JustWandering

Ta. Good to hear he's not on the outer.

Sullivan has been the best of the young players to slot in at 10 for us before. Very surprising that he hasn't had a run since the restart, given 5 subs are allowed. Has he signed for someone else or something? Also wondering about squad rotation with the short backup against WU this Friday.

Don't know what tantric means but aimless we are. Players from other teams (such as The Jets and the Phoenix) say in post match interviews that their coach provides clear and simple instructions on what they should be doing in given situations. As a result they play with assuredness, their teams have good chemistry and they quickly turn possession anywhere on the field into attacking moves. Our players look clueless on how to play out of some situations. I think this is most apparent when we are trying to play out from the back.

Isn't it the owners themselves calling for a reduction in the salary cap? The big spending by some clubs make me wonder whether the owners are just foxing, trying to squeeze more money from the broadcast deal than the $1.6M proposed by the FFA. If so pretty greedy. Some money has to go to the women's league and to league running costs.

I think our wingbacks have been putting the opposition on the back foot. We can probably get by without one of Kamau and Georgevski, but not both. Humidity was 94% which is high even for Brisbane. Scott Neville was interviewed on Thursday and said that he expected the heat was going to give them an advantage. The season is not dead yet. I reckon we'll need 38 points minimum to make the 6. That's 4 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses in our final 8 games. Difficult but still doable.

Definitely a key game. Roar and Adelaide are in reach on the table, so essentially we have to outperform their results for the remainder of the season. We don't play Adelaide again, so tonight's match is our last chance to have a direct say in either of those teams fortunes.

The math here is flawed. WSW losing is the same result as BR winning. You have not considered the possibility that WSW might win. Some may argue that that that is a fair assumption with Beath as the ref. Better to take the averages of WSW and BR's records under Beath. Chance of WSW win/BR loss WSW win 23.8% BR lose 29.0% Average 26.4% Chance of draw WSW draw 28.6% BR draw 22.6% Average 25.6% Chance of WSW win/BR loss WSW lose 47.6% BR win 48.4% Average 48% BR are clearly advantaged with Beath reffing.

I think there is a case for signing a manager for next season pretty soon, with Macarthur coming in and competing in the player market. We really have to get a move on with resigning the players we want to retain, and having the managerial situation sorted will make the decision clearer for the players. Certainly if we win 2 of our next 3 against Roar, City and the 3rd derby, I'd be signing JP. The foreign coach experiment has failed for us and does not have a good track record across the league. I doubt there will be many better local options than JP. As other's have said, signing JP would give us stability, as he knows the set up and players.

The movement in the front part of the field seemed so much better. Muller, Cox and Duke not getting in each other's way and stretching the defence. Feeling too cautious to get my hopes up. The derby will tell us if a corner has truly been turned.

I am far from an expert, but I don't feel it is lack of effort or fitness that is the teams biggest problem. The passing precision of most of our players is very poor, even by A League standards, which results in a lot of unnecessary running after stray balls and takes away decision time for the receiver of the pass. We need the opposition to be totally out of shape to launch a meaningful attack, so teams just let us have the ball, keep their shape and wait for the ever reliable stray pass. I feel that the team gets knackered because they have to do infinitely more running than the opposition to make anything happen. The Jets were much better at letting the ball do the work and were able to conserve their energy better throughout the match. The biggest problem is recruitment. I suspect that it is no coincidence that all our success came prior to the arrival of the new owners. Lederer is controlling the decision making for recruitment and is not doing a good job of it. Babbel was criticised for not having a game plan and doing simple passing drills at training. I fear he was correct in focussing on this at training, as these basic skills are lacking in much of our group. No game plan is going to be effective if the passing is 2nd rate.

Brilliant interview. Obviously the quality of the a league is poor compared to the bundesliga and the quality difference would be a major adjustment for a manager moving between the leagues. I found most interesting his point about Wanderers enforcing the focus on youth, making it difficult to compete with Glory, Victory (and obviously East Sydney) who field all experienced players. Popovic totally avoided using young players in our early successful years. The focus on developing players may pay off for the club later if a transfer system is brought in, but I fear it will prevent us from competing with the best teams now. Ideally a reserves comp would be a better place to develop players. Lastly, if it was Babbels intention to only stay for 2 seasons then it is more understandable that he has been cut now, with the current performance trajectory making it look unlikely that we will feature in the finals.

Could move Duke to fullback, as he spent much of his time in Japan there. With his motor he would have no trouble with the kms required for overlapping. Muller on the left wing, Kamau on the right, Sullivan in the middle, Meier up front. I feel something has to be changed in the attacking third to find some goals. At least with Jurman and Zeigler we didn't get caught out with a throughball as we have each week prior.

I wonder if Schwegler at 10 would be able to put the ball at Meiers feet rectifying our goal scoring woes? Build the team and formation around those 2 at AM and striker.

Victory, Perth and Brisbane have done spectaularly well under Beath. Adelaide have more wins then loses. As expected WSWs record is poor, not as bad as Newcastles though. SFCs record is poorer than expected given their dominance over the last half dozen years. The pattern is, Beath hates NSW teams. Where's he from?

What are Yeboah's strengths? His decision makng and passing is poor, he rarely gets away from his man. I will be shocked if he scores or assists a goal. Mo Adams always impresses when he comes on, not sure why he is behind in the pecking order. Id rather see Duke on the end of crosses rather than delivering them. There's much love for Wilmering, but i think Kamau offers a lot more in attack, particularly if Zeigler makes a back 3.