Wanderers Unbeaten Run Ends In Geelong

[mack]

The Western Sydney Wanderers have lost 2-1 in their first A-League game against newcomers Western United. The Wanderers scored early through Mitch Duke but spent the rest of the game as the clear second best, letting Andrew Durante score soon after, then ex-Wanderer Kwabena Appiah scoring the winner with a neat turn on the hour mark.

Coach Markus Babbel managed to get all 5 of his foreign imports on the park at the same time for the Wanderers, the first time the club had done so in the A-League since January 1st 2019, and early it appeared to be a winning advantage. Georgievski run saw him regain possession after he knocked the ball into an opponent, he slid the ball across the penalty area to Duke, and the Wanderers Captain took a first time shot aimed back across the keeper and into the side netting for the opening goal.

The lead only lasted a handful of minutes. Despite a bit of confusion from the officials, Western United took up a corner, the ball was swung in deep to the far post. Daniel Lopar stayed on his line. Central defender Andrew Durante had made his way forward for the set piece and was rewarded, he rose high above a poor attempted challenge by Georgievski, slamming the ball past the despairing dive of Lopar and rocketing it into the goal.

Just two minutes into the second half, yet another VAR controversy blew up, once again Lopar and his position on the goal-line came into question. The Wanderers let Diamante turn back onto his left foot, his cross arced to the 6 yard box & was met by Scott McDonald who somehow found Lopar when it would have been easier to score in the gaping hole to either side of the keeper. Lopar was deep on the line and the viewers were treated to a 5 minute long spectacle of the VAR busting out the set square, protractor and photoshop tools in an effort to determine if the whole of the ball had crossed the line, only to eventually decide that the ruling on the field stood.

It didn't make much of a difference as Appiah put the home side in front in the 58th minute. Ersan Gulum's wild mis-hit shot luckily found the feet of Appiah, whose first touch left Patrick Ziegler left for dead on the turn and on his knees. The second touch was a sweeping blow 8 yards out, that rolled past Lopar to nestle in the corner.

Despite going behind the Wanderers had precious little in the way of attack, and both star players Muller & Meier made their way off before the game ended. The substitutes, including debutante Jake Trew didn't have the answers, and the Wanderers fell to their first defeat of the A-League season, along with a drop to 3rd place on the A-League ladder.

The Wanderers have a bye in Round 6, their next game is in Round 7 against Melbourne City, on Friday November 22nd at the Western Sydney Stadium, kick-off at 7:30pm.

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[pseudonym]

[Beer]

Lopar wasn’t going to keep saving us forever. 

Still early days but the squad needs to get its sh*t together quick smart. 

[wswnick]

It wasn't over the line. Lopar is the line. Has to pass him completely to count. 

[sonar]

Babbel's presser will be interesting again this week...I'll take a bet and say his first comment will be...." we didn't bring the performance on the pitch that we wanted"...!

[Pup55]

What a horrible experience this weekend has been.

Rubbish Sydney airport cancelling 50+ flights yesterday.

Rubbish drive from Melbourne to Geelong today - there is literally nothing here.

Rubbish atmosphere in Geelong itself - place is a shithole.

Rubbish stadium.

Rubbish weather.

Rubbish atmosphere.

Rubbish crowd.

Rubbish performance by us.

Rubbish performance by the referee.

Rubbish game in general that hardly deserved a winner.

If they are going to be "based" out of Geelong for 3-4 years whilst they wait for a new suburb to be built so they can build a stadium in this new suburb, then they are going to never get off the ground and fail as a new team. How the **** anyone can decide that this franchise was a better option than South Melbourne, Canberra, Illawarra, or Tasmania I will never know.

Onto our performance - also rubbish. Outside of 45 mins against Victory and putting the body on the line against Sydney, our results have definitely not matched our performance. Bye next week has come at a good time and I'm not prepared to give up yet because we have plenty of talent, but I'm not convinced the 4-2-2-2 formation is the right one for us and fingers crossed we find a way to get Schwegler on the ball more and Muller / Meier involved in the game in a positive way.

**** Western United - never doing an away trip here again.

[HillsPanther]

I enjoyed the first 5 minutes.

[wanderersfanatic]

Lucky to have 10 points.. 

 

We've been outplayed and out-posssesed after 5 games.. Duke is the only one that can score and the rest of the team don't even look like scoring.. Our defense and keeper is the only one keeping us in it.

What's hurting us is the basics of connecting more than 3 passes and being non-existent in attack.  And our injuries.. 

Other than Mentality, we are the same from last season. 

Babbel isn't the answer. 

That futballGott is Piovacarri 2.0..

Lopar is the real FutballGot.

[sonar]

Have to wait and see......

[matty]

So, can we be negative yet? 

[Pup55]

Quote from the wife after the game tonight. Keep in mind the wife never really experienced the disaster of SOP and was originally a Wellington Pheonix girl.

"I really appreciate how nice the new stadium is. I thought it was too steep and hard to get up and down at first but the views from every single part of it are a million times better than the other grounds we go to"

[SBW]

Well that was ****, besides Duke's scoring we just looked second best for the rest of the game.

I preferred the ball did over the line rather than Appiah scoring that flukey winner against us. That was a **** way to concede

[Smoggy]

5 minutes ago, sonar said:

Have to wait and see......

After a defeat just about every manager will say they want to go again asap, a defeat right before a break never sits well with players, manager or fans.

[Smoggy]

20 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

What a horrible experience this weekend has been.

Rubbish Sydney airport cancelling 50+ flights yesterday.

Rubbish drive from Melbourne to Geelong today - there is literally nothing here.

Rubbish atmosphere in Geelong itself - place is a shithole.

Rubbish stadium.

Rubbish weather.

Rubbish atmosphere.

Rubbish crowd.

Rubbish performance by us.

Rubbish performance by the referee.

Rubbish game in general that hardly deserved a winner.

If they are going to be "based" out of Geelong for 3-4 years whilst they wait for a new suburb to be built so they can build a stadium in this new suburb, then they are going to never get off the ground and fail as a new team. How the **** anyone can decide that this franchise was a better option than South Melbourne, Canberra, Illawarra, or Tasmania I will never know.

Onto our performance - also rubbish. Outside of 45 mins against Victory and putting the body on the line against Sydney, our results have definitely not matched our performance. Bye next week has come at a good time and I'm not prepared to give up yet because we have plenty of talent, but I'm not convinced the 4-2-2-2 formation is the right one for us and fingers crossed we find a way to get Schwegler on the ball more and Muller / Meier involved in the game in a positive way.

**** Western United - never doing an away trip here again.

I have done the drive from Melbourne to Geelong and is rubbish. Geelong is ok in summer holiday time if the weather is decent, I can imagine it looked a bit like the Boro on a wet winter weekend today.

Feel for the away fans today..given a **** deal.

[HillsPanther]

8 minutes ago, matty said:

So, can we be negative yet? 

Need to wait until we slide further down the ladder first.

[mack]

35 minutes ago, Pup55 said:

What a horrible experience this weekend has been.

Rubbish Sydney airport cancelling 50+ flights yesterday.

Rubbish drive from Melbourne to Geelong today - there is literally nothing here.

Rubbish atmosphere in Geelong itself - place is a shithole.

Rubbish stadium.

Rubbish weather.

Rubbish atmosphere.

Rubbish crowd.

Rubbish performance by us.

Rubbish performance by the referee.

Rubbish game in general that hardly deserved a winner.

If they are going to be "based" out of Geelong for 3-4 years whilst they wait for a new suburb to be built so they can build a stadium in this new suburb, then they are going to never get off the ground and fail as a new team. How the **** anyone can decide that this franchise was a better option than South Melbourne, Canberra, Illawarra, or Tasmania I will never know.

Onto our performance - also rubbish. Outside of 45 mins against Victory and putting the body on the line against Sydney, our results have definitely not matched our performance. Bye next week has come at a good time and I'm not prepared to give up yet because we have plenty of talent, but I'm not convinced the 4-2-2-2 formation is the right one for us and fingers crossed we find a way to get Schwegler on the ball more and Muller / Meier involved in the game in a positive way.

**** Western United - never doing an away trip here again.

At least you didn't have to listen to Slater or Archie Thompson.

[HillsPanther]

I hate it when I have to slater.

[hawks2767]

But Lederer said this was our season ? 

We lost one match, he's clearly lying.

[Upthehill]

Some odd decisions tonight with player positions.

Just odd. Not a surprising outcome

[GunnerWanderer]

It wasn’t a great game by either side but we are really struggling to get any cohesion going forward. 
 

tonight  was very weird  Meir was dropping way too far deep one time he was on our 18 yard line getting the ball?

mueller didn’t see much of the ball so can’t really comment on him yet 

another sub par game from baccus - I really hope Sullivan is back and comes in for him 

how Zeigler got embarrassed by Appiah of all people was highly alarming, hopefully jurman isn’t out long! 

[Matto97]

I'm actually glad to have the bye coming up next week because quite frankly we have been disgustingly poor to watch every game this season except against Victory. The back 5 have bailed the team out time and time again and finally our luck has run out as it rightly should tonight. Did not deserve to get anything from that much. Midfield is practically non-existent. We have been bullied in midfield by every single team we've played this year except Sydney United. The lack of any capability to retain possession and apply meaningful pressure on our opposition will be our downfall this year as our lack of a defence was our downfall last year. 

I'm honestly not very optimistic at this stage anymore, the team are now 5 rounds in and still don't appear to be improving. I just don't think we have the cattle in the middle of the park to do anything this year. Schwegler is playing there on his own, Baccus and whoever the 3rd man is every other match who makes a cameo to drop in and help are ineffectual. 

edit; I should add, there is no lack of trying, contrary to last year's team of peahearts, but hard work will only get you so far and as hard as this team tries, the lack of quality time on the ball is beginning to show. 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Matto97

[Smoggy]

Pros and cons to having the bye now, personally I would prefer a game to come quick, and think the players would also.

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by Smoggy

[DamnedUnited]

Kudos to all those that travelled and suffered through that mess. We froze but sung till the end at a miserable ground for Football. Sure they got the points but we got their precious tifo banner. 

[Beer]

That’s cool dude maybe we can trade it back for the 3 points. I know what I’d rather 

[wanderersfanatic]

1 hour ago, Matto97 said:

I'm actually glad to have the bye coming up next week because quite frankly we have been disgustingly poor to watch every game this season except against Victory. The back 5 have bailed the team out time and time again and finally our luck has run out as it rightly should tonight. Did not deserve to get anything from that much. Midfield is practically non-existent. We have been bullied in midfield by every single team we've played this year except Sydney United. The lack of any capability to retain possession and apply meaningful pressure on our opposition will be our downfall this year as our lack of a defence was our downfall last year. 

I'm honestly not very optimistic at this stage anymore, the team are now 5 rounds in and still don't appear to be improving. I just don't think we have the cattle in the middle of the park to do anything this year. Schwegler is playing there on his own, Baccus and whoever the 3rd man is every other match who makes a cameo to drop in and help are ineffectual. 

edit; I should add, there is no lack of trying, contrary to last year's team of peahearts, but hard work will only get you so far and as hard as this team tries, the lack of quality time on the ball is beginning to show. 

Hit the nail on the head. 

 

For those saying it's just 1 game.. It's practically the whole seaosn we've been playing shite. 

Very lucky to be at 10 points. 

[Neverbloom]

maybe i am wrong but i thought we actually improved from last match, not by much bit there were moments of good cohesion but that is just my opinion

i wonder where those people who were abusing everyone for being negative is considering they have not posted yet......i fear they will have an aneurysm if they read the forum with so many people being allowed to be negative and not being banned

[lloydy136]

I couldn't find a press conference to watch because I am extremely curious to see Babbel's explanation for the set up last night.

You can usually see in any match what the manager is at least trying to do, even if it doesn't work - even muppets like gumby you could see what he was trying to do. I cannot for the life of me work out what he was trying to do last night with AM. Playing him at left mid? Forcing him to track players back into his own area? A player known as a pure goal scorer who was basically not in the opponent's box at all except during set pieces - and this seemed to be by the manager's own decision. The idiot fox commentators tried to claim it was a 'fluid front 4 with players interchanging' - no it wasn't - never at any stage was AM our furthest player forward, duke & kwame switched sides every now and then but that was it, it was about as 'fluid' as a tonne of bricks.

If Babbel thinks that AM wasn't the best option as a striker then he has to be on the bench - I cannot see any value in playing him anywhere else. It is mind boggling. I understand that he needs to change things because we have really struggled to create chances over the past 3 games but I just don't understand what that was all about last night.

The stark facts though is that over the last 270 minutes of football we have been dominated both in terms of possession and chances and while grinding out results under duress is admirable - it is not something to build a whole season on when you are talking about championship ambitions.

Edited November 9, 2019 by lloydy136

[Wobblies]

There are lots of adjectives that one could apply, but I think "Wobbly" (tending to move unsteadily from side to side) is currently the most appropriate.

[btron3000]

#Babbelout

 

joke kids

 

But yeah, weird setup. I would have thought sticking with the same formation but having Muller in for Grozos would have been worthy of at least a look.

If AM is not considered the best striker in the team he should be on the bench and come on for the last 20. If we’re ahead we can use his defensive headers in our box, if behind he can be a target man.

And surely Mo Adam needs a run ahead of Yeboah. He always provides a spark (though it is easier to provide a spark when you know you’ve only got to run for 15 minutes).

I think the focus on mentality and being solid at the back was needed, but now the coach needs to somehow find a way to free the shackles and get some creativity happening. Possible changes:

• Back to last week’s formation, Muller at #10.
• Back to last week’s formation, Sullivan to #10, Muller replaces Yeboah out wide.
• Baccus to have a rest on the bench, Schwegler to have two attacking midfielders in front of him.
• Duke up top, AM to bench

Something has to be done.

[Unlimited]

Not sure why people are saying “why is AM receiving the ball in our 18 yard box and dropping deep”

Pretty sure he’s been doing that every game at least since the derby? AM is playing as an AM.