This has to be a much better performance. Zullo in, VDS at right back and Retre back into the middle please.
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Can’t argue with any of that. Adelaide are looking good as well, so we’ll have to turn in a really good performance to beat them.
It would be nice to knock Adelaide out of the finals and let western United through.
Bratten’s out for this one, isn’t he?
We’re looking at a Caceres/Retre or Zuvela/Retre midfield if VDS starts at RB.
The other option is to go with a Caceres/Zuvela midfield and Retre at RB.
I can’t see us persisting with Retre at RB. He’s played fairly well in midfield this year, so to destroy his confidence leading into the finals by playing him at RB because he MIGHT be slightly better than VdS is a poor choice.
Yeah I’m fairly sure that was enough yellows for Brattan to get a suspension.
Retre and Caceres have to start in midfield with Zuvela getting a decent run in the second half.
I can . Corica has form with persisting with incredulous selections in spite of form or structural shortcomings.
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He does?
We’re gonna get ass blasted.
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Check out the Sky Blues’ submitted squad for their Round 27 clash away against Adelaide United at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night (kick off 7:30pm AEST).
Ben Warland, Marco Tilio and Calem Nieuwenhof are all included while Luke Brattan is suspended and misses the clash due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
NEWS: McGowan To Deliver Statement Of Intent
Sydney FC squad: 1.Andrew REDMAYNE (gk), 2.Patrick FLOTTMANN, 3.Ben WARLAND, 4.Alex WILKINSON ©, 5.Alex BAUMJOHANN, 6.Ryan McGOWAN, 7.Michael ZULLO, 8.Paulo RETRE, 9.Adam LE FONDRE, 10.Milos NINKOVIC, 11.Kosta BARBAROUSES, 12.Trent BUHAGIAR, 16.Joel KING, 17.Anthony CACERES, 18.Luke IVANOVIC, 19.Chris ZUVELA, 20.Thomas HEWARD-BELLE (gk), 21.Harry VAN DER SAAG, 24.Marco TILIO, 28.Calem NIEUWENHOF
2-4 to be omitted
Ins: 3.Ben WARLAND (return from injury), 24.Marco TILIO (promoted), 28. Calem NIEUWENHOF (promoted) .
Outs: 26.Luke BRATTAN (suspended - 1 week, yellow cards)
Unavailable: 23.Rhyan GRANT (1 week - groin)
Sydney FC face Adelaide United at ANZ Stadium on Thursday night (kick off 7:30pm AEST). Catch the match LIVE on Fox Sports 507 or streamed on Kayo Sports and the My Football Live app, and catch Sydney FC official pre-game show LIVE on their Facebook 30 minutes before kick off.
Id probably go with:
Redymayne
Van der Saag Wilkinson McGowan Zullo
Brattan Caceres
Baumjohann-Ninkovic
Buhagier- Le Fondre
Bench: Heward-Belle, Warland, King, Zuvela, Ivanovic, Barbarouses, Tilio
Suspended 
It would be a dream for Zuvela to be 90-minutes ready and able to bounce back to where he was form/performance wise before the injury. But I suspect that isn’t the case, and we’ll be playing Retre-Caceres this week, and Retre-Brattan going forward.
If Zuvela starts, we win 3-0. If he doesn’t, we get peach baguetted.
I know people have been prone to be quite stupidly critical of players even when we’re good, but mate reading Sydney stuff over the last month you’d think Retre was like Marc Warren tier. Our best performances this season came with him and Brattan playing together. He’s much more quiet than Brattan and didn’t play well against City but nobody did.
Same goes with criticism of Kosta. Him and Alfie are still a great combo but the last two games they’ve just been outplayed by players in good form. NTS/Boogs having their best games since 2018, and City playing 3 CBs. Kosta has been involved in 8 assists and 8 goals this season, that’s the best of any player in the squad
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I don’t think a lot of the Retre criticism is of him as a player in general, more about uprooting him from CDM where he has been settled and doing pretty well, and into the less suitable RB position, meaning we were weakened in CDM and RB.
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I’m not talking about just last weekend, this entire season (and definitely since restart) I’ve seen him cop some mad slander regardless of how the team is going.
The idea that it’s stupid to criticise players because we have won the league, is stupid. We are clearly worse in midfield since O’Neill left and Retre took his place. Kosta has been underperforming, he has bottled a lot of good chances this season. Doesn’t mean Kosta or Retre are bad players. We just have players in key positions underperforming. That coupled with good performances by other teams in the league in recent weeks has resulted in some poor results.
Everybody is so obsessed with avoiding “goo feasting” that when people point out obvious weaknesses in the team its considered harsh criticism. Reminds me a lot of last season where it was pointed out that despite winning the GF, the football we played wasn’t actually that good. I’d argue the situation is very similar this season. Yes we may have won the league easily, but we haven’t actually played that well, we’ve just been slightly better than everyone else.
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Fold the Club carnts!
Was not happy after the game with Corica throwing Retre and McGowan under the bus for their goal-producing errors vs MC. Mostly Bimbi is big enough to not blame individuals by name when things go wrong. Maybe he is feeling a bit rattled. The problem was obviously structural (not individual) - as I mentioned pre-MC - and in part it is due to recruitment and timing matters. We have not replaced O’Neill with anything like an equivalent quality/influence player. With two of our best big-game, influential players Grant and Zullo, also out we were - predictably - much more porous in defence (hence Redders as our MOM) and also unable to break from defence in ways that gave us time to control the game, pulled MC out of shape and fostered scoring opportunities. The timing thing may relate to Zuvela’s delayed return. He is the most obvious DM to partner Brattan and can provide the defensive grunt to liberate Brattan to get forward more and add extra attacking threat.
If we have Caceres and Retre as DMs and HVS at RB, I think we will lose 2-0 or 3-0. Frankly, McGree will just walz through them and Halloran will tear our right-side apart. If Zullo starts, we might get some joy down the left as he, Ninko and Alf are … unbelievable together - but only if we stop hitting high crosses. We are not going to out-jump Elsey and Jakobsen.
Never change SFCU…
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