Opening Day Draw In Perth

Result is OK. A draw away from home, especially in Perth is a decent one.

BUT we were fortunate. We don't have any stardust. We are workmanlike, in fact we could well be the definition for workmanlike. Babbel will get the most of the cattle at his disposal of that I have no doubt.  Teams though won't be scared of us in the slightest, not even wary. We were hanging on at the end. Is there anyone out there who was confident going into the last 5 mins we'd get a draw? It was like an away game in the ACL and it shouldn't be that way if we are to be genuine contenders.

Our depth is non existent too. If Oreo goes down who is our goalscorer going to be?

Hope I am being overly pessimistic but I'm not putting us in the top 4 for sure. Top 6.. maybe if we get lucky with injuries.

I think its fair to say The team really isn't good enough but the coaching staff we have is one of the best. To make top 6 will rely on Babbel getting the best out of average players, but its clear we will be the underdogs in majority of the games.

24 minutes ago, beatsurrender said:

it shouldn't be that way if we are to be genuine contenders.

We aren't genuine contenders. That's the point. Everyone has written the team off.

4 minutes ago, Erebus said:

We aren't genuine contenders. That's the point. Everyone has written the team off.

No we aren't.  It shouldn't be this way though. Smurfs haven't tuned a profit ever, get lower crowds yet always invest in quality players.

It's almost like we are owning a 'battler' tag against the top-end of town. Which is plainly ridiculous.

1 hour ago, Carns said:

Already got their nickname sorted

Someone else posted this as a play on T's name:

Gin and Tongyik

That sounds good enough for their partnership nickname too.

Do we need a vote?

It would seem our old school Popa 2nd half collapse had its polarity reversed by the new school Popa 2nd half collapse ( © Perth edition) ...its probably some Jeremy Bearimy or wibbly wobbly time-y wimey issue and everything will be back to normal second half wise for us come the game against the scum

We are clearly short a couple of quality players...and how handy would've Santa been at the end...but as said earlier I agree that Tonka had a good game (except for the hospital pass from Vedran which he was blameless)....I'm not sure I'm in quite the head space to ever say Sotiro had a great game but ok he was NOT as "Sotiro" as he normally was...but I was happy with the Kamau cameo and I'm glad he and Tonka got a chance to play and see what they had

How is our squad so average with us having the same salary cap as everyone else?

10 minutes ago, Stokz said:

How is our squad so average with us having the same salary cap as everyone else?

I guess because you pay what you like for your marquee(s) and the celery cap is just that. A cap, it's not a minimum spend.

9 minutes ago, Stokz said:

How is our squad so average with us having the same salary cap as everyone else?

1 We haven’t as of yet used the second marquee spot, which in effect means our wage bill is 500k to a million less than say Sydney’s 

2 As a result of questionable recruiting by two previous managers, we have too many ok squad players (taking up cap space) and not enough real quality

3 The model for a league squads (see sydney and victory) has moved on to stacking your first XI and making sure you use foreign spots on true quality. We haven’t done that (see 2)

That said outside of the Sydney, Victory and Perth all the team squads are similar quality, (are Adelaide, Brisbane really any better than us)

3 minutes ago, beatsurrender said:

I guess because you pay what you like for your marquee(s) and the celery cap is just that. A cap, it's not a minimum spend.

Yes it is. There is a mandated minimum.

My guess is we’re sticking to that minimum and rolling over the big bucks to next year.

i can deal with that

1 minute ago, StringerBellend said:

1 We haven’t as of yet used the second marquee spot, which in effect means our wage bill is 500k to a million less than say Sydney’s 

2 As a result of questionable recruiting by two previous managers, we have too many ok squad players (taking up cap space) and not enough real quality

3 The model for a league squads (see sydney and victory) has moved on to stacking your first XI and making sure you use foreign spots on true quality. We haven’t done that (see 2)

That said outside of the Sydney, Victory and Perth all the team squads are similar quality, (are Adelaide, Brisbane really any better than us)

No, they are not any better. 

We also happen to have a proven striker up front (as long as the ball lands on his head).

its not all doom and gloom yet.

Look at what happened to Perth when you’re missing a small amount of your fire power

It's not doom and gloom. But it's worrying as opposed to excited optimism.

39 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

No, they are not any better. 

We also happen to have a proven striker up front (as long as the ball lands on his head).

its not all doom and gloom yet.

Look at what happened to Perth when you’re missing a small amount of your fire power

Don’t want to seem doom and gloom, throw a marquee foreign midfielder in (which I think we will if not now in Jan)

Get a few players fit and have the likes of Roly and Kamau play to potential and we will be more than fine 

I’m optimistic still

I am sure Marcus is waiting for the transfer window. He already said you cannot win trophies with half the team under 21.

I bet there will be changes sooner rather than later.

Whilst i don't think we will be in the top 2 i can see us making the 6.

30 minutes ago, tardotz said:

I am sure Marcus is waiting for the transfer window. He already said you cannot win trophies with half the team under 21.

I bet there will be changes sooner rather than later.

The transfer window is open.

8 minutes ago, mack said:

The transfer window is open.

Good.

I'm hoping there's a few players that are transferred out.

10 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

Good.

I'm hoping there's a few players that are transferred out.

Finding someone to take them is more of an issue!

48 minutes ago, mack said:

The transfer window is open.

I thought the ones with the contract ending only become available for transfer in Jan (unless they agree to mutual separation).

Not sure what people where expecting.

• Snake just recovered from a long and persistent injury which troubled him deeply.
• A make shift defence: our best CB out, Tongyink making his first game since he got injured, Risdon had a long journey back from Kuwait in his bones, Raul had to sit out the game.
• A make shift DM, with Mahazi making his first game.
• Two make shift wingers.

Can't complain about a draw, considering the circumstances.

Depth: other teams aim to address that with HAL regulars, the kind of journey men Babbel has been critical off, the guys who lack the right mindset/attitude. WSW goes a different path: Babbel wants to bring the young guys up to senior level, and make such journey men senior players redundant. He wants to train up a group of players who will rock up for 90 minutes in every game. According to Babbel, not even Juric, Ruka and Bozanic bring that quality. That's why he keeps saying that there is a lot of work to do. The kids don't grow up over night.

The other part of the job is to make the playing group belief in themselves. They had that belief in the first half against the Smurfs, and in the second half against Perth. He wants them to do that over 90 minutes, he was very clear about that in the press conference. Once that happens we'll see a team that is going to be hard to beat.

Babbel is very much aware that the Smurs are clinically putting away the few chances they have. He was talking about a different game plan for the derby. If we show up for 90 minutes then it will be a tough game for Smurf FC.

Should the club the sign a second marquee once Ziegler is an Aussie we could then effectively field six imports, as we did in S1. It will matter, and it will show. And Kamau and Fitzgerald really need to ask themselves why Sotirio is playing in the starting 11, and they are not.

2 hours ago, Upthehill said:

Yes it is. There is a mandated minimum.

My guess is we’re sticking to that minimum and rolling over the big bucks to next year.

i can deal with that

jeez the difference between the cap and the floor is the wage of a pretty damn good aussie a-league player i reckon

Can only roll over 5% from memory

21 hours ago, wanderersfanatic said:

Presser from both coaches is up.. 

 

https://www.foxsports.com.au/video/football/a-league

Really refreshing. 

5 hours ago, wswnick said:

Can only roll over 5% from memory

I think it's 15% which the Mariners have been doing for years.

Has anyone else noticed Babbel always seems to be wearing more jackets than seems necessary? It can't have been that cold in the press conference room. 

Have to give him massive credit for the second half turnaround, but if he can win anything with this squad, he's the greatest manager of all time, anywhere. There is such a glaring lack of quality. Things will get better when Ziggy is back but as others have said, the drop off between the first xi (which itself is not that flash) and the rest is dire. 

But I do at least have faith that we will become harder and harder to beat. With that base and Baumjohann (our one truly class player) fit then you never know. 

FCB agree with most but the snake on the goal has nothing to do with injury just a brain snap 

on beleif winning will breed that mentality especially a derby win - without winning this team can’t build beleif after 2 **** seasons 

2 hours ago, EmMac said:

Really refreshing. 

Very...I like Babbel's pressers...I find him very genuine

7 hours ago, FCB said:

Not sure what people where expecting.

• Snake just recovered from a long and persistent injury which troubled him deeply.
• A make shift defence: our best CB out, Tongyink making his first game since he got injured, Risdon had a long journey back from Kuwait in his bones, Raul had to sit out the game.
• A make shift DM, with Mahazi making his first game.
• Two make shift wingers.

Can't complain about a draw, considering the circumstances.

Depth: other teams aim to address that with HAL regulars, the kind of journey men Babbel has been critical off, the guys who lack the right mindset/attitude. WSW goes a different path: Babbel wants to bring the young guys up to senior level, and make such journey men senior players redundant. He wants to train up a group of players who will rock up for 90 minutes in every game. According to Babbel, not even Juric, Ruka and Bozanic bring that quality. That's why he keeps saying that there is a lot of work to do. The kids don't grow up over night.

The other part of the job is to make the playing group belief in themselves. They had that belief in the first half against the Smurfs, and in the second half against Perth. He wants them to do that over 90 minutes, he was very clear about that in the press conference. Once that happens we'll see a team that is going to be hard to beat.

Babbel is very much aware that the Smurs are clinically putting away the few chances they have. He was talking about a different game plan for the derby. If we show up for 90 minutes then it will be a tough game for Smurf FC.

Should the club the sign a second marquee once Ziegler is an Aussie we could then effectively field six imports, as we did in S1. It will matter, and it will show. And Kamau and Fitzgerald really need to ask themselves why Sotirio is playing in the starting 11, and they are not.

Belief and mentality only get you so far. 

I'm sure Usain has both in abundance. 

You also need genuine quality whoever the coach is and in my opinion we are lacking there.  

9 hours ago, Paul01 said:

I think it's 15% which the Mariners have been doing for years.

Salary Cap Banking – A Club can access any underspend from the previous two Seasons to be utilised in the current Season, up to a maximum of 105% of the Salary Cap for that Season;

https://www.a-league.com.au/salary-cap-system

9 hours ago, luisenrique said:

Has anyone else noticed Babbel always seems to be wearing more jackets than seems necessary? It can't have been that cold in the press conference room.

I had a conversation with him a couple of months back, he hates the cold.

9 hours ago, GunnerWanderer said:

FCB agree with most but the snake on the goal has nothing to do with injury just a brain snap

Manuel Neuer was out for a full season, and it now shows at times. Snake had a much more difficult and lengthy ride then people realized. The brain snap would not have happened with more game time and confidence under the belt. The same applies for Tongyik. https://outline.com/pZtrKW.

8 hours ago, beatsurrender said:

Belief and mentality only get you so far. 

I'm sure Usain has both in abundance.

You also need genuine quality whoever the coach is and in my opinion we are lacking there.  

 

Fair enough. Still, Babbel keeps telling us that the talent is there in the squad, and the team showed that talent against both Smurfs and Glory. Talent is what Bolt hasn't got, and won't have in a 100 years, while WSW will turn into a high performing unit as the season progresses.

But yes, we need another player in midfield. Ziegler and club are waiting for the citizenship issue to be resolved. Timeline is unknown. It may just be that Ziegler moves up into DM once he is back. 

18 hours ago, Stokz said:

How is our squad so average with us having the same salary cap as everyone else?

The cap is not enforced any longer as the enforcer is paralyzed. Looking at the squads it is quite clear which clubs are above, and which one's aren't.