R10 - City v CCM @ AAMI

[Wombat]

Well we were rubbish tonight and Okon's set up and coaching very poor. We were lucky not to loose 4.0. To call us toothless doesn't do justice to how poor we were. Very defensive. No drive at all through the centre from midfield and thats poor coaching for me. Dumb possession for the sake of it or dumb long ball the rest of the time.

Kennedy 8.5. MOM. We are going to pretend you were never a scummer because we like you alot. 3pts.
McGing 5.5. Back to the headless chook of old. Nearly scored a cracking OG.
Rose. 5.5. Some good moments but not many.
Golec. 5. Flat footed and lethargic tonight. Culpable on the Goal.
Baro 6.5 The best of the back 4 but also a couple of sketchy moments. 1pt.

Hoole 6. Average but at least tried hard.
Brama. 6.5 Tried to lead from the back but he's not in the same class as Tom but still 2pts.
Rose. 6. Some nice moments but overall too timid.
De Silva 6. Had to do too much defensive work as his team mates let him down.
Pain 6. At least offered some threat. 1pt.
Appiah 4. I've had more impact playing on 1 leg as a makeshift CF and i'm a FB. He shares my attacking heading ability.

None of the subs fired us up but Paul brought them on too late.

 

[Big Al]

Played like WSW in the first half. Everybody sucked except Kennedy who was more being hit than saving the City shots.

Appiah gets the wrong side of the defence on the crosses. Powell looked so much better and only had a couple of touches. Surely thats the end of Appiah as striker.

Trent sub worked and the formation change of having two wingers got us more chances but it was way to late. We are loosing why wait so late. 2 or 3 nil makes no difference just go for it

 

[Gratis]

i missed this one but it sounds like a better one to miss than many lately

shame - such high hopes. which, at least, is more than we've had in recent years; the belief we can beat any side

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

Match Summary including Paolo's comments from the presser:
https://www.ccmariners.com.au/news/melbourne-city-1-0-central-coast-mariners

 

[Psycho Chicken]

I went to bed angry last night and my mood has not improved in the morning. If anything, I'm even angrier!! The whole point of the VAR is to pick up incidents like La Rocca's stamp on Hoole in the penalty area. If the VAR is not going to be used consistently then please piss it off!! Then on Shootout, instead of talking about the one controversial moment of the game, they sat around on their fat arses and talked about tipping!!! It wouldn't happen with Sydney FC but hey, the Mariners are just a small club and who cares if they get screwed! Just us I guess..

 

[Big Al]

Probably unfair but we played like a 1 man team and that 1 man was in the stands.

The season looks to be Tom or bust

 

[Big Al]

Match Summary including Paolo's comments from the presser:
https://www.ccmariners.com.au/news/melbourne-city-1-0-central-coast-mariners

“Asdrubal will certainly be back next week pending any hiccups during the week”
Because Appiah is a shit striker is what he is trying to say

 

[Big Al]

I went to bed angry last night and my mood has not improved in the morning. If anything, I'm even angrier!! The whole point of the VAR is to pick up incidents like La Rocca's stamp on Hoole in the penalty area. If the VAR is not going to be used consistently then please piss it off!! Then on Shootout, instead of talking about the one controversial moment of the game, they sat around on their fat arses and talked about tipping!!! It wouldn't happen with Sydney FC but hey, the Mariners are just a small club and who cares if they get screwed! Just us I guess..

Sometimes every club needs a little maccas in there life. There’s no more obvious error than a bloke with his foot on another’s ankle in the box. The excuse will be the ball had got away from him but that’s bullocks

 

[tim...]

Some of the takes on last night's game are awful IMO. Carrying on like we lost 5-0...

Comes back to the depth issue for me. Take a vital cog out (last night being Hiariej) and replace with an inferior cog (no offence Junior), and the depth issue is exposed. We seemed far more likely once Junior was subbed off but even then just lacked that final punch. My observations therefore:

- Powell should be starting. Kabsy is better value late in the game
- McGing still struggles defensively but his value is in his forward runs down the wing.
- Our defensive structures are streets ahead of last year.
- BK is outstanding. Some of the saves... wow
- What's the point of VAR when they can't correct an obvious error like the stomp on Hoole?

In all, that's a game we lose by several goals in previous seasons. That we only lost 1-0 is something I'm ok with.

Onto WSW next Saturday.

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

Match Report by Matt Windley for the Herald Sun including video of Paolo's press conference:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/f...l/news-story/28d196c55abc62037ae2c1e108c36063

Channel 9's report on the match courtesy of the AAP:
https://wwos.nine.com.au/2017/12/10/21/16/ross-the-boss-earns-city-a-league-win

Match Report by Omnisport for AOL:
https://www.aol.co.uk/sport/2017/12...ntral-coast-mariners-0-mccormack-eases-cahil/


Player Ratings by Nathan John for the Daily Football Show:
http://dailyfootballshow.com/player...-0-mccormack-still-on-target-in-slim-victory/

 

[JoyfulPenguin]

 

[BrisRecky]

I gotta say if it wasn’t for BK it woulda been well over by half time, it’s amazing how much we miss Tommy
“All Hail Hairejiism” And then at the pre game Okon mentioned that Kwabi and bingaz are valid contenders for the pointy end job, he has to be fkn kidding, Kwabi has 2 HAL goals to his name in 4 years, what’s Bingaz got ,1, maybe
Rose the Elder did nothing for me, DDS was alright, but missing something, Junior and Ginga were alright but looked lost sometimes, and Brama had maybe 4 touches in 90 minutes....and what the f**k happened to Stevre Delovski
Make him a VAR operator and he stuffs it up , Hooley shoulda got a penalty ....and Gillette is a pedantic f**ktard
it’s just fkn AAMI Park it’s jinxed....we best have a change of attitude for the drive bys or all the good work recently will be shot to shit

 

[scottmac]

Massive massive gap between front line and midfield in defence. One pass beyond the forward line gave them access to the final 3rd and not by passing. You could literally just dribble it up without any pressure. Was weird. No one seemed themselves today other than BK and Wout. You could see Wout was pushing further up with the ball to try and make things happen.
That venue is a nightmare for us but yesterday was unexpected. Still showed fight to be in it right to the death and had chances to come away with a point.

 

[Big Al]

Some of the takes on last night's game are awful IMO. Carrying on like we lost 5-0...

Comes back to the depth issue for me. Take a vital cog out (last night being Hiariej) and replace with an inferior cog (no offence Junior), and the depth issue is exposed. We seemed far more likely once Junior was subbed off but even then just lacked that final punch. My observations therefore:

- Powell should be starting. Kabsy is better value late in the game
- McGing still struggles defensively but his value is in his forward runs down the wing.
- Our defensive structures are streets ahead of last year.
- BK is outstanding. Some of the saves... wow
- What's the point of VAR when they can't correct an obvious error like the stomp on Hoole?

In all, that's a game we lose by several goals in previous seasons. That we only lost 1-0 is something I'm ok with.

Onto WSW next Saturday.

Should of been 5-0. They blew at least 3 easy chances. That said 2nd half wasn’t as bad. Only really gave up the goal as a chance and had more drive late.

Some of the other stuff I agree with

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Match Summary including Paolo's comments from the presser:
https://www.ccmariners.com.au/news/melbourne-city-1-0-central-coast-mariners

That was not how I saw the game.

We just didn’t look likely until Connors blocked shot at all for mine. Whereas City clearly could have scored 4 or 5 if they had hit them anywhere but directly towards our keeper.

Biggest issue for me was as Scottmac said above. They had acres of space - lines too far apart but we also stood off where in many games we’ve pressed and fought for every ball. We looked a beat behind in our pressing for 75% of the game. Was too individual and not as concerted as it’s been.

It wasn’t as bad as the AU game but they need to maintain that life or death intensity to be at their best I think and I don’t think we had that against city.

 

[tim...]

Should of been 5-0. They blew at least 3 easy chances. That said 2nd half wasn’t as bad. Only really gave up the goal as a chance and had more drive late.

Some of the other stuff I agree with

Their goal was outstanding to be fair. Superb long ball from the keeper found the right man and caught us short. Link up passes were pinpoint. Very good football exposing our defenders and left BK alone to fend for himself basically.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Sometimes every club needs a little maccas in there life. There’s no more obvious error than a bloke with his foot on another’s ankle in the box. The excuse will be the ball had got away from him but that’s bullocks

This is by far the most disagraceful VAR episode we've seen so far. and it's easy to say that because it's the only one where we have that direct comparison to another tackle that's identical in every way - that rarely happens in this sport. It's shit like this that feeds into the 'refs are against us' theories.

Aside from that, I don't know if the lack of depth is what hurt us - it just seemed like one of those games where nobody was in the right headspace, for whatever reason. And Golec caught ballwatching is the only reason they scored that one goal. Had other players performed the same way they have been the last few weeks, we would have been fine without Tom.

 

[Big Al]

Here is a still of the VAR non penalty

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Ok most comments here have covered what happened pretty well.

These are just a couple of things that I noticed.

Appiah is not a striker. Early in the game De Silva made a good run, tapped it off to Appiah, ran into an acre of space on the edge of their box expecting the return and Appiah just took two or three touches to nowhere. I am afraid he does not have too much of a football brain, enthusiasm yes, pace yes, a shot yes, runs at the opposition yes, positioning and playing others in, no. He is a winger pure and simple.

Rose junior is nowhere near as good as Tommy (very few are). In attack too many touches before passing, does not have the same anticipation. He hesitated on too many 50/50 tackles. He tackles ok but does not have the same extendable leg that Tommy seems to possess. Not necessarily criticism, but he still has a long way to go in that position and I truly think he is a better centre back than he is a DM.

Powell understands how to play the striker position and how to play with those around him. De Silva needs a foil to play off and until Asdrubal is fit Powell must start. When he tires bring on Buhagier or a returning Asdrubal to replace him. Use Appiah as a sixty minute mark replacement on the wing to terrify tiring defences.

Simples.

 

[scottmac]

This is by far the most disagraceful VAR episode we've seen so far. and it's easy to say that because it's the only one where we have that direct comparison to another tackle that's identical in every way - that rarely happens in this sport. It's shit like this that feeds into the 'refs are against us' theories.

Aside from that, I don't know if the lack of depth is what hurt us - it just seemed like one of those games where nobody was in the right headspace, for whatever reason. And Golec caught ballwatching is the only reason they scored that one goal. Had other players performed the same way they have been the last few weeks, we would have been fine without Tom.

Totally agree. Something seemed off. Hoole was well down on what he's been delivering but fought his way back over the course of the game. His set piece delivery was down also but he won't have another game where he doesn't get at least half of his deliveries right. I think Liam played alot deeper than Tom does and we didn't have anyone playing between our forwards and midfield in attack. At one stage we had 5 across the front line and McGing Wout and Liam were playing between themselves on the right with no way of getting it forward other than hit and hope. That's where Tom usually finds the space in between and brings DDS into play with quick movement or a switch to the other side.
Paolo will learn alot from looking that back over id say.