WPM R21 vs Melbourne City | Mon 9th May | 9:05pm | SS7

How long we got to recover? 
Payne got clattered twice. Sutton was tired. Old was tired. Hooper too. Reno attracted attention. Pennington must be. 

wilbaker

MetalLegNZ

The biggest take away from tonight...

With Lewis we have a much better chance. But the big question is, who does he start in the middle with, Sandoval or Pennington. I think him and Sandoval could be tasty!

I wouldn't be opposed to a Sandoval and Lewis midfield, could do something like this.
Sail
Payne-Surman-Wootton-Sutton
Lewis-Sandoval
Old-Piscopo
Waine-Ball

 
 who defends in the middle? Both Lewis and Gael are ball players not ball recyclers. I think Pennington starts purely on that ability. 

Hmmmm. Next game could be very interesting. We looked a cut above our recent form tonight. I wonder what Western United will be thinking.....

👏👏👏
That second half was what we needed, we lost the game, but we played into a bit of form. Amazing what a bit of quality in the middle of the park will do, not to mention a bit of intent...

There's a blueprint Uffie, that's a team showing some heart and fight to get back into it. That first 45, well...the less said about that, the better, that was absolute dross, but to be fair, a lot of us didn't expect miracles from fielding the young boys.

Put Lewis and Sandoval in the middle of the park on the weekend, and I think good things will come for us. 

kwlap

wilbaker

MetalLegNZ

The biggest take away from tonight...

With Lewis we have a much better chance. But the big question is, who does he start in the middle with, Sandoval or Pennington. I think him and Sandoval could be tasty!

I wouldn't be opposed to a Sandoval and Lewis midfield, could do something like this.
Sail
Payne-Surman-Wootton-Sutton
Lewis-Sandoval
Old-Piscopo
Waine-Ball

 
 who defends in the middle? Both Lewis and Gael are ball players not ball recyclers. I think Pennington starts purely on that ability. 

Not a bad selection headache to have tbf.

Never thought Id miss Bozza but I do. Jeez I hate all this PC diversity nonsense. 

martinb

How long we got to recover? 
Payne got clattered twice. Sutton was tired. Old was tired. Hooper too. Reno attracted attention. Pennington must be. 

 We play Saturday. Think they'll be fine. 

Alf Tupper

Never thought Id miss Bozza but I do. Jeez I hate all this PC diversity nonsense. 

???

YoungHeart

👏👏👏
That second half was what we needed, we lost the game, but we played into a bit of form. Amazing what a bit of quality in the middle of the park will do, not to mention a bit of intent...

There's a blueprint Uffie, that's a team showing some heart and fight to get back into it. That first 45, well...the less said about that, the better, that was absolute dross, but to be fair, a lot of us didn't expect miracles from fielding the young boys.

Put Lewis and Sandoval in the middle of the park on the weekend, and I think good things will come for us. 

Lewis still probably not good for 90 min so I can see those 2 and Pennington being rotated a bit.

I'm not sure if it was just me  but I thought Melbourne were very physical but largely got away with some pretty obvious fouls. 

That second half was good. But man I was nervous about injuries and cards.
But all good in the end. Bring on the WU. 

Alf Tupper

Never thought Id miss Bozza but I do. Jeez I hate all this PC diversity nonsense. 

commentators were average, but all the Paramount commentators have been. Nothing to do with one being a woman.

YoungHeart

👏👏👏
That second half was what we needed, we lost the game, but we played into a bit of form. Amazing what a bit of quality in the middle of the park will do, not to mention a bit of intent...

There's a blueprint Uffie, that's a team showing some heart and fight to get back into it. That first 45, well...the less said about that, the better, that was absolute dross, but to be fair, a lot of us didn't expect miracles from fielding the young boys.

Put Lewis and Sandoval in the middle of the park on the weekend, and I think good things will come for us. 

no, Sandoval needs to be further up the pitch. There needs to be an enforcer in the midfield with Lewis to break up play, Pennington and Lewis to start for me.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/128517915/melbourne-city-crowned-premiers-after-holding-off-wellington-phoenix-21

https://keepup.com.au/videos/id/melbourne-city-v-wellington-maccas-highlights-isuzu-ute-a-league/6305818537112

The question is Sandoval or Old, not Pennington or Sandoval. Pennington and Lewis will certainly start if they're fit.

Old, Sandoval and Piscopo are all amazing dribblers. But I don't see the 3 in the same side out of choice (not with Ball as well). It's all attacking midfield and no cover.

How many tackles did Pennington actually make last night... and his passing is poor.

Sandoval has done ok playing deeper and Lewis is not shy of getting a tackle in. I think we have a better chance with them in the middle with Old dropping out for Ball.

Question: do we always set up that zonally when defending corners? If so, we had better change things for Saturday because WU will have watched that weakness closely.
Sutton had a pretty poor game by his standards, I don't think he ever recovered from the own goal. But he did look better when he had Piscopo to work with. Piscopo is playing with a lot of confidence, so he will probably be targetted this Saturday, even more than usual. Hopefully that frees up Sandoval or Ball to have more attacking space.
Ben Old has been terrific, providing that drive forward. He just needs to work on the final pass. Great to see Hoops get 80 min. Now that Lewis is back hopefully we will be 4-2-2-2 from the start.
Nice for Manuel and Bidois to get starts, though they got a bit overwhelmed by City's press, like most other players too.
After such a horror start to the game, when we could have gone under 6 - 0 again, the boys did really well to hold it together and then turn the pressure on them. Well done.

corners last night were terrible, it does my head in the noone stands on the posts anymore. That has to be a keeper and coach decision. Had Pennington been on the back post on the first corner = no goal, had he been there for the second one instead of not marking his man = no goal.

MetalLeg:
I haven't seen Stats yet for this game. But as an example, the FFA cup game against Melbourne City. Pennington won the ball 23 times compared to Lewis 7. Including Duels and interception. 
In that game passing accuracy was similar. 
Those stats were on Wyscout. 

If you're interested in stats, I'll take look at the last 11 games which Pennington played as sole holding midfielder and try to make a comparison with earlier Lewis and Rufer performances. That'll take me a few days.

20220510_024533.jpg 6.49 MB

No Stats for the Melbourne match available yet. But as, hopefully, you can see from these stats (against WSW), Pennington wins the ball considerably more than anyone else. Looking at Duels won.

Was at the game, first half was deplorable and probably the worst half we’ve played in ages, couldn’t do anything right. Second half we improved, and scored out of nowhere, which forced city to change their gsme slightly but they hit the post twice after we scored and Sail made 2 quality saves, we had one shot on goal after which was easily saved by Glover… it was a better showing, but let’s not exaggerate, they were better, even in second half

MetalLegNZ

How many tackles did Pennington actually make last night... and his passing is poor.

Sandoval has done ok playing deeper and Lewis is not shy of getting a tackle in. I think we have a better chance with them in the middle with Old dropping out for Ball.

Questioning Pennington's tackling in this context suggests you thing Sandoval is better defensively which is honestly ridiculous.
He's looked average at times because he's been shouldering the majority of the defensive load in the middle, the presence of Lewis will undoubtedly lift him.
Let Sandoval play further up and do what we brought him here to do

I think/hope we line up with 
Sail 
Payne Surman Wooton Sutton
Lewis Sandoval
Old Piscopo
Ball Hooper 

Although Waine scored last night I feel as though we need Hooper to start rather than bringing him on. From what little we've seen of Hooper this year, he has never really done much coming off the bench but really influences our build-up play when starting (bar the first half last night.) Having Waine as that impact sub will help us immensely come Saturday. Oh and I don't rate Penningtons ability to split the lines and he seems to get beaten everytime in a tackle or is making up for a pass he has misplaced. 

I don't think Sandoval is better defensively, I just think Pennington is not that great as a DM and his passing is poor, he often puts us under the pump by giving the ball away.

I think with the movement of Sandoval, Lewis, Piscopo and Ball across the middle we can maintain a lot of possession and control the ball. Yes we will have to defend, but not as much.

image.png 112.87 KB

This is how I think we should line up.

We'll need a disruptor in DM, and Pennington does this better than Sandoval or Lewis. I get the worry about his passing/giveaways but he has been playing as pretty much a sole midfielder the whole time he's been starting (there was one game between Rufer's injury and Lewis' injury). Uffie will be aware of this and I imagine he will be instructing Lewis to give Pennington an easy option. 

Friar Tuck

Alf Tupper

Never thought Id miss Bozza but I do. Jeez I hate all this PC diversity nonsense. 

???

Apparently having women and people of colour involved is PC diversity nonsense. Need more coke addict white guys 

Smeltz4PM

MetalLegNZ

How many tackles did Pennington actually make last night... and his passing is poor.

Sandoval has done ok playing deeper and Lewis is not shy of getting a tackle in. I think we have a better chance with them in the middle with Old dropping out for Ball.

Questioning Pennington's tackling in this context suggests you thing Sandoval is better defensively which is honestly ridiculous.
He's looked average at times because he's been shouldering the majority of the defensive load in the middle, the presence of Lewis will undoubtedly lift him.
Let Sandoval play further up and do what we brought him here to do

I think also with his passing in the first half he had a young inexperienced team around him that was losing the ball. It would make me hesitant to pass too. In the first half he was carrying a lot by himself.

On the other hand Sandoval from deep has been great for our counter attacking game. And though he hasn’t had a defensive test like Melbourne City I don’t think he’s been a liability in the games he’s played. 

Nice dilemma to have. I remember when football forums were like this rather than looking through the academy to see if anyone could manage to be promoted!

Couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that there was a lot of Piscopo introducing himself to his new fans in that game…

kungfu panda

• MetalLegNZ

  I don't think Sandoval is better defensively, I just think Pennington is not that great as a DM and his passing is poor, he often puts us under the pump by giving the ball away.
  
  I think with the movement of Sandoval, Lewis, Piscopo and Ball across the middle we can maintain a lot of possession and control the ball. Yes we will have to defend, but not as much.

• Actually within the team, Pennington's passing hits exactly the average for accuracy (I'm not sure about this match yet). The fact that he's scrambling back when he hits a misplaced pass is simply because there is literally no cover for him. Sandoval, Piscopo,  Old, Ball, misplace a pass, Pennington covers them.
• This defence is next to useless without Pennington sitting in front of them. As soon as Pennington is not there, we concede.

Pennington, like everyone else in the first half couldn't find outlets due to MC's stifling press. He is the only one in our team who disrupts the opposition's midfield to any great degree, so he is essential. If we have more outlets available, his passing will be better.

Alf Tupper

Never thought Id miss Bozza but I do. Jeez I hate all this PC diversity nonsense. 

There are plenty of good female commentators out there.  Nothing to do with her gender.  Otherwise all male commentators should be judged on Speedy and Kosmina

For the elimination final, back to starting the 4222, I presume. 

Tasty.  Serious additions either rested and back, or have got some time back into their legs last game.  
We've got this. Right? Win this for the home and away semi. COYN.

                           Sail
   Payne   Wooten Surman   Sutton
                    Pennington 
                         Lewis
        Sandoval                Piscopo
                        Ball
                            Hooper

Subs:  Paulson Sotirio/van Hattum? Old Waine Bozinovski

Wootton Payne is arguably our best CB pairing atm. Wouldn't be surprised if we see that again.
And is Lewis ok for a start and 90 minutes? 

Ranix

Wootton Payne is arguably our best CB pairing atm. Wouldn't be surprised if we see that again.
And is Lewis ok for a start and 90 minutes? 

Pretty sure Uffie is keen on a return to 4-4-2. That means Payne at RB.

Fenton's on the outer, Elliott injured & you won't put someone makeshift like Waine there with that setup.

Hopefully Sotiro is back. Would make the bench actually looking strong for a change. Then only Rufer & Laws missing from a full strength lineup. Elliott as well I guess to a lesser extent.,

dp

mjp2

For the elimination final, back to starting the 4222, I presume. 

Tasty.  Serious additions either rested and back, or have got some time back into their legs last game.  
We've got this. Right? Win this for the home and away semi. COYN.

                           Sail
   Payne   Wooten Surman   Sutton
                    Pennington 
                         Lewis
        Sandoval                Piscopo
                        Ball
                            Hooper

Subs:  Paulson Sotirio/van Hattum? Old Waine Bozinovski

I might put Waine ahead of Hooper rn the counter worked well against Western last time and without Sotirio, Waine is probs the next best for that.