250 replies to this topic

[proftournesol]

One month to go, it sure has been a long off-season. How's your team shaping up? What are your predictions for the season?

[patjoy]

I think the defence of MVFC will be its achilles heal this season but still expect them to finish top 4. As for Harry, other than extra bums on seats and increased merchandise sales I am not expecting a great deal on the pitch from him.

I like the look of Adelaide and Perth - they seem to have recruited well.

Difficult to predict which team is going to shine?

Prof, what are your thoughts on Heart?

[proftournesol]

I'm not sure about Perth, as usual they have an impressive roster but still not sure about the coach. Adelaide, CCM and Brisbane will be strong. Wellington will be strong at home but nowhere else, little changes. Newcastle are a bit of an enigma, they beat MH 1-0 in a practice game but it was a MH second 11 with 3 trialists. Sydney will be poor again I think and Lavicka will go by mid-season. The others are a bit of a mystery to me, MV will be OK but I agree the MV defence will be an issue. Gold Coast are basically fielding their Youth League team that won the title last year and could do well. MH have an impressive lineup although I'm still worried about our central defenders. we should have no trouble scoring this year, Jason Hoffman who has always flattered to deceive, has scored 30 goals in the off-season. Fred and David Williams will be the key to MH's season but I think that a finals appearance is the minimum acceptable this season. The derbies will be something special this year.

[proftournesol]

MH beat a VPL team 7-0 last night.

[Audiomarketplace]

Well after a long off season, we can finally get down to business this weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the Roar will go after the champion winning team has been decimated by transfers. From losing our captain to Rangers down to losing Susak to Adelaide United, the team will be lucky to have 50% of the starters from last year. The pre-season results have not been that good and while the Roar have beaten all of the BPL teams up here, they have struggled against rival A-League teams. But in Ange we trust.

My pick for wooden spoon is Perth or Newcastle. Top 4 will be fought out between Adelaide, Melbourne Victory (sorry Prof), Roar and Central Coast. Dark Horse to be Gold Coast United (Bleiberg is very crafty and has kept under the radar this preseason).

Grimmie I must say I think it may be a long summer for Perth again, I think you have the wrong coach but hopefully he will prove me wrong.

Hmmm the Victory v Heart local derby is on Saturday 22nd, It's going to be hard to be at 2 places at once Maybe we should organise a SNA Game day GTG.

[proftournesol]

Anthony, you are welcome to come and join us at the derby, of course you'll have to wear some red and white for the day

Edited by proftournesol, 05 October 2011 - 11:46 AM.

[Audiomarketplace]

hehe any colour but the dark blue. I might even wear the orange

[proftournesol]

The silly season has already started - both Culina's gone from Newcastle! To compound the likely disaster, there are rumours that Emo Merrick is in line for the coaching job!

[patjoy]

For a nil all game the Victory v Sydney game was quite entertaining. Good crowd as well. Harry impressed me with his efforts on the pitch and he may well make me eat my words come seasons end. Rojas was impressive and will trouble defences with his attack, speed and skill. Thought the Victory defence was still playing too narrow at back and their lack of depth at back worries me.

The Heart were unlucky to lose in added time with that deflected goal.

[proftournesol]

MV looked good going forward but rather shaky in defence similar to MH. Sydney were surprisingly well organised and were unlucky that Vargas' simulation fooled the ref. Kewell and Rojas will be exciting additions for MV. The derby should be a high scoring game:) Brisbane are very impressive though, Adelaide surprisingly flat tonight. Perth won and looked good when Adelaide were poor but quickly broke down when Adelaide improved in the second half. GC were poor.

MH made their own bad luck by not finishing off a myriad of chances and not tracking Ryan Griffith, we need to become more ruthless. We conceded a goal in each extra time period, characteristic of a young side that has concentration lapses but something that will have to stop. Fred and Mate will be a good combination I think.

[Audiomarketplace]

Record opening round crowd for the A-League, however disappointing to see The Roar get a 13.5k crowd. I am not sure what happened there although the FTA TV and local rag do very little to promote the games. Matt Ryan was unbelievable and kept CCM in it for ~70 minutes when it could have been over at half time. Watching the other matches on fox, we seem to have some brilliant goalkeepers.

And Perth may make me eat my words about their selection of Ian Ferguson as coach. That was a big scalp as Adelaide are highly fancied. They also have some players to look out for this year, Jed would be happy with what he saw I suspect.

[wolster]

Good to see our local Perth Glory off the mark with a 1-0 win. Could/should have been more.

[proftournesol]

I think that we're going to have a close season this year. MV were surprisingly poor in the second half, especially after that ding-dong Leijer was red-carded. They didn't seem to have a plan for how to play with 10 men and sat deeper and deeper. They kept looking for Kewell to save them when they may have scored with other players. Even better, their defence will be very porous now for the derby:)

[patjoy]

MV was lucky to have lost by only 1 goal. Very poor second half. In past years, when we went down to 10 men, we always found an extra gear. As you correctly say there was no plan. Our defence always lacked depth and now knucklehead Leijer has made it even more so. Not a good start and they will have to pull something out of the bag in next weeks derby. Newspapers report that MV are trying to offload Allsopp.

[proftournesol]

not just Allsopp, but also Pondeljak and Celeski. If the had any sense they'd also get rid of Merrick's love child (Broxham). All bad Merrick re-signings.

[Audiomarketplace]

Well The Roar juggernaut rolls on tonight and Gold Coast I think are in for a hell of a time At Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

Didn't see all the game of MV last night but I do think that they are having trouble all over the park. Poor defense and not sure how to attack - I think they are still finding their feet with Harry, and the team looks over balanced for attacking (too many cooks come to mind?). I think they will sort it out and will smash a team if and when they do, hopefully they won't do it on Saturday night against Heart.

Hey Michael are there any tickets left for Saturday night ? I will have to check with my other half. She might kill me for taking her to a football match when in Melbourne and on a Saturday Night. Will have to smooth it over with a late romantic dinner


Anthony

[proftournesol]

Anthony just buy general admission tickets through ticketmaster and you can come and sit with us on level 3. She can talk to Mme T about football, or my daughter will tell her for 2 hours how much she hates the Dark Lord (Kevin Voldemort Muscat). Roar seemed a bit out of sorts tonight I thought, Liam Reddy was back to normal, no wonder Ange got rid of him.

[Grimmie]

Hi guys
I'm a late starter in this thread, but yes, I was at the Perth v Adelaide game last week and it was a very good one. We almost paid for poor finishing though with Smeltz missing a hat trick at least, plus a few other good chances going begging. I too had little faith in Fergie and of course one win doesn't prove toomuch, but the way we played with some flair and dare I say it, possession retention, something we simply could not do last year, it was all very promising. I am pleased to see that so many of the coaches signings looked so very good and have been made made to blend so quickly. I do seem to remember similar deceptive start last year, so we'll have to wait and see with fingers crossed. The Heart will be a stiff test tomorrow though Prof, should be a good one.
How ominously good do the Roar look though, eveyone is saying that they are the team to beat and who could disagree.

[Audiomarketplace]

Yeah well Fergie was working with David Mitchell's team so I suppose he had to make do. Now that ball and chain Fowler has gone along with a few others, they can play as a team rather than try to put a game plan around Fowler. And with the new signings they look good so far, but early days.

Grimmie you coming to Melbourne next weekend ?

Hehe if there was ever another word for hate, it would be 'Muscat'.

Back to Liverpool Vs Man U .................

[Grimmie]

Hi Anthony,
Oh how I wish I were going to Melbourne next weekend. I had it all planned, visit my daughter who lives over there, catch up with friends and then take in a couple of days at the show. I'm long overdue spending some cash on.........well whatever I decide I actually need around the front end of my system but all plans were shattered by my surgeon who brought forward my back operation by a month, inconsiderate plonker!
So here I am five days out from the op and feeling very stiff and sore with $16,000 worth of titanium in my spine and orders to not do ANYTHING for five weeks. No-way that I will miss the game at NIB stadium next weekend though, the boys need all the support they can get, even a patched-up old cronk like me. A flight to melbourne with all that goes with it would be asking too much of my doctors skills though.
16K!!!!!! just think of the DAC and pre-amp I could get for that.
Back to footbal, - Andrezinho on our left flank looked almost unstoppable last week, and Billy Mehmet had a great game. My mate who saw the game on TV sneered at his performance, but at the game he looked very imposing. Jacob Burns looked as good as any on the park for most of the game, he was in everything that counted, but STILL managed to pick up a booking even without any dirty stuff. He's a yellow card magnet that guy.
Looks like it will be a good season but no chicken counting just yet.

[proftournesol]

What a terribly inept display from MH. With the exception of Marrone, Behich and (in the first half) Terra, they should all be ashamed. Poor coaching from JVS changing last week's attack that had looked fluid, not playing Germano who looked good last week and signing Maycon, what a dud:( Why persist with Thompson as a central defender when he's clearly unsuited there? Mind you he's made to look bad by such a static mid-field that creates no passing options for defenders to play out.
Grimmie don't get too excited, Perth were hardly any better, it's hard to know how good they are as they've been lucky to play 2 teams that have had shockers.

[Audiomarketplace]

Yeah any team that let's Smeltz score 2 goals was having a shocker

[proftournesol]

well one of our defendes kicked the ball straight to him, it couldn't be much easier:(

[Grimmie]

Ahh sorry Prof,
That was a great win for Glory, if not a stylish one. Smeltz owed us those two after last week and believe me he missed several easier than that. One thing encouraging so far is that games like both of those so far would have ended as disappointments for Glory last season. Late equalisers or worse were very common for us, we just couldn't take a trick. At least those two games had a bit of luck in our favour as cream on top of an honest hard work cake. Last season was all cynicism and posing.

[proftournesol]

Grimmie, Glory played poorly with little apparent system, lots of long balls, desperate defending. More consistent than last season but really they were only little better than MH apart from Smeltz who is a great opportunist and was given one of his goals on a plate.

[proftournesol]

I went to the derby last night. There was a good crowd but probably the flattest atmosphere of the 4 derby games so far. I came away in 2 minds about the game, normally an away draw in a derby is good as a win, but really Heart should have won this game 2 -3 goals to nil. MV were very very poor, as bad as their worst performances in the Merrick era, and some of them were shocking. MH were solid at the back for once, Curtis Good is only 18 but looks impressive with Colosimo next to him. How many 18 year olds would have the courage to flatten Jacob Burns like he did the week before:) ?
MH really missed Fred, this probably prevented a massacre, however we still need much better finishing and better movement off the ball. Hoffman has fantastic positioning, once he scores his first few goals he's going to be HAL's version of Brett Holman and there'll be no stopping him. It's a shame Duganzic didn't score, it was his birthday.

[Audiomarketplace]

Sorry Prof for not making it, we finished late and I was too tired. I did want to see how the famous "H" would go and see the local derby, will have to wait until he comes to Brisbane. MV will be looking for a new coach soon I feel.

Grimmie must be over the moon, 3 from 3 is great for Perth. And another record crowd attendance overall for the A-League over the weekend.

[Grimmie]

Yep! positively in orbit in fact,
not necessarily a great game but the Glory have a will-to-win this year as opposed to the snatching defeat from the jaws of victory mentality of last season. Smeltz is of course the major difference, not since Mori have we had someone with this knack of scoring. Man he sure knows how to miss too (which was not in Mori's diary) and is as selfish in front of goal as they come (again Mori set-up many a Despotovski goal and vice versa) but his work rate is exemplory and three from three speaks for itself. Our defence is also starting to gel, the Dutchman Van Den Brink has been inspiring, and one thing we have a little this year is cover in all positions, meaning competition for places. That's gotta help keep the boys on their toes.

[patjoy]

Saw bits of the game on telly and from what I saw MV were very poor and didn't deserve the draw. For all their forward talent MV just can't seem to click in the front third. "Cheap as Chips" coach Durakovic better start pulling something out of the bag. I can just see it - Durakovic out Muscat in. Brisbane look fantastic.

[wolster]

Glory win again but the coach is not happy.

[proftournesol]

Saw bits of the game on telly and from what I saw MV were very poor and didn't deserve the draw. For all their forward talent MV just can't seem to click in the front third. "Cheap as Chips" coach Durakovic better start pulling something out of the bag. I can just see it - Durakovic out Muscat in. Brisbane look fantastic.

MV's problem is not in their front third, in a way it's a similar issue as Heart as have in their first 2 games: Brebner and Merrick's Love Child (Broxham) are both limited holding midfielders and really are so poor at playing forward with any vision or penetration, that MV functions as a 'broken team', a front half and a back half, with little connection between them. Merrick recruited so many similar players that Mehmet has limited options. MV's youth recruitment has been so poor that there are few players who can be promoted from the youth team to fill the gap. In addition Mehmet is asking them to think like footballers, not something that they were used to under the 2D system that Merrick used. It'll take time and recruitment to fix the problem.
Heart fixed their problem by recruiting Fred, and in fact now have a headache for JVS as Matt Thompson clearly offers more as a box to box midfield playmaker. Now that Colosimo is back, MH's defence is more solid and hopefully less error prone and linked well to the forward line. We have our own finishing issues, but create no shortage of scoring chances

[patjoy]

MV's problem is not in their front third, in a way it's a similar issue as Heart as have in their first 2 games: Brebner and Merrick's Love Child (Broxham) are both limited holding midfielders and really are so poor at playing forward with any vision or penetration, that MV functions as a 'broken team', a front half and a back half, with little connection between them. Merrick recruited so many similar players that Mehmet has limited options. MV's youth recruitment has been so poor that there are few players who can be promoted from the youth team to fill the gap. In addition Mehmet is asking them to think like footballers, not something that they were used to under the 2D system that Merrick used. It'll take time and recruitment to fix the problem.
Heart fixed their problem by recruiting Fred, and in fact now have a headache for JVS as Matt Thompson clearly offers more as a box to box midfield playmaker. Now that Colosimo is back, MH's defence is more solid and hopefully less error prone and linked well to the forward line. We have our own finishing issues, but create no shortage of scoring chances

I agree Michael, MV cannot afford to play both Brebner and Broxham. History shows that is the case. Whilst Broxham runs and runs he offers little else. I was disappointed that someone cut the umbillical cord when Merrick got the flick.

[proftournesol]

Here's an interesting article that examines the psychology of choking and how it differs from panic. I think that MV are choking. They don't need a new coach, they need a sports psychologist.
Merrick was very destructive to MV IMHO. He re-signed a huge liability of players just before he was sacked: Broxham, Pondeljak, Celeski, Allsopp and didn't replace the 'Dark Lord' who despite his obvious unappealing influences, was a very good attacking midfield pivot. Likely to be a long season for MV unless they can pay someone out, sell Allsopp, or get a 'fortunate' long-term injury and can get a replacement midfieldfer to link the defence and attack.

[Audiomarketplace]

Solozrano must be thinking he's made a big mistake. Imagine he could still be playing for a team that's getting close to 70% of possession instead of bench warming. Hernadez is some friend convincing him to sign up

[proftournesol]

It's a mystery to me why he isn't starting in the number 9 spot, he looks far and away the most effective Victory player. I'd bench Archie and use him as an impact player.

[Audiomarketplace]

Because he needs to make the big decisions like Ange did and start benching and cutting his so called named players and start recruiting up coming talent. Players like Craig Moore, Charlie Miller, Bob Malcolm (aka The Human Turnstile), Liam Reddy and Danny Tiatto (although he was a great player that just played a season too many) were cut, 4 of them during the season.

Ange inherited a bigger basket case team than Durakovic, yet even with the lost of 4 key players to overseas clubs this year including the captain before the start of the season (although Susak ended up at Adelaide), we are still the team to beat.

And looking at Kofi (aka Coffee no milk as all the kids call him ) I would say he will be the find of the A-League by seasons end and he was sitting under Lavicka's nose all the time because he was trying to keep his marquee player on the bench.

[proftournesol]

Ange had one advantage over Mehm, Brisbane has been good at tapping into the local state league talent and had a good youth team. MV had never connected to the local leagues and football community and have recruited poorly for the youth team, it seemed that merrick's policy was to just buy in fully developed players. It's hard to imagine that he's now gone back to his cosy job at the VIS! The best thing to happen to MV was MH as now they've lifted their game with community involvement but are 5 years behind. The MH youth team wiped their **** with the MV youth team in John Aloisi's first game as a coach and their first NYL game. The game was disrupted by MV 'ultras' (not fans) who threw flares onto the pitch and assaulted ground security staff. No wonder they have a bad reputation and lots of players don't want to play for the club.

[Audiomarketplace]

Worst thing Adelaide could have done is put in an early goal. Brisbane just smashed them after that although in fairness Adelaide could have put in another one or two. I wish they would stop chopping Broich, it's getting a joke and some red cards should be handed out to warn off any others.

So who's going to the game in Melbourne to see what Brisbane might do to the Victory ? I predict Harry won't see much of the ball and the Dark Lord will increase in powers and become even more menacing to take over the empire.

[Grimmie]

Sensational result Anthony, the Roar are truly setting a punishing pace. Having said that the Glory could have put the same number past Adelaide a few weeks ago but had the yips in front of goal. (Pertinent fact is we didn't) My point being that Adelaide do have a shakey defence and are starting to look down the barrel of a bleak season if they don't find something from somewhere.
In contrast you Brizzy boys must be truly excited at the games to come. Lets hope my Glory can give you some opposition.

[proftournesol]

Roar were fantastic. Adelaide were full of fear after their goal, defending deep with a flat back 4 is a recipe for disaster (ask the Socceroos after the Germany game) especially when you leave so much free space that a team like Brisbane has no concerns about exploiting. The only +ve for Adelaide was that they didn't lose their record.

[Grimmie]

Awful, dreadful game by the Glory. After looking good and scoring early they looked as though they thought they could just play the game out. Of course that never happens, as bad as CCM were they still overwhelmed a disinterested PG. Just a huge disappointment.

[Audiomarketplace]

Oh well so much for a good weekend. But I bet Prof will be more upset.

Can't believe the silly celebration after the goal and then the lame attempt to take that free kick in the corner to the corner flag to only allow Sydney to nip in and get the ball and then the guy pulls him down for a yellow card. Worst still was the defending of the corner that resulted in a goal and I am trying to work out who it was but instead of heading it back out for the corner he heads it perfectly wide for Sydney to launch another attack and score. Oh well Prof keep the faith it was good to see them drag themselves off the canvas after the first half performance.

[AUFC]

hiya guys.... one guess who i support...

all i can really say is that im glad were playing not playing another inform team and rather hearts, who also put on a woeful performance last week, albeit not as bad as ours

[proftournesol]

Oh well so much for a good weekend. But I bet Prof will be more upset.

Can't believe the silly celebration after the goal and then the lame attempt to take that free kick in the corner to the corner flag to only allow Sydney to nip in and get the ball and then the guy pulls him down for a yellow card. Worst still was the defending of the corner that resulted in a goal and I am trying to work out who it was but instead of heading it back out for the corner he heads it perfectly wide for Sydney to launch another attack and score. Oh well Prof keep the faith it was good to see them drag themselves off the canvas after the first half performance.

AUFC, it Heart not Hearts!!! Hearts play in the SPL, certainly not a playing style to aspire to:) Heart aren't playing too badly, they have the players but lack 3 things: Fred back in midfield, movement off the ball especially in the final third (that limits scoring opportunities), and self belief. They've also had some rotten luck - a deflection on the last kick in the first game that cost a point, an unpaid penalty against Sydney and a bizarre decision to award Sydney a corner instead of a MH goal kick. Fred should be back for the AU game, don't expect an easy walkover. Sydney played very well last week, as did MH but both were affected by the conditions, I can't remember a MH home game where it hasn't poured:( MH also have a much better away record, we have a home record barely better than NZ Knights!

[AUFC]

hiya proftournesol,

yes i stand corrected.. i certainly do not expect a walk over not one bit, if anything im quite concerned about playing any team atm.. im cautiously optimistic about us coming back this week tho... for AUFC its gone from bad to worse.. and that 7-1 pumping by brisbane i hope is the wake up call we need to start playing like a team out there.. im hoping slory is being rested.....for the rest of the season

on paper adelaide have a great team but certainly not playing like one.. i believe Coolen has made a big mistake with letting go so many seasoned AUFC regulars and in trying to change so much of the team so quickly, yes we need time to gel but feel but cant help but feel that a lot of the players and not playing with their hearts (pardon the pun).

lets hope AU turn it around at MH expense