought to be making a greater contribution, Bally works hard but continues to have fitness issues and even at his peak is not a top 25% level player for the league, while Zawada isn't clinical and has been merely okay up front.
If we're serious about finishing in the top four and challenging for the title, we can't be carrying 2-4 visa players all season. I think some tough decisions may be in order if we are to rectify our disappointing season to date.
Disagree with your assessments of Bally and Zawada. Bally is an excellent link up player and was looking very good in the last game till he tired. Zawada may not be banging in the goals yet, but he is working hard and doing a good job as target man. I thought Wootton had a good game on Saturday too. I live in hope about Sasse, but I admit he has shown very little so far.
The issue with wootton is that if you switch him out for Payne the isn’t much of a change in quality. We need to have our visa players being markedly better than domestic players and I just don’t see it in him atm.
The issue with wootton is that if you switch him out for Payne the isn’t much of a change in quality. We need to have our visa players being markedly better than domestic players and I just don’t see it in him atm.
The issue with wootton is that if you switch him out for Payne the isn’t much of a change in quality. We need to have our visa players being markedly better than domestic players and I just don’t see it in him atm.
Payne’s form has dropped massively over the last year or so. But Wooton needs a kick up the backside, so far (this season), he’s been pretty appalling for a visa player.
(Was only using Payne as an example of another CB in our squad to demonstrate that wootton isn’t clearly above the rest, should have been clearer about that)
Wootton is far and above the best CB we have in the squad, ability wise, prefomance wise he has been beneath his best for sure, but I think that has more to do with who he is partnered with in the centre of defence.
