This should be interesting. We’ve had most of a week to recover, which is nice, but Perth are a much bigger challenge than Melbourne this season.
This should be interesting. We’ve had most of a week to recover, which is nice, but Perth are a much bigger challenge than Melbourne this season.
I’m tipping the good guys. We are back in form
Our defence is a massive concern.
Maybe but I can’t see Wilko having 2 bad matches in a row
Thought Wilko had a top game again. Could not have done anything more against the Rojas goal without huge risk of tripping Rojas and giving away penalty plus red card at the start of the match. Ninko lost the ball in transition and the DMs left him totally exposed facing a very fast player swerving around him. I thought he did the smart thing there and was impeccable the rest of the match. He and McGowan largely neutralised Toivonen - not easy to do.
We are ok defensively. Toivannen was quiet.
Perth were quite a handful for City in the second half on Sunday.
After being 3-0 up at the break, most of the last 45 was played in or around City’s area, and five of their 6 yellows were given late in the game.
Could have easily been a draw if not a win for Perth.
If Zullo is back training this week, what are the chances he gets some minutes in the second half? He could be just what we need towards the end if we’re absorbing the same sort of pressure that City had to.
Could be but he’s been out for a little while now so they may not want to rush him back.
Which means one of the best in the Aleague.
Are you being serious? He couldn’t have done ANYTHING more on the Rojas goal? I love Wilko and he’s one of the best defenders we have ever had at the club but its nothing short of delusional to claim that he couldn’t have done any better on the Rojas goal. Look at his own reaction after the goal, I’m sure he would be the first person to admit it was very poor defending.
McGowan and Wilko have made some pretty big mistakes in the past couple of games, they are great players majority of the time but they haven’t been that reliable in the past month. I think its completely justified to be concerned about our defence.
It’s not justifiable at all. It’s one mistake (and 2 if you want to count YFM) made from a position that he should never have been in because of the stupid position we gave the ball away in. What about the other 89 minutes?
It’s the old cliche where keepers and defenders are blamed for every mistake and midfielders and strikers get all the glory. 15 goals against in 18 league games, twice the GD of the next best. Need a much bigger sample size before the defense starts to warrant any criticism.
Hot
our defense has had one extremely poor game (Yokohama) all year where we’ve conceded a significant number of goals, I think we’re fine. In fact we’ve won more scrappy games than games we’ve slaughtered the opposition, which suggests an issue with our attack rather than our defense.
Probably a massive over reaction but does anyone think they might pospone the match due to the Corona virus? Some very alarmist stories in today’s newspapers
I thought they were only postponing large gatherings… the a-league should be fine
boom tisch
I am more worried that the finals series will be played behind closed doors. That would be so undeserving for this year’s team, with what they look to be in track to achieve… whilst also being a little selfish and disappointed that I potentially would not be able to be there to witness it. Two months to go… anything could happen.
they won’t postpone, all they’ll do is play behind closed doors at the very most.
Have you actually been watching the games? Are we better defensively that the other teams in the league? Yes, thats not saying much in my opinion. Is our defence good at the moment? No. Stats really don’t tell the full story in football, if you actually watch the past few games, we were opened up so many times and there have been quite a few bad mistakes. We’ve been constantly losing the ball deep in midfield and that leaves ourselves open at the back. There hasn’t been “two” mistakes and I’m not sure why you’re trying to imply that the game against YFM somehow is a special case and shouldn’t be included. Mcgowan made a mistake against YFM and WSW. Wilko against YFM and victory. And don’t try and downplay them, it was very poor defending. Also its not blaming the defenders and keepers, I’ve been critical of the whole team of late, to me it seems like they are getting complacent because we have been so dominant.
You can say we don’t have anything to worry about defensively but I think if you suddenly see a string of games, in this case the last 5 games where our defensive system seems shaky and we are making a lot of mistakes, it is concerning. Youre essentially just putting your fingers in your ears, covering your eyes and yelling “yeh but we have the best goal difference”.
Relax we are still amazing. It is normal for champion sides to have a bit of a lull.
we should fold the team