Predictably won.
We were monsterous under Arnold and our standard has dropped WAY off. I don’t think there’s a single position on the pitch where we’re as well off.
Remember the season we had Bobo, Brosque, Ninko, Mierzejevski up front? We had Matt Simon on the bench that year. He’s been one of the best strikers in the league this season…
But our best players are the older ones: Ninko, Wilko, Gowser and Grant (who made more than usual number of errors tonight but also did a hell of a lot of good things). The weakest are the young and the middle-tier: Retre, King, Kosta.
Really the emotions would be entirely different if Kosta did better than 1 in 10 goals/shots ratio. We play some really good football even if today there was a lot more looseness than usual. So hard to see us winning until Kosta moves to RM and we start with Bobo and Alfie (and or Trent B).
Why not start Trent B and Bobo anyhow?
That best of all SFC teams - that one with Adrian - that did not get to the GF (yes robbed in the SF) also had Milos D, Carney as well as Simon on the bench. Potential game winners all. And people here predictably complained about too many old guys and not enough youth.
Adrian was the greatest player to ever come to the A league. He made Ninkovic look like a shadow. Sydney will never get a player like that again.
Sydney have shown they can play well. It is simply the finishing.
We need to pray that Alfie has some how kept his form and Kosta, ABJ, and Retre all get injured.
It’s not as simple as older players v youth players. It’s about blending a team with all it’s skills and qualities together, while allowing the promising youngsters enough playtime to fit in to the system. As it is allowing the more experienced players to show their skills and inspire the youth along the way.
Little bit harsh on Paulo, because Caceres is needed more in ABJ’s spot and the Hof seems out for the season.
Absolutely done with the other two passengers but. VFM, dollar for dollar, Kosta must be close to the worst player that has ever worn the shirt. 12 yards out, in line with the near post, I swear he’s trying only to win a corner by hoofing it straight into the nearest defender. The runs he makes, at the times he makes them, only Mitch Austin has been as bad and you could count his appearances for us on one hand.
Any chance of getting Branners back? I’ve got no idea of financials and signings and whatnot but I still can’t get my head around selling him for an “undisclosed amount” then not signing another replacement. I trust Danny T well enough with this business but I can’t figure that one out. And then for him to leave the Korean team he went to just stings. Undisclosed amount means sweet FA, no? With Josh B we made a point of asking for a decent fee, which resulted in him staying for the remainder of the season then staying in the AL anyway.
King is inconsistent but you can’t deny that he had a good game tonight. He’s showed he has the ability to play well at this level and with more game time should come more consistency.
The other two have plenty of experience and have no excuse there.
I think King is technically tidy and very competent at receiving and passing short but there is not much more there that I can see. He is not nearly as quick as Zullo or Gersbach, not as direct or attacking, does not defend nearly as well. While some of his crosses are good, his crossing effectiveness ratio does not seem high. He was a reasonable stop-gap for Zullo out injured but has not really improved since he started in the top team. So, not good enough to be a regular Sydney starter. Compare him to Matt Millar today. Or a host of other youngish locals playing at RB or LB.
King is not our problem. He is 20 years old and has made roughly 45 a-league first team appearances after coming from the youth team. Matt Miller is 24, has made roughly 60+ a-league first team appearances, 9 league one appearances in England and 65 NPL appearances. People should lay off Joel King. The kid is doing great.
Kosta on the other hand…give me strength!! He may have scored enough goals to sit comfortably next to his goal tallies of seasons past, but when the majority of our teams chances are falling to him and he’s missing most of them, that’s not fucking good enough! The games we could have won if he’d converted just half the chances he gets we’d be sitting atop the table right now.
This afternoon was not good enough. Not by a long shot.
Branners is on decent coin, 2-3x what we were paying him going by the vibe he was giving on sky blue stories.
Seems like a chose a good night to go and do something else.
Reading these comments is not painting a good picture of the game.
Match “highlights” here
Same formation, same line-up (minus Brattan), same lack of pace, same lack of goals, same lack of innovation on set pieces and tactics = more points dropped.
Strongly agree with the comments on King. He seems scapegoat #3 after Retre and Kosta and its incredibly underserved.
Kostalot has had 51 shots on goal this season. The result? 6 goals.
His accuracy is 52% when it comes to getting it on target. So he misses half essentially. It’s also 262 minutes between goals on average.
Oh and just 3 assists all season.
I saw the #NEWvSYD score line tonight whilst standing in the audience at #Springloaded
Then @Grinspoon came on & all was set right in this world 
We forget, our muso’s have had a lot harder time with C19 than our sporting folk
The contrast between him and Grant last night was stark, I thought. Particularly the quality of their balls into the box.
King is possibly an example of a player whose strengths (and weaknesses) don’t quite fit what is required of the position in this formation. The only width we get in this formation is from the wing-backs, and King is much better at defending than he is attacking, despite his best efforts. Every other team knows it, because they put little to no pressure on King when they’re defending. Occasionally he can put in a really good ball and provide an assist, but to the opposition its probably a much safer thing for them to let King have the ball instead of Ninkovic or Brattan, for instance.
Yes, he’s done a pretty good job given that he’s young, still improving and has to play every game, but to get the most out of that side, we need a more offensive-oriented player that can stay fit.
I didn’t want to attack King in any sort of personal way. He seems like a good lad who works hard and gives it his all. And he has his strengths as a player, as I said. However … and in a team with Alf up front banging in goals, it might matter a lot less (as in previous season), but when we have one of our weakest starting 11s and squads in recent years, and are finding it really hard to score, then that shines a light on everyone. In a stronger team and squad, it might not. That is why the discussion of Retre comes up. He also works his butt off and has strengths as a player.
I find it always amusing how people here wish us to overlook player performance for young or inexperienced players. Both Gersbach and the Hof have looked like game winners and likely Socceroos from their first games for us. Grant took longer to emerge but kept improving although playing in weaker teams, often off the bench and in a host of different positions. King has had 45 A league games, most of them starts, in the same position and formation and playing next to Wilko, Brattan and Ninko. Why would we not expect to see strong progress and development? More ambition in his play?
It’s not that King is not a good player; he is. The question is, is he good enough if the rest of the team is, on average, at a lower level than our better teams in recent years - and we want to win the comp? Were we to get eg Alf scoring heaps and maybe a better RM (Adrianish quality), then more other players can be goodish without being excellent. We had Zullo who was excellent both in attack and defence in our dominant years. We need another Zullo.