Good summary of the controversial Retre. I think there is a place for Retre getting decent game time, but not being the usual starting option. However it’s also important to recognise that he has been the latter because Brattan and Hof have been out for basically the whole season, Yazbek is young and still learning consistency, and Amini doesn’t quite have the defensive nous. Given all that, he’s stepped up for us. I just wish we were in a position to get less out of him.
I also think there is a place for Milos without him having to play for minimum wage (but not on the same $ as now). He still makes a difference, there are certain games which suit him well, and he is a good example for young players. He should be paid what he’s worth for those qualities, and to play up to half the minutes of the season.
Just thinking, with the war in Ukraine at the moment, there’s bound to be a lot of those players affected. The 21-22 season has been terminated with no winner decided.
Now inevitably a lot of the players (especially the non-Ukranians) will probably look for clubs in other European countries, but there’s bound to be a lot of Ukranian players who will be without a club next season within Ukraine. Now surely, a professional league, in a warm climate about as far away from the war as you can get would surely look appealing to those players who haven’t been drafted into the military, or chosen to go fight against Russia.
As a former Dynamo Kiev legend, I’m sure Milos would be very well suited to bringing over a swathe of good players from Ukraine obviously cherrypick the best 4 or 5 ones for us. He’d be a great ambassador for not just Sydney, but also the A-League in general.
I think you’ll find the Ukrainian players are now armed forces…
Honest question - are they even allowed to leave the country?
No. My boss had family that dropped their women off at the border and were drafted
Didn’t think so. We took a gamble on older guys this year, I don’t think it’d be a smart moving taking a gamble on Ukranian men aged 18-60 for next season.
I agree with the general sentiment of the article, but he makes out like Arnold’s record breaking Sydney FC and at times Coricas Sydney FC regularly won games they didn’t deserve to win.
Arnold’s double and premiership winning side in particular were the most dominant in league history, scoring a ridiculous number or goals in the process.
Should Corica be given the reigns on the rebuild OR has he overseen the rust set in after Arnie’s revolution?
Yes he’s won trophies for us, but he had a template. A template which he now rarely deviates from (60 min subs / same formation / playing wingers as strikers / No.10’s in the middle of the park / no tactics on set pieces or free kicks) - which as we all know looking at the table, has been exposed by other managers.
Does anyone have the inclination to put together a list of players signed or re-signed under Corica? Purely for the purposes of judging his recuritment alongside that of Arnold’s?
We’ve won numerous points we had no right to win, that’s the sign of a good team.
Agreed, but id argue we won far more games in a convincing and deserving manor than jagging undeserved winners.
Both of the above are correct
I think the last 12 months recruiting was a shit show, but the club tried to make safe bets due to COVID and that backfired.
Yeah I read it like, we were so winning we won everything, even games we shouldn’t have.
It was also by no means the main thrust of the argument.
I don’t think Joey is saying that there was anything necessarily fundamentally wrong with us at the time, but we haven’t really progressed enough and now we’re at a point where we probably have to make some pretty significant changes.
Not a controversial take, but one I was pleasantly surprised to see show up in the media at all, given how little genuine scrutiny we seem to get.
Going to go out on a limb and say we need a better keeper as well as all new central defenders
I think we’re ok for keepers. I mean there’s been massive undue pressure on our keepers in general based on a poor defending. Most of the shots that went in, wouldn’t have even been made in the past,
I’m 50/50 with our keeper situation. Redmayne would be good loyalty discount value right? But he is prone to some errors.
THB is similar. He was quite good in his appearances but I never felt totally confident in him.
I remember during the record breakers season the rare slip ups were covered by Vukovic.
But this would be in a perfect world. We need to spend and fix our back line first. The keeper situation I can live with and it’s not a priority. We can win (and have won) titles with Redmayne.
Both Redders and THB are Loyalty players so it would be stupid to release them. With the two competing for spots, I’d be happy to leave them there without too many worries. They’re not Vuka levels but they’re definitely a step up for most other local options out there.
Tough call and I can see the benefits any way the club goes with it (cap vs cap saving, experience vs promoting youth).
But Redders is definitely on the decline. Has been a spectator for most ACL goals, but has to be asked exactly WTF he was doing on the 3rd last night… never getting beaten from there so absolutely no need to vacate his station and make their mind up for them on how to create a tap in.
I’m guessing here, I just don’t think Corica has the smarts to attract players to us.
From what I’ve seen it doesn’t even look like our local players from different sides in this league want to come to us either.
I know Burgess was ok and Kambosa was great but the rest were very average.
If this is the case then I’m all for him leaving asap.