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  • Impotent Wanderers On Brink Of Top 6 Exit

    mack

    By mack

    The Western Sydney Wanderers faced Brisbane Roar at Parramatta on Friday Night, in a 6 v 7 clash both teams were desperate to win to keep in touch with the top 4. Brisbane came away with the three points, as goals from Josh Brindell-South & Riku Danzaki came either side of a 23rd minute Bruce Kamau goal.

    Simon Cox being returned to the starting lineup by Carl Robinson was the major pre-game news, his recent good form off the bench earning him the start. Dylan McGowan also returned following a rest stint. The Wanderers began brightly and on top of the visitors, Tom Aquilina drawing a yellow card out of Josh Brindell-South as the fullback turned the corner and was about to head into the penalty area. In the 15th minute Tate Russell did break into the area, turning in and out to beat his marker before firing in a cross that was cleared for a corner. Ziggy Gordon was left completely free from the set piece but could only hit the header straight into the arms of Jamie Young.

    The Roar took the lead against the run of play in the 17th minute from their first serious attack of the game. Dylan Wenzel-Halls took a touch on the edge of the penalty area then cut onto his right foot to leave Russell unable to put in a block. The long range effort couldn't beat Margush but the Wanderers keeper could do little but turn the ball into the path of Brindell-South and the fullback managed to nutmeg Aquilina with his follow-up strike and score at the near post past the diving Margush.

    Brisane nearly doubled their lead in the 23rd minute, with Corey Brown having an acre of space on the left flank, his cross found an unmarked Wenzel-Halls inside the 6 yard box but his header was incredibly poor and blazed over the bar.

    The Wanderers went straight up the other end and equalised. Margush fired a long ball onto half-way, two of the Roar's 3 man central defensive unit knocked each other, leaving the ball for Mitch Duke. He pushed forward and found Simon Cox who immediately found Bruce Kamau in the middle of the penalty area with a low pass. Kamau summed up the situation as he strode onto the ball and fired a left footed first time shot past Jamie Young into the roof of the net and a 1-1 scoreline. The friendly fire collision forced Tom Aldred off the field and he was replaced by Kai Trewin.

    Margush was having a very eccentric evening, coming out his area on numerous occasions to clear through balls and was caught off his line right before half-time. The ball dropped in midfield for Jay O'Shea and he took a look up and catapulted the ball towards the Wanderers goal, with Margush scrambling and completely beaten the keeper was rescued by the crossbar, and on the rebound Danzaki was there first but couldn't keep his feet and the Wanderers escaped a very dangerous situation.

    The crossbar scare perhaps spooked Margush from coming out again as the Roar played a long ball behind the defence that Joey Champness totally beat Ziggy Gordon for pace. The Wanderers defence was slow to react, McGowan couldn't close down the first time cross and Tass Mourdoukoutas had inexplicably slowed down in his pursuit of Danzaki and that was all the space the Japanese young gun needed, a first time side footed finish that Margush had no hope of stopping. The two teams headed into the break with the Wanderers having the better of the half but suffering from two moments of poor defence to go in behind.

    The Wanderers opened the half with a chance for Mitch Duke at a corner he couldn't put on target. In the 55th minute Macaulay Gillesphey rose at a Roar corner, ensured Baccus couldn't impact on his header, it required Margush to palm it away and for Gordon to clear it long. Robinson reacted to the lack of forward progress by taking off Mitch Duke and Simon Cox and replacing them with Bernie Ibini and Kwame Yeboah. In an unusual event one of the linesmen had to come off the pitch with a groin injury, 67 minute in. The fourth official had to step in and run the line on the far side.

    Robinson took the time to prepare his 2nd set of subs for the night with James Troisi and Daniel Wilmering coming in for Tate Russell and Tass Mourdoukoutas. Along with the subs came a formation change as the team reshaped into 442 with a diamond midfield. The change nearly paid immediately dividends as a magnificent cross from Daniel Wilmering found the head of Kwame Yeboah without result. A 73rd minute corner wasn't cleared properly by the Roar, and it fell to McGowan, his turning shot was on target but straight at Young. The Wanderers made their final change of the night as Dorrans exited for Nicolai Muller.

    The 85th minute was marked by a great chance for Bernie Ibini. Wilmering found him with another brilliant cross from deep, Ibini chested it down, and turned on his marker only to have it blocked by a desperate lunge from Kai Trewin. The ball fell to Muller but after beating one defender he couldn't get the ball through a sea of legs. Western Sydney threw everything but the keeper up in the final minutes with a succession of corners. Troisi couldn't find a quality ball but he still managed to create havoc, after pinballing deep inside the area Troisi steamed in off a long run up but provided one of the worst shots of the game as his shot ended up in the parking lot.

    The loss was the Wanderers 5 game in a row without a win, and leaves the club almost certain to drop out of the top 6 due to the mammoth games in hand difference between the Wanderers and the chasing pack of Brisbane and Western United. If the side weren't coming up against Melbourne Victory next week you'd wonder when if ever the next win would come from. As it stands there might be some slight favouritism for the Wanderers depending on how Victory do in their Saturday derby. Carl Robinson looks to have little capacity to turn things around, he continues his dismal 5 at the back formation that simply does not work with the side he has assembled.

    The Wanderers next game is against Melbourne Victory on Friday April 23 in Melbourne with kickoff at 7:05 PM.

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    MartinTyler
    28 minutes ago, mack said:

    Last night Dorrans had better passing accuracy (84.5%) than everyone in the attacking unit but Kamau, and Dorrans also had the most chances created by far, with 6, everyone else had 0, 1 or 2. Baccus had more touches and lost the ball with his passing more. Duke had an abysmal game on the ball, 56% passing, two off target shots and missed his only cross. Russell was awful in defence, he didn't put in a single tackle, lost 9 out of the 10 duels in was in while also having a mediocre game especially with crossing, only hitting our players twice out of 6 attempts.

    Against Adelaide Dorrans had the best accuracy (86.3) of all the non-central defenders (the subs did a lot better but they were playing against 10 men so understandable) from the most touches and was also good in the defensive stats.

    I suspect he's being told to play a holder role and not roam, with Baccus told to play up and down the field, Dorrans stays mostly in the defensive & central midfield areas and isn't going forward as much because doing while on the ball so would expose the central defence by having a massive gap between the attacking line and the defensive one in a transition phase after losing possession.

    Stats can be misleading; in the last couple of games Dorrans has played passes which have immediately put the recipient under pressure. Yeah it will get 100% pass rate but that's not the full story. For an overseas player I'd be expecting more of an influence on the game.

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    tardotz
    1 minute ago, sonar said:

    Did Vedran do a body or brain swap with Margush last night...? 

    The 1st half showed the confusion players have from the coaching staff. Margush must have had instructions to go out and have those suicide runs. For a keeper to keep going out even when there are defenders behind him is so wrong. 

    Luckily someone must have said something at halftime to stop the madness.

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    mack
    29 minutes ago, tardotz said:

    The 1st half showed the confusion players have from the coaching staff. Margush must have had instructions to go out and have those suicide runs. For a keeper to keep going out even when there are defenders behind him is so wrong. 

    Luckily someone must have said something at halftime to stop the madness.

    Seemed pretty clear that it was a tactic from the coaching staff. Ziggy would tightly man mark Champness no matter where he was, the rest of the defence was playing super high up the pitch and Margush got told to stay on the 18 yard box or even further up.

    image.png.9f89c9929240a152f5a15eec32b3bee8.png

    image.png.0f9bab1794643eaf0be94707ba0740fd.png

    Ziggy Gordon who is meant to be a central defender was playing 10 yards inside the Roar half on the wing, as a man-marker on a player much faster than him because Russell was in an attacking wing position. 

    Then we have three other defenders, McGowan didn't come to the ball or retreat to the near post he just kept his line and clearly wasn't sprinting. The less said about Tass the better, his inexplicable decision to stop running meant was the reason that ball got to Danzaki in the first place. The only thing I can think of was that he thought McGowan was coming inside to mark Danzaki and he stopped to try and defend against the other Roar player coming in late, then realised McGowan wasn't going to make it.

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    Smoggy
    1 hour ago, Ossified said:

    Prefer Spike Milligans " I told you I was sick"

    I like Billy Connolly’s idea best...in really small writing so you have to get up close ‘if you can read this, your stood on my balls’...

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    StringerBellend
    On 17/04/2021 at 8:37 AM, SBW said:

    Ever since Heart humbled us a few weeks ago, they exposed our weaknesses and now every team we have played since then have been taking advantage of our weaknesses because Carl has done nothing to rectify it.

    The high pressing, putting balls behind our defence and stretching our backline we are badly exposed at the back and that will not get fixed until we go back to a back 4 and having a proper DM to anchor that midfield.

    We’ve had this problem since round 1, Heart opened us right up, but the problem was there earlier 

    Press us and we will give you the ball on the edge of the box. 
     

    Put balls in behind the wing backs if that doesn’t work, switch the ball quickly and our back three don’t adjust 

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    StringerBellend
    On 17/04/2021 at 1:07 PM, Smoggy said:

    Cox is what he is to anyone who has watched the English championship for any time. He was a decent second tier player who's body has seen better days but his touch and football brain remains. If you use him from the start or as a sub post 60mins is open for debate, he would be best fixed in to a settled role, I suspect second half impact sub. But the gaffers hand has been forced to **** things around due to the total imbalance of the side, a structure that isn't working and certain players not pulling their weight or out of form.

    The gaffer signed the unbalanced side and plays the stucture that doesn’t work 

    for mine dorrans has been ok, but given he is our marquee should be doing more 

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    GD07
    On 17/04/2021 at 4:26 PM, mack said:

     

    image.png.9f89c9929240a152f5a15eec32b3bee8.png

    image.png.0f9bab1794643eaf0be94707ba0740fd.png

     

    Wow. McGowan has been body shape all wrong here. We’ve got the numbers, they should not have scored from this passage of play. 

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    Sithslayer1991

     I thought the attack was decent, Cox football brain was at work there for the Kamau goal. HOWEVER I think Duke has been fading a bit not for lack of effort we really haven't gotten him the ball on the floor. The last I would say 3 games it been long ball to his head to knock it on instead of to his feet where he can hold it up and bring others into play.

    The transition however is far too slow. I am sick of the back 3 passing the ball all to each other for 5 minutes straight before we get it forward. Much of the blame is on the setup of Dorrans and Baccus and the form they are both currently in. I mean Dorrans had another stinker and it forced us to go again one dimensional to the wingbacks. We don't create anything through the middle and I have been constantly criticizing the team for it. Probably half the reason we go long to Duke who has to constantly strain himself for headers on half way instead of the 18 yard box where I want him to win those headers is because we don't have another avenue and just try to win the second ball which I mean come on in this day and age that works once maybe twice if its all your doing.

    Once we do get it forward Kamau, Duke and Cox looked ok I thought. It was lost in the 2nd half once Ibini and Yeboah were on. I am against having both of them on at the same time because they are essentially the same player except one scores (Yeboah so long as he is at the end of the move) and the other ...... well I actually still trying to figure out what Ibini brings to the team. They don't work well together. You need either Cox or Duke to partner one of those 2 if you are going to have them on.

    Edited by Sithslayer1991
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    MajorMelons
    On 17/04/2021 at 4:26 PM, mack said:

    Seemed pretty clear that it was a tactic from the coaching staff. Ziggy would tightly man mark Champness no matter where he was, the rest of the defence was playing super high up the pitch and Margush got told to stay on the 18 yard box or even further up.

    image.png.9f89c9929240a152f5a15eec32b3bee8.png

    image.png.0f9bab1794643eaf0be94707ba0740fd.png

    Ziggy Gordon who is meant to be a central defender was playing 10 yards inside the Roar half on the wing, as a man-marker on a player much faster than him because Russell was in an attacking wing position. 

    Then we have three other defenders, McGowan didn't come to the ball or retreat to the near post he just kept his line and clearly wasn't sprinting. The less said about Tass the better, his inexplicable decision to stop running meant was the reason that ball got to Danzaki in the first place. The only thing I can think of was that he thought McGowan was coming inside to mark Danzaki and he stopped to try and defend against the other Roar player coming in late, then realised McGowan wasn't going to make it.

    It also appear the the two WSW players are attempting to play the offside, and McGowan is just hanging few meters back, screwing it all up. 

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