Made possible only because of a Matt Simon nod on from a long ball.
Made possible only because of a Matt Simon nod on from a long ball.
If we pay Dave a few cases of Guinness to come back for the rest of the season will that come under the salary cap?
Just as I acknowledge that 2 great seasons have spoiled us, and we have higher expectations, I would also suggest that some of the football we have played this year resembles snippets of the worst of styles and form we have had over the years. Some games have been excruciating to watch. At various stages we’ve seen slow transitions, players afraid to shoot,laziness/fitness issues or apathy amongst some players…
We’ve had some shit calls, but we’ve also have some absolute fckn fortune saving us in some games.
We’ve not enjoyed the fitness or sharpness we had in the last 2 great seasons either.
Yes, anything can happen in finals football, but if I was an opponent I wouldn’t be shaking in my boots about meeting us right now…
And yes, one can argue we haven’t got the same squad , but MV have recently stumbled twice and we could capitalize , against the 2 worst sides in the comp. So I’m not not being alarmist, it’s being realistic.
^this
Even if we had got luckier on some occasions that we’ve hit the post etc, our style of play has gone backwards and the opposition has worked us out and we haven’t adapted
But, if we had not had Adrian last year at RM or if we had him this year? How much of the difference is due to that one player’s contribution and impact rather than coach/strategy/style?
Whilst it would be great if the team was performing better, I think it is a problem if we compare current team performances against the best two years that any club has ever had in the A-League. It is near impossible to live up to that standard. Instead let’s compare like with like. Here is the current standing in the first season of Steve Corica…
http://www.ultimatealeague.com/standings.php?season=2018-19&round=19
…and here is the standing at Round 19 in Graham Arnold’s first season
http://www.ultimatealeague.com/standings.php?season=2014-15&round=19
We are one spot higher in the table and, more importantly, MVFC are one spot lower.
I wish we had won the last two games but we have two good strikers and enough time for them to gel before the finals series plus a bunch of youth players who look good future prospects.
I thought about this the other day. Corica has copped a bit of undeserved heat throughout the season, mainly because of his demeanour which is just fucking stupid. Yet we were every bit as predictable in our attacking patterns and had the same obvious weakness in behind our fullbacks under Arnie.
We just happened to have the two best individual seasons the HAL has ever seen from Milos & Adrian back to back, so often they were able to break games open by creating out of absolutely nothing.
My son is 9. Have explained to him the last 2 yrs are unlikely to be repeated until he is in his thirties. Then we assembled some homemade flares.
Ill keep saying it but of course we were going to go backwards and lack a lot of the clinical ruthlessness of last season. With a rookie coach and losing two of the best individual seasons in A-League history we were always going to go backwards. We also lost some of the best support staff along with Arnie.
We’ve had patches of dire stuff and patches of unlucky stuff which to me is returning to being a proper team and not some super club of the last two years.
Realistically, before the season started I said a top 4 finish would be a pleasing first season for Arnie. Whilst its really unfortunate that weve stumbled these last two weeks I still stand by the preseason aim and think thats reasonable and fair as a target for Corica and one hes achieving well so far.
Adrian might have had a great individual season, but I feel Holosko helped the team have a better season overall.
Just to refresh our memories and some stats might help too. How have we replaced this contribution in goals, assists, goal-scoring chances created, shots on goal, dribbling, crosses and tackles won?
https://www.a-league.com.au/video/adrian-mierzejewski-season-stats
And how often can you get this (or Milos2 in his first seasons) under the cap?? We were just so lucky and we have to accept that the chances of getting a player of that quality and relative youth under the cap are not high.
And make $$$ selling him!
It seems to be something the league is doing better in though. In 3 seasons, Milos, Adrian and now Toivonen.
Even ALF.