very good i reckon. Deng, Niedermeier and Ansell are all in our best 11 for mine, which means Deng might have to play FB. although i'd say he's more liklely to play on the left than the right as he's more like to play ahead of Brown as opposed to Roux. Brown has played a bit of LW in the preseason as well. 

More chance playing at CB I think, unless Ansell does well and Roux does poorly, then Ansell will partner Georg and Deng shifts across to RB.

Ty for context.

I’d be absolutely stoked if Deng could become the solution to our RB problem. I think he’s a far better footballer than Risdon in terms of pure talent/ability.

Also the potential right-sided partnership of Deng/Mabil is an exciting prospect.

Iirc muscy is making him learn the ropes at fullback .Nothing wrong in learning how to be multi faceted

Victory observed training like this:



https://mobile.twitter.com/baileymgopies/status/1052362453143543808?s=19

King Kenny picking up Tommy Deng from the airport <3

@ paladiscious

Re. that formation - that would get the best out of Troisi imo, but I’m not sure it’ll get the best out of Kosta unless he’s given freedom to roam left and right.

If Kosta is free as a second striker to roam it could be a cracker.

I'm stoked to see Kev changing it up, at least.

rofl what a lad!

omg - kenny is a legend. No wonder so many people at his previous club loved him so much 

no one really knows what our formation will be. its kinda exciting tbh. 

So this was posted in the State League forum but I'm also bringing some discussion here as it relates directly to the Vuck. The FFV have released their competition review for 2020 and have come up with a new senior and junior structure:





Probably doesn't mean a whole lot for our senior NPL sides, but the biggest changes will come to our juniors.

For the first time, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City – who have long agitated for greater access to the junior competitions within Victoria – would be able to field U13, U14, U15 & U16 sides in Victorian football, an increase on their current allotment of Senior, U20, U18 and U15 allowances.

source

This means our boys will be getting a minimum of 33 games a year in the revised FFV youth leagues - a tremendous improvement for our youth. In addition to this, with the best players being able to also add another 8 games in the NYL, our best young players can crack that magical 40+ games a season marker that is important in player development.

No PPS for NPL?!

-PB

Deng likely to come in in place of one of Brown Ansell or Roux. Say it's Brown,  then our bench looks like this:
Acton, Kenny, Ingham (no other attacking options), Brown, and one of Valeri Brox and Hope
Pretty crazy for Valeri or brox to not even be on the bench. Or maybe they both are but brown drops all the way out, despite being a mainstay in preseason. Also possible that ingham misses out but that doesn't leave us with many attacking changes 

Would Hope be able to cover the wing and midfield spots? Otherwise King Kenny might be the unlucky one to drop out, given that Honda (and to a lesser extent JT and Kosta) can fill the striker spot if need be.

And people say we have no depth. Toivonen isn't fully fit. So I imagine King Kenny will get gametime at the derby. Probably a second half substitute.

Vince Rugari is reporting on Twitter that we've loaned Brisbane Roar youngster Rahmat Akbari for the season - source

Don't know much about him other than he was pretty well rated by all accounts - good to see the production line is still alive :P

He is very highly rated. I have seen a little of him. He is technically excellent.

its very vague, but i think he played a few games for Roar late last season and looked impressive?

I remember him being 'of note' in terms of youngsters. Position though? 

Akbari is an AM. He’s very good.

We’re all a bit confused why he’s going on loan with Holman injured.

What's his contract status Waz? Could be a move for us looking towards signing him permanently next season. 

Don’t know his contract status as Roar stopped publishing contract lengths last year. But he’s only just turned 18 and they’re normally on 2-3 year deals.

The loan doesn’t make much sense for Roar unless they’re either trying to off load him (the Aloisi’s do have a habit of moving kids on quick) or they think he’ll get game time during your ACL period.

Apparently he was uncontracted and has joined on a permanent deal. 

Great if true. Not sure how he ended up uncontracted though.

Craig Moore has confirmed that - source

Well you’ve got a good deal there. I’m not sure why he’s been moved on but the Aloisi’s are developing a reputation for letting kids go early if they don’t think they can make it.

Contrast that to the legend that is Shannon Brady who is in the last year of a five year contract. Never heard of Shannon? Nope, he don’t play much ...

@ Waz

So you rate Akbari then? I must admit, know very little about him other than he made a handful of appearances for you guys last season.

Victory will be streaming the doco that was on Fox Sports last night on their facebook at 6pm today.

Yeah, I rate Akbari. He’s still got a bit of physicality to build and he doesn’t have the speed of Arzani to get himself out of trouble but he has silky skills and is very creative.

He’s an absolute standout in NPL and did okay in the handful of games in the HAL. That transition from NPL into HAL is always the tricky bit, I’m assuming JA thinks he can’t do it quick enough for Roar (bearing in mind we’ve got Mauk on a 4 year contract so that might have come into consideration).