Wow Sally, lucky you weren't around here for the last couple of season before this one!
While I LOVE and affirm your positive sentiment, I think overall it's all been very mild and well reasoned mostly across the board.
Especially considering how most forums respond to their losses.
Partially agree with the Hutch defense, McBreens pass was lazy and poor, but Hutch was on his heels and not even considering the possibility of getting the ball straight back - let alone giving and going into space. Apart form that I though he had a decent game. But really both were culpable imo.
Sadly I think that was overall a game where we beat ourselves - the only thing we genuinely struggled with was moments of ROARs high octane pressure and pace. But that is still a lot in a game of football I realise. Nevertheless, I still thought we played some very good football, and that the result did not reflect the overall game. But as we know, to our bane, we are not clinical - and sadly I don't think we have ever had a truly clinical and inform striker) Mori had a clinical career, but by his own standards, we never really had him in form. Aloisi... He left before he could truly claim that title.
Matty last night, looked as he was, a striker coming back form a knee injury - and when that striker plays a very physical style of game, he's obviously going to be a bit out of sorts and under par and so he looked.
For mine, while it won't happen I'd really like to see Duke on the bench. In one cameo he showed he has the pace and directness to threaten in a way that we desperately need and also creates space for the ball players like Perez, Olly and Weemac.
McBreen and Matty will work very hard, but they don't have the pace to really stretch lines or pull players out of position - especially against a highly fit, mobile and fast unit like Roar who manage to compress and cope with our attack and midfield much better than most HAL sides do.
Other thoughts when it comes to beating the Roar, if they flood the midfield with an extra man - which is pretty much the standard counter to a 442 diamond - and press as hard and fast -Barcelona style- to win the ball back ASAP... then
you either need to be able to move the ball very fast, (which is a bit faster than we did) or you also need to bring an extra man into the mids... or play more direct.
We surely don't wat to play direct with a stellar midfield like ours - so personally I'm of the line of thought that we need more youth, pace and exuberance to live with the Roar and would give 451/4411 a shot with Matty leading the line and Amini getting what I feel is a very well deserved start beside Perez.
For me, three times now when Amini has comes onto the park with Perez, it really just looks like we will have too much creativity on the park for sides to live with and a goal sooner or later is inevitable.
We are a very good side. I actually think our midfield and wingbacks, with the exception of McKay and possibly the DM matchup of Partalu on Griffiths/Hutch comes out on top. But in the front third with Barbarouses, Solorzano, Henrique, Broich, Nichols, I think they clearly have the edge, with more players who now how to finish compared to us.
So anyway as said I'm all for getting Amini on. And like others felt GA would have been better served to have brought him on at least twenty earlier for Olly - who looked to me to have really struggled this game, it might have just been an off night, or the roars pressure , but my take was that he was undone a little by the magnitude of playing finals football. Didn't seem in his zone.
Sorry for the essay btw; my final comments, I think our mids, Olly, Weemac and Perez MUST back themselves to take Roar players on consistently. Which they did in the 3-3 and I though we clearly deserved the win in that game. Please don;t die wondering and GO FOR IT BOYS! This very point has been one of the Roars secrets this season for mine.
I have heard rumours that we already have one eye on the sudden death playoff and not both on the second leg of the tie. I dearly hope this is not true. I agree its a mammoth task. But if we are to go down at suncorp I think we need to find that out on the night as I believe anything less than total belief we can still do it, would be a mistake mentally leading into a sudden death game. We can beat Roar by two or more, and should endeavour to do so.
Oh and an honourable mention to Breeze and the abysmal liney on the eastern side.
Not vintage Breeze, but still a considered effort to get himself back to form I thought.
Thanks for reading if you got this far,
Cheers
FP
