R16 v Brisbane Roar (H)

[Forum Phoenix]

It wasn't a 50/50 ball, it was his. He made it a 50/50 by dawdling to it.
FFS the rest of the team were breathing out of their arses, he was fresh. Never helped with defence, never pressured. Absolute waste of a sub.
I have seen he has skill on the ball, but he lacks work ethic, defending ability and I suspect, ticker.
Take $400k or let him spend the rest of the year in youth until he learns that football is a game of hard work and not just looking good.

I was a huge fan. I’m not giving up on him yet as he’s just a young player and has a lot to learn. But I can’t argue with the above.

He looked like he didn’t want to be there though. Maybe he didn’t...

Just read Middys post. That could be bang on too.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Positives:

- Brisbane were undefeated in 4 (now 5) games and look to be a side finding consistency at last after the shambles they were earlier in the season. Yet for much of the game CCM all over were asking real questions of them and looked the better, more coherent side

- Clisby put in a great sliding tackle in the first half that saved what could quite likely have been a goal, and was solid in defence most of the afternoon

- Briggers was sound in goal, saved our arses a few times

- In the last 15 minutes CCM had players going straight through the Roar midfield, and at the back they were continually stealing the ball away 1 on 1 as the Roar players tried to get into position for a shot and defused their chance

- The home support was great- made plenty of noise and hearing the enthusiasm for the 'Mariners' chant and the 'Who do we sing for?' call and response was well supported, at least from my vantage point in the Western Grandstand

Negatives:

- The rain no doubt scared a few people off, I was thinking there'd be a crowd of around 7k for this one so it's a pity the iffy weather kept our crowd down

- So many wasted passes through the midfield, especially in the first half. Balls to nobody, or a CCM player getting the ball and rather than hang onto it, wait for other players to get in position and work the ball upfield, instead hoofing it long and losing possession to the Roar in the process.

- Silvera was the wrong substitution. Too physically small to be defending with the game on the line, slipped over twice in short succession while trying to mark advancing Roar players with the ball, then his meek attempt to defend late in the game instead of shutting down the passage of play kept the ball alive for Brisbane and ultimately cost CCM the game

- Yet again, this game highlighted how in need the squad is of reinforcements when it comes to the forwards. Need to bring in at least one player with a proven record of converting the chances we created into goals.

I would've been interested to see how the response had been if Brisbane scored early in the second half, how CCM would've responded and whether they would keep taking the match to the Roar or closed up, tried to minimise damage and grab a goal on the counter. As long as Stajic keeps morale up in the squad, they could well get the 3 points against WSW next weekend who have been in more patchy form of late than the Roar.

I thought that was Ziggy’s sliding tackle??

 

[true believer]

f**k off TB. What made you think we were going to score!!???

You have just won a beer off me next time i see you for making me cackle.

we were every chance . fatigue makes cowards of us all .
i could see us winning

 

[Big Al]

Tommy Oar miss was worse than SS.

Six yard box with a scrambled defence. Same problem as Muzz in those chances.

LIFT IT OFF THE GROUD

That summed up our attack when we should have put them away with all our dominance.

This left us exposed to more Brisbane Roar late shittery

 

[Big Al]

Was that an own goal?

Yeah came off Mill_r supporting leg on the slide (not the outstretched one) and wrong footed Bira. Nothing Bira could do. It pretty much went to to a gap the size of two footballs between Bira and the post

 

[LFCMariners]

I thought that was Ziggy’s sliding tackle??

Could've been, I was further away when it happened

 

[Corsair]

Anyway i'm going to bed annoyed again but not as angry as last week (hey Dobbie).

 

[Corsair]

Very disappointing result. Struggling to score as usual, wish he'd give Ruiz-Diaz a run.

DDS continues to under deliver. I hate seeing his head drop and walking around looking dejected, it must have an effect on team spirit.

Another close game we could have won with a decent striker.

On the plus side i thought Nisbet had a great game, would like to see more of him

 

[adz]

38 posts have disappeared from this thread re active support. I think everyone said what they wanted to say - apologies to everyone else who didn't want the extra fuss on top of the loss.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Thanks Adz. You are worth more money.

 

[BrisRecky]

Now, please don’t get this wrong cause I love #TheMuzz as much as the next bloke ...but do you think he has a gear above the one he used yesterday or is he just deceptive

 

[Ancient Mariner]

On the game overall and not just the players.
I thought the way we played last night would have led to us being torn apart by a team like Sydney.
I am having difficulty coming to terms with the narrow box 4-2-2-2 in defence and 2-?-?-? in attack.
Defence.
I can understand keeping the attacking team wide, but we are vulnerable to a turnover with our wingbacks caught upfield. When this happens the plan is for others to cover the fullback position. This we did but not very well. It was more a scramble than a dance with players moving in harmony. It was one of the things that impressed me about Nizz. He was giving instructions most of could see what was happening.
It is a very difficult defensive set up and we are getting better, which is why I think Staj says at times he was happy with the performance and few here have been
Last night there were too many players getting pulled out of position to scramble and cover, and I suspect that is why many here were not impressed with Ziggy. Too often whoever finished up in the fullback role was covering two players and getting caught in no mans' land .
Brisbane were not good enough to take advantage.
I guess the thinking is, that with our cattle it is better to smother the midfield than cover the wings.
I will leave that debate to better tacticians.
I was worried that in the conditions yesterday Brisbane would run us across the field continuously til we dropped.

Attack.
For the first three quarters of the game our attack was a shambles with the cross field long ball our only attacking weapon. I do not see the point of playing narrow in attack if there is no way through. There must be give and goes and ownership of that midfield area. There were many great runs put in by Muzz and Tommy last night go unrewarded due to no vision from the mids or even just no mids.
When Brisbane parked the bus at the 60min mark we looked better with Nizzy being able to attack some more out of a deep position. However we lacked any sort of structure we 5 in a straight line across the field with the Brisbane defence.
High balls into the box from well short of the line are a waste and easily handled by most defences.
I would much rather see wingers taking it to the line and cutting back to an attack in depth coming onto the ball or a striker attacking near post. Quite often it came back to Milan which was ok, but teams are waking up to him know, even though Brisbane left him alone couple of times.

The team has been staying in games and being competitive due heart, guts and determination rather than skill. There are too many poor passes, poor first touches and lack of vision to play how Staj is trying to organise. I cannot criticise the players for effort and commitment but too many are not up to the level required for the team to be finals contenders.
I think we have some players who are there, some who are on the way and am happy with Staj as coach. There is still a hell of a lot of development needed in the squad makeup and in some of the players I hope will stay.

Just my thoughts and view at the moment. I look forward to what others see and think.

 

[Wombat]

I thought that was Ziggy’s sliding tackle??

It was. Was a Ziggy special.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Could've been, I was further away when it happened

Clisby was ‘ok’ otherwise though so that was a nice change. Miller however continues to shine and prove how weak we are in some key areas to be so green yet stand out as much as he does.

 

[Insertnamehere]

Clisby was ‘ok’ otherwise though so that was a nice change. Miller however continues to shine and prove how weak we are in some key areas to be so green yet stand out as much as he does.

Miller and Niz play the pass and move game well. Better than most of the established players. So something has gone right with their development.
Miller has grown so quickly and owns his spot that for me we can afford to blood other youths.
We got any LB or Strikers in the yoof to great things?

 

[Insertnamehere]

Very disappointing result. Struggling to score as usual, wish he'd give Ruiz-Diaz a run.

DDS continues to under deliver. I hate seeing his head drop and walking around looking dejected, it must have an effect on team spirit.

Another close game we could have won with a decent striker.

On the plus side i thought Nisbet had a great game, would like to see more of him

Nizzy to stay, DDS bench, Kim on.

 

[neverwozza]

Clisby was ‘ok’ otherwise though so that was a nice change. Miller however continues to shine and prove how weak we are in some key areas to be so green yet stand out as much as he does.

It was a little bit ironic that Clisby copped a knock in the first few minutes showing some defensive urgency that we haven't seen much of this year.

 

[Forum Phoenix]

Now, please don’t get this wrong cause I love #TheMuzz as much as the next bloke ...but do you think he has a gear above the one he used yesterday or is he just deceptive

No he’s not holding back. Imo he is improving but my position hasn’t changed, I doubt he’ll ever be a 10 plus goal a season HAL striker. Which is what any seriously competing side must have.

He’s had a lot of time an opportunity but the conversions just aren’t there. His movement is good in general play but his timing into the box isn’t great — great headers of the ball like Cahill or Ronamdo or even Dutchy, all check their runs and allow themselves to attack the ball. I know there’s been a lot of poorly hit crosses but Milan alone put a few in yesterday that were as good as you could hope to get, but we very rarely have anyone getting on the end of them. And when 90% of our attacking focus seems to be to get a cross in, that’s not a good combination.

Inside the box Muzz is also rarely positioned well and I have no idea why but doesn’t seem to want to make near post or between the defender runs. Prefers to hang off over the back post. Maybe it’s because of all the floaters. But seriously there’s a decent enough amount of balls going into our area that a better caliber striker would be getting on the end of. Honestly even just standing square in the middle between the two CB’s is much preferred - like he was when Miller dropped it on his head the other week. But he doesn’t do that consistently either.

Heard a few things that make me think striker training is probably an area we’re deficient in and we may need someone like Mc’Breen or Mori if we’re going to persist with trying to develop young unproven strikers.

You have to think if we add a quality 10 and real striker to the side yesterday, then we more than likely win that game by a couple.

And as I’ve banged on about in the past re Muzz, you need something about you to play striker at this level, got to have an area where if not exceptional, at the very least you’re excellent. Muzz is a decent all rounder, works hard, and gets up well, but that’s not enough for a striker to succeed at this level. And I think that’s now been proven to be true.

 

[turbo]

Now, please don’t get this wrong cause I love #TheMuzz as much as the next bloke ...but do you think he has a gear above the one he used yesterday or is he just deceptive

Let’s flip that one on its head for anyone giving Muzz a hard time, what more did you expect from him? The commentators were quite complimentary of him and said he had good decision making to keep chances alive rather than take on a low % shot. The one where Oar and DDS failed to score isn’t really on him as he was marked and it was a hard ball to deal with. So what exactly did he not do and when in the game? We still didn’t give a lot for him to work with but he was putting a lot of work in.

Edit - just to be clear I’m not suggesting he is the answer to our issues and we need a clear starting quality striker but without the service and allowing him to focus his attention on scoring goals rather than gather and bring others in then how much can we really expect from any attainable striker? He’s made mistakes in the past and I’m not excusing that but our problems run deeper.

 

[greenlig]

Muzz either doesn't have the fire, or he's holding it back. He needs to f**king neeeeeed to score. He needs to want a goal as bad as Berisha wants a goal (or Mrdja wants a cap). So far he's not showing that. Get angry muzz!!!