Central Coast Mariners V Sydney FC

[Wombat]

How did that bloke get to be a reporter? " You know, like you know, did it em, you know ?"

Monty did quite well in a difficult situation. He has two options, I think. 1. Restore Oli to the team to anchor the Middle of the park alongside Niz.
2. Bring Steele into the starting 11 and bring Oli onto the bench......slip him on at 60 min to anchor our Midfield. This allows ego on both sides to calm down and Olli can start the following week.

Oli was down on form and looked tired but far more to this that a form issue.

 

[Ironbark]

On the game.

Sydney played tactically to take advantage of our high fullbacks. They also pressed with vigour and played forward with aggression. This combined with their individual technical superiority meant we were half a yard off the pace all game, our passes didn't stick, we were second to balls and were pick-pocketed too often.
All combined and we lost.

Previous games that we won against the blue slime WE did the pressing and aggression. Sydney came out desperate to turn their form around and out-competed us in this. Maybe we were feeling too comfortable after the win mid-week.

Second half and we were due an equaliser and dominated. Who knows what happens if we'd pulled one back. But a 4 minute collapse and we sh*t the bed instead.

Personally I'd have pulled the fullbacks back somewhat, and only allowed a go forward when cover from the wings was there. Their game plan was obviously to get the likes of TBT in behind, and it bloody worked. I wouldn't have done it during that 2nd half spell when we were dominating so can't blame Monty for not doing it either.
We also needed to up the tempo just a little to make passing harder on Syd, create some errors and counter with speed. I saw next to no countering with speed which is a damn shame as it is a strength when we use it.

Hopefully this is a learning game for young players and an early career coach.
Disappointed not by the 5 goals as no matter how many goals we can only lose 3 points. But we really needed those 3 points and were in such a great groove it sucks to lose the momentum and confidence.
Hopefully too the fire is back in the belly for the next match after this.

 

[Huddo]

Oli will not be back.

 

[true believer]

The subbing on of Moresche and Muller threw our whole shape out of place and was exacerbated by Muller continuously coughing up the ball. The team lost control when they came on.

Those two subs were probably a catalyst for the downward spiral and we had no one who would wrestle the game back after leaking such a soft goal. We were okay in the second half up to that point.

Coaching is a mugs game. There is no way that Monty could have known that those subs would lead to disaster.

in this case moresche tried .muller looked and played like a middle aged man .
it was a game we needed ollie and ruon .

 

[true believer]

big loss in front of a good crowd .

 

[crock]

Oli will not be back.

then we are in trouble long term we need experience to help our young players we will end up back in our favourite spot down the bottom of ladder

 

[shipwreck]

Oh dear

 

[Big Al]

Looked tired to me. Right from the start we were off the pace. We wrestled back after a poor start and if Beni shot goes in we probably win.

Just one of those nights were not a lot went right and we played some trained killers.

The defense looked tired and gave way to much space. All goals were with way to much time.

I also think there was a little young arrogance to us which some was good but some naive. We just picked up and kept going and putting them under alot of pressure and then we’d put our mistakes on repeat.
Sometimes the old dog will have a killer night where they show why they were so good and teach you a lesson to never underestimate them.
There passing and movement on the right block is still something of beauty and you have to be switched on all night and talking to each other. There was simply a lack of desire to defend it properly.

While we were off the pace it’s still probably the best 5-0 loss performance you’ll see.

Even as we were leaking goals i got a message from a mate and he said we were looking to threatening before that. I said it’s probably going to finish 4-3 or 7-0. It was that kind of night.

Disappointed for the crowd but we’ve played a lot of games lately and weren’t terrible just SFC were clinical with to much space.

 

[Big Al]

Miller was simply fantastic. He terrorized SFC. It was just a shame the ball wouldn’t go in the for the strikers but SFC crowded the box well.

Big call for Arnie now. Miller has been outstanding for a month or two and clearly the best RB in Australia.

Will Arnie have the guts to trust him for such important games but Ryan Grant has been on the decline for a while and was totally outshone by Miller.

Id have Miller as a 60min sub if you behind but I believe Arnie will stay with who he knows.

Miller looked above A League level tonight. The work he has put in is unbelievable. He was a blocked pipe last season now he is the key to almost everything we do. Unbelievable growth and congratulations to him and his work ethic to get there and most probably the coaching as well.

 

[Big Al]

Honest assessment and bang on.

There were 6/7 off the pace.
Nizz was way off and his passing wasn’t on tonight. Late he was hitting terrible balls when Miller was demanding it in certain spots and he was ignoring him or trying terrible through balls that were no where near Miller. He looked very tired late

Hall was giving way to much space to the attackers and had some bad passes

Kye was still good but was below his best and also left to much space

Urena bearly touched the ball

Farrell was hot and cold but mainly cold

Ballard is not ready for the good tight teams.

When Monty said SFC were fresher it was spot on

 

[midfielder]

Oli will not be back.

why

 

[style_cafe]

Dont think Monty is a fan. He played over 70 games for us and we released him (then drifted around NPL for a bit)
I agree, I always thought he put in a shift in what was a really shit side

But now he’s got it together, young players do that…

No delay. Barreiro is refere

 

[turbo]

Always been the case. FIFA have said that's on the defender for their decision making. They need to be blocking the view of making a significant action preventing the opponent from playing the ball - drawing a defender out of position has always been legal (and probably for the best - you'd introduce a stack more highly subjective decisions if referees were trying to make that judgement)


Crowd and YA makingg some great noise.

Yeah I look at it as the defender has to run into the offside player while trying to get to the inside player/ball to force the issue. Can’t rely on just saying well there’s an offside player there so I didn’t go for it. I don’t really like the rule but you have to play to it.

 

[Tim]

why

Exactly, why?

 

[Big Al]

Goal 1
Hatch sloppy to get back and cut off the pass. Rowles comes out of the line and misses the ball. Lefondre miss kicks and it falls into the space of where Kye was.
a real mungrel goal which we were conceeding weeks ago

 

[Big Al]

Goal 2. Another scrubber
Farrel leaves to much space and lets the cross in as well. Then the goal is another lucky bounce

 

[Big Al]

Goal 3. Hall gets afternoon detention for questioning the principal. Absolutely beautiful run by LeFondre and way to much space.

3rd of 3 down our left

 

[Big Al]

Goal 5 last minute crap from a tired defeated team but still to much space and no attention to where Bobo is

Goal 4 not posted

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Ok just watched the highlights after attending the match and not agreeing with all that has been posted so far.
I would say they killed us down our left side rather than through the middle. We were good (in spite of many poor touches) until their second goal after which we got punished severely for a couple of poor touches and got massacred.
Although goals 3 and 4 came about immediately after the two subs, mentioned by Mick, it was not due to our shape being pulled around, both goals came from Muller giving the ball away without much defence behind.
We had been playing 2 4 4 in attack and at times it even looked like 2 3 5. Very attacking but very vulnerable to errors especially when you play it higher up the park chasing the game.
The subs had to be made, no one was looking like scoring apart from Beni. Urena had been marked out of the game and was losing possession too often. Hatch unfortunately was a weak spot which was highlighted, even last week, when he subbed for Smith. At this stage he is a useful impact player off the bench, but that is all.
Miller gets 3 points from me again, with Beni getting 2.
They were the only players to worry Sydney in attack and closed down their side of the pitch effectively in defence.
I give 1 point to Nizzy. I guess getting one point is a bad game from him, but not enough to justify the criticism he has copped. He once again moved our team around effectively, anticipated and defended well. A couple of errors, but to be expected when you are the one making the passes against a solid defence.
Moresche provided energy in attack when he came on and needs more minutes.
I would just forget about Muller and write his signing off as a gamble that did not come off.

If Smith is still injured next game I would start Goddard. At least he can deliver good balls in set pieces.

Overall it was not the 5-0 massacre of the past. Sydney came out hungry and aggressive and took every chance. We made plenty of opportunities but could not capitalise. We also made too many errors and experience showed.

I am not giving up yet.

 

[FFC Mariner]

Rather that see Muller looking like he is unfit for O45's. I'd rather we get some minutes into a prospect. His experience is worthless if he can't move
What we lack is a midfield enforcer.
Ollie isn't that