I hope the Roar lose. What a fat loser club.

Bruno out for this game , diddnt travwl

Fornaroli out? So Vidosic to score the goals then??

Jealousy will get you nowhere

So Roar pretty much at full strength.

The front 4 picks themselves and I’d say the two mids do as well.

But changes in the back 4 then? Bowles or DeVere in??

Devere not in the squad but I think bowles may be in. Also think Nigro might come in. Also 50-50 whether Tobi or Ricky starts. 

Yeah true, Tobi not quite securing himself a start yet

Mauk not in the squad.

So much for coming back.

Does anyone know what's going on with Devere. There wasn't any mention of him at all.

DeVere has fallen out with someone - gone in January I recon.

Embarrassing by Taggart. Total garbage from a strikervthat fancies himself as a NT player.

We have been absolutely dreadful the easiest three points ever

@melbcity guy

I think the difference between the two sides was the No. 9. We had one, you didn’t.

That's not good. Pepper and bowels are backup only they are not starters in a winning side. Need to find someone if that's the case.

Spoke to soon clockwork

At last .....a win!!!
Lopez showing his quality, great acquisition for the club.
His desperation under pressure to get that touch to Taggart to score is. Great demonstration of his quality.

@lolitsbigmic

The expression I was given last night was “he’s fallen out with the Aloisi’s” which is not the first time such words have been used.

A DeVere/Avram pairing at CB was the dream pairing pre-season and it’s inexcusable that somehow the coaching team/player have fallen out.

@Jim08

Agree on Lopez last night, he was an absolute stand-out and my man-of-the-Match.

But also good to see Mikkelsen have an excellent game, and Bautheac who was brilliant again, and O’Toole going forwards was excellent although less so in defence.

Despite the lack of love Mackay had another terrific game.

It’s bizare but it’s going to be interesting if Taggart hits form, 5 in 5 games is an excellent return but I wouldn’t say he’s played well at all this season yet.

I really don’t know what we take away from that game.
- Taggart - two great finishes (yes I spoke too soon), but 3 or 4 total botched chances. So provided we can create more than a couple a game, he’ll probablt score at least one.
- No one else looks like scoring (other than O’Toole).
- Player for player there’s hardly a city player you’d rate ahead of our opposite number, so we should always win that game.
- McKay at AM somehow worked even though he was not the one creating opportunities. Probably deserves to keep his spot, but can this formation succeed long term with only a single scoring option.
- Beautheac is immense even on one leg - gave more than most even after he was injured.
- Defence looked ok, but wasn’t really up against much. Bowles is positionally more astute than Pepper.
- could have won it 5-0, but also could have been 1-0 down if not for Young (again).

Sometimes I think this first 11 is good enough to go all the way. But equally, we could totally implode with a couple of injuries.

@ clockwork

Yeah, hard to be sure with that game.

Aloisi couldn’t afford not to win, so he went back to what he knows best – rigid formations, little off the ball movement and sacrificing possession.

In the end, the only difference between the two sides tonight was the No. 9; Roar had one, City didn’t.

Defensively we were better but we could have/should have conceded a penalty in the first half after Hingert (again) left the back door open and unattended.

But that’s a pressure reliving win which they needed.

Well i got the taggs brace prediction right.  Definitely a pressure relief winning that game but 30% possession and half the amount of passes is a little worrying. Defensively we looked 100% better though there were still a couple of lapses at the back. Bowles was positionally better than pepper and just that little bit better at reading the game, knowing when to press and when to put the ball out, but his passing was not great. We definitely need another class CB and it is a shame that Devere is on the out because I really think he is that sort of player. 

McKay had a great game and interestingly it was how he organised the front 3rd defensively that made him stand out. Organising the press really paid dividends for the team and made it hard for city to come out and play. Hopefully Mauk was taking notes because if Mauk can replicate the defensive work he will offer more in attack.

Lopez is a fantastic aquisition so calm on the ball and really much better than the league. He was quiet in the first half but in the second realised he can skin pretty much every player on the park. 

Our passing was much quicker and we look so much better when there is one touch pass and move play going on. Compare the offensive play last night to our Wellington game and it is night and day the speed at which we played.

As long as taggs stays fit (he looked a little off the pace at times last night) I think Aloisi is happy setting his team up as taggs the only outlet up front. It doesn't matter if no one else looks like scoring as taggs has shown that even if he is not at 100% he will score goals. It has been a common theme with JAs teams, he relies on on his mids to set chances up not score them and he relies on his striker to Finnish and not set chances up. 

If the recruitment staff read these threads Jordy Buijs just got relegated with nagasaki. He will likely be a free agent as of December. He definitely fits the bill of class defender. 

“but 30% possession and half the amount of passes is a little worrying“ ... it’s only a worry if it’s not intentional. Adelaide won a title on merge possession, it’s a thing.

I looked at the live stats at half time in the ground and couldn’t believe we’d only had about 40%, it didn’t feel like that because we created more chances and had more shots.

This is JAs style. I don’t particularly like it but he just needs to perfect it and get on with winning.

And hey, we scored from a SHORT corner, Fark Me ..

30% only surprises me, that's quite low, but agree with Waz. Its a tactic.
When teams are up 2-0 it's a tactic to say we've got the game, we don't need to get the 3rd, if it comes great but let's be patient and disciplined and dont let them score.
So with this in mind it's understandable, and that's what we saw, they didn't score. Plan workedbut I agree 30% is low.
Maybe it's wrong?

Roars possession last night was 36%.

Adelaide had a FULL season average of about the same when they won the title.

SFC were winning games for fun last season on similar figures, in fact when they beat City 3-0 a few weeks ago they only had 40% possession.

That is extremely disappointing. Not happy about that to freeze out 1 of our top 2 defenders is out. Be interesting to know what is the issue.

@ lolitsbigmic

Agreed. It pisses me off that any coach can fall out so badly with players, it smacks of ego - normally the coaches.

Maybe there’s a good reason but this not the first time I’ve heard that expression.

But it is what it is and if Jordy Buijs is available they’d be mad not to go for him.

That would be a good pickup.

In regards to McKay. He is a perfect defensive 10. When so many teams rely on their DM as the start of an attack and essentially play makers. Having McKay up there does a good job in disrupting that defence. Organising our forward defence to get a turn over high up the pitch seems to be the in thing in modern football.

No we didn't.

That was the year Adelaide really introduced the counter attacking football after every other team and tried to copy Ange-ball and possession for the sake of possession. they won many of the games playing with a similar level of possession to Roars last night, SFC went on to master it over the past two years, people panic too much about possession stats.

It worked for Ange but for Arnie and Amor not having possession was just as useful.