Wanderers Stay Top With Draw

[DeeDee]

Frustrating. Was really looking forward to enjoying 90 minutes of football. Was just dissapointing to see Brisbane look a more cohesive unit then our selves at home.

BUT! Once again a point gained, and some incredible fight and scrambling in defence. My thoughts on just the poor performances.

Yeboah - Simply not enough in attack and on the ball from him. In fairness ive never seen him as a winger but Mo needs to be in the side. Yeboah lacks touch and quality, and it hurts our attack with Meier playing bit part roles.

Meier - Ineffective but with little chances. Just expecting abit more class in the occasions he does receive the ball. I think he needs to swap with Duke occasionally and take up a wing spot, drag defenders around, get dangerous flick on in different zones.

Grozos - shits me to peices when i see young lads given a chance and they don’t bust their nut to impress. Not a fan of this kid yet. 

Duke - im being harsh but he just looked tired and slow on the ball.

Babbel always speaks about playing with confidence, trying things and not being afraid to fail. Our youngsters still suffer from this. Muller grew very frustrated whilst the likes of Baccus and Tass failed to play in simple 5m early balls to him when he peeled off. These kids need to grow a football brain and step up.

 

[Wanderboy]

2 minutes ago, DeeDee said:

Frustrating. Was really looking forward to enjoying 90 minutes of football. Was just dissapointing to see Brisbane look a more cohesive unit then our selves at home.

BUT! Once again a point gained, and some incredible fight and scrambling in defence. My thoughts on just the poor performances.

Yeboah - Simply not enough in attack and on the ball from him. In fairness ive never seen him as a winger but Mo needs to be in the side. Yeboah lacks touch and quality, and it hurts our attack with Meier playing bit part roles.

Meier - Ineffective but with little chances. Just expecting abit more class in the occasions he does receive the ball. I think he needs to swap with Duke occasionally and take up a wing spot, drag defenders around, get dangerous flick on in different zones.

Grozos - shits me to peices when i see young lads given a chance and they don’t bust their nut to impress. Not a fan of this kid yet. 

Duke - im being harsh but he just looked tired and slow on the ball.

Babbel always speaks about playing with confidence, trying things and not being afraid to fail. Our youngsters still suffer from this. Muller grew very frustrated whilst the likes of Baccus and Tass failed to play in simple 5m early balls to him when he peeled off. These kids need to grow a football brain and step up.

 

You can't be a true Wanderers fan if you weren't happy with a draw and have an opinion on our performance. We're TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

Be prepared for the abuse and ridicule.

[andypk]

Our performances so far this season have told me that Babbel's recruiting has been spot on and I'm more optimistic about this season than I have about any other season.  

 Our need to defend has shown that what we lacked last season, mentality, we now have in bucket loads. We have a great foundation.  Sure, we haven't been great going forward but this is an easy fix with the quality we have. Grinding out hard fought wins and picking up points when you aren't playing well speaks volumes about the character we have in the squad.

We've played 4 games and conceded only a deflected goal in open play and a penalty.  Along the way we have beaten Victory on their territory and won a derby against last seasons GF winners.  We've also picked up 4 points against Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane who are two improved sides on last season.  I certainly expected us to take all the points against Roar but they showed they are no easy beats and credit to them.  Both these teams will certainly play their part in what is shaping up to be an excellent A-League season.

My biggest concern right now is the amount of injuries we continue to pick up. Due to injuries, MB almost certainly hasn't had his strongest 11 on the training field together, let alone on match day, so I'm certainly not expecting us to hit our stride yet.  I'm stoked we are proving hard to beat and are picking up points.  The rest of it will come.

[Neverbloom]

1 hour ago, Wanderboy said:

You can't be a true Wanderers fan if you weren't happy with a draw and have an opinion on our performance. We're TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

Be prepared for the abuse and ridicule.

to be fair its only the one guy and once you set to him to ignore and you dont need to see his constant bitterness the forum is a lot more fun

[Neverbloom]

25 minutes ago, andypk said:

Our performances so far this season have told me that Babbel's recruiting has been spot on and I'm more optimistic about this season than I have about any other season.  

 Our need to defend has shown that what we lacked last season, mentality, we now have in bucket loads. We have a great foundation.  Sure, we haven't been great going forward but this is an easy fix with the quality we have. Grinding out hard fought wins and picking up points when you aren't playing well speaks volumes about the character we have in the squad.

We've played 4 games and conceded only a deflected goal in open play and a penalty.  Along the way we have beaten Victory on their territory and won a derby against last seasons GF winners.  We've also picked up 4 points against Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane who are two improved sides on last season.  I certainly expected us to take all the points against Roar but they showed they are no easy beats and credit to them.  Both these teams will certainly play their part in what is shaping up to be an excellent A-League season.

My biggest concern right now is the amount of injuries we continue to pick up. Due to injuries MB almost certainly hasn't had his strongest 11 on the training field together, let alone on match day, so I'm certainly not expecting us to hit our stride yet.  I'm stoked we are proving hard to beat and are picking up points.  The rest of it will come.

agree with this, the only reason for shitty performances is our team has not gelled yet, we are getting points while we are playing poorly so happy that once we improve we already have those points banked

[Wanderboy]

31 minutes ago, andypk said:

Our performances so far this season have told me that Babbel's recruiting has been spot on and I'm more optimistic about this season than I have about any other season.  

 Our need to defend has shown that what we lacked last season, mentality, we now have in bucket loads. We have a great foundation.  Sure, we haven't been great going forward but this is an easy fix with the quality we have. Grinding out hard fought wins and picking up points when you aren't playing well speaks volumes about the character we have in the squad.

We've played 4 games and conceded only a deflected goal in open play and a penalty.  Along the way we have beaten Victory on their territory and won a derby against last seasons GF winners.  We've also picked up 4 points against Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane who are two improved sides on last season.  I certainly expected us to take all the points against Roar but they showed they are no easy beats and credit to them.  Both these teams will certainly play their part in what is shaping up to be an excellent A-League season.

My biggest concern right now is the amount of injuries we continue to pick up. Due to injuries MB almost certainly hasn't had his strongest 11 on the training field together, let alone on match day, so I'm certainly not expecting us to hit our stride yet.  I'm stoked we are proving hard to beat and are picking up points.  The rest of it will come.

Great post, and I reckon that that is what the majority of learned fans currently believe. For those that don't, well, they have their own opinion.

 

[Upthehill]

9 hours ago, Neverbloom said:

honestly i am pretty relaxed just doing some mocking, the attitude of some people here is just not something i expected from fellow wanderers fans

Simple answer here is probably the gap in ability/football brains between the Germans, who’ve been playing in world class leagues and in most cases for their country, and the local players.

Schweisteiger was brutally honest about it when he arrived at Chicago. He was asked about the local players, and in brutal German fashion simply said they’re never in the right place and run the wrong lines.

I don’t doubt the heat was probably the worst he’s played a competitive game in, which will have affected him, but Muller provided a constant outlet to him and seemed to be completely aware of the big man’s ability. I doubt Yeboah is going to improve his first touch but he could certainly learn from muller about positional awareness

[Neverbloom]

5 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

Simple answer here is probably the gap in ability/football brains between the Germans, who’ve been playing in world class leagues and in most cases for their country, and the local players.

Schweisteiger was brutally honest about it when he arrived at Chicago. He was asked about the local players, and in brutal German fashion simply said they’re never in the right place and run the wrong lines.

I don’t doubt the heat was probably the worst he’s played a competitive game in, which will have affected him, but Muller provided a constant outlet to him and seemed to be completely aware of the big man’s ability. I doubt Yeboah is going to improve his first touch but he could certainly learn from muller about positional awareness

completely agree with you here, there is a tonne of possible improvement and hopefully the germans can teach us a thing or two

[btron3000]

3 hours ago, FCB said:

To suggest that the post-game discussion turned into a washer women convention would be an insult to all washer women.

Top of the table, unbeaten, two clean sheets despite injury worries, best start into the season in our history, all five import and two marquee spots filled - but that is not enough.

So we’re perfect are we?

Edited November 3, 2019 by btron3000

[Wanderboy]

1 minute ago, btron3000 said:

So... we’re perfect are we?

We must be. Cannot at all critique anything we have done this season except add praise.

 

[DeeDee]

Lol its just funny how people are “typing” on egg shells in here. Loosen up. Even when you somehow know were going to come good and win the league, theres plenty to assess in the present. 

Edited November 3, 2019 by DeeDee

[matty]

5 hours ago, FCB said:

To suggest that the post-game discussion turned into a washer women convention would be an insult to all washer women.

Top of the table, unbeaten, two clean sheets despite injury worries, best start into the season in our history, all five import and two marquee spots filled - but that is not enough.

MB said in the presser that football is not a "Wunschkonzert", meaning a "request show" - that's something people don't seem to compute. Thank goodness that we don't have an ownership model where the members actually have a say. These experts would have the club sunk in now time.

 

Most of us are just trying to chat about the game, I don't see the need to deride people's opinions. Best to chat about the game itself I reckon. 

[Pup55]

Jesus Christ.

You'd think this was the Wellington Pheonix forum reading the general vibe in here. 4 games, 4 losses, 3 of them absolutely dudded by the match officials and they have every right to be feeling a bit down this morning. Oh, no - this is the Western Sydney Wanderers forum and the team is on top of the league and hasn't lost a game yet.

Brisbane are horrible to watch this year. The game against Perth, the game against Victory - both absolute scraps and every single game they play this year is going to be like that. They will be hard to break down, they will be tough and gritty. They have a limited skill-set so that is their style of play, so if you want to watch some nice attacking free-flowing football, can I suggest skipping Roar matches this season? If you weren't expecting the type of game that occurred, then your opinion on how we played or how we should play means f*ck all because you know absolutely nothing about football.

On to our performance.

Was it great? No.
Was it good? No.

Did we look slightly fatigued after the emotional high of winning the derby last week? Yes 
Did we play in stinking hot and humid conditions and as a result not move around off the ball or play as quickly as we have in the past? Yes
Did we somehow find a way to keep our second straight clean-sheet? Yes
Did 2 of our imports start on the bench, coming on to get their first minutes of the season? Yes
Did our best player go off injured 10 mins into the match, forcing us to replace him with a centre back? Yes

Are we four games into the season, currently unbeaten, on top of the league, having conceded only TWO goals in 360 minutes of football, one of which was a deflection and one of which was a penalty? Yes, although you wouldn't f*cking know it reading the tripe in here.

Give yourself an upper-cut, the lot of you.

[Pup55]

Ok - reading my post again, maybe I went a bit over the top. Sorry if I offended anyone. haha

What I was getting at........I expect rubbish comments like this on social media pages - not on a Wanderers fan forum where we are all Wanderers fans.

[Neverbloom]

3 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

Ok - reading my post again, maybe I went a bit over the top. Sorry if I offended anyone. haha

What I was getting at........I expect rubbish comments like this on social media pages - not on a Wanderers fan forum where we are all Wanderers fans.

didnt really need the last line but the rest was fine, you make multiple good points

[andypk]

14 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

Ok - reading my post again, maybe I went a bit over the top. Sorry if I offended anyone. haha

What I was getting at........I expect rubbish comments like this on social media pages - not on a Wanderers fan forum where we are all Wanderers fans.

A bit late now, I’m just picking myself up off the floor

Very good points made in the original post.

[StringerBellend]

6 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

Ok - reading my post again, maybe I went a bit over the top. Sorry if I offended anyone. haha

What I was getting at........I expect rubbish comments like this on social media pages - not on a Wanderers fan forum where we are all Wanderers fans.

I don’t know I was about to stand and applaud 

I’m not going to get into the who’s a fan and who isn’t, and I’m far from a happy clappy the team shouldn’t be critisised but FFS some of the bed wetting on here.

Yes, we haven’t been pretty to watch in three out of the four games, but we are hard to beat now and gained 10 points from a bunch from games we would have come out with 1 or 2 from last year 

we’ve got heaps of room to improve and we will, Mueller has played about 15 mins same for Ziegler, Meirer will get fitter and come into his own as our players learn

[DeeDee]

38 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

Ok - reading my post again, maybe I went a bit over the top. Sorry if I offended anyone. haha

What I was getting at........I expect rubbish comments like this on social media pages - not on a Wanderers fan forum where we are all Wanderers fans.

Im not going to bother reading back to see what has been said. But if its just analysis and criticism of the brisbane performance then what the hells the problem?? This is not nursery football. Several things were poor from us in that match and people like to discuss it, And players need to know it too. hell im sure the players can't wait for thier video session to see how they can improve and break down a team like brisbane in the future. Constructive criticism creates pressure and better players.  
Handbags on this forum....

[wswtragic]

Here's my uninformed contribution to the post-match dribble.

Wilmering has potential and he's doing a good job in defence, but he stifles the go-forward because he lacks awareness of channels to distribute. The number of times he played back to Jurman reminded me of Gumby-ball. Time for him to have a spell.

Losing Schwegler killed our composure. It was always going to be a bit confused without him.

Muller (two dots) is the real deal. When he and the Big Fella get on the wavelength, we will be excited.

Jurman is up there with our best buys for the year, and so is Georgievski. Overall our recruitment for the year has been very good, and the team will get better, but we need the old heads on the field. For all their potential, our young guys require class around them to be effective.

Lopar is an alien from another planet.

It was my wife's first time at a match - she loved the RBB and the atmosphere, she was excited to see Jurman in the line-up (she sat next to him at a presentation dinner a few years back and thinks he's a good guy - but she still has Santalab as her favourite player), she enjoyed the facilities at the new stadium (and a couple of wines), and she looked great in a Wanderers jersey and short skirt 

Crowd numbers could have been better, but we'll do better with later games.

In all, not a fantastic performance with the ball (not sharp at all) but determined if a bit untidy in defence, but not anything worth opening a vein about. I'm tipping 3 points away this week if we can get Schwegler and Muller (two dots) on the pitch.

[sonar]

There are times when the post game threads are way more entertaining than the game itself.....

[DeeDee]

8 minutes ago, wswtragic said:

Here's my uninformed contribution to the post-match dribble.

Wilmering has potential and he's doing a good job in defence, but he stifles the go-forward because he lacks awareness of channels to distribute. The number of times he played back to Jurman reminded me of Gumby-ball. Time for him to have a spell.

Losing Schwegler killed our composure. It was always going to be a bit confused without him.

Muller (two dots) is the real deal. When he and the Big Fella get on the wavelength, we will be excited.

Jurman is up there with our best buys for the year, and so is Georgievski. Overall our recruitment for the year has been very good, and the team will get better, but we need the old heads on the field. For all their potential, our young guys require class around them to be effective.

Lopar is an alien from another planet.

It was my wife's first time at a match - she loved the RBB and the atmosphere, she was excited to see Jurman in the line-up (she sat next to him at a presentation dinner a few years back and thinks he's a good guy - but she still has Santalab as her favourite player), she enjoyed the facilities at the new stadium (and a couple of wines), and she looked great in a Wanderers jersey and short skirt 

Crowd numbers could have been better, but we'll do better with later games.

In all, not a fantastic performance with the ball (not sharp at all) but determined if a bit untidy in defence, but not anything worth opening a vein about. I'm tipping 3 points away this week if we can get Schwegler and Muller (two dots) on the pitch.

I think Wilmering has been kept in there as reward for form and team results. Agreed hes due a spell now and will be better for it. Its good to do this when there on a relative high also rather then getting dropped after a shocker.

always good give our youth a taste here and there.

I think Russel or Kamau are due a go at right back next match.

[Keithie]

 

1 hour ago, Pup55 said:

Jesus Christ.

You'd think this was the Wellington Pheonix forum reading the general vibe in here. 4 games, 4 losses, 3 of them absolutely dudded by the match officials and they have every right to be feeling a bit down this morning. Oh, no - this is the Western Sydney Wanderers forum and the team is on top of the league and hasn't lost a game yet.

Brisbane are horrible to watch this year. The game against Perth, the game against Victory - both absolute scraps and every single game they play this year is going to be like that. They will be hard to break down, they will be tough and gritty. They have a limited skill-set so that is their style of play, so if you want to watch some nice attacking free-flowing football, can I suggest skipping Roar matches this season? If you weren't expecting the type of game that occurred, then your opinion on how we played or how we should play means f*ck all because you know absolutely nothing about football.

On to our performance.

Was it great? No.
Was it good? No.

Did we look slightly fatigued after the emotional high of winning the derby last week? Yes 
Did we play in stinking hot and humid conditions and as a result not move around off the ball or play as quickly as we have in the past? Yes
Did we somehow find a way to keep our second straight clean-sheet? Yes
Did 2 of our imports start on the bench, coming on to get their first minutes of the season? Yes
Did our best player go off injured 10 mins into the match, forcing us to replace him with a centre back? Yes

Are we four games into the season, currently unbeaten, on top of the league, having conceded only TWO goals in 360 minutes of football, one of which was a deflection and one of which was a penalty? Yes, although you wouldn't f*cking know it reading the tripe in here.

Give yourself an upper-cut, the lot of you.

So is all the above your learned opinion Pup and and as far you and only you are concerned anybody else with an opinion can go get rooted cause they know nothing about football maybe you could tell us what your background is to decide all of the above , won a world cup , played in the Elite competitions of the world coached at the top level or like Robbie Slater just knows it all. 

Nice

 

[Edinburgh]

Wilmering's poor passing, backwards passing wasn't all down to him. His options were limited by his teammates not being there or not making runs. In short his failings on the day were just part of the overall team performance. 

[NickNova]

There's being critical of the players and the club, then there's being a negative Nancy and Debbie downer.
Who the f*** would have said no to 10 points after four games, equal top playing average football? You can criticise players, I support that, but there's a game plan in place and they are following it - whether that's them under-performing or Babbel knowing he's limited with some injuries and adapting to what is available is possible.

Saturday coming is a big test - new boys (albeit mostly all over 30) have a s*** load of experience and quality and they will want to stop us. Besart has a nice record against us and Diamanti surely hasn't forgotten 2014 with Guangzhou, so they will be up for it. It's time to recover, have them watch their derby back and see where they would could some damage.

Playing at 7:30 should be cooler and maybe the heat was a factor, but in all the same they need to go out and show that we're not f***ing about this season and put a marker down.

I agree Yeboah has been off the boil and Adam seems like a better fit on the wing or up front with AMFG and if Muller can start in place of Grozos and maybe Ziggy comes in for Jurman we should have enough in us to at least give them a game.

Oh, and DANIEL F***ING LOPAR.

[SomeGuy1977]

Loving the defensive commitment so far this season. And when the line is breached, Lapor is up for the task. This is a huge improvement on last few seasons. Our last 2 games we've had less possession, less field position, less goal scoring opportunities, we've conceded 0 goals and taken 4 points. This has got to be a confidence builder. Still much improvement needed, but we can have a little more faith that when the goals do come (and they will), we can defend a lead with true grit. Something we haven't done in the last few seasons.

The game itself, I've got nothing to add that hasn't already been said, although I'm still not sure how the first half pen shout was waved away (did the VAR even look at it?).

Not the greatest of spectacles, but it's a point in tough conditions and after some injuries. I'll take it, and look forward to how we deal with WU next week. 

[wswtragic]

7 minutes ago, Edinburgh said:

Wilmering's poor passing, backwards passing wasn't all down to him. His options were limited by his teammates not being there or not making runs. In short his failings on the day were just part of the overall team performance. 

I agree to an extent, but I think he's half a yard slow in knowing where his options are. It will come with time at this level, but it is a bit stifling. No Schwegler as an outlet didn't help this week.

[Erebus]

Was a grind of a game and a disappointing result when many felt we had the ability to put Brisbane away and extend our lead at the top. Instead we earned a point which in the grand scheme of things is fine. But there are holes and weaknesses within this team and many are hoping when it comes together we'll be dominant. But what if we never get our best XI on the park? The lack of depth in the midfield needs to be addressed because we struggle big time when Pirmin goes off. 

Relying on Lopar to save us points can't go on for the entire season.

WU have quality on the park but we can beat them with speed since they are an o35s team.

[sonar]

I know he's only one player but if Schwegler is out we may struggle.  Baccus for all his talent is nowhere near as skillful in that role. Going to be interesting to see the line up we put on the pitch. WU in their present form will be no pushover.

[NickNova]

18 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Was a grind of a game and a disappointing result when many felt we had the ability to put Brisbane away and extend our lead at the top. Instead we earned a point which in the grand scheme of things is fine. But there are holes and weaknesses within this team and many are hoping when it comes together we'll be dominant. But what if we never get our best XI on the park? The lack of depth in the midfield needs to be addressed because we struggle big time when Pirmin goes off. 

Relying on Lopar to save us points can't go on for the entire season.

WU have quality on the park but we can beat them with speed since they are an o35s team.

We're just a poor Man United (of 2016) relying on our keeper lol

[ZachMercer]

To quote Ron Burgundy. "Well, that escalated quickly."

Here's my leftfield slant on the performance. As background I've been doing research lately on a course I'm putting together per mindset training for sport. What I feel I saw from our game was what they call "The let-down" effect. It's a common condition that results from an adrenaline hangover.

Now you'd think that a week would be enough time to recover from the derby win/anxiety/stress, but there's some science out there that suggests it can take a significant amount of time for the body to withdraw from stress related hormones - even at elite athlete level. Think about how you sometimes get sick after a big event or work deadline, it happens all the time.

Slow and lethargic play, increased chance of injury or illness, lack of accuracy, forgetting plays or formations are all indicators.

Let's appreciate there's a lot of pressure on the team externally as well to turn around fan disappointment, and if you think these guys don't know it then you're mistaken.

I think with the resources that the club has at it's disposal, as well as MB's experience that the result of the game would have been expected, and they would not have seen the draw as a backward step.

Happy to gauge opinions.