Playing With Fear

[bradley]

I"m a diehard mariners fan

I go to every game at gosford and every game the mariners play in sydney and newcastle

can someone please answer this question?

when the mariners play at home (gosford) in your opinion do we play with fear, are we scared of losing at home???

IMO yes

evidence: game against melbourne last saturday night, at one stage we had all 11 players in our own defensive third, with kwasnik and simon defending.

if we wernt playing with a fear of losing wouldnt you think we would of had at least one player in the middle third of the field waiting for the clearence?

i think this "playing with fear" and being scared of losing is the reason the mariners have only won once at home (gosford) this season, against the gold coast no one expected us to win, and we played with no fear and went on to win 3-0,


thoughts?

(ps: i know this has probably already been mentioned somewhere and im sorry if it has, i dont post on these forums often)

 

[FFC Mariner]

Bloody good point IMHO.

I think there are 3 factors at play.

1) Complete lack of onfield leadership without Doig.
2) We enjoy playing on the counter and away from home teams push onto us, at home they dont
3) We dont have a tactical plan B

 

[dibo]

1) Complete lack of onfield leadership without Doig.

I disagree with that. Doig's played, what - 5 games out of 16? We've only lost 6 and we're in 5th. Clearly someone's putting their hand up. I think it's Hutch - he's the one getting the instruction on the field as substitutions are being made, he's the one dictating tempo at the base of the midfield.

2) We enjoy playing on the counter and away from home teams push onto us, at home they dont

I think this is close to right, but the problem is more that we can't suffocate a team and force a mistake. We can win without the ball (as we've done twice in Melbourne) and as a learned friend was telling me yesterday we've got the knack to make it 3-0, 4-0 etc. but we don't seem to have the knack to make it 1-0 and make it stick.

When we're playing well we're controlling possession for long periods and playing very patiently. We hang onto the ball and when options run out going forward we're willing to bring the ball back, turn it around and start again. We drag the other team around the park and make them run without the ball. We have shown much more movement and spark than last year, but that's dropped off a little in recent weeks.

All that said, we seem to score more often from deeper - making breaks and catching the opposing defence out of shape. This often happens when we quickly turn over the ball and immediately push in behind a fullback and drive deep into the attacking half at speed.

3) We dont have a tactical plan B

This is our big weakness. It's like watching that Rafter vs Sampras final at Wimbledon all those years ago - Sampras found if he belted cruise-missile returns at Rafter's toes he was able to force errors and win easy points on Rafter's serve. Rafter couldn't change his game up and Sampras cruised to a win.

We're similar - too many nights it just doesn't look like we're going to find a break and we simply don't.

We've kept clean sheets on 8 occasions, but we've been kept scoreless as often. That's not a good sign.

 

[serious14]

May sound a bit of an obvious question to those of you in the land of Oz, but those of us here in Ingerlund (some Sheffield United following mates and myself) are genuinely wondering why is Travis being played wide or off the bench??

(bear in mind I havn't seen every game this season for one reason or another - it just seems that when he's given the chance to tear the game open through the middle he takes it, but is nullified a bit out wide)

 

[FFC Mariner]

100% agree he is better in the middle.

We seem to prefer 2 DM's in the middle and it isnt working as we have no creativity. Wee Mac has struggled recently and been pushed wide too.

Seems to scream out for 4231 really especially as we only have 1 out and out striker right now

 

[dibo]

mostly because weemac is there, but also because we're thinner at wide right than we are in the middle. we're overstocked on central midfielders, so even if it's arguably a better option to have travis in the middle than someone like pedj, it's not a better option to have travis central and then say... d-mac wide right.

 

[serious14]

Hmmmmmm........ Elrich??  Porter??  (I know it's thin pickings, but surely they'd work better??)

Even some sort of weirdo 4-1-4-1??

 

[dibo]

Elrich still has some improvement left to go before he's a better option at right mid than Pedj/Hutch is in the middle (because that's what the choice comes down to), and then with Porter you need cover at RB. If Doig's fit, you can have Boogs there, but if not...

 

[serious14]

As much as I dislike it, Andrew has a point re: the 4-2-3-1..... I utterly detest it, but if you've got the personnel to play it, may as well if it's going to work best.

Not as if WeeMac and Travis don't score goals either??

 

[serious14]

Funny timing.....

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/cardiff-city-fc/2009/12/11/jonathan-brown-signs-for-an-australian-side-91466-25366705/

FORMER Cardiff City striker Jonathan Brown has signed for Australian national league side Central Coast Mariners.

The Wales Under-21 international, from Bridgend, has signed a deal until the end of the season with a potential two-year contract at the end of the term.

I was invited for a two-week trial over here with North Queensland, Perth Glory and the Mariners and everything went very well, said Brown, 19.

The Mariners were the first to offer a contract and package to me and I was keen to do the deal and settle things there and then.

The club have been fantastic to me ever since I landed in the country and looked after me very well indeed.

The lifestyle is just amazing and the football is of a very high standard with all eyes on the countrys World Cup hopes.

The manager wants me to be an out-and-out winger as he sees this is my best position and Im glad that I can express myself in that role and look forward to being part of the first-team action.

 

[Paolo]

Tis a shame he hasnt actually signed as yet...

 

[serious14]

Tis a shame he hasnt actually signed as yet...

Mmmmmmm??