R13: Asian Champions vs Central Coast

[mariner72]

Well after watching that drab affair the only positive is that we are now in the transfer window and hopefully about to sign a couple new players.

 

[Big Al]

And RBB trying to fight Shannon Cole and then he has the ordasity to complain after the fight like the fans do banner.

 

[scottmac]

Wow. That was shite.

Oh well, we didn't lose.

Mossy's selections becoming quite baffling. Reminds me of the managerial style of an U16's father.

 

[nearlyyellow]

So, I've been out. Nil all draw I see. Any other comments? 1 point away again

 

[nebakke]

Geez, ONE decent game and suddenly everything less is the worst we've ever played.

For mine, the first half was a significant improvement on our overall performance this season. On a whole, I thought the game was largely an inversion of last weekend, with fewer goals. First half the boys fought for it and made reasonable in-roads, just couldn't get anything happening in the Dukie/Matty space.
Second half was a bit more lacklustre, but at least I don't think it was because they couldn't be bothered.
Sim actually did reasonably with what he has, not great on the ball, by any measure, but he was able to harrass WSW enough that they'd do stupid things because he was around.
Trifiro however, was a bit of a disappointment I thought... Last week I thought it looked like he and Matty Simon looked like they had a good understanding... They had a bit of nice interplay. Tonight, he was all over the place.

Anywho, with where the bar has been set by us, this season, I don't think it was our worst... Mind you, my initial point is that there's a lot of room between the worst we've ever played and the best we've ever played.
On the definite upside, we didn't concede... I know it was against WSW, but still...

I don't really see much of a problem with the selections though...

Reddy - Love him or leave him, I'd rather him than Nash
Poscoliero - I would like to see him in CB for a try again, but have to admit, based on some of the stuff that was said about Storm-boy last weekend, and how he did, I thought it was a reasonable decision
Rosie - Well, I think he's looked decent at CB, but it also seems to have done him some good to get to rest a bit at the back... With Neill out, there wasn't much choice there anyway...
Ando/Bosnar - With Poscoliero and Rosie at FB, what else where we going to do?
Hutch/Caceres - Monty still suffering from injury and personally, I think Triff does much better further up
Fitz/Sim - I still think Fitz should start, don't understand Sim, but Vernes hasn't provided much more yet, at least not off a start, so it'd be Sim/Vernes/Cernak - any of those three would have people complaining though, so I guess, pick one and stick with it, which is what he is doing. At least Sim didn't throw too much away today.
Duke/Matty - Increasingly, I think they both have to start to get us anything at all and I don't seem to be alone here.

So what could Mossy have done, with the current cattle, that would have been a better selection?

 

[MagpieMariner]

Well, it's our 3rd clean sheet, and our 2nd at Parramatta Stadium. I'm desperately trying to think of some other good thing about this match, but buggered if I can. Oh yes, we didn't lose. Knew there was something else.

 

[true believer]

but Vernes hasn't provided much more yet

just quietly WTF ! vernes has looked as good as anybody . why not mr moss ?

 

[Garth]

Well after watching that drab affair the only positive is that we are now in the transfer window and hopefully about to sign a couple new players.

I have to agree with you I remember way back when I got enjoyment going to their games holy moley we can't even beat the BOTTOM team

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Unfortunately a very predictable game. Hard to comment overly on our football, Wanderers are so dire you cant accurately judge our defence - however you still get the impression a better side would have had a couple. They also play such consistent anti football that it's hard to judge our attack.

Watching the Wanderers I actually start to feel a deal better about us though. We're a long way off the pace still, but at least we attempt to play football. The only players who seem to be trying to do that for Wanderers are Bridge and the Hyphenator.

Not Trifiro's best day. Matty was ok. I thought Duke had a good game. Apart from that... we are still making consistently poor decisions in the front third - where we still look largely clueless in attack. However there were three good balls from getting in behind, with Dukey and Caceres doing well. Caceres however needs "continuity" he must follow up on his play. He does an action and then stops. It's like he's playing FIFA. Fix this. Continue to encourage his ambition going forward and his obvious talent on the ball...and he could be a very good A league player or better. Cahill was talking about Antonis's amazing ability on the ball in the press... Caceres has it over him in spades I think.

Sim, nothing horrible tonight, but very hard to believe Vernes or Cernak would not have offered more.

We need to recruit a high quality winger, a star AM and an accomplished finisher. What I fear we'll see is a generic attacking mid and an obscure journeyman striker that has us all non plussed but trying to be optimistic (except wombat). We need to spend some money, or accept we will not be competitive for the second half of the season either. We have not replaced McBreen, Bernie, Weemac, Dutchy or Flores. And it shows.

And if we do replace them... Mossy needs to play them

 

[scoober]

. i am typically not one to criticise the coach, players or team selections ... and i know we have a short turn around between games ... but seriously?

. our defence has been leaking goals and the solution appears to be to change the back four again! how many consecutive games have we played with the same back four this year? any?

. i was also a fan of what sim did coming in as a substitute for rosey last year stepping up from the NSWPL ... but as a starting midfielder i don't understand his continual selection in the starting 11 ... are guys like trifiro and vernes unfit?

. matty, dukey and fitzy all starting could be interesting ... speed and attacking intent. i just hope we can get into the right positions to capitalise ... and fill that massive void we seem be leaving where somebody should be wearing the number 10

Vernes is carrying a knock, hence his absence.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Crowd tonight - 10,458.

Sometime I wonder if viability and reality will ever intersect when it comes to CCM and our "failed crowds" "lazy coasties" and people "who don't appreciate their team"

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Vernes is carrying a knock, hence his absence.

Thanks scoober. That help makes some sense of it.

 

[Gratis]

very little movement off the ball and we moved slowly both with and without it.

against BR they went for the throat but conceded. tonight we did a lot of walking but didn't concede.
can't say I was inspired.

wsw played worse than us so wasn't a great game to watch. i feel if we were playing melbourne city we'd have lost tonight...oh dear...

for mine it's time to change either the formation/style or the cattle. this combination just doesn't work.
I know this conversation has been had before and no formation change will occur mid season. thus we're really relying on good transfers and that's magic 8-ball stuff now and nothing to bank on.

alas.

 

[Gratis]

Unfortunately a very predictable game. Hard to comment overly on our football, Wanderers are so dire you cant accurately judge our defence - however you still get the impression a better side would have had a couple. They also play such consistent anti football that it's hard to judge our attack.

Watching the Wanderers I actually start to feel a deal better about us though. We're a long way off the pace still, but at least we attempt to play football. The only players who seem to be trying to do that for Wanderers are Bridge and the Hyphenator.

Not Trifiro's best day. Matty was ok. I thought Duke had a good game. Apart from that... we are still making consistently poor decisions in the front third - where we still look largely clueless in attack. However there were three good balls from getting in behind, with Dukey and Caceres doing well. Caceres however needs "continuity" he must follow up on his play. He does an action and then stops. It's like he's playing FIFA. Fix this. Continue to encourage his ambition going forward and his obvious talent on the ball...and he could be a very good A league player or better. Cahill was talking about Antonis's amazing ability on the ball in the press... Caceres has it over him in spades I think.

Sim, nothing horrible tonight, but very hard to believe Vernes or Cernak would not have offered more.

We need to recruit a high quality winger, a star AM and an accomplished finisher. What I fear we'll see is a generic attacking mid and an obscure journeyman striker that has us all non plussed but trying to be optimistic (except wombat). We need to spend some money, or accept we will not be competitive for the second half of the season either. We have not replaced McBreen, Bernie, Weemac, Dutchy or Flores. And it shows.

And if we do replace them... Mossy needs to play them

all this

 

[sydmariner]

It's like he's playing FIFA.

imo he's playing the wrong game he should be playing football manager he could learn a lot from it

 

[eenfish]

What I liked about our defending was it seemed to be an organised effort that snuffed out the Wanderer's attack, as well as individual moments like a couple of nice saves from Reddy. Anderson and Poscoleiro both impressed me, and Rose had a great game. But as Forum Phoenix said above, it is hard to really judge our defence against a side with such dire attacking quality. 6 goals from 11 games is shocking, if we had conceded a goal it would have been unforgivable. And considering whenever we got the ball they just started to play with 10 behind the ball it was very frustrating. I did like the fire from Dukey, but Matty was shut down because of their tactics.

I also agree with GrA saying we should do more to change up the tactics. I like Dukey and Simon on the pitch at the same time, we should have them playing as forwards together, not pushing Dukey out on the wing.

 

[Roy Law]

Torture​

Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago chronicles the barbaric tortures inflicted by the Russian State against its own people. The most effective form of torture, among all the terrible beatings, was sleep deprivation. I have an even more effective one: watching the Mariners play the Wanderers. For this was torture; it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. It is only because I am a dyed-in-the-wool loyal-til-I-die supporter that I lasted the full match. It was such a letdown after the thrilling second half against Brisbane Roar at Bluetongue.
Moss replaced Roux with Poscoliero and rewarded Duke for his performance against Roar with a place in the run-on eleven; Montgomery still wasn’t fit to play. For the second match running there wasn’t a visa player in the starting line-up.
The Mariners got off to a terrible start when the centre of defence went missing, as if they had disappeared down a sink hole, and Rukavitskya had a great chance but he didn’t quite have the touch and Reddy was able to block the attempt.
Duke responded to Moss’s faith in him with an eye-catching Energizer Bunny display; he was everywhere. He fired in shots and crosses, chased everything down, won tackles and gave full back Shannon Cole a torrid time. Unfortunately few of his colleagues could match his enthusiasm.
The Mariners gradually worked their way into the game and began to control the tempo, winning a series of free kicks in dangerous positions, but simply did not have the quality to capitalise. When the Wanderers had a rare meaningful attack Poscoliero produced an excellent tackle to deny Rukavitskya.
As the half came towards the close, the Mariners defence, as so often this season, was ripped open down the flank and the ball ran across the face of the goal. Somehow Rukavitskya didn’t get a touch. It wasn’t to be his night, but it begs the question again as to how almost any team you care to name – Perth, Victory, Brisbane, and Wellington – can so easily create these chances.
Typically, the Mariners responded well: a flowing move, Caceres’s shot not held, Fitzgerald denied on the follow up, and then Rose too, by Covic’s desperation.
The second half deteriorated into a slow march; I can hardly remember either Reddy or Covic having any real work to do. Wanderers came close early when Reddy flapped at a cross and Kalmar put in an overhead shot which Rose headed away. Rose had a spectacular half volley on the run, just over the bar, a nice attempt. And then Haliti, unmarked, headed across the goal and out of play when it looked easier to score. You got the feeling that if either team were to score the other would not be able to respond.
History was made as the two Trifiros came on as substitutes to appear together in an A League match for the first time. Simon got hurt when trying to get on the end of a Fitzgerald cross. Referee Delovski saw fit to book Cole and Duke after some push and shove; a double yellow that was a double joke. Duke, and then Trifiro, and then Cernak, all had shots that were quite woeful. And then it all came, mercifully, to an end.
Poscoliero was active and determined; Bosnar closed most of the gaps; Duke so impressive in the first half ran out of ideas in the second; Simon got no service at all; Caceres struggled to make any impact. The best player for me of a lack lustre bunch was Josh Rose who showed pace, skill and intelligence when it was needed.
The news that Travis Major is likely to sign in January only endorses the view that the Moss is more comfortable recruiting from State Leagues than overseas. Perhaps he thinks the Mariners will be playing NSW PL next year?

 

[bikinigirl]

Caceres however needs "continuity" he must follow up on his play. He does an action and then stops.

. agree ... but he is not the only one guilty of this. the other thing that our midfielders do is lay of the ball and then they have a realisation they are a striker and join the front line ... so nobody is available to receive the ball but we can have up to four people in a row up front (all being marked)

It's like he's playing FIFA.

. i have no context for this but it sounds appropriate ... and funny ... but a little sad

 

[Bladesman]

The one comment that summed the game and the way we are playing at the minute was when a ball was played backwards as usual (think it might have been Tricky but not sure) and the comment said he has gone backwards by default when he could have easily turned with all the space and played forward.

We look like a state league team, with state league quality players coached by a state league coach trying to play a style we don't have the players with the footballing ability to play. A lot of the players are looking lost out on the field and no one is creating any options going forward.

Luckily for us WSW and Newcastle are looking just as bad.

Moss needs to find a system that suits our cattle as he has now persisted and tried about every option apart from the Simon/Duke combination at centre half and Reddy up front and it hasn't worked.

 

[nebakke]

Moss needs to find a system that suits our cattle as he has now persisted and tried about every option apart from the Simon/Duke combination at centre half and Reddy up front and it haven't worked.

At least this way, he wouldn't be expected to do as many pin-point passes, so we might keep the ball in play more
Although I suppose that was another positive from last night, I think he 'only' kicked it out directly twice!!!

I think there's an experience thing going on as well, a number of times, the younger guys would try to do something fancy turning about three or four times, then go back/lose the ball, rather than pass it to an available player.