WSW 18/19 & 19/20 Club Thread

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, mack said:

So far from what we've read & heard from/about Babbel I feel that his idea of 'mentality' is good and has helped improve players and the general performance. There's a few worrying things like kebabgate that make me worry that the minor small details are still being missed by the club, but it looks from the outside to be far better than the Foxe/Gombau era.

What comes next is his recruitment, and how he then sets up the team he recruits tactically.

His mid-season recruitment found good players that look to be hungry and have the mentality that he wants, but of course with potentially 5 foreign slots to sign that is the key. Tactically I'm yet to be convinced. Our attack is decent (and improved as the season has gone on) but our defence is woeful and has coughed up far too many 3, 4 and even 5 goal losses. Also only kept 4 clean sheets.

Is our leaking of goals tactical though? I don’t think Babbel tells Vedran to palm the ball into his own goal 

[sonar]

6 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

Is our leaking of goals tactical though? I don’t think Babbel tells Vedran to palm the ball into his own goal 

....or come flying out of the box to go on solo runs for goal.....lol

[Zelinsky]

1 hour ago, mack said:

So far from what we've read & heard from/about Babbel I feel that his idea of 'mentality' is good and has helped improve players and the general performance. There's a few worrying things like kebabgate that make me worry that the minor small details are still being missed by the club, but it looks from the outside to be far better than the Foxe/Gombau era.

What comes next is his recruitment, and how he then sets up the team he recruits tactically.

His mid-season recruitment found good players that look to be hungry and have the mentality that he wants, but of course with potentially 5 foreign slots to sign that is the key. Tactically I'm yet to be convinced. Our attack is decent (and improved as the season has gone on) but our defence is woeful and has coughed up far too many 3, 4 and even 5 goal losses. Also only kept 4 clean sheets.

He's moved on from "mentality" to matters of structure, discipline and energy. When that's not right we are leaking goals. In a press conference after a win a few weeks back he made a comment along the line of "it helps when the players are actually doing what the coaches are telling them to do." Add fitness to the list for next season, and players who actually enjoy scoring goals. 

I had a chat with him last year. It irks him that teams hiss the white flag once they get on the bus to an away game in Munich. "Of course Bayern has the better players, but you have to have to have a crack anyway!", he stressed. As Heidenheim did a couple of weeks ago when they very nearly bowled Bayern out of the German cup. Mentality. 

 

[Erebus]

Can't blame tactics when our defence is rubbish. He has lamented weeks on end about individual errors and basically pointing to lack of basic footballing quality as to why we've lost games.

Mentality has a part in this too. he wants players to fight for 50/50s , not give up before KO. The defence has been makeshift all season. None of the back 5 will be starting next season.

Bossi had an article the other day confirming MB is staying and alluding he might have been sacked lol. Was never going to happen.

[Prydzopolis]

2 hours ago, Erebus said:

Bossi had an article the other day confirming MB is staying and alluding he might have been sacked lol. 

Let me stop you at your first word, that should have given you everything you need about that “quality” bit of journalism.

[papersun]

Call this a ridiculous suggestion if you like, but It would be great in my opinion if Marco Kurz could be involved with the club in some way next season.

That's assuming he doesn't get a better offer elsewhere.

I just think he has the passion that's been missing from the coaching staff all season from what I see happening on the bench during matches. I actually think if he was in charge this season we would be in a better position on the table than we are.

I've also noticed in post match interviews that he is actually quite a humble guy despite his on field passion. He also seems to be able to improve players,(Scott Galloway being one  glaring example from this season alone)

If the club is serious about improving their position next season I think better support staff are required and the club really needs to open their cheque book and spend. There really can't be any excuses then if they do!

Nothing ventured nothing gained , give him a call and see if he's interested.

https://www.myfootball.com.au/video/full-press-conference-marco-kurz-adelaide-united-3

 

[Paul01]

22 minutes ago, papersun said:

Call this a ridiculous suggestion if you like, but It would be great in my opinion if Marco Kurz could be involved with the club in some way next season.

That's assuming he doesn't get a better offer elsewhere.

I just think he has the passion that's been missing from the coaching staff all season from what I see happening on the bench during matches. I actually think if he was in charge this season we would be in a better position on the table than we are.

I've also noticed in post match interviews that he is actually quite a humble guy despite his on field passion. He also seems to be able to improve players,(Scott Galloway being one  glaring example from this season alone)

If the club is serious about improving their position next season I think better support staff are required and the club really needs to open their cheque book and spend. There really can't be any excuses then if they do!

Nothing ventured nothing gained , give him a call and see if he's interested.

https://www.myfootball.com.au/video/full-press-conference-marco-kurz-adelaide-united-3

 

Kurz is supposed to have a job waiting in Germany 

[mack]

Going through our results as a Mentality Tracker™ I come up with about 17 points dropped due to a lack of mentality and/or missing simple chances at goal, and only a handful of points won because we stuck it out to hold onto a win/draw, or put on a come back (eg, the last home game vs Perth with Elrich's last minute equaliser).

There were also several games where there was just a complete lack of anything remotely resembling desire or respect for your opponent that I don't class as dropping points but should be included. 

• R4 - Collapsed after going 2 up against Roar, the 2nd worst team in the league. Lucky not to have lost. 2 points dropped.
• R5 - In 5th place with Newcastle in 9th. At home. Riera & Majok both miss point blank headers. Switch off at a free kick and concede, then 2nd on counter in stoppage time. Draw should have been minimum result. At least 1 point dropped. This loss set our team as a bottom half club for the season.
• R8 - Vedran brain explosion 3 minutes after we go ahead. Mental collapse from then on. Only game Baumjohann looked like dominating, he got taken off & never played like that again. Not sure we could say we dropped points but the chance of winning evaporated after Vedran. Losing was the only result after that happened.
• R9 - Play half an hour with Adelaide a man down. Kamau equalises straight away, then nothing. 2 points dropped.
• R10 - City go two up in first half after Llorente switched off from a throw in. City have a player sent off & we see another half hour of man up nothing from WSW. Baumjohann missed point blank shot, Roly misses rebound & Riera misses a penalty. Home crowd were absolutely furious that night. Should have got a point.
• R11 - Ziegler misses point blank free header at a corner, defense goes missing & lets Toivenen waltz into area & score as Vedran does his usual dive before shot and lets it go past. Fitzy gets past keeper Thomas then can't score past outfielders on line. Cop late goal to lose. Point dropped.
• R12 - Vedran has another brain fade to gift Nix a goal, Baccus equalises, and then Elrich gets torched, Hamill doesn't mark up and Vedran gets beaten near post. 3-2 loss. Point dropped.
• R13 - Away to Perth. Go 2-0 up until the 70th minute, then go 3-1 up in the 76th. Majok completely out of place as a left fullback. Proceed to cop three goals in 10 minutes to lose. Three points dropped.
• R15 - Away to City. Switch off after kick off and let in De Laet to get past Suman for a goal in 30 seconds, I think we even kicked off and turned it over for the goal. Go 3-2 up, Baccus gets a stupid second yellow and then concede equaliser and last second winner from a corner when we leave two players unmarked, including the tallest player on the field, Schenkeveld who scores. At least 1 point dropped.
• R16 - Away to Roar. 2-0 up until the 91st minute When defence falls to pieces against inferior numbers & Vedran gets nutmegged for 2-1. Then Vedran kicks it over the touchline and we let Taggart get a header. 2 points dropped.
• R17 - Home to Newcastle. Lost 5-1. Enough said.
• R24 - Away to Newcastle. Lost 3-2. Vedran punches ball into own net. Should have won. 3 points dropped.
• R26 - Away to Mariners. 3-1 loss. Didn't show up. Played 20 minutes against 10 men. Didn't score.

Half the games we've played this season have exposed players for a lack of basic skills attacking, defending or goalkeeping, or the squad as a whole showed up with an absent will to win. We lost three games to our "rival" for 7th spot Newcastle as well as losing 2 of the 3 games against 6th placed City.

There's little wonder more than half the squad are going to have their contracts expire or be sent into purgatory until they leave.

[Zelinsky]

@Mack

Thanks for compiling this, it makes for depressing reading. Add R1 to that list when Riera missed a sitter for the 2:1. Two more points lost. And then there was the whole VAR/ref debacle in R2, where Roly missed a sitter, two goals disallowed, and penalty not given...

I maintain that, with Ziegler fit for most of the season, Riera actually doing what a marquee striker is meant to be doing, and Janjetovic avoiding just the biggest **** ups, we'd be comfortably in the top half. Vedran's derby red card ripped the guts out of the team and the season, we never really recovered.

Most depressing season so far, missed opportunities left right an centre.

 

[WHACKO]

Will Bridge come out Cornthwaite style and tell us what really happened throughout the season.

[mack]

I wonder if Cornthwaite will apologise to the fans for the squad thinking they knew better than Gombau about how to play as a team before doing even worse this season.

[Erebus]

18 minutes ago, WHACKO said:

Will Bridge come out Cornthwaite style and tell us what really happened throughout the season.

Bridge has been training by himself for 90% of the season so he probably has nfi haha

[StringerBellend]

22 minutes ago, mack said:

I wonder if Cornthwaite will apologise to the fans for the squad thinking they knew better than Gombau about how to play as a team before doing even worse this season.

Gumby is entirely without blame for this season too, “give him his own squad”

fitzgerald, Kamau, Tongyik etc 

that said he doesn’t look so bad now 

Gumby started with a functioning team and left a shambles,

Babbel took over a shambles and it’s still a shambles, the only bright point is some kids got a game (and his jacket from the derby)

[papersun]

Unsurprisingly my left of centre suggestion to get Marco Kurz involved somehow doesn't look like happening if this story is to be be believed.

I know who I would rather have.

https://www.goal.com/en/news/the-covert-agent-wanderers-raid-newcastle-for-highly-rated/1xmr48kep2glh17d6oios3hvn4

 

[Sithslayer1991]

23 hours ago, mack said:

Going through our results as a Mentality Tracker™ I come up with about 17 points dropped due to a lack of mentality and/or missing simple chances at goal, and only a handful of points won because we stuck it out to hold onto a win/draw, or put on a come back (eg, the last home game vs Perth with Elrich's last minute equaliser).

There were also several games where there was just a complete lack of anything remotely resembling desire or respect for your opponent that I don't class as dropping points but should be included. 

• R4 - Collapsed after going 2 up against Roar, the 2nd worst team in the league. Lucky not to have lost. 2 points dropped.
• R5 - In 5th place with Newcastle in 9th. At home. Riera & Majok both miss point blank headers. Switch off at a free kick and concede, then 2nd on counter in stoppage time. Draw should have been minimum result. At least 1 point dropped. This loss set our team as a bottom half club for the season.
• R8 - Vedran brain explosion 3 minutes after we go ahead. Mental collapse from then on. Only game Baumjohann looked like dominating, he got taken off & never played like that again. Not sure we could say we dropped points but the chance of winning evaporated after Vedran. Losing was the only result after that happened.
• R9 - Play half an hour with Adelaide a man down. Kamau equalises straight away, then nothing. 2 points dropped.
• R10 - City go two up in first half after Llorente switched off from a throw in. City have a player sent off & we see another half hour of man up nothing from WSW. Baumjohann missed point blank shot, Roly misses rebound & Riera misses a penalty. Home crowd were absolutely furious that night. Should have got a point.
• R11 - Ziegler misses point blank free header at a corner, defense goes missing & lets Toivenen waltz into area & score as Vedran does his usual dive before shot and lets it go past. Fitzy gets past keeper Thomas then can't score past outfielders on line. Cop late goal to lose. Point dropped.
• R12 - Vedran has another brain fade to gift Nix a goal, Baccus equalises, and then Elrich gets torched, Hamill doesn't mark up and Vedran gets beaten near post. 3-2 loss. Point dropped.
• R13 - Away to Perth. Go 2-0 up until the 70th minute, then go 3-1 up in the 76th. Majok completely out of place as a left fullback. Proceed to cop three goals in 10 minutes to lose. Three points dropped.
• R15 - Away to City. Switch off after kick off and let in De Laet to get past Suman for a goal in 30 seconds, I think we even kicked off and turned it over for the goal. Go 3-2 up, Baccus gets a stupid second yellow and then concede equaliser and last second winner from a corner when we leave two players unmarked, including the tallest player on the field, Schenkeveld who scores. At least 1 point dropped.
• R16 - Away to Roar. 2-0 up until the 91st minute When defence falls to pieces against inferior numbers & Vedran gets nutmegged for 2-1. Then Vedran kicks it over the touchline and we let Taggart get a header. 2 points dropped.
• R17 - Home to Newcastle. Lost 5-1. Enough said.
• R24 - Away to Newcastle. Lost 3-2. Vedran punches ball into own net. Should have won. 3 points dropped.
• R26 - Away to Mariners. 3-1 loss. Didn't show up. Played 20 minutes against 10 men. Didn't score.

Half the games we've played this season have exposed players for a lack of basic skills attacking, defending or goalkeeping, or the squad as a whole showed up with an absent will to win. We lost three games to our "rival" for 7th spot Newcastle as well as losing 2 of the 3 games against 6th placed City.

There's little wonder more than half the squad are going to have their contracts expire or be sent into purgatory until they leave.

WOW. Amazing compiling all this its been a season to forget

[scarcev]

@mack

Thanks for that, a few things stick out there and the big one is the continual mention on Vedran and that is no surprise.  He had an absolute 'mare of a season, started it injured and it somehow got even worse from there, you expect your keeper to do a solid job and maybe pick you up a few points throughout the season with an odd howler thrown in but not to single handedly cost you (my estimate) 12pts in a season where he never looked comfortable.  He has to go, contract or no contract.

[MistahCampoy]

So JT's job might be up in the air then if management is not happy with him, bring the man home!

[Wanderboy]

22 hours ago, FCB said:

 

Most depressing season so far, missed opportunities left right an centre.

 

Imagine what Babbel is thinking having watched such a season of ineptness from so many unskilled players, including our imports.

His head must be spinning.

[mack]

Compare our constant collapses to SFC & Perth, who had 9 losses between them but only one of those losses came after they took the lead, which was SFC vs Brisbane in R18. Also Perth drew 6 games with only 2 draws after taking the lead, both against us funnily enough.

[Paul01]

3 minutes ago, mack said:

Compare our constant collapses to SFC & Perth, who had 9 losses between them but only one of those losses came after they took the lead, which was SFC vs Brisbane in R18. Also Perth drew 6 games with only 2 draws after taking the lead, both against us funnily enough.

I thought the team was gassed by 75 to 80 minutes due to fitness, especially Elrich, right up to the end of January.

After the new fitness guy (after Babbel sacked the AwFL guy) came mid-season with Duke and Yeboah, the team started to win games.

[Harv]

23 hours ago, WHACKO said:

Will Bridge come out Cornthwaite style and tell us what really happened throughout the season.

I hope not.  I would rather Bridge left with head held high and reputation in tact.  I Don't care how long Bridge is able to play on Saturday, as long as Babbel gives him the opportunity to walk off on his own to get the recognition he has earned for his service to WSW.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Harv

[Harv]

36 minutes ago, Paul01 said:

I thought the team was gassed by 75 to 80 minutes due to fitness, especially Elrich, right up to the end of January.

I believe we have known all year that Elrich did not have the legs for a 90-minute performance.  The fact that he had to do so for practically every game this season is probably indicative of the options Babbel had available.

[Zelinsky]

2 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Imagine what Babbel is thinking having watched such a season of ineptness from so many unskilled players, including our imports.

His head must be spinning.

He told us his thoughts in just about every press conference, no secrets there.

He is lucky that he only got to watch this season. He missed out on Borda, Pinates, Jumpei, an error prone Dimas in his second season, Neville's deliveries, Bulut, Clisby, Melling, Pepper, redmayne, tyson. Goodness gracious. 

The three football years since the last game at Parra have been the longest in my life, for all the wrong reasons. 

[Prydzopolis]

On 18/04/2019 at 10:39 AM, Erebus said:

Bossi had an article the other day confirming MB is staying and alluding he might have been sacked lol. 

Let me stop you at your first word, that should have given you everything you need about that “quality” bit of journalism.

————

A nice little quote from an interview with Bridge ““Look it might be different after a full season with Markus' own players but we need to find our own identity quick because a new stadium, new training facilities, isn’t going to be the fix.”

Nail. On. Head.

[LeeMarvin]

So this time next year will we either be lauding Babbel as a genius and the club's saviour or writing him off as a fraud and discarding him to the same historic dust bin as Gombau?

[sonar]

13 minutes ago, LeeMarvin said:

So this time next year will we either be lauding Babbel as a genius and the club's saviour or writing him off as a fraud and discarding him to the same historic dust bin as Gombau?

His record is worse than Gombau's and he had more games.......lol

Fwiw the club can't afford another poor season regardless of who the manager is. Babbel's the one in charge and if it all goes tits up it's on him. On the flip side if it goes well he will get the accolades...as he should. 

I think he is a better man manager and tactically better than Gombau but fmd the team needs to show it with results on the pitch.

Edited April 28, 2019 by sonar

[Carns]

1 hour ago, LeeMarvin said:

So this time next year will we either be lauding Babbel as a genius and the club's saviour or writing him off as a fraud and discarding him to the same historic dust bin as Gombau?

Babbel will be long gone by this time next year if we don't start well/perform. I would not expect Babbel to last past January if we're as poor next season as we were this season.

[scarcev]

JT will be gone before Babbel is

[Bellby]

I have heard from a couple of good sources (standard internet hero line) there were significant issues between playing group & coaching staff throughout the year. Whether it's a language barrier I'm not sure but MB's man-management / communication skills are apparently quite poor, as is JP's. Talk down to the players, belittle them etc. etc. Not all the players 'let go' were 'let go', more they didn't want to re-sign. 

Cue the 'MB is only saying it how it is' brigade... 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Bellby

[sonar]

7 minutes ago, Bellby said:

I have heard from a couple of good sources (standard internet hero line) there were significant issues between playing group & coaching staff throughout the year. Whether it's a language barrier I'm not sure but MB's man-management / communication skills are apparently quite poor, as is JP's. Talk down to the players, belittle them etc. etc. Not all the players 'let go' were 'let go', more they didn't want to re-sign. 

Cue the 'MB is only saying it how it is' brigade... 

We had this from sources about Gombau last season.....he wasn't a good manager of people......he talked down to them etc,etc,etc......it may be correct with Babbel as well but perhaps if the players put in on the pitch and did their job then a lot of the supposed angst from the coaching staff would go away.