I think this is pretty much spot on. For round 1 I think Franjic will be brought into the middle for McKay and Yeboah will start out wide.

The other alternative is to bring Broich into the middle and play Corey Brown on the left. Not my favourite option, but Brown has been playing well in pre-season and you can't say he doesn't deserve a chance.

Personally Henrique is not a starter for me anymore. He is a fantastic squad player but he just doesnt have the quality anymore to be a starter for mine.

+1

Hopefully he gets his citizenship soon, because it's hard to justify him as taking a visa spot anymore.

The backline with North, Donachie, Smith and Steff is my preference.

Whilst Hingert is a great tenacious defender he has feet like bricks. More importantly though having Donachie (who was outstanding last season) will desperately provide us with much needed height in a team full of midgets.

We will NEVER win the league if you don't have the height issue rectified.

That would totally fuck up the defensive structure but whatever floats ur boat.

Indeed. We need quick fullbacks overlapping and unfortunately North is not one of them. Better utilised centrally.

Whatever formation is used, it's gotta involve Broich on the left. There's been a couple times where Broich has played that central play makers role and it just doesnt work as well as you'd think it should

Yeah Broich's dribbling ability is his best asset. When he played in the centre he was getting swarmed and couldn't handle it. What could happen is that Brown could be subbed in and broich could move into the centre, but not for a whole game, rotation of players is key really.

I could definitely live with that. Brown has been very solid in pre-season. The whole team have been abiding by the interchangeability mantra, so little changes like that during the course of the game could certainly come into play. Just hurry up A-league season I reckon!

Please explain why that would be the case?

Agreed, I was quite annoyed last season when they signed him to a long term deal. I think because of his injuries the league has passed him by, I can't say I'm a fan,.

I draw your attention to the 2010 season...

Who in the victory squad is above average height? Yet they are still up there as favorites. I don't see a problem with our height as our back 4 are quite solidly built so they should make up for the couple of inches they may give away to their opposition, meaning they can use their body to win the ball.

At least we had Erik Paartalu (whom incidentally scored the equalizer with his head in the GF) and we also had Jurman to help defend set pieces (as useless as he may have been in other areas). Victory are in the same boat and will be found wanting by teams who have the capacity to explore that weakness.

If Donachie is in the starting X1 that would help somewhat but we will miss a Paartalu type whom from time to time can pull one out of the bag when no-one else can at crucial times. To be a title winning team all bases need to be covered.

I see your point... but in terms of defenders, we haven't been hindered by small backs. In 2010 the back line had Smith and Susak as the CB pairing, both not giants. I cant recall too many corners in recent times where we've conceded due to taller players dominating our defenders. Mostly it's been poor marking- especially at the back post(stefanutto)- that's resulted in some soft goals off corners. We also do have decently sized options in defence with North and Donachie.

I do have to say that we don't have an impact player, like Partalu, who can sneak in and score those headers off our own corners. We're not very threatening off corners, I've got to say.

Regardless, I'm feeling pretty positive about the upcoming season. Think we can be real contenders even though we are a team of midgets.

I'm more confident of achieving top 3 or 4 and being a "contender" as well, however the fine tuning I refer to is needed to be a champion.

Edited by paulc: 26/9/2013 04:07:47 PM

If there is a downfall I don't think it'll be due to height.

Name what's more of a shortfall (pardon the punt lol).

Well if the fact that our players are an inch or two shorter (Which I don't think they are) is our only weakness this season then I cant see how we wont win the league :lol:

Your making a big deal about such a minor almost none existent point. If our back 4 were all under 5 foot 7 and some other teams had a Peter Crouch then it would be a problem but we don't and they don't.

Squad size, we are only at the minimum
Berisha getting a long term injury
Mulvey allowing the squad to loose focus and loose control of the dressing room.
Theo getting a long term injury/out of form, Acton isn't really a great replacement

All of those points are much more of a worry then and inch of height

Roar 5-0 up against Olympic FC. 56" now.

Mulvey = Legend

goals are flying in according to twitter. 10-1 now with a hat-trick to Ricky :d

yeah sorry Ricky we doubted you... :oops:

So 11-1 to Roar over Olympic with a hat-trick to Ricky, doubles to Broich, McKay and Yeboah and Litfin and Borrello chipping in with a goal apiece as well.

Not a bad afternoon's work.

11-1 FT. Ridiculous score. Makes the state league look terrible

And they're supposed to be the winner of QLD league too I think...

Anyway, can't be happier with the whole pre-season. Apart from the first game which was a loss (I assume it's experimental), only Wolves FC and CCM managed to somewhat hold up against our midfielders and attackers. :d

Thread title needs updating?


Anyway, for the upcoming first home game of 2013/14, hosting SFC, Roar have pretty much sold out the 'Platinum' and 'Black' sections, aswell as 'The Den'. 'Family Reserved' only has two dozen or so seats left. Still quite a number of seats left in 'Family Unlicensed' and 'Orange' rows 330 and 334, either side of 'The Den' could do with some more filling.

Hopefully we see the 'PAX' where-ever it's at now, increase by several more thousand by tomorrow evening. It was 12-13k yesterday evening.

Can you please remove "W-league" from thread title ? i find it confusing

Mckay back for this one? wasn't listed in the fox sports squad lists. If he is still out does Kwame keep his spot or does Petratos come in?

I think Kwame keeps his spot. I dont see Mulvey being the type to change things unless its for Mckay.