Stoic Wanderers Hold City In High Heat

[Paul01]

And it's time for the next matchday thread

[Sithslayer1991]

9 hours ago, SNS100 said:

City, on the other hand, had the luxury of bringing 4 top quality players off the bench. 

Galloway
Jamieson
Berenguer
Nabbout

 

What a bench that is. The first 11 is that good that Nabbout, Jamo and Berenguer can't get into the team.

The young kids of City Talbot, Bos and Tilio are the real deal as well. I can see City group looking for transfers on the 3 of them especially Bos. That kid is insane defensively and offensively.

[Hughesy]

1 hour ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

I thought Rudan (like Popa in ACL) was realistic. We didn't park the bus but we did get hemmed in by a very good team who had a full playing squad....

His game plan was pretty clear and there was a strong mentality, a desperate defence.

If we'd done as some suggest and go all out(not sure what that might have looked like??) We'd have been thumped 6-0 at least and that would have been the end of the world amongst fans. We effectively neutralised the best striker in the ALeague, the best winger, excellent midfielders... With a team missing half is 1st team players. They didn't give up but forgot pretty dam hard. The 2nd half was played directly in front of where we were sitting and it was hard work and everyone out in.

We're delusional if we think at this point we are close to City, in terms of team development, player capacity and therefore scouting the best visa players for a system we haven't even got in place as yet.

We won the ACL because we didn’t give a **** about who we played or how much money they had. Popa instilled a belief in every person at the club that we could match it with anyone and we did. We had no right to achieve what we did. 

In contrast on Sunday, we were shitting bricks playing a team (who operate under the same salary cap we do) just because they are coming first and we had a some players out. We completely ignored the fact we were/are sitting in 3rd too.

I don’t think the two are comparable at all. We clearly have a confidence/belief issue.

[nmh94]

12 hours ago, pseudonym said:

Fixture times IMO

1 x Thursday night - 7pm

1 x Friday night - 7pm

1 x Saturday afternoon - 5pm

1 x Saturday night - 7pm

1 x Sunday afternoon - 5pm

1 x Sunday night - 7pm

Mid-week doesn't work - the Covid seasons showed that. People in Australia don't show up to midweek sport. People can say "it is done this way or that way jn Europe etc" but it is a reality.

So what I would do is move that Thursday game and use it as a Saturday floater. 3pm if in Wellington (5pm their time), 10pm if in Perth (7pm their time), and just have a second 5pm Saturday game on the odd occasion neither the Nix nor Perth are at home. The rest I agree with.

Edited January 16, 2023 by nmh94

[mack]

Popa got that confidence after a full year of setting them up the same way every week in the A-League and winning the league. We're 6 months into yet another rebuild and having to play kids because half our first team is injured or not well enough to start.

We're also still a bottom half team in terms of goals scored. Trying to play expansively would have got us creamed. Our strength is defence. It's what Rudan will build on for the rest of the season & next year. We'll be more attacking against the Jets, but I don't think anyone should expect Roarcelona.

Our schedule is gonna be rough as well. We go to Perth on a short week, then we have two 3pm games in a row, an away night game to Gosford, then another 3pm game then the derby and then another 3pm game this time in Adelaide where it might be as bad as this City game.

[MartinTyler]

Has there been any comment from the A League hierarchy justifying the 3pm Kick Offs in the height of summer? Surely someone has fronted up putting a positive spin on it.

[pseudonym]

42 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

Has there been any comment from the A League hierarchy justifying the 3pm Kick Offs in the height of summer? Surely someone has fronted up putting a positive spin on it.

 

Townsend: "The APL has entered into a three year commercial partnership with the sun god Amun-Ra. We want to create a new tradition for football, and to make every 3pm game a destination event that fans can plan for their melanomas to be removed".

 

[sonar]

20 minutes ago, pseudonym said:

 

Townsend: "The APL has entered into a three year commercial partnership with the sun god Amun-Ra. We want to create a new tradition for football, and to make every 3pm game a destination event that fans can plan for their melanomas to be removed".

 

 

I love a sunburnt country .......

and A league fans.......
 

 

 

[Hughesy]

Unless the PFA complain about player welfare I can’t see the APL giving a ****. The attendance was consistent with most home games this season, it was actually pretty impressive how many people still rocked up. 

[Sithslayer1991]

10 minutes ago, hughsey said:

Unless the PFA complain about player welfare I can’t see the APL giving a ****. The attendance was consistent with most home games this season, it was actually pretty impressive how many people still rocked up. 

Kick around I think had a part to play plus City being first.

Which by the way kick around after the game looked awesome. 

[BoyFromTheWest]

6 hours ago, hughsey said:

We won the ACL because we didn’t give a **** about who we played or how much money they had. Popa instilled a belief in every person at the club that we could match it with anyone and we did. We had no right to achieve what we did. 

In contrast on Sunday, we were shitting bricks playing a team (who operate under the same salary cap we do) just because they are coming first and we had a some players out. We completely ignored the fact we were/are sitting in 3rd too.

I don’t think the two are comparable at all. We clearly have a confidence/belief issue.

I respectfully disagree.

[Davo]

3 hours ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

Kick around I think had a part to play plus City being first.

Which by the way kick around after the game looked awesome. 

Took my 4 year old onto the field. He thought it was great.

Also the pitch was way harder than I was expecting.

[BoyFromTheWest]

Sitting at Allianz (with my wife for Elton??) and I reckon you could get away with more in terms of early games here - probably not 3:00???

The western side is much higher than Parra and I assume would block out more sun earlier??

I wonder what other stadiums could actually work. Even the 5:00 game at Parra was pretty tough for the first hour and a bit.

[Taurus]

18 minutes ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

Sitting at Allianz (with my wife for Elton??) and I reckon you could get away with more in terms of early games here - probably not 3:00???

The western side is much higher than Parra and I assume would block out more sun earlier??

I wonder what other stadiums could actually work. Even the 5:00 game at Parra was pretty tough for the first hour and a bit.

The Eastern burbs can be 5 - 10 degrees cooler than the beautiful Western burbs. 

No A-League games should start before 6pm, or the ground is in total shade. 

The players wellbeing is compromised & the product suffers when games commence in the afternoon during the summer months. 

 

[Paul01]

1 hour ago, Taurus said:

The Eastern burbs can be 5 - 10 degrees cooler than the beautiful Western burbs. 

No A-League games should start before 6pm, or the ground is in total shade. 

The players wellbeing is compromised & the product suffers when games commence in the afternoon during the summer months. 

 

The game for the Women's Team is scheduled for 6.00pm. That should be delayed to after 7.30pm

[matty]

On 16/01/2023 at 4:51 PM, scarcev said:

Going against the grain here but I reckon one point was a good point to get and think Rudan got it just about right. We are starting a debutant up top, Tongyk in at RB and our 5 subs included Ngbakato and Krpic (both injured with niggles) 2x17yos and Wilmering, while they can bring on Galloway, Jamieson, Berenguer and Nabboutt all who would be starters in our team.

There is no point playing a high or mid high line against Melb City, that is what they want and they use speed and quick passing to pick teams apart through the middle or get in behind through the middle, they do not like going wide and crossing the ball as Maclaren is a shortass and they prefer to play with their CDMs and MF pushing right through the guts so Rudan clogged that up and forced them to either go wide or shoot from distance.  Sure, we got a bit of luck, but Maclaren never had a decent sight on goal, their crosses were dealt with easy by M&M and they had a couple of close calls but they were from distance.  For the amount of time they were in our final third they didn't create a heap and even their goal was from our mistake where we should of just punted it.  So cop a point and move on for me.

 

Not against the grain, silent majority.

[matty]

13 hours ago, hughsey said:

We won the ACL because we didn’t give a **** about who we played or how much money they had. Popa instilled a belief in every person at the club that we could match it with anyone and we did. We had no right to achieve what we did. 

In contrast on Sunday, we were shitting bricks playing a team (who operate under the same salary cap we do) just because they are coming first and we had a some players out. We completely ignored the fact we were/are sitting in 3rd too.

I don’t think the two are comparable at all. We clearly have a confidence/belief issue.

We won the ACL by sitting back and defending for our lives. We played to the strengths (and reality) of our squad. Just like on the weekend

 

[SBW]

On 16/1/2023 at 9:46 PM, hughsey said:

Sorry but this mentality goes against everything we like to claim Westies stand for. What happened to being the battlers, getting on with the job and not backing down to anyone? That whole culture has just become a throw away tag line, it sadly means nothing anymore.

This isn’t about being a “Westie battler” and growing up in fibro houses or whatever Tommy Raudonikis and Roy Masters use to bleet out in the pre-game dressing sheds when they were coaching the Western Suburbs Magpies in the 70s/80s, that era is long gone as West Sydney becomes more gentrified and we are now seeing million dollar properties being sold in Mt. Druitt and nearly everyone in the west is driving around AMGs.

Quote

Based on your logic, we should just yield to any teams above us and only put in the effort to win on the rare occasions we are at 100% full squad health. We may as well forfeit if thats the case. 

Again you are not seeing it. You cannot expect players to play at full 100% for 90minutes in the 35 degree heat when we have 6 players missing from injuries and suspension, replaced by NPL youth players and you still expect a win against the best team in the league who were at full strength and 3 or 4 Socceroos players in their team?

In the words of Jurgen Klopp, if you cannot win the game, then try to not lose the game.