Central Coast Mariners Squad for 2008/09 Season

[georgemladenov]

According to Cockerill in the SMH, we have finally signed A.Elrich.

Hopefully Lawrie and co. can get him into shape and have him rekindle his form of old for next season!

 

[Kareem]

I personally am a big fan of A.Elrich!
but still we are signing the wrong elrich (his little bro is better and a rb which we need)
That's gotta signal without a doubt the end of gumprecht...?
This sounds like Arsenal gettin rid of older players ...

 

[cristiano]

No way T. Elrich is better than Ahmed, when he was at full fitness when he first was joining Fulham, he was quicker and a hell of a lot more skillful than Tarek. If we can get his fitness and game time up, I'm sure he'll be a handful for any A-League player. I still think his goal against us last season against wellington should have won goal of the year, it was unreal, shot whilst facing the sideline about 10m outside the box, curled out and came back.
Where was this article about him coming to us?  I've been searching for it all morning.

 

[graaant]

Cristiano,

http://www.smh.com.au/news/a-league/aleague-expansion-hits-a-financial-snag/2008/03/06/1204779964630.html

And I agree, if we could get Ahmed a full pre-season and get Clarky and the boys working on his fitness, he'd be unreal!

 

[Jocwa08]

According to Cockerill in the SMH, we have finally signed A.Elrich.

Hopefully Lawrie and co. can get him into shape and have him rekindle his form of old for next season!

Well i think this is a good signing, he's still close to his brother.
Ive heard cockerill doesnt talk sh*t.
Theres one AM down.

Now i think;
Pacy CB
Right Back
Marquee Striker
Ty Owens
Milos Lujic
And Back up LB

We could look to AIS or to Sheffield Academy
for the Left Back he should be young and
Quick would him into mini heff for the years
to come, our right back could also be young
with Osman a skilled right back we could
use a young player, but i think we need an older
or experienced pacy centre back, and a very good
goal scoring marquee striker. But Elrich is a good signing.
WE GOT THE RIGHT ELRICH !

 

[skilbeck]

is Ahmad a playmaker or is he just a winger?

 

[skilbeck]

According to Cockerill in the SMH, we have finally signed A.Elrich.

Hopefully Lawrie and co. can get him into shape and have him rekindle his form of old for next season!

Well i think this is a good signing, he's still close to his brother.
Ive heard cockerill doesnt talk sh*t.
Theres one AM down.

Now i think;
Pacy CB
Right Back
Marquee Striker
Ty Owens
Milos Lujic
And Back up LB

We could look to AIS or to Sheffield Academy
for the Left Back he should be young and
Quick would him into mini heff for the years
to come, our right back could also be young
with Osman a skilled right back we could
use a young player, but i think we need an older
or experienced pacy centre back, and a very good
goal scoring marquee striker. But Elrich is a good signing.
WE GOT THE RIGHT ELRICH !

I dont reckon we need a right back. A left back is more pressing atm and Id only buy Lujic and the marquee striker if Mrdja was to go

 

[cristiano]

Ahmed is generally a winger, has played in the middle, but is better as a right attack wing, and cuts infield, he is very creative. Just needs game time. Great buy...
I won't hold my breath, I never do til its on paper , example James Holland...

 

[brett]

IF we have Ahmad, as well as Caceres, there is two players who can potentially get to the byline and cross the ball for strikers. Last season we had no one who would do this.

Depending on Nik (as with every comment in this thread!) we may need to sign a striker who can score headers.

 

[graaant]

Not even just cross the ball in.. both Ahmed and Adrian like to cut in from the wing and run at defenders. Somewhat like what Kwassie does when he's on form..
Having two great creative wingers who can do this aswell as put in good crosses would be devastating to defenses.

As you said, now all we need is Peter Crouch!

 

[cristiano]

Yeah I agree, I know McKinna has experiment with O'Grady up front, apparently he has played there in the past, similar situation to harnwell for the glory. But I don't know if it actually was effective, granted when he did it the crossing options (players with skill to do it accurately) were minimal.
     Lawrie also released a statement a couple of days ago when he denied Juninho due to price, he also said they may not acquire a marquee player at all, sticking to young skillful player to build with to make an impact in the ACL.
     On another note, we need to keep Nik, he is awesome, most dangerous striker we've had. I'm glad Aloisi is gone, waste of money I think, yes he scored a few goals, nothing spectacular and you'd wanna hope he did for the price and the game plan of "kick it to aloisi". I was getting sick of Aloisi's Bullsh*t with his diving and carrying on, everytime he was touched he'd through up his arms and b*tch, no wonder they never called the actual fouls, coz he always does it. For the money you could do much better, the only thing I may miss is the size of the crowds when he show'd up.

 

[midfielder]

IF we have Ahmad, as well as Caceres, there is two players who can potentially get to the byline and cross the ball for strikers. Last season we had no one who would do this.

Depending on Nik (as with every comment in this thread!) we may need to sign a striker who can score headers.

Dont laugh but that is Matty's strenght.

Remember we have lacked pace out wide on the right for a while now that is why Tommy often played there. Ahmed is very fast, I can recall him at Parramtaat Power IMO excellent signing, and suits our style of play.

 

[graaant]

Yeah, when Ahmed gets a full pre-season under his belt and regains fitness he'll be lethal.
I'm all for giving Matty the chance, obviously Lawrie can see a lot of potential in him and so can I, just needs to be nurtured and he'll get it.

I'm very interested to see who else we sign.

 

[skilbeck]

well I reckon
1 striker: Lujic or marquee
1 attacking mid: T Owens
1 left back/right back: ???
1 centre back: ???
possibly 1 goalie: ???

 

[Kareem]

I was talk

No way T. Elrich is better than Ahmed, when he was at full fitness when he first was joining Fulham, he was quicker and a hell of a lot more skillful than Tarek. If we can get his fitness and game time up, I'm sure he'll be a handful for any A-League player. I still think his goal against us last season against wellington should have won goal of the year, it was unreal, shot whilst facing the sideline about 10m outside the box, curled out and came back.
Where was this article about him coming to us?   I've been searching for it all morning.

but Tarek doesnt need as much skill at right back....I was talking about performance wise at their position. Tarek was one of the best right backs this season (if not the best)...Elrich was a let down at nix. If we can get him back to where he was then sure...but for form and importance (we really need a right back) I would have rather have signed Tarek...I mean wat other possible right backs are we chasing? More wingers available than Ahmad Elrich.
That said Ahmad is now in my top three fav players if he signs for us (along with Jedi + Danny)
I have several tiers of favouritisim
Danny + Jedi
Hutcho, Wilko, Sash, Simon, Boogs
Mrdja (could be at top if he kind of played once in a while), Owens, Osman and Kasnik on his good day
Clark, Kwasnik (most of the time) , Porter, Ogrady, Trott, Redmayne, young fella (from academy)

 

[cristiano]

Tarek probably was one of the best RB's this season, but he was still only average. If I recall before Osman did his knee in. He was being spoken about quite highly in RB. I thought he was easily the best right back in the A-League in every round up until his injury. Most of the media agreed and was giving him a huge rap, which is big considering how much the media loves us, hahahaha. I only think we need a solid back RB as a backup coz we all know knee injuries are a constant problem once its been wrecked once.
Tarek has already signed with the Jets, announced this morning in the same A. Elrich to mariners article. Jets also signed Zadkovich who should play in CAM coz he is much improved there when playing olyroos, he sucks at right back.
I agree with Matty Simon, huge talent for the future, needs to work on his balance more then anything, hits the turf too much (not from diving).

 

[graaant]

He's getting much better staying on his feet. He might be tall but he's pretty fun. With training and work he'll get a bit bigger and more strength on his feet.

I'd be very interested in trialling Lujic.
I've heard good things - has anyone ever seen him in action?

 

[skilbeck]

Lujic is from melbourne and is in high demand and they need a back up to Allsopp and Thompson so i reckon MV is his best bet

 

[timp]

Apparently Yorke is looking to return to a-league...
any thoughts?

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,23328744-5000940,00.html

 

[skilbeck]

if Sydney sign him, that would be a massive rort, though I reckon he would go elsewhere, probably GCG if they get the go ahead. If we sign Ahmad, we wont be getting Yorke