I guess in the context of the NT, he's been 'kind of MIA' as Oar, Spiranovic and others have (For reasons Tim Cahill outlined). We were all hoping (Cahill too) for them to break through a bit sooner. But again, checking when he actually arrived, he hasn't been there aslong as I thought! So you are quite right, indeed, I agree!

Edited by GloryPerth: 12/5/2013 10:29:00 PM

Nice to see Davidson starting for Heracles Almelo against FC Utrecht.

Great for Davidson, hopefully he's not starting purely because it's the last game of the season. Zullo not in the squad so he mightve done his ankle again.

Leckie off at half time.hmmm. I still think he is worth calling up for Australia. He is good on the ball and gets things moving.

woh nice, atlast! Do you know what position he played by any chance? Hopefully it keeps up, he could still be a late bolter for the Japan squad!

Injury concern for Leckie? I thought he had a pretty forgettable 45.

Looks like LB to me. Been pretty solid so far.

Davidson is playing as the LCB in a back 3

Im pretty sure hes contracted until 2014. The worrying thing is that hes only played 3 or 4 matches the whole season. I think hes been subbed off two of those matches as well. If they are to play in Serie A i cant see him even making the match day squad unless he has a blinding pre season.

Damn, that would be an irony, considering the reason he chose to join Sassuolo a few seasons ago, were because they were a better chance of promotion to Serie A. And now they make it, he may not be the regular/in favour regular he once was, not too long ago?

Even worse when you consider that he was the captain for several years before he lost his spot.

That's bloody annoying. It's gutting (but not unduly surprising) that Leckie hasn't had Hrgota's impact at Gladbach. I looked at Hrgota's wiki page. Like Leckie he did his stint at Gladbach II, but moved swiftly from there to the first team and has prospered there. Unfortunately Leckie hasn't been able to do quite that.

Exactly right!

yep sound very good football in 2.bundesliga, but as ugly as the football can sometimes be in the champo, you can't fault it as an extremely competitive comp - so unpredictable and so so close.

I recall him being there in 2011. That was the time of the U20 World Cup. Matt Leckie was supposed to represent Australia at it, and was tipped as one of our better players. But Gladbach didn't want him to go for fear of him getting an injury. Here's the kicker though. At about that time he was in Australia and we played against him in indoor soccer (nothing serious just kick about). He was filling in for somebody on the other team (actually one of my good mates plays on the other team and is friends with Leckie, from their Bulleen days). I was like "OK, so Gladbach won't let Leckie play for Australia in the U20 World Cup for fear of injury. That's a bit retarded given it's a great opportunity for his development, etc. But he's allowed to play indoor soccer? WTF!!!"

As for the idea of him moving on elsewhere. I think his best bet is to stay where he is, or move to a similar club (no higher than a low-ish Bundesliga team where he can expect game time). If he has to stay longer in Bundesliga II, it's not the end of the world. He's not lighting the world on fire, like a Hrgota, unfortunately, but that's better than nothing. It wouldn't be a bad move to go into the Eredivisie. But I'd be against him going into the Austrian league, like James Holland. I'm not sure it has done Holland all that much good (although his limitations might just be natural). Holland reckons that the Austrian League is similar to the A-League (for all but the top two teams which are better). Although Holland may have been saying that to support the A-League. But if there's any truth in that, it tells us the quality of the league isn't anywhere near good enough compared to German and Dutch leagues.

lol Davidson red

Unluckyyy

Woh thanks for that Quickflick, interesting anecdote. Unfortunate how such decisions early in a career can have such repercussions. 'Sliding Doors' syndrome I guess. But as you say, still not over yet, even if he stayed at the club. But IF he has a good offer, options elsewhere, including, dare I say, Bundesliga II, then why not take it? Especially if the Bundesliga II club might be one of the stronger ones.

I'd take Holland's word for it on the Austrian league, in terms of that makes sense according to other indicators. We also often overstate European leagues and understate our own. But these days the gap closes. The difference is still the same old, longer league season, more fixtures and depending on club, chance of European football - that makes a difference. Holland by many accounts has dominated in the Austrian league, making the team of the year?

So in Holland's case, he keeps performing, he will only get noticed and see re-elevation elsewhere.



Damnit - Young player issue, needs more experience - that's what I mention with Lowry too, sooo many yellows and suspensions. What Davidson did there and what Lowry likely does, you just CAN'T do in international football, especially not heat of AFC qualifying.

But given it's his first start/game time for a long while and last game of the season, no surprise he might be 'caught out' a bit.

Really hope he secures regular football at his club, this next coming season, not only for usual, supporting the Aussies Abroad reasons, but because he's still our best potential LB prospect and I saw snippets of it again this game.

good distribution, including a longer pass to the run of a striker that created a decent half chance. GREAT leap on him too - medium height player, but boy, he can get up there. Really got up for one, for one of Heracles' corners. No wonder he's been utilised at CB and in back three!

He was tending to get a bit too forward at times, so caught out when, the better team, Utrecht, countered forward. That may've been his instruction though, to support the attack, as much of Heracles' forward player has been via their left side. He's a physical player, despite more slender side frame - he will only get stronger. That's to be expected of a defender, but just not clever enough. He has some pace, but couldn't get infront of the man he brought down, probably outmuscled a bit for position. Maybe positioning generally may need to be improved - though this is hard assessment from just 15 minutes of viewing, first I've viewed him since the Scotland game!


Oar has been a reasonably constant threat and it was ironically his cross ball in which saw Davidson bring down the man he was marking, just as he was about to latch onto it.

Edited by GloryPerth: 13/5/2013 12:15:34 AM

When does Davidson's contract run out? Hard to see it getting renewed.

Actually maybe he IS a converted winger, like Zullo and all the others? He seems comfortable going forward and though he seems reasonable defending, I don't think that's his instinct or I mean, tactically, he seems naive? I know that can apply to most young players, but he got caught forward a bit and had to chase back into position a few times.

Mind you he wasn't the only Heracles defender who made a costly mistake - Their #3 slipped on the ball, attempting to step on it, to hold it up along the sideline, not taking safe option of letting it go over. Instead he slipped on it and fell over and the challenging attacker ran forward with a 2 on 1 against the other lone CB for Utrecht's opening goal.

That's probably partly why Davidson was pooring forward so much. Obviously team searching for equaliser and they WERE finding more success on the left via Davidison, for a period.



He only just joined, start of this season... according to the reliable transfermarkt:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/jason-davidson/profil/spieler_137669.html

End of next season, mid 2014.

Edited by GloryPerth: 13/5/2013 12:24:27 AM

Troisi subbed on for Atalanta

does anyone know when chris herd and adam sarota are due back from injury? will they be in pre-season?

GloryPerth

re James Holland. To be fair, I think I've misrepresented his pro's and con's. I think he is a fairly limited player, but one who can do a very good job in the right circumstances (as he is doing in Vienna). He's not a fast, technical midfielder with fantastic distribution. That, in itself, means he is a limited centre-midfielder who will probably only be so good. But he is a work horse, he can close down play and he can pass it on to a more fluent team member (preferably in the centre of the park also). Now if he can do that and he is paired with one the better type of midfielder that I describe, then that balances out midfield rather nicely and Holland becomes very useful. I imagine that is how things are done at his club.

The trouble is, as you have astutely remarked, that when Holland was paired with Jedinak, they were both such limited players that it both killed the game (we couldn't distribute the ball) and imperilled Australia insofar that Oman stood on our throats in the centre of the park. It's all about balance. You can have limited players with specific strengths, you just shouldn't have too many of those players. To that end, ideally we want Sarota (when fit) in the centre of the park alongside Holman, Jedinak, Herd or Holland. But we don't have a fit Sarota at the minute. We have to compromise with Rogic. I worry, though, that Holger, lacking intelligence and being shit scared of the vulnerability of his centre-back pairing (as someone else on these threads astutely observed), will not try and find a technical, visionary replacement for Sarota but will instead opt for two of the enforcer type centre-midfielders.

As for the A-League. It has come leaps and bounds. The outbound players are testament to how greatly it has improved. With things like the National Curriculum in place, I hope that it will continue to improve greatly. Some of the indications I'm hearing from 442 bloggers suggest the youth is improving so much that the A-League will get better and better. So that's great news. I merely criticise the Austrian league in the sense that for a player like Leckie, at this stage of his career, he should be looking to digs his heels in in leagues of similar quality (Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga, Eredivisie) and move forwards not backwards.

Herd was out with his foot injury, I think it was, 'till end of season.' So I presume he will be back in a couple months or sometime during Villa's pre-season.

Thats great news.

That applies to 98% of our players I think, INCLUDING most of our Socceroos, bar perhaps Kewell and Rogic? Even those better rated in the area, like Bresc, he has good technique, at times, but I've seem him have poor technique too and limitations in tight space. But Kewell, Rogic, Carle and some others, they are more on a level with other players we face at all international levels. Maybe we do have MORE, but they aren't brave to try? That may contribute. But that's why our players need to work harder and be more disciplined, and we've always been that. Nothing on a platter. As they say '1% talent/inspiration, 99% hard work/perspiration' and that's how all our boys have achieved - Not unlike our Aussies in Hollywood, Europe is almost a kind of 'restart' in a way, from star in Australia to humble beginnings/no rep again, in Europe.

Holland went for little to no club football in Europe to alot of good regard, even if it's not as strong. It's case by case ofcourse, so hopefully Leckie can find that balance, between chance of first team and a team/league which suits his ambition/potential - which may still be his current team. But it's annoying seeing some of our best young talents 'riding the pine' for what can seem 2-3 seasons on end, just when they are needing to see more regular senior football.

Conservatism reigns for Holger and will against Japan. 'Keeping them out' will be the objective no doubt, especially after poor defensive display last game. There will be 2 screeners (Jedi-Milligan or the like), despite the wish of most of us otherwise. Holger was burnt by the Jordan experience too, when Bresc and McKay was the CM I think and we got over run. So he knows we need a substantial physical and defensive presence there. And even with that, we still concede. It must be infuriating in a way and is for fans too, lack of a stable back four selection does not help one bit.

A chocka block Sunday wrap of the Aussies abroad http://osaussies.com/sunday-wrap-32/

my money is on troisi starting next year. He is a very talented player

meanwhile we have an abundance of wingers: troisi, ruka, oar, sarota, leckie, kruse

at this rate in 5 years will have wingers to rival any top ten nation

Troisi was playing quite centrally and drifting to the right so perhaps that is why it's taken so long for him to adjust and get a look in. With Keyserispor he was always up and down the park on the left.

Troisi is owned by Juventus... Unless he goes on loan somewhere again (in which case he is not rated by Juve) he will not start.

Sarota has more to offer in the middle of the park IMO, his distribution is unreal. He can hit a penny from 50 yards.