Hot Draw In Melbourne Heat

[William]

I thought we performed well as team last night given the injuries we are struggling with at the moment , let’s hope ten days of rest and recovery and a trip to Perth May give us better perspective for the future as a side note our coach is doing very well not only on the field but handles himself in interviews very professionally 

[MartinTyler]

1 hour ago, Upthehill said:

 Even Ange once noted that Australian professional players are avergaing 50 shots a day, where japanese strikers were taking 200-500 (He said 'sometimes ten times as much)

Japanese national team not noted for their sharp shooting though.

[MartinTyler]

1 hour ago, William said:

 as a side note our coach is doing very well not only on the field but handles himself in interviews very professionally 

You mean he's boring? 

[Sithslayer1991]

2 hours ago, SNS100 said:

Can composure be taught? 

Everytime our strikers are one on one with a keeper, I have zero confidence that they'll score. 

Sapsford and Antonsson have both missed their fair share of 'easy' opportunities this season. 

I feel that we could make an impact in the second part of the season if we sure up our defence (stating the obvious), and learn how to finish teams off. 

The most impressive thing over the last couple of performances, is that our boys are willing to compete. 

Ah to be fair that Antonsson chance was a tough one he only had one choice which was to chip because of the ball bounce which was easily read by the GK.

 

Sapsford is the more guilty one. Those 2 chances are chances he has buried before he was just off his game. The positive is he didn't give up. He forced Miranda into an error for tge goal. And majority of Victory errors come from Sapsford being a pest, he never let them settle in the backline. That is a sign of a mentally strong player in the making.

[William]

17 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

You mean he's boring? 

If he focuses on the soccer keeps the theatrics out of it then yea boring but worth listening to.

by the way  while we are on coaches I wonder if any body is watching “who F&$Ked Talays” health,  he was red as beatroot screaming and yelling on the sideline yesterday looked like a bad dose of blood pressure  🤭

[MajorMelons]

2 hours ago, SNS100 said:

Can composure be taught? 

Everytime our strikers are one on one with a keeper, I have zero confidence that they'll score. 

Sapsford and Antonsson have both missed their fair share of 'easy' opportunities this season. 

I feel that we could make an impact in the second part of the season if we sure up our defence (stating the obvious), and learn how to finish teams off. 

The most impressive thing over the last couple of performances, is that our boys are willing to compete. 

We have scored the most goals. Not sure why you think that our finishing is a problem. 

[StringerBellend]

8 minutes ago, MajorMelons said:

We have scored the most goals. Not sure why you think that our finishing is a problem. 

To be fair we missed some sitters in that game, but it's good we are creating a lot of chances.

 

[WSWJACK]

47 minutes ago, William said:

  while we are on coaches I wonder if any body is watching “who F&$Ked Talays” health,  he was red as beatroot screaming and yelling on the sideline yesterday looked like a bad dose of blood pressure  🤭

Was Rooney in the stands? 🤷‍♂️

[MartinTyler]

1 hour ago, William said:

by the way  while we are on coaches I wonder if any body is watching “who F&$Ked Talays” health,  he was red as beatroot screaming and yelling on the sideline yesterday looked like a bad dose of blood pressure  🤭

Yeah he's giving those Buster Bloodvessel vibes 

[SBW]

An ok performance, not a classic Vuck v WSW match.

I think the ref had a pretty poor game favouring the 50-50 calls to the vucks.

Borello, Cameron and Mata were pretty poor, Mata's Comical slip and deflection almost cost us 2 goals if it wasn't for Thomas's brilliance.

Clisby was unlucky with penalty, not entirely this fault but some will say otherwise.

Good awareness from Hammond to pounce on the loose ball and finish it off with a goal.

It was one of Milanovic's better games than the last few, but still need to stop wasting chances.

It was a relief to see Machach being subbed off because I Think he caused us too much problems and we started to attack more after he came off. 

[scarcev]

1 minute ago, SBW said:

It was a relief to see Machach being subbed off because I Think he caused us too much problems and we started to attack more after he came off. 

Big agree with this, was relieved when he was subbed.

I thought we were good and unlucky not to get more from the game, just need to get that defence sorted and we are a real top half team.  After a busy schedule, 10 days off now to get some injured players back and sort out a few things in defence and the next 4 games (Perth (A), CCM (H) Auckland (H) and Brisbane (A) are crucial to see where we are really at, we really should be looking at 9pts there before the next Derby and hopefully ESFC who have been up for a while will be softened up and injured.  We play 4 games before the Derby after our busy period lately and they have 6 games in that same period, although 4 are at home for them.  Interesting month ahead.

[StringerBellend]

4 minutes ago, scarcev said:

Big agree with this, was relieved when he was subbed.

I thought we were good and unlucky not to get more from the game, just need to get that defence sorted and we are a real top half team.  After a busy schedule, 10 days off now to get some injured players back and sort out a few things in defence and the next 4 games (Perth (A), CCM (H) Auckland (H) and Brisbane (A) are crucial to see where we are really at, we really should be looking at 9pts there before the next Derby and hopefully ESFC who have been up for a while will be softened up and injured.  We play 4 games before the Derby after our busy period lately and they have 6 games in that same period, although 4 are at home for them.  Interesting month ahead.

Hopefully we bring in a player or two in Jan as well.

Cleur back from injury will help, I'm far from convinced on our CB, but maybe he'll come good. 

If we can sort the defence we will give some teams a proper hammering.

Mata wasn't as good this game as he was the last one but he still played one absolutely sexual pass. Good to see the Stajinator using him now. 

Brillante did well at CB, I'd be tempted to leave him there unless we bring someone new in. 

Clisby was unfortunate for the pen. I blame the playing out when didn't need to for that pen, Clisby was unlucky for that one. 

#stajin #stophammondtime #hitmewithyourbonetig 

 

[Erebus]

6 hours ago, MartinTyler said:

Anyone else catch the comical post-match interview with Milanovic where embarrassingly Tara was insistent on asking him about his impact off the bench? He handled it well but I can understand where she was coming from as he had been fairly anonymous for much of the game. Apparently, he did enough to get man of the match. 

Didn't see it but reminds me when Zappers asked Bridge 

"Do you think you're building enough form now to start games soon?"

Bridge "I did start today..."

 

😂

[mack]

Marcus Antonsson, Nicolas Milanovic.. easy to confuse.

[SNS100]

7 hours ago, MajorMelons said:

We have scored the most goals. Not sure why you think that our finishing is a problem

We are out of the top six (as we have have been for the best part of ten years). We've won as many games as we've lost. Granted our defence is leaking goals, but if we didn't miss sitters, we'd convert those draws and losses into wins. 

[StringerBellend]

1 minute ago, SNS100 said:

We are out of the top six (as we have have been for the best part of ten years). We've won as many games as we've lost. Granted our defence is leaking goals, but if we didn't miss sitters, we'd convert those draws and losses into wins. 

If you concede on average 2 goals every game you are going to struggle to win more than half.

Let's take MacArthur at home we conceded 3 that's 4 to win.

 

 

[Sithslayer1991]

This was probably the first game we can really say "if we only took our chances" usually its "if we could only keep it out of our goals".  In comparison to Victory our attack is very dynamic, Victory heavily rely on Arzani and Machach to create something.

13 hours ago, SNS100 said:

We are out of the top six (as we have have been for the best part of ten years). We've won as many games as we've lost. Granted our defence is leaking goals, but if we didn't miss sitters, we'd convert those draws and losses into wins. 

I think this is inevitable. We concede too many, the average is 2 goals a game, you can't make the 6 with a defence that leaky. However halfway into the season you can see progress. The team is far more confident and believing in Staj's plan. Again the way we play is so alien to the league I really can only compare to J-league teams specifically how Sanfrecce Hiroshima play. 

Going into the Bye our position is 7th. Smurf and Nix have a game in hand to us and are 1 and 2 points behind. 3 points behind the top 6, certainly within distance to still make it as we improve, but its really close in that mid table. Fingers crossed we have a few players back for Perth or reinforcements incoming.

[Potkorok]

On 05/01/2025 at 7:44 AM, GunnerWanderer said:

yeah not sure how he was MOM.

Because apparently, in spite of their football knowledge, the pundits are unable to give MOM to anyone who isn't a goal-scorer....unless its a 0-0 draw when the keeper might be in with a shout lol

[Potkorok]

Also we have managed a win, a draw and a loss with three of the worst officiating efforts so far this season - and that's saying something in the A League! Strangely we managed to win in Adelaide with the worst of the lot IMO. That bloke had a shocker