Asian Champions league Elite Group

[Stuartmcateer]

Sainsbury was simply amazing to watch again. Some of his passes are exquisite.

Some were quite shit though as well. And he lost the ball quite often trying to dribble in bad areas and getting muscled off it.

Plenty to be optimistic about for the AL season. (Except goals, I'm not sure where goals are going to come from)

 

[marinermick]

Look at the bright side, at least we weren't beaten 7-3 like Yokohama Marinos

And allowing a scummer to get a goal and an assist against you

 

[Ironbark]

Brain can make the odd bad pass out of nowhere but at this level the attackers don’t give you much chance to recover.

Thought he held off far to much giving time and space. He has the pace to recover too.

I think it was a big wake up call for him. These are not A League level who will misses 7/10.

i was worried he would be a beast in this tournament and be bought in Jan by these teams. That won’t happen if he plays like that again.

He has always come good and I expect him too again. He also can take time to settle wIth a new CB partner.

Also Faz used to be back further than mauragise so he needs to adapt to that

Very disappointing not to get at least a point

I wondered if the plan would be to have Sains sit back a bit more and give Brian with his speed the freedom to rove forward more often. That seemed to be what has actually unfolded, but it was like once he moved into attack was less confident of what to do and hesitated in his decision making so got caught out. It'll come together

 

[Ironbark]

We simply ran out of legs. Dominated first half, dominated first fifteen of second and then it went to poo. Without Theo and Miggsy we had no spark and creativity, with either of them starting or coming off the bench.

Play that game in two months and we would have won it. Alternatively if Trent scores the open header at 2-2 we would have held on and that would have been an unreasonable result.

I am okay with the performance but disappointed with the result against what looked like a beatable team.

This for me

 

[FFC Mariner]

Think Brian has been worked out - Press him and he gets flustered. Sains can play his way out, Brian cant

 

[LG__]

Think Brian has been worked out - Press him and he gets flustered. Sains can play his way out, Brian cant

Bit harsh, Brian has shown himself able to carry the ball out of defence and split the lines with firm passes many times.

 

[shipwreck]

Is it fair to say that team was better than any ALeague team we will face this year?

 

[FFC Mariner]

Bit harsh, Brian has shown himself able to carry the ball out of defence and split the lines with firm passes many times.

He can provided he isn't pressed

 

[dlanod]

Is it fair to say that team was better than any ALeague team we will face this year?

As someone who basically only watches our games and the occasional ALeague game, they were better than any but maybe the top couple of ALeague teams in a given year IMO.

 

[Big Al]

Is it fair to say that team was better than any ALeague team we will face this year?

The sub striker is way better than anything in the A League and the guy who scored the 2nd and 3rd are better but the rest would be A League level

 

[Michael]

Chinese teams have always been the same. Man for man against Chinese players, Aussies are better. The difference comes with their own visa players. Players on $50k + a week.
We should’ve won last night, we didn’t. It ain’t doom and gloom. The positives far out weigh the negatives. Our set up and play was very encouraging. I am more excited to see this current squad play now after last night. Wasn’t even our strongest 11 on the park.

Their first goal was insane quality, nothing could’ve been done once that cross came in. CB’s and GK had no chance, pav either had to kill all 3 of the blokes in front of him or stay on his line and hope to make an insane world class reaction save. 2nd goal he never really got set after Brian f**ked up, again, a really impressive strike that knuckled on him. Maybe could’ve done a little better BUT maybe don’t give the ball away in such a dog shit area, it was about 3 seconds from giveaway to shot on goal.
3rd goal, breakaway one on one. Every one v one ever is a coin flip. Imo keepers can’t ever be blamed in that scenario. Just be happy whenever they make a save there. Attacker should always score a one v one. And he did, expertly.

Chill on the keeper bashing. It wasn’t the reason we lost. The reason we lost is because we didn’t convert our dominance. I would’ve loved a more experienced GK too, but this is what we’ve got. He’ll be fine.

 

[Josho Howe]

Think we missed some Barcellos-like impact off the bench too. Ronnie was super important and made his mark in big moments back end of last season.

 

[Big Al]

Think we missed some Barcellos-like impact off the bench too. Ronnie was super important and made his mark in big moments back end of last season.

Yeah i was wondering if Ronnie would have been better this year and he had creativity that maybe could of helped replace Niz. While he wasn’t a physical player he had some nice touches and passes.

Bit early to bag Fajio hard but he hasn’t looked good at all in either game and Ronnie might have been just getting through that adaptation period

 

[Big Al]

I thought the Chinese were well coached in sitting deep and knew we struggle to create against a packed defense and it cut off our speed of Ngor and Koul.

 

[dlanod]

pav either had to kill all 3 of the blokes in front of him

This lack of killer instinct is why I don't think he'll ever make it...

🤣

 

[pjennings]

This lack of killer instinct is why I don't think he'll ever make it...

🤣

This is where Danny needs to earn his money. Debatable whether he should have come but if you do you have to get the ball so you have to take anybody out if need be. If you can't get there set yourself ready for a reflex save. Danny was good at both.

The third goal was something that Danny would have struggled with until Crawley taught him to stay large.

 

[shipwreck]

We won the grand final against Melbourne city comfortably because of Danny's killer instinct coming for the ball.

Completely legally and fairly absolutely owned the city striker who then had to be subbed off.

f**k around and find out.

 

[Corsair]

Is it fair to say that team was better than any ALeague team we will face this year?

Nah. Smurfs and City have pumped cash into recruitment.

 

[Corsair]

Highlights

 

[Wombat]

brian is quality

He was shite last night.