As an AUFC fan it's rather confounding to see what was for a time almost your entire team now playing for the soulless vacuum that is Melbourne City.

PS City fans, Malik is a lovely dude but he will continue to cost you goals, goals, goals this year. Enjoy that.

Malik was terrible. Muscat no better. Coaching had the wrong game plan. City will have a tough year.
How is it that City have any fans at all - they play with no heart.
I think the Sydney fans summed it up with their chant last night.
"All that money and you are still f..king shit"

if you only support your club when things are going good you have issues. plastic ones.

it's clear that CFG are not playing to win the league.  they want something else from the club.  the wazza signing makes almost no sense to me.

Surely City knew what they were getting themselves into with Joyce. He's never been a good coach. 

Word that Aston Villa striker Ross McCormack is coming in as injury replacement for Bruno. Should be interesting to see such a move and how well he performs in the aleague

Confirmed by Aston Villa CEO
https://twitter.com/Dr_TonyXia/status/911585511164096512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.melbournefootball.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcore%26module%3Dsystem%26controller%3Dembed%26url%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FDr_TonyXia%2Fstatus%2F911585511164096512

Well three rounds in and City are top of the ladder! Credit to Joyce.

 Although I think Joyce's City have been awful to watch despite winning all games - ugly. That is, apart from when Brattan played against Roar. The best performance  was in the first round when Brattan played.


Jakobsen has stated  he can learn the DM position. At his age though, often DMs move back to CB to prolong their careers as there is less running involved.

I identified City's weakness last year as Brattan and Kilkenny's inability to disturb build ups. Obviously Joyce has too, but to play both Malik and Jakobsen as preferred DMs is extreme.

The current converted CBs playing as DMs, are effective at breaking up attacks. Both Brattan and Kilkenny are very good distributors and move well off the ball, opening effective passing lanes to receive and are decidedly superior to J and M. This season Brattan is a lot fitter and broke up attacks against Roar more effectively than any game last season.

I'd rather move Jakobsen back to CB with Schekenfeld as his CB partner, or move Schenkenfeld or Tongyik out to RB to replace Muscat, with one staying as CB.

Or as a worse case scenario, keep La Rotta as CB to partner Jakobsen and try Schekenfeld as RB.

ATM City is totally defensively orientated. Fitzgerald's off the ball work is admirable, but I'd prefer Brandan's skill. ATM City have too many ball winners and not enough ball players in their line up, which is the antithesis of the last few seasons.

I don't know what most other City supporters think, but ATM City are very dour to watch.

 Last season City were so entertaining to watch with the football played in  between the penalty boxes and in their attacking PB. Other than Glory, who are pretty direct, most other HAL teams are playing better possession football than City are ATM.

I thought we were dire to watch after December last year; a lot of crap, meaningless possession that gave defences time to get back and made us struggle to get any meaningful attempts at goal. I''d much rather watch us now, where we absorb our opponents pressure and hit them on the counter. IMO we have still had more meaningful and clear cut chances in every match this season, just like last year where it was the opposite, despite overwhelming possession.
We clearly are not quite on the same wavelength up front just yet, but time will fix that.
Build the defence first, and the attack will come imo. It certainly worked for Sydney last year.

Also i admire the approach Joyce has of rewarding players that perform. We havent been required to chase a game yet, so our attacking midfielders havent been required.

playing with 5 centrebacks, a fullback, and a box to box midfielder.  it's very much about grinding out results and defending hard.  pretty much much what i expected from wazza. although i wasnt expecting it to be this extreme.  they are going to struggle if they are behind.

it's pretty awful to watch for the most part. we have gone from one extreme to the other.

Interesting that you and I are unhappy with the playing style, whereas others like BT 50 are happy, probably from being top of the ladder.

I surmise most share BT50's view.

I doubt there will be many Melbourne City supporters that are going to deny that we aren't playing the most entertaining football. But most will be accepting, at least temporarily, of our current improvements in comparison to the last 7 years of defensive frailties. It doesn't mean that this squad won't evolve over the course of the season especially with Budzinski, Fernando, Brattan and possibly Carrusca to step in to provide more creativity going forward. The fact that Joyce has chosen not to play these guys suggests he's doing it for the reasons 1) he's rewarding those players producing results 2) he's taking on a completely defensive approach to garuntee results early on for a few reasons we can each work out for ourselves.

 As a coach it is far easier or to fix defensive football problems in BPO, than to coach midfield possession play and attacking interplay in possession. The central midfield build ups and attacking interplay of City last season has virtually disappeared.

Joyce to his credit  has improved the defensive frailties of previous years, but has also had a great deal of luck to date. City have often won ugly.




IMO the defensive issues  often  arose in Ball Possession Opposition in City's defensive  midfield.

Kilkenny read the play well and forced 1v1 actions against the opposition, but lost many of those  encounters. Hence, he often fouled players through frustration as they got the better of him. He is a weaker tackler and heading contestant compared to most DMs.

Brattan has also played in this position. His defensive issues were different. Last season he lacked mobility.  He failed to force enough 1v1 actions against opponents. Often he was passed around too much by the opposition.

From the first game of the year that Brattan played, his increased fitness was manifest. With accolades directed to Joyce for getting him a lot fitter, he is now creating contests more often than he was. He is also making more intercepts. When he contests these actions, unlike Kilkenny he is a strong tackler . IMO  Brattan should be in the team, regardless.

Joyce has often had the 34 year old Jakobsen running all over the pitch in defensive midfield. When the other team has the ball, in BPO, Jakobsen has been pretty effective in midfield at breaking up  build ups, but  not as effective as he is as a CB. Doubtless, he is one of the best CBs in the league.

Malik deserves his position screening the defence. He  is defensively pretty good, reading the play well, but making intercepts and winning more than his fair share of  tacking and heading duels. On the ball he isn't  as good as Brattan or Kilkenny, but he is still adequate as a distributor.






It appears that Joyce has set out City to play as a team where the greatest priority is Ball Possession Opposition. 

Even though Brandan is not  fully fit, when he was he  tracked back and defended well. Definitely Fitzgerald and possibly Kamau may do this better in Ball Possession Opposition. When fully fit, Brandan is probably better better on the ball  than both of them, particularly his handling speed, 1v1 evasion skills and first touch.






It is this B{PO where McCormack may be better than Cahill at closing down space, forcing turnovers, and he may create more assists for teammates, than Cahill did does as a  central striker.

 However, a big part of being a central striker is scoring goals from open play - not taking penalties and free kicks. To date McCormack either has only 1 goal from open play or none.

 I've seen him miss so many opportunities to score. There is no equivocation   that Cahill is a better penalty box predator in terms of anticipating the final ball from attacking interplay  and putting it between the sticks.




La Rotta - This guy has been used as a CB for his ability in BPO, whilst Joyce has deployed Jakobsen as a ball playing CB.

If Jakobsen was  utilised as a CB,  partnering Schenkenveld, City have two excellent ball playing CBs to play out, using two  distribution points  to commence build ups starting from the back through central midfield.


The premise for adopting  the possession  style game, is that seven out of eight world powerhouses in world football, defined by results over decades, tend to play out from the  back, through midfield as a style of ay.


As a corollary, UEFA Champ League, ( which may be applicable to a higher level of football than City) teams  who have more possession in the attacking third, than teams who don't, score more goals, and win more games.

 

Results   have a 40% probability of chance.

It is only an opinion, but City should've won less games than they have to date this season.

For mine, City are nowhere near as entertaining as last year.

To build up like they did, depends on  a lot of players moving into position to support their team-mates effectively, before they receive the ball. This is very difficult to achieve. It involves quick thinking, excellent technique, teamwork and running off the ball at diagonal angles in order to receive and play forwards with effective body shape. City did this superbly last year. The City coaching was good when they had the ball and they had good cattle in possession.


City have gone backwards as a possession team this year.

It's probably worth noting that, despite what you may think, none of the Melbourne City players play for any of the eight world powerhouses in world football. Not even Caceres!

City/Heart have NEVER done that well. Runs off the ball have always been poor to non-existent. The closest was when we had Mooy and Fornaroli making the team look a lot better than they actually were.
In reality, we had a team that defended like monkeys, and were really good at keeping the ball without threatening with it. Now we have a team that defends pretty well, and with a player that can take a really good free kick.

The international scenario  extrapolates to EUFA CL football too.

Any team who can maintain possession, particularly in the attacking half and third, has to have effective off the ball movement to open prudent passing lanes.

This is needed  in order for players to have the optimum body position to keep playing forwards. Otherwise they cannot maintain possession except  if the opposition plays a partial press in BPO.

To play a possession game requires a lot of work for a team. Who says or/and communicates what to who and when is integral for a team to maintain possession.

Good technique in terms of first touch, handling speed, being two footed and being able to strike the ball accurately with appropriate weighting is essential for possession football, particularly in tight spaces.

As I understand it, City had the highest possession stats of any team last year. This verifies they had to have reasonable off the ball movement as opposed to players being relatively static in Ball Possession.

Check out there youth team, they beat Victory last week 9-2! 

I think its confirms that they have the best young talents in the country, its a shame they might not get a run in the senior team as Joyce is reluctant to play them. 

You might see a couple play tomorrow with a bit of luck. They have some real quality young lads and will easily cope with Hal standards imo. 

Against CCM last night City played some decent football, particularly in the first half.

For once I take my hat off to Joyce.

There was better teamwork in structured possession and build ups on display. I'd still like to see Kilkenny playing a role in the team, as well as a fit Brandan.

Dario Vidosic signed. Happy with that as a replacement for Brandan or to play in the number 10 role.

so why isn't arzani getting more time?

the standard for a youth to get game time should be to be equal to the players on the pitch not the best on the field!

Whilst he has had a bit of injury issues and also time away for the national team it's been a question I've been asking most of the season. According to Joyce his fitness has been the main problem and apparently after twice returning from national duties was in far worse condition than when he left. I watched him during pre season including some closed door practise matches and it's been obvious for a while he is far and away ahead of Kamau. Especially given the hat Kamau has had so much exposure up until this point. He still has some major deficiencies that if not addressed will mean he won't go any further than being a luxury player at best. Given that Arzani is Tremlett confident and has acknowledged he's been able to get away with certain things under past coaches (typical talented player mentality) this is where I think he is best suited to the hard nosed style of Wazza as the two complement each other. Wazzas tendency to focus on work ethic, discipline, defensive duties are the areas he needs most work in. There's been some suggestions on here he'd work well with Gombau whereas I think the opposite. I think Gombau would be too soft on him and not address these deficiencies like Wazza and therefore let him get away with those areas he needs most attention. And it was good to hear Arzani say as much in his press conferences to regarding all these points.

Even as good as he was in attack last night, he was pretty poor defensively and didnt show much endeavor to get back and defend. Think Wazza is probably perfect for him developmentally, and if he can do the right things has a big career ahead of him.

Definitely this. Arzani has an immature approach to his defensive roles. Basically he does not want to defend; so he does not track back or try and win the ball after losing it. This is disrespectful to his team mates. It is an arrogance based on believing he is above the menial task of defending. He believes his energy, efforts and talent should not be wasted on those aspects of the game. I believe this is what Joyce was referring to in his comments. 

And I agree with him.  Arzani that is.  Because pretty much every play maker in history was and is like that.  Defending is for those who can't play.

Didn't he win the ball before he won the free kick? I think he's issue is not defending or tracking back as he shown he can do it to a certain degree but i think last night he got subbed off as he ran out of energy, wasn't it his first start in the A-league?  Prior to that hes had a handful of minutes.
He might not have that volume of games or fitness to play for 90 minutes at this stage i remember the likes of Amini and Rogic were similar in fact most younger guys are similar on that regard when they start out, that will probably come in time as they get more older and experienced.

i reckon joyce will cut fornaroli. i will be surprised to see both joyce and fornaroli at city next season.  

Isn’t Fornaroli only 1 year into a new 3 year contract? And is club captain?

Why on earth would he be cut? He’s a gun.

"Didn't he win the ball before he won the free kick? I think he's issue is not defending or tracking back as he shown he can do it to a certain degree but i think last night he got subbed off as he ran out of energy, wasn't it his first start in the A-league? Prior to that hes had a handful of minutes.
He might not have that volume of games or fitness to play for 90 minutes at this stage i remember the likes of Amini and Rogic were similar in fact most younger guys are similar on that regard when they start out, that will probably come in time as they get more older and experienced."

@Barca4Life

Granted fitness is certainly a factor in his substitution. But also the fact we're 2-0 up and the glory players began to play the man and not the ball were reasons as to the substitution I feel. My point though is it is as much match fitness as it is an ingrained attitude to defending and work ethic with regards to him. Sometimes he should defend but he chooses not to. Other time he should defend and he does. We need him to play his role and defend everytime he should. Btw I can tell you unequivocally that I have been a big advocate of him well before most, so my criticism is because I want to see him do well.