Lawrie's alleged remarks
Was sat in the members on Sunday and Lawrie McKinna was seated a row in front of us. Anyway at half time my mate asks Lawrie what is going on with Aloisi and do you want him back. Lawrie said he just really feels for him at the moment as he is not playing overly well, but also stated that the way we play in no way helps him. He made comment that in the 1st half we had little width and everything was too narrow...also said that too many times the build up play is too slow.
He said the reason he scored goals at the Mariners was simple, they played with 2 wide men all the time and got the ball forward to them as quickly as possible, which enabled them to get ball into the box where Aloisi was invariably isolated 1 on 1 with his defender and mostly had space around him. In contrast to us, by the time Sydney get the ball into the box there are 5 or 6 people in there competing.
Said it was very simple and direct but worked as it played to his strengths
and the best post I have read for ages.
We then signed Aloisi for this season as our marquee. He priced himself very high and the front office took a punt on him and gave him the money. So for me this does have a lot to do with the money he's being payed. yes we gave it to him, but he made damn sure he was getting the most money he could get.
Why was he in a position to do this? Because he scored 'that penalty' in 2005. Focusing on this one moment in the 2006 WC campaign is a big part of the problem. It ignores the 2 immense saves Schwarzer made in Montevideo and the two saves he made in the shootout. As Dogga has already mentioned, it also ignores why Aloisi was in the postion to make that defining place kick. Viduka missed his penalty.
Aloisi had one of the best tournaments we've ever seen from an Australian forward at the 2005 confeds cup. But that was now 3 and a half years ago. That's a long time.
Another of Aloisi's claims to fame is being the only Australian to play in the EPL, Serie A and La Liga. WHy was it he got to do this? Is it because he's in high demand? Or is it because he's a mediochre journeyman looking for his next meal? His scoring record is dismal at club level and only improved internationally buy the goals he scored against Oceania opposition that could be hard pressed to perform against a NSWPL team at times. Off the top of my head Osasuna was a relegation battling team basically the whole time Aloisi was there. They finished 4th their first season without him.
He was denied a transfer to Panithanaikos because he failed the medical.
So we have a lovely, Sydney 2005 facade built onto a journeyman striker who asked for and was given big dollars. It was a signing similar to Popa. We didn't need him.
So he gets to Sydney and is promptly injured filming those useless A-League promos. He misses out on pre-season and the first 2-3 games of the regular season.
At the start of Sydney's season we played a 4231 with Bridge up top. We moved the ball slickly and made a move away from the long ball antics of the previous two seasons. The interplay between our midfielders was getting to the potentially telepathic stage and Bridge was making a good fist of his role.
Then Aloisi regained 'fitness' he came on for the final 15 minutes of a demolition of Perth. Immediatley the passing broke down with him at the top. He's rusty, give him time was the consensus.
The upshot of Alosis's installment in the team was a shuffle that hurt a couple of players. Cole was moved from the attacking mid role he had to an unsuited fullback role. He played there in the previous NSWPL season yes, but he struggled at times at that lower level. Against A-League teams he is pretty much out of his depth as a fulltime defender.
Bridge was moved from the #9 slot to Cole's attacking mid possie. He struggles in this role, but still managed to craft himself a spectacular goal playing their.
The athletic contributions of Casey and Santalab plus the best football we've ever seen from McFlynn helped to paper over the faults in the team, the aging and decline of Corica and the fact that the centrebacks we started with were both carrying long term injuries. Then the the two subs, both pushing for starting roles and the heart of our midfield received bad injuries. Timpano and Colosimo had to have their surgery and it all went pear shaped after the Melbourne result.
The team got restructured to accomodate Aloisi, changing from our ideal 4231 to an unsuited 442 diamond, giving him the strike partner he apparently needed. Despite the fact that we don't have an equivalent of CCM's Petrovski. This then didn't work. Excuses were sighted, fitness and service being the culprits. Even thou 2 playes have managed to score more goals then him. And another 3 have scored as many. And how amazing his two goals. A tap in he almost missed and a retaken penalty after the ref took pity on him.
We're struggling and our marquee player should be someone we can turn to in hope, someone that can inspire us, someone that can create something out of nothing. Someone like, Dwight Yorke or Juninho.
Aloisi falls over if he's touched, he can't hold the ball up, he's only recently started looking like he can play somene in, he is incapable of the miraculous and is to busy flapping his arms about and complaining to the ref to inspire anyone to anything.
For $150,000 it might be ok. For $1,400,000 he's a complete joke.
He embarrases me. I find it embarrasing that my club signed him. I find his preformances on he pitch embarrasing. I feel he's disrespecting us, our club, our shirt and our city.
We changed the team when we were winning to fit him in and it didn't work. He needs to go. He's not right for us and we're not right for him.
