Ivanovic = Tomic is fast becoming one if my favourite Sydney FC memes.
I feel like we actually played really well tonight, defensive uncertainty aside (and that was enforced through injury). We put out a side missing Grant, Brillante, Ninkovic and Retre and with an unsettled CB pairing and still outplayed Newcastle. We restricted them to very few chances, particularly after the opening 20. We also created a number of solid chances, even if a lot of those were, admittedly, after Newcastle were reduced to ten men.
All in all Iām happy with what we saw tonight. Could have been 3-0 on another night.
Not to mention Warland and probably Caceres are well short of match fitness. They both lasted the 90 minutes and looked quite solid. Caceres doesnāt have the ball-winning skills of Brillante but has ten times the tekkers.
āI have a soft spot for both Sydney sides, both Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC. Now, last year on social media I had a massive argument with a Melbourne Victory fan who was saying that Sydney FC seem to benefit from all these close decisions and you know what? He may have a point.
āTen minutes later Zullo did a yellow card tackle, who was already on a yellow, and he didnāt get anything. So what do you expect people to think?
āThis has got to be sorted out and as quickly as the possibly can.ā
Like Melbourne didnāt win the comp last year entirely due to decisions going their way (clear penno on Sthimon about 2 mins before Antonis wins the semi, then the VAR debacle in the GF).
Actually itās interesting for Boz to deflect that towards a Victory fan, I mainly see Wests ones still tweeting him & Adam Peacock, banging on about the SCG derby (check out @bootyz333 for a proper fucking nutjob) and their usual SFC conspiracies.
Guaranteed thatās where Boz gets half the shit he spouts from, his brain is just fried enough to believe everything he reads.
Superb is going a bit far imho but definitely his best work occurs in central positions just behind Alf. He is way too immobile/lazy in a wide midfield position, does not defend or disrupt opposition attacks in any way and does not support when we break quickly . Is the classic luxury #10 that went out of fashion with decline of riquelme .
Not sure about the crowd last night. Looked a lot more than 12.7K - looked closer to 16-17k given what 19K looked like against Victory and 12K vs CCM a fortnight ago.
Thought Danny De Silva put in a good shift yesterday, will be looking for him to take the bull by the horns in the busy months ahead and push for a starting positionā¦
Nah, the main stand was far from full, looks like there are stacks of members not showing or putting their tickets up for re-sale. Iād have thought similar to CCM and a fraction more than against Adelaide, so the reported numbers look bang on to me. First game against MV the entire place was absolutely rammed.
Caceres provided more balance in midfield. While Iām not quite ready to call for Joshua Brillante to ride the pine, Anthony Caceres provided a compelling reason to be starting games. Caceres balanced Brandon OāNeill ās strengths much better than Brillante, allowing OāNeill to play deep most of the game while Caceres played a more traditional midfield role, linking defence and attack. This proved particularly useful when OāNeill was covering for the full-backs and looking to solidify the line.
Itās like Warland was never injured. With Jacob Tratt coming off early and Aaron Calver shifting to right back, Ben Warland came off the bench and played basically a whole 90 minutes partnering Alex Wilkinson in the left centre-back slot. Warland was very solid in a game where, admittedly, our backs didnāt come under a lot of pressure. He presented a notable improvement in distribution, with his left foot providing more options coming out of the back. He also didnāt make any glaring errors. This may give Corica a selection headache, where he will have to pick between Warland and Calver at centre-back and he will soon also have Jop van der Linden to consider as well.
We look pedestrian without an attacking right back. With Jacob Tratt coming off injured right at the start of the game, Aaron Calver moved to right back. The defensive issues with this were discussed above and it also clearly had an impact on our forward movement. Calver doesnāt provide the same work rate or speed as either Rhyan Grant or Tratt and this meant that we were only rarely able to play with much width on the right. This meant that a lot of our opportunities had to come from deep or from the left-hand side, which may explain the lack of real chances before Jets went down to ten men.
Post-match Statistics
With Ninkovic and Brillante missing, Andrew Redmayne , Michael Zullo , and Brandon OāNeill are the only players to play in all 19 of our competitive fixtures so far this season (14 league, 5 Cup).
Michael Zullo received his fourth yellow card, meaning that both he and Jop van der Linden are just 1 more yellow card away from a suspension.
This game marks Sydney FC ās first clean sheet since 2/11/18, a 3-0 away win against Melbourne City.
Note: Appearances and goals only include league games, finals, FFA Cup, OFC and AFC Champions League and Club World Cup.
saying he has a soft spot for us!