#TheDonkeyFew

I hope he knows he is going to the Botafogo in Sao Paulo, not the famous one from Rio....

Warning – Long post ahead (sorry, but it’s the offseason)

Given it is the end of the European season I have made a list of the number of games played by players frequently mentioned in this thread, just trying to collect all of the stats in one place so we can see how they went this season.

I’ve tried to list players by the position they play for their club, not the Socceroos (e.g. Degenek) and also included senior competitive games, (e.g. league and cup games) - no youth team games. All info taken from www.transfermarkt.com. If I’ve missed anyone you think should be there, feel free to add.

Name, Games Played, (Games Started), goals, assists

Forwards
Giannou 30(27) 14g 0a (doesn’t include China)
Juric 21(16) 7g 2a
Taggart 9(5) 0g 0a (all Scotland)
McGrath 30(29) 15g 3a
McDonald 41(36) 14g10a
Bullut 21(13) 1g 2a
Kruse 19(2) 0g 1a
Leckie 32(28) 3g 0a
Halloran 26(14) 3g 3a
Ikon 16(14) 1g 1a
Mabil 10(1) 0g 0a

Midfielders
Rogic 39(26) 10g 7a
DaSilva 12(3) 0g 1a
Amini 36(29) 1g 5a
Inman 42(35) 10g 4a
R.Edwards 16(10) 2g0a
Luongo 32(27) 0g 6a
Kalik 12(9) 0g 1a (Croatia only)
Antonis 7(4) 0g 0a
Irvine 45(38) 3g 11a
Jedinak 35(21) 0g 0a
Degenek 28(23) 1g 1a
R.Griffiths 20(19) 2g 0a
Holland 32(31) 0g 2a
Brillante 21(9) 0g 1a

Defenders
Smith 10(8) 1g 2a
Gersbach 9(6) 0g 1a (Rosenborg only, no SFC)
Behich 32(30) 1g 2a
Davidson 30(29) 1g 1a
Elder 21(21) 1g 3a
Meredith 47(42) 1g 4a
Dougall 34(34) 0g 2a
Wright 41(41) 0g 0a
Mrcela 26(22) 1g 1a
Sainsbury 11(10) 1g 0a (Holland only, not China)
Herd 24(21) 0g 1a
Lyden 6(3) 0g 0a
Wilkshire 7(6) 0g 0a

Goalkeepers
Ryan 21(21)
Federici 12(12)
Langerak 4(4)
Duncan 3(3)
Cisak 46(45)
Schwarzer 3(3)

No Games
Jeggo
Ibini
Brattan
Good

To keep the above post as short as possible, a couple of thoughts on that list

-   Things have come a long way from a few years ago in terms of Aussies Abroad and next year should be even better again.
-   One thing I noticed putting this together is how many 22,23,24 year olds there are, with their best years ahead.
-   Our goalkeeping stocks were one step away from being an emergency, one step away from excellent.
-   We had 7 left backs regularly starting in Europe and 0 rights backs regularly starting this season.
-   Once Sainsbury left for China, Wright and Mrcela were the only centrebacks we had regularly playing in European leagues above the A-league.
-   Midfield is looking pretty solid for the future.
-   James Meredith started 42 games.
-   Out of 44 players, half (22) are A-league #products

defence is dire but great to see the improvement in osaussies over the last 5 yrs

Great job!! Great stuff, good to see.

Jeggo played a cup match if I remember correctly.

LOL!

Name a single date in the last 15 years that our goalkeeping stocks ever been Close to an emergency. Ridiculous. They have always been excellent.

Otherwise great post.

Celeski starting
Burns on the bench yet again

Wednesday night Burns and Kawano both came on and were Tokyo's best, Burns got the second highest rating as Tokyo drew after being a goal down against Sanfrecce. I joked that this guy in charge would probably put leave Neymar out of the squad tonight. So what does he do? Leaves Kawano out and puts Neymar on the bench 😆
No wonder they're a goal down at the half to Niigata who are cellar dwellers.

Burns subbed on at half time and Tokyo equalize. Do you know if he was involved?

Burns need to leave Tokyo, too good to be rotting on the bench.

Hiriyama puts away Muriqui lay off. Front line Burns/Muriqui/Hiriyama. Burns playing well.


Finished 1-1. Neymar Burns and the goal scorer got equal top rating.

Edited by AEK Spartan: 18/6/2016 10:42:42 PM

Who's Louis Khoury?

MCFC signed him a few years ago from Castle Hill as far as I remember. Great skills.

Edited by Draupnir: 19/6/2016 12:12:23 AM

From that video I'd say he has decent skills, good upper body strength and poor taste in music. o:)

Edited by Adelphite: 19/6/2016 01:15:58 AM

Why do people put shit on Davidson , he has pretty good stats tbh?

given that rogic plays an average of 50 minutes a game, if you normalize to 94 minute games (including injury time) he has a goal every other game and an assist every three games.
Given his position of cam I would say he is the strongest player in the spl we have had. Hopefully he can string together full games next year. Hopefully he can eventually reproduce that output in a top 5 league (well if he was that productive in a top 5 league he would be one of the top 5 players in the world so maybe thats a little greedy)

Please tell me you only mean for that position, because Viduka's Celtic record obliterates Rogic's.

I'm one of the biggest Rogic endorsers around here. But you can't normalise his stats to 94 minutes.

He doesn't have the consistency across that period of time (yet).

He's still the best option Australia have (and thus should be deployed up front alongside Cahill) but it can't reasonably be suggested he would replicate his short-term form across a full match on any kind of a regular basis.

But hopefully he'll get there.

why would i mean something different to what I wrote?

You wouldn't - it's just the fact that you can barely string a sentence together that makes it difficult to interpret what you actually mean.

why not? Its fitness holding him back and its pretty standard to normalize stats that way

The main point is his productivity per minute is incredible for a cam and there is reason for hope

do you find this sentence difficult to comprehend?

"Given his position of cam I would say he is the strongest player in the spl we have had."

if you do I don't think that's my fault

Because there have been many games when he goes missing for decent periods. Surely that would diminish his productivity per minute.

I agree with you that it's encouraging that he can be so productive when he's productive. I just think we oughtn't to put the cart before the horse and suggest his tip-top form can, right now, be normalised across 94 minutes.

I should add there's an aspect of mental fitness which it requires to be able to play 94 minutes with maximum output. Not just physical fitness. It can be gained. But I wouldn't say Rogic has that yet. Although, he probably has it as much as any other Australian player.

Benjamin talks about a pyramid in which, at the highest levels, there are so few players capable playing in such and such a way (accurate shots, etc.) for 90 minutes.

For an analogy, think of cricket. Batsmen who can have not just the technique and talent, batsmen who can stay at the crease for session after session against the best bowling in the world, while scoring runs regularly, also have this temperament.

It can't be taken for granted that a young player has it immediately. But it can be developed. And based on the way Rogic has bounced back from injury and evolved his game, ain't no reason he can't develop it.

you have to be careful with team like Celtic , because they dominate the league so much, and any replacement players are still likely to be better then there opposition

Celtic MF playing min last year in SPL
Bitton 2534
Brown 1921
Rogic 1861
Johansen 1858
McGregor 1572
Mackay-Steven 1499
Armstrong 1332
Commons 1266
Forrest 1034
Allan 382

sometime the guy who can't run out 90 minutes is nothing more then the coach give the guy who on £40,000 a week a run off the bench

am i to interpret that as rogic having the 3rd most playing minutes in the spl or is that list incomplete

also I didn't follow your last sentence. Can you rephrase

Edited by grazorblade: 19/6/2016 08:13:36 AM

Celtic MF playes last season

it's easy to sub players on and off, when the sub players are still better then the opposition

Edited by adrtho: 19/6/2016 09:43:33 AM

meanwhile irvine looks good enough to play for celtic