Schroedinger’s Bimbi, should be sacked if we aren’t making the top 4 year in year out, should be sacked if we aren’t shafting the league’s best players in favour of the kids.
Schroedinger’s Bimbi, should be sacked if we aren’t making the top 4 year in year out, should be sacked if we aren’t shafting the league’s best players in favour of the kids.
No he wouldn’t, he would have to play for the season, but alongside Brattan. There is a space for both.
But not for all of Caceres, Maxi, Alf, Mak and Lolley when we play with two CDMs.
Tactical/positional rigidity is a separate, if connected, issue. This has been a weakness of Corica’s. I’d also argue it’s a weakness he’s been working to address since the crisis in January that saw him reportedly seek out advice from Arnie.
But let’s say we do start the Hof at 6 alongside Brats from the start of last season. Where does Yaz play? Which of Maxi and Caceres plays at 10 when we can’t put them on the wing and which do we drop? Or do we drop Mak or Lolley even if they are fit, two of our best players for goal involvements, meaning we probably don’t end up in the 6?
Aside from the chronic injury problems
Consider when we were the best team in the league - our bench for the 16/17 final was Redders, Carney, Ryall, Dimitrijevic and Matt Simon; in the 18/19 final our bench was Cisak, Caceres, Retre, Da Silva and Reza… now if we are playing our strongest XI, our bench would be Heward-Belle, Donachie, Segecic, G-R and Wood…
To me, this is not only shows how important experience throughout the whole squad is when running for titles, but also it does show probably the biggest difference between then and now… if we need to effect a game in this finals series, we will likely be relying on a kid to do it.
Caceras ’ interview on sky blue stories gives some interesting insight into this. Says the attempt to embed a new formation failed, not sure whether '"it didn’t suit us " or “we didn’t buy into it as a group”. Talks about how with some “tweaks” it’s now working better. The buying in bit was an interesting choice of words given it looked like Corsica had lost the dressing room.
Follow up question have some more details too. He reckons it was hard to do with so many new players, and would’ve been better to do 2 years ago which was a pretty common feeling on here. Whilst we made the GF, we weren’t performing well and were clearly on the side.
Ties in with this blooding of young players too really. A good manager makes constant tweaks to keep improving, sacrificing some peak performance. This prevents hitting the end of the line and falling off a cliff when other sides figure you out and set up appropriately.
Also, giving young players a proper run, 1 or 2 at a time in the senior team covers for the mistakes they will inevitably make, at the cost of sightly lower performance. Still, you uncover some gems, and don’t end up having to do a massive rebuild with external full cap cost players. Not giving Kucharski a run ahead of Carballo, or guess ahead of Donachie were bad errors this year, but will only cost us more going forward.
Good to hear Arnie is still in contact.
I’d buy all of the tactical tweak stuff if it actually occurred. Which it didn’t until about the Western United game after we got ripped 4-0. Before then sweet fuck all had changed for a very long time despite the fact it wasn’t working & was cringe to watch. However I will say at the Western United game something did actually change ( besides the hhilarious defensive line ) and results came & as mentioned & noted by several people we became more attractive to watch. So if some sort of self awareness finally dawned on Corica’s part then kudos to him.
Yep. We got ripped 4-0 in the derby, then there was the international break. For whatever reason the 3-3 home draw with WU was the first game all season that Corica noticeably rotated the midfield triangle and played with two 6’s. Girdwood-Reich started next to Brattan, Maxi was at 10 post-suspension, and Caceres was bumped forward onto the wing (Mak started at 9 with ALF only the bench). We’ve had better balance in midfield ever since.
Also the first game with Rodwell back from injury
Yeah Rodwell playing can’t be underestimated. Him getting fit really changed our season around
Turns out he’s actually a pretty good defender, and not just a physios wet dream.
No it isn’t. With good squad and cap management and with the extra resources available to Sydney that smaller clubs wouldnt be able to afford (better facilities, more extensive scouting), it is very possible for a club the size of Sydney to finish in the top 4 every year. Watch Melbourne City prove that point point year after year.
I completely agree on this side of things. Arnie specifically talked about bringing in a sports psychologist at the start of 16/17, and I feel like we’ve fallen down on this front to some extent, it’s not talked about any more at least. But that’s a bigger problem than Bimbi.
The trouble is, talented young players are choosing City because they have basically infinite money and because they think it’s a ticket to Europe.
Root and stem review.
SACK EVERYONE!
Taxi time
Why sack everyone when you can just fold the club?
I am here for it
I don’t want to fold the club. I just want to iron the creases out.
He’ll end up with another year now, but I still think our end of the season run was overstated with the Elim final the obvious highlight. Otherwise Draws against 3 & 7. Wins against 8, 9 and 10.
Basically achieves the bare minimum expectation