My comment was more around the impact that those four missing Victory players will have in comparison to the players starting today. They are huge signings expected to make a huge impact. 

Kind of a match report:

https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/football/a-league/brisbane-roar-melbourne-victory-share-spoils-in-tense-preseason-clash-that-threatens-to-boil-over/news-story/53c3eb281f24414a1c9b5d343b2f5332

Another game again AL competition and another winless one. We need that 6 or we won't be playing finals. That Victory team at full strength would've murdered us.

Tbh waz , the field looked pure crap ,conditions really didn’t suit the type of football we want to be playing , not panicking yet , lol.

For crying out loud “the Victory team at full strength would have murderered us” ... are we the most pesemistic bunch or what?

We’ve got Avraam/DeVere to come back in.

We’ve got (hopefully) a visa DM to come in.

Holman off the bench is still to come

Victory looked nothing special today, Barbarouses played to the conditions and dived like it was a swimming pool

So let’s look at “who’s to come in”:

Ola looks the goods but won’t score much more than Taggart.

Honda is good but Mauk is good enough. Remember Honda was talking about retiring before victory overpaid for him.

Georg in defence is no better than Avraam, only more injury prone.

Raul Baena is an unknown but nothing special if we match it with our own visa DM.

Its still early days,but clearly even with an early start to training ,Roar has not shown anything special to say it will be dominating anyone.
Unfortunately unlike teams like say City we are not finding that something special get the win.
We still haven't beaten anyone but a second rate WP.
Throwing in a few defensive players may make us better defensively.But thats debateable.DeVere and Avram have played together and not done any better than Pepper and whoever has been his partner.
It looks like Roar will be competitive if they can keep players fit and maintain the grit and determination.However I dont see them having the quality to rack up lots of goals and get easy wins.It's graft city.
Considering the extra effort that has gone into preseason this year so far,we are not outshining other teams who have started training later.SFC,MV and MC= zero wins.WP - win.

It's hard to know how much MV will improve with their A-List visa players.But you would think they have a lot of improvement.Same for SFC.

I’ll say it again

“For crying out loud”

😂

The last time we had a preseason like this was only a couple of preseasons ago when we lost to victory on GC, beat ccm at Sunshine Coast, drew with (a then ooor) Newcastle, lost in the FFA cup first up as usual and just smashed some local teams .... but then finished equal 2nd in the A-League comp and should’ve won but drew victory in the last game.

Now we’ve lost FFa cup (but matched a near full city), - beat a poor Wellington, and drew with Sydney and victory ... who knows how it will play out but for crying out loud guys, calm down lol

WAZ get with the program, its negative posts only on 442 brah :laugh:

Taggart the last two seasons:

24 games and 12 goals
14 games and 8 goals.

He’s good for 20 goals this season. There won’t be many that beat that.

@ WSF

ha ha, forgot about that rule ...

@Waz,There's nothing wrong with having high expectations.It follows on from the Ange era when we dominated everyone.
Last season SFC were a level above everyone else and easily won the Premiership and stll didn't even get to the Grand Final.
Nobody knows how this season will unfold,but you can only make a judgement based on what you see on the field .
We know last season Roar struggled in the midfield ,had regular defensive lapses and looked disjointed up front.
So far this season,the defence looks more consistent,including defensive structure in transition and Mauk has added mobility in transition .
We are still struggling to score and still look a bit lost upfront(when we get tha ball in the front third we dont seem to control possesssion.like last season).
Come summer we still have McKay and TK ,a year older and having to get up and down the pitch and stay fit.
We also have Holman to come in and either add attacking flair or screw up synchronicity.
There is still an unknown DM to come in who could make a difference.
Major differences from last season....Taggart,Mikelsen,Mauk and a fit ,if slow ,TK.
A lot of other teams have had roster changes and coach changes that could be good or bad.
Put all that through the position calculator and who knows where we end up on the ladder.
In my opinion,if we keep players fit,then we should be a comfortable top six team,as opposed to last season where we clawed our way to the six.Beyond that,based on what is happening in preseason so far, I cant say we will be a top four team.
We need winning form to be confident of a top four place.
There is still another 7 weeks to go though.As the season gets closer we should get a better idea if Roar are serious contenders or pretenders.

Still 7 weeks to go , ffs longest off season I’m any sport worldwide , really need another 4 teams in , kick off in September and run til may with international breaks inline with the European leagues .
Players going stir crazy with a 5 month layoff .

@ crimsoncrusoe

Yeah, I know where you’re coming from all I’m saying is preseason is way too early to judge what’s going to happen and (on this thread) we’ve hit a negative tone really early over nothing.

Rather than have “high expectations” it seems the other way around - low expectations in that people are expecting the worst.

An injury free Taggart will hit 20 goals I recon. That’s our major problem from last season sorted. All the rest we’ll see soon enough ..

The problem is that we can't control a game through the middle of the pitch because McKay is a spud and TK is getting slower. Teams stomp all over us and we collapse around them trying to make up for their deficiencies.

You compared this bad offseason to the one we had 3 seasons ago in terms of results, yet McKay's form has fallen off a cliff since then and we had Corona as head and shoulders the best midfielder in the league controlling out play. We can't win whilst carrying players who aren't up to standard, the league is past that point.

@ BrissyRoo

But we absolutely controlled the FFA Cup game against City and our only weakness was finishing.

It’s just some are making a statement then asserting it to be true and thereby saying the season is written off lol. All I’m saying is calm down. This is a bloody good squad. And from what I’ve seen so far Mauk will sort our midfield out, the bloke is a bloody good footballer with a thug hidden inside 😀

TK is one of the best DMs in the competition, his quality means any age related issues are negligible. McKay is a slightly different proposition and I agree we can’t go through an entire season with this pairing - a new DM can only come into the discussion (a) when he’s signed and (b) when JA picks him over Mackay.

Will Caletti start instead, or Mauk drop back, or Nigro play DM? All are possibilities within the current squad.

I'm hearing ya Waz.
But I also feel like a season similar to last year again this year could kill this club. We need a big one.

@ BrissyRoo

Another season like last year would yank the carpet from under the clubs feet I agree. The pitiful crowds Reds and Lions got this winter are a reminder of what Queenslanders do for poor teams.

I think the squad as assembled is a 3-6 place and probably 3-4. To be genuine top 2 we need that last visa player imo. or JA pulls a coaching rabbit out of the hat, which I don’t think he’s capable of based on track record.

But the squad, while lacking in the star power of SFC and Victory, has a lot of depth to it (a bit like City’s).

If we assume Roar don’t get that DM then Aloisi has some tough coaching decisions to make (again, the question mark is can he make the tough calls?). The first question is what formation to play - a 4231 will expose his squad weakness at “6” unless Caletti has a breakout season, but a change to 433 (which they did in the Cup) might make better use of available resources:

Young
Hingert, Avraam, DeVere, Nigro;
Mauk, Kristensen, Holman;
Mikkelsen, Taggart, Bautheac;

Again it lacks the standout star-power of Vuck/SFC but a good coach would do very well with this squad.

When can Kosta apply to become an Aussie?

I think 442 would be a better formation for that 11
                  Young
Hingert, Avraam, DeVere, Nigro;
Mikkelsen, Mauk, Kristensen, Bautheac;
           Holman
                     Taggart,

@ clockwork

I like that. I did think about a 442 as well particularly as Taggart thrives in that environment. But while it makes the best use of Holman I’m not sure a Holman/Taggart is a great combo (although when Holman/Maccarone fired on the few occasions they looked good).

That midfield combo of TK/Mauk has to be the answer though, whether it’s in 4231, 433 or 442 ... those two need to anchor the midfield.

In all these formations though there’s one nagging question - can Aloisi bring himself to drop Mackay?

That's the big question, Waz, Aloisi needs to show some guts and drop McKay out of the starting XI. It's pretty bloody clear to everyone else that McKay has lost it and isn't up to being a starting XI player, so Aloisi should be able to see it too. I think given how many pre-season games he has been playing, it's already clear that unless we bring in that marquee DM, Matty will be starting. That is absolute crap considering we have Caletti and Nigro who are two great young DM talents who will waste away either on the bench or not even in the squad. 

If we don't bring anyone else in, i'd love for us to play a 433 with TK and Nigro as the DM pairing and O'Toole at LB. I think we need to give O'Toole a season to develop and I think he has what it takes to own that position. I also think having Holman coming off the bench is a great asset and plays to his strengths (and weaknesses in terms of fitness and not being a 90 minute player). 

Starting XI for me:

Young
Hingert, Avraam, DeVere, O'Toole;
Kristensen, Nigro (or new DM),
Mauk;
Mikkelsen, Taggart, Bautheac;

Bench: White, Bowles, McKay (or Henrique), Holman, Wenzell-Halls

Will we get some info from the Roar re a new DM this week ? ....they do love a good bit of suspense don't they ? Wonder if Flamini is still a thing ? Didn't Waz say the Roar said they would advise if it fell through ? No advice yet ...

@ miron Mercedes

Roar don’t release anything on player signings until it’s all done and dusted including medical and visa, that’s club policy apparently. Flamini was an ffa leak apparently but they did commit to “no news” while negotiations were on going but if the deal died they would make sure that fact leaked out.

....so no news may mean things are ongoing ?

Seems to be the case. I think as soon as it is off, Vince, Marco or some other Journo will be letting people know (and hopefully we will sure up another target quickly after). 

yeah, recon Vince’s twitter is the one to watch - he seems to have the connection

We should put a call in to Claudio Marchisio. Maybe ADP can tell him living in Aus is great. Thats the dream scenario really.

Tommy Oar to Mariners. Farks sake, how far can that bloke fall?

Ewww, thats embarrassing, career over id say. 

Now that I think of it isnt Bolt also going left wing haha competition for Oar

Wonder what went wrong there ? Was he all speed and nothing else ? Maybe lost a half yard and is without an edge ? He certainly isn't overly skillful with the ball.