I think Baumjohan made more sense made more sense when we had a midfield of Ninko, Brattan, O’Neill and Caceres.
Kosta made more sense when we had LeFondre. Even then I was sceptical about the balance up front, but he wasn’t supposed to be the main goal scorer…
Our squad has fallen a fair way in the last few years.
I think our depth has gotten considerably better since Corica’s first year.
We now have youth players that can easily slot into the roles as needed and have the confidence to play in ACL games like it is nothing. Nieuwenhof, Ivanovic, Wood, King, HVDS, Zuvela, and Swibel have all done admirably and made themselves look good enough for starts. We didn’t have that level of competition across the squad in 2018/19.
Bar unfortunate injuries we’ve improved imo in being able to rotate. Reza and Siem were very helpful additions to that squad but they don’t fit as well as our current boys.
I think the other side of the argument is that just about every side has gotten stronger since our dominant run started making it a lot harder for us to grind out a draw or bag an undeserved win when we aren’t playing well. While we have regressed the opposition has also improved.
It’s probably fair to say that only Melbourne & Newcastle are off the pace this season.
It’s more about the starting xi than the fringe/ depth players.
We used to start O’Neill, Brillante, Ninko, Mierzejewski, Bobo, Brosque?
Have we improved any of those positions?
Adrian/ Ninko/ Brosque/Bobo is probably the best front line in the leagues history
With Carney and Simon as subs, no less!
I’m not sure you can improve any of those positions when you start that line up in a salary capped league. It’s kind of amazing we got it on the pitch at all. The records from that season speak for themselves. The best you can hope for is maintaining it in a like for like manor, but even that is a pretty tall order.
Milos is as good as ever.
Simon has improved since leaving us which is a bit of a concern
He is integral to everything and everyone in CCM - he was always a bench player for us.
Understandable the added responsibility and starting every game has seen him lift
Having Grant and (for most of that season) Ryall in there on loyalty allowances would’ve made a huge difference.
Grant didn’t play that season, but I have no recollection how Ratboy’s injury replacement contract affected the cap.
Wasn’t Brosque being paid whatever was left in the cap? Remember him not caring too much on his salary. It was a lucky lineup in general though
For all those still under the delusion of Alf returning.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMeee5BJpWx/?igshid=t8qh1v35ue24
The actual fact of the matter is this is certainly one of the weaker teams we’ve fielded in the past 4-5 years.
Think about this for a second:
Brosque, Carney, Vuka, Bujis, Dimitrijevic, Mierzejewski, Le Fondre, O’Neil, De Jong, Brillante, prime Zullo, Wilkinson and Ninkovic
Now we have:
Wood, Kosta, Retre, Warland, Redmayne, King, Buhagiar, Swibel, Caceres, Baumjohann, injury prone Zullo, ageing Wilkinson and are basically over-reliant on 36-year old wizard Ninkovic
Combine that personnel with Corica’s inability to change either his formation or starting line-up and I think a lot of teams have begun figuring us out.
As someone pointed out earlier, ABJ and Caceres really need to start contributing more on the goal front - if you’re not going to tackle at least chip in with some goals.
Kosta is not a striker but also playing him alongside Wood / Trent / Swibel makes us incredibly one-dimensional. I thought the same with our forward line being Kosta and Le Fondre - but at least Adam was able to put half chances away. No height, no presence, no hold up play.
Just runs in behind, dribbling out wide - which when teams sit back against us, renders them complete ineffective. When was the last time Kosta scored from outside the box???
At least Bobo gives us a target to aim at but even he is now a 60min player at best - look at his record since he left us.
King to be fair has done a great job standing in for Zullo, its been a huge step up for him. But would you honestly pick him over a fit Zullo?
Teams often go through ups and downs (look at MV) but I’m pretty sure we won’t be winning the league this season. Top - 4 yes, but Corica needs to mix it up, drop players who are out of form (Redders, Kosta) and give things a shake up - although i know that’s hard with limited options.
We just don’t have the same aura or confidence about us this season I feel.
Dimitrijević was never in the same squad as Mierzejewski, nor was Vuković. None of those guys, nor Buijs nor Carney, were ever in the same squad as De Jong or Le Fondre.
It should be pretty uncontroversial that a list of the best players across four seasons, when the salary cap was 50% higher and we had Brosque willing to play at a first-XI level for peanuts, is better than this season’s…
I may be remembering this wrong but GA was hardly tactically flexible… you generally knew the shape and formation he would select and the subs he would make - week in week out. We just didn’t moan because we were winning
Yeah even the substitutions were the same every game, when he made them…
SMH article on A-League squads in general and 70% of the players off contract.
That’s a pretty spectacular effort by Macarthur to have 16 players on one year deals for their inaugural season. Suppose Milicic did learn a lot under Popa.
Also our list isn’t quite right, Warland re-signed for 2 more years only a month ago.