Round 9 - Sydney FC vs Macarthur - 28/02/21

Brattan has been ruled out:

That’s the only sensible option. It looked particularly bad.

I think for the most part, we were poor on Tuesday but we don’t get many performances where the team is that far short of their normal selves for most of the game. I expect to see a big improvement in this game. You’d think Ninko will be straight back to the starting line-up.

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I’ve not seen enough of the military junta, but we need to pull our finger out and maybe take a first time pass or shot for once.

Is our formation really conducive for effective one-touch passing? The players are normally too far apart, or they all converge in the middle, making us too narrow and too easy to defend against. Other teams have woken up to themselves this year and won’t just let us do whatever we want anymore.

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Really need to see something from Retre in this game. He’s had more than enough opportunities this season to stake his claim to one of the CM positions but he hasn’t convinced at all.
It’s a shame Zuvela did his knee because this a game he would have started.

4 Likes

OUr formation isn’t really conducive to football given the skills of our players.

The biggest hindrance is the pedestrian nature of our transition. Despite having attackers with the pace of Barbarouses and Buhagier and midfielders with the vision of Bratten, Ninko and ABJ, we really like to just sit around and let the oppo get back and compress their defensive lines.

Of course, with Bobo back we can now resort to slowly moving the ball forward and then trying to lob the ball onto his head in the midst of 2 centrebacks, the goalie and a DM.

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Good god, now you’ve seen our plan too?

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I’m privy to things.

Considering it seems like we’ve been worked out tactically by a lot of the teams in the league, we could maybe try something different? I’m not a huge fan of the long ball but it did work in patches against City. However wouldn’t be surprised to see Corica persist with the exact same plan despite a clear need for some tweaking to the attacking game plan.

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The long ball can actually work well against Macarthur because of the way they play a high defensive line with slow CB’s.
A Bobo/Buhagiar front 2 would be good but I suspect Bobo will be back on the bench and Trent will still be injured.
I think City exposed the flaws to our system very well the other night but if there is one thing in our favour it’s that Ante Milicic is as set in his ways tactically as Corica is so he probably won’t change their setup to exploit those weaknesses.

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I don’t think we’d be wanting to vary anything in our tactics or approach. That would be underhand, like.
By how we work, it should all be stated up front with the team line ups, and any in-game changes should be made after informing the opposition and officials.

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We also need to inform the opposition which one of the 50 attempted crosses per game will actually find it’s target within 10 metres of the 6 yard box.

The first one, which will give us the confidence to believe the plan will work!

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Let’s just give up a 3 goal headstart gain - at least it makes for an interesting finish

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I mean our game plan for the last 5 years has been:

  1. Get ball
  2. Pass to Ninko
  3. Goal
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You’re forgetting Holosko and Adrian.

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Think Patty Wood should get the start ahead of Bobo. It’s really to me about who works best with Kosta.

Swibel has shown himself to be a strong impact sub too, reckon he’ll get a start soon.

I was surprised to read some criticism after the last game insinuating Swibel isn’t good enough. If he can score a goal, we should see a confidence boost that he can use to show more of his ability. Wood showed little bits and pieces until he scored that first goal against Macarthur. Now he looks more comfortable and confident when called upon.

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Swibel has been fine considering what little has been offered him. Whether those two assists technically count as such, he made them happen with his energy and initiative and that was crucial to us. We want attacking subs to open up chances for others not just take them. He is vastly better in putting himself about and protecting the ball than eg Ivanevic (and miles ahead of Charles L was). Yes, he missed that shot but almost every striker we have ever had, even Alf and Holosko, has had a wild belt at a well-laid on ball and mis-hit it. Seems to link up well with Wood too. That header he missed (just) was not so easy to get in as some people here suggest and he did most of the lead-up work ahead of Wood’s cross. Would like to see him get many more opportunities.

5 Likes

Bit of a challenge with 2 spots over Kosta, Trent, Bobo, Wood & Swibel. Even with injuries and rotation Wood & Swibel aren’t going to get a long run of games.