The draws on the 10th. Will be interesting to see who we get- maybe Ange’s Yokohama? Also the mega fun question beckons of who do we leave out- ALF, Kosta, Ninkovic or Baumjohann?
I’d be tempted to leave out Ninko and save his legs for the league. Yes I feel dirty saying that
And the fact he’ll more than likely be playing for a different club come round of 16 time if we get out of the group…
Yeah I do wonder if it has anything to do with contract negotiations. It seems incredibly rare for the player left out of the acl squad to be with the club the following season.
I certainly had Baumjohann missing out but recent form makes it very complicated. Alf is a lock. Kosta would seem so too but I guess Trent and Ivanovic are similarish players? Crazy to contemplate Ninkovic it it seems so
You need good organised defense to compete in the ACL , we have plenty of forward options to play counter attack so I’d leave out Kosta. Ninko defends well and can keep the ball in tight situations.
Yeah this is a good point. Whatever player gets left out won’t be happy and may even get a bit of an attitude about it. (I’m looking at you ABJ!). If Ninko signs elsewhere then we have to leave him out so not to unnecessarily piss off a player that will be here next season
We need Alf and barbarouses for the counter. It has to be ninko or baumjohann. With ninko leaving it would make sense he is the one left out.
Yep, I’d be leaving Kosta out as well. We don’t lose much with Buhagiar taking his place.
I’d be leaving ABJ. Ninko knows the ACL. Having Bernie, Trent or Retre on the right would be fine.
I’d leave out ALF before leaving out Kosta. Remember how he dropped off tail end of last season when ACL started up? Asking a lot for him to play 90 minutes of every game. Kosta is younger and more deserving of being flogged.
But really I’d switch to 4-2-3-1 and leave out one of the 10’s.
Yeah I mean I get that side, but there are two things we need in the ACL. One is a solid, organised defence, and the other is clinical finishing. Kosta just isn’t clinical enough to put away the key goal in a game where we may only craft one really good chance all up.
Asian keepers mate. 
You don’t need to be ALF level deadly in the ACL.
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Why not rest Alfie in the A League?
Kosta would play the full 90 with Ivanovic & Buhagiar filling in for Alfie.
Because A-League is more important. It’s our bread and butter. /Shankly
In reality I don’t think Stevie will decide until the last minute. See how far in front we are in HAL, and also see if we’re able to pull an Asian +1 in January to cover any of the other 4 and help make the decision.
Draw tonight. Unbelievably, Shanghai Shenhua, who finished 13th in the Chinese league could still be in our group after winning the cup last week.
Is the draw being televised/streamed?
We’ll get the same clubs we always get.
From an Australian perspective it would be good if we drew Suwon & Yokohama.
Yeah, nailed on to get Shenhua, they need to come check on the progress of their Greenland Centre anyways.
The one game a year I wish we were more political. Cove should be full of Tibetan, HK and Uyghur flags.
I’m quietly optimistic about this campaign. We performed well the last time round, but couldn’t convert our chances. Lots of pace options this year mixed with silky skills