Round 22 - Sydney FC vs Melbourne City - 17/03/19

That really does put it in perspective mind you. We were trash but damn we’ve had it good.

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If Ninkovic buried that chance early in the second half, the momentum would’ve been with us and I think we could’ve escaped with a 1-0, but he didn’t. Either way, it was a mostly awful performance. The team might be jaded but I don’t know what more the FFA can do to have made those first couple of ACL games easier for us (and Victory) to prepare for, such as no games in between the first two ACL games. So while being jaded may be inevitable after a long trip, it certainly could be worse. Ultimately, its unacceptable at any time to be losing to a Warren Joyce-led team, who give bland a whole new meaning. We didn’t even get a single shot on target the whole game, which tells how ineffective our final product was tonight despite several efforts.

For once, I agree with rightdirection. Our injury toll this year has really been tough, especially in that RAM/RM role, and its amazing we’re still second on the table. Its a reflection of how awful the league has been this season. Perth are the obvious exception, and Welly deserve an honourable mention for the breath of fresh air they’ve provided. Victory have had injury problems to some degree, too. Losing Honda and Toivonen for decent chunks of time have really hurt them. The rest are average to absolutely awful.

You have to ask how many players he could afford to rotate out for this game, though. We still have a decent injury toll. All you have to do is look at the bench tonight. Brosque was never likely to start this game after starting in midweek at his age. Ivanovic for Caceres, possibly? Tratt for … who? Certainly not Grant, and I felt he showed tonight why he’s favoured at RB instead of CB. Shayon Harrison absolutely destroyed him. As for Austin, I’m not sure where you fit him in this formation. He’s a winger, and usually on the left. Are you going to trade Ninko’s creativity for Austin’s speed? HIGHLY doubtful.

As for the others, despite a few glimpses here and there, Devlin is absolutely not ready for a start yet. I thought Heward-Belle had a few decent appearances for the Mariners a few years ago but it seems he hasn’t kicked on at all in NPL. I have no idea about the back-up LB (Joel King??) but he must be far from ready to challenge Zullo at LB if he’s not even getting a bench spot. Obviously Brillante is leaving so its probably best to keep him under ice to ensure the transfer goes through. And we know Van Der Linden is too slow and makes poor errors that have cost us goals and points, so he’s probably not an option either, not even as a rotation option.

I just hope we don’t completely freeze Calver out just because he’s already agreed to switch to the new team. We may well need him next week.

Long story short, our squad needs a reboot in the off-season to challenge for silverware, but we’ve had it pretty good these last few years.

And as a final note, is anyone else getting really worried about Gucci? He’s had one good game for us and the rest have been average to rubbish. Hugely disappointing, as I was quite excited when he was announced as a January signing.

Yes, 3 of our 4 visa signings this year haven’t really worked out

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Thought we were brilliant first half, some of SFC’s most creative and inventive attacking football ever. And our defenders blotted MC’s attack out of the game until half time. All Bratten could do was foul. Zullo, Grant, and Wilko just bossed them and so did Warland and later, Tratt. Our whole team was very good to excellent apart from Caceres who went from terrible to mediocre. Retre did brilliantly in the first half working well with an outstanding Brandon. I had been VERY skeptical of Retre’s defending but I admit I was wrong; he has the goods. Retre, Tratt and Warland having all stepped up makes me very confident .

Problem is, as we all know, our attackers have been caught in a vicious circle of missing heaps of sitters over many weeks and, seemingly as a consequence, don’t trust themselves to shoot or take on a man and then shoot. They just seem to want to offload it to someone else (wider, to the side, back etc) MC’s second goal was a deflection that might have missed but if you don’t shoot, you don’t win those deflections.

Seasons past we scored heaps of headed goals. These are no longer available from our strikers, particularly against a very tall, strong defence like MC’s. And we are not quite quick enough for the through balls. Reza especially is not as quick as I had hoped. Alf, who does so much build up work and covering back is often a way away from the poacher’s pocket when the ball comes. Again, if we had a proper RM, Alf would not need to come back so much.
WE should have been 2 up at least at half time but we know that if you don’t score under these conditions, you are likely to suffer grief. And clearly our boys’ legs just gave out mid-second half after playing in Japan midweek, and then unforced errors started to appear. But I can’t believe people think our boys did not try. They ran themselves into the ground, tackled like demons and muscled up against a bigger and often niggly/dirty opposition.
The Cove made so much good and positive noise all match. You guys are one of the best things happening in our sport here. :slight_smile: Not so much the windbag whingers sitting all around me in Bay C in the stands. If anything would make me not want to come to matches, it is them.
Once again, I humbly suggest SC move Grant to RM and put Tratt behind him. If Warland is out, I would bring Jop or Calver back in. People are way too critical of Jop’s work.

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The boggy ground saps energy faster,city didnt play or travel midweek.Difficult to overcome that situation.

Ivanovic needed to start.

With Warland out ( I’m assuming) Jop has to come back in. Let’s see what he can do now he has been around the team for a while

Agreed. I was on the hill side around half way and they were loud and clear all game, even after going down by 2.

Reza has been bog average, but arguably gets more leeway because he hadn’t been playing much, is playing in different country, on harder surfaces (save for last nite) , in a team that is struggling, stuttering and slow in transition , and for a coach who doesn’t know how to select a balanced line up from the players he DOES have available.

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Yep. He lost his place to Warland fair and square, but the bench defender spot pretty much has to go to Calver or Tratt over him simply because they’re more versatile and can cover both FB and CB. I’d expect him to slot straight back in next to Wilko with Calver / Tratt remaining the bench option.

I’m pretty sure if we just drop Caceres, all the players will be able to hit the target when they shoot, Ivanovic will be able to control the ball when he dribbles, Grant will start passing forward, Retre will be able to defend and Corica will be good at coaching. We have gotten rid of Brillante so now Caceres is the only thing preventing us…And get fucking Tottori in FFS.

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Sadly, we just don’t have enough creativity and attacking threats - Ninko can be targeted by opposing teams and that’s pretty much the end of the section. It does seem like we are low on confidence and players are playing not to lose, rather than to win. It ends up in not really being ready to pull the trigger when a chance opens up. We just don’t have the cattle this year, with Siem being injured so much and Reza not quite being the threat we hoped. Maybe Ivanovic for Cáceres, but not much else in the cupboard…

Yeah and I think that Adrian leaving has left us very exposed to this in a way we weren’t when Adrian was here. We really need a second option and, on paper SDJ should be fulfilling that role, but he just isn’t fit often enough. It’s also compounded by our team’s crossing going to shit.

Coupled with De Silva not up to standard either. On paper before the season it was making sense to have 3 10s to provide that extra creativity but only ones constantly fit and performing but, as was majorly highlighted in the ACL game, if you double mark Ninko we have no attack.

I think this is definitely the default setting we have. Broadly I am not completely against this - it is due to relative defensive solidity that we are second and Melbourne third - they just haven’t been able to keep it tight, while we have much more successfully.

However there is for me a lack of risk taking in making the right forward pass (and it is a risk) which is hurting us most. I don’t think it’s pulling the trigger - there were precious few occasions last night when there was much of a shot on, and credit to City for defending well, which they should do with the personnel they have.

I posted this in the squad spec thread as it was in response to a Corica comment re: injuries to highlight a bigger issue than just this game but obviously it’s applicable to yesterday.

No, what we need is a coach who adapts his tactics to extract the best performance out of the players at his disposal. Right now we resemble the Socceroos as Ange’s reign came to an end being Plan B is to do Plan A better. Players shoehorned into a formation, 3 games without a goal and only 3 wins in the last 9 games that saw us lose to Brisbane & draw with a NZ Knights-esque CCM. Of the players unavailable for yesterday’s game through injury, only SDJ would be considered a walk up starter. Saying “we need everyone fit” is a cop out, a poor excuse to cover up managerial short-comings.
Reza is a dud and his signing makes absolutely no sense. Not only have we barely scored while he is on the pitch, his arrival has also coincided with Le Fondre’s drop off in performance. There was a lot said against signing Bruno Fornaroli as he and Le Fondre couldn’t work together, maybe this is proof?
SDJ has not worked an should have been returned to Ajax during the window, even more so after Reza was signed. If the club failed to have a clause inserted that would allow them to terminate the deal of a notoriously injury prone player then it is an extremely poor bit of business.
As I have said on numerous occasions Ninko is wasted out on the left. He is double teamed the moment he cuts inside, constantly running into traffic. It only worked last season because Adrian was out on the right and you can’t double up defensively on both sides without leaving a gaping hole in the middle. It also requires him to track back, often to the edge of our box, allowing the opposition to get numbers behind the ball before he gets into an attacking area.
Retre started the season in the right attacking position and was quite effective, scoring and setting up goals and also forming a good partnership with Grant. Caceres has been less than effective there, playing like a someone who is unfamiliar/unsuited to the position. Yesterday there was the opportunity to play, even switching during the match, Caceres centrally where he is much more comfortable and have Retre play more forward thus getting a better overall performance out of the 2 but no change was made.
The continuing of a game plan that relies on crossing, very poorly it must be said, into Le Fondre & Reza who are both only 1.8m tall is absolutely baffling. When was the last time we scored from a cross to one of them, or Brosque, Ivanovic or SDJ for that matter?

How everyone being fit fixes these issues escapes me. I’m not building or jumping on a #CoricaOutbandwagon, far from it. I would like to see him show an ability to identify and address the issues that are well within his control rather than persist with the same flawed plan game in, game out.

I agree that Reza hasn’t been a success, and I’ll use that to renew my criticism of playing these two up top. Go 4-2-3-1 and use Reza to lighten the load on Alfie. The latter’s fitness is very good, but he has been flogged hard by Corica - way too hard in my opinion, and it is this kind of over reliance on the same players all season which bit us on the arse when we tired against Melbourne in last year’s semi.

The crossing’s a funny one - because we are usually to slow to get the ball up into attack quickly, the only option is the full backs making the overlap. Maybe they could go more for low cutbacks in behind the line of strikers, but SDJ-excepted none of our midfielders are great at making those kind of runs/shots.

I would expect that with two strikers, one of them would arrive later into the box than the other if we are looking to play the ball to the byline. This would give us crossing options. Zullo, in particular, seems to always be looking for the early cross at the moment and doesn’t seem willing to look for the byline then a cross back.

We’re playing like we’re scared of being hit on the counter, especially in the ACL. There seems to be a conscious effort to not turn over position in the final third instead of pulling the trigger. Brillante hasn’t shot from distance anywhere near as much as he has the last 2 seasons and the last goal from distance in open play I can remember was O’Neill against CCM in the 5-2 game.
Have Zullo & Grant had shots at goal this season?