Of course.

I dont want to derail the thread further.

Nevertheless, it seems that no matter how good a group of foreign players a club recruits, they need to have quality all over the pitch, not have too much strength in one area of the pitch and not others. City were probably guilty of this last season.

A coach also has to coach them to play cohesively as a unit. Some players combine with others better than some other players.

hope i am not derailing the thread, but what do they say when the reason theteam is losing is because the players havent been putting in the effort or are not having a go or winning the 50-50 challenges? As, dare i say it, it does appear that Melbourne City have been sometimes guilty of in the past.

Also, while you are doing this assiduous analysis of Pall possession and Ball possession opposition in all three thirds of the Pitch, is there still room for keeping things simple and concentrating on the basics? or has the modern game surpassed such backward ideas? 

Think Adelaide have made some good recruits this year but will go for Perth 

Even though they had heavy legs from pre-season training, City have looked ordinary against NPL opposition in the FFA Cup.

Given much of the City cattle have remained, they seem to be combining worse than at this time last year when many of them were less familiar with each other.

 It involves:

Anticipation of where the ball is going, or the best position to get a shot  ahead of the attacking interplay.

Craft in the penalty box - working out the best place to be in relation to loose balls.

Making intelligent runs off the ball when Cahill's team has possession. He is happy making dummy runs for team-mates to have shots at goal.

Cahill uses shoulder nudges, pushes opponents out of the way  and treads on toes, sneakily, so the ref doesn't give a free kick to the opposition. These actions often give him space to break away from opponents and make a shot at goal.

Being two footed in relation to shooting from any angle, even off balance.

Mental strength - Cahill never worries how little play he gets. Fornaroli becomes frustrated if he is out of the play for  long periods.




Undoubtedly, Fornaroli is a better 1v1 evasion exponent than Cahill.



Last year though, from open play per minutes played, apparently Maclaren, Taggart and Cahill scored more goals per minute played than Fornaroli. The Uruguayan scored a lot of goals from penalties. HAL defences have worked out how to play against Fornaroli more effectively.

It is a bit strange to argue that City need another striker other than Australia's top scorer at international level over a sustained period. If Cahill can score all those goals against international opposition he is easily good enough to score in the HAL. His predatory instincts are still very good in the penalty box.

What does that involve? Popping crosses into the box? Pinpoint corners?

Fornaroli isn't just the biggest loss to City he's a loss to the league. They need quality to replace him.

Literally 99.99% of coaches don't deal with salary cap scenarios either. But very interesting to dismiss a team to come last after being beat by a team who has dominated everyone they have faced for a year now. Not like City have been the worst performing team in the cup either.

If they come 10th they'll probably come last too mate. 

I think Cahill is a better finisher than Fornaroli.

City's current issues involve the lack of service to Cahill.

Gotcha, my bad did not see it. 

Have been thinking this also, makes you wonder which clubs will be a disappointment. 

Adelaide - have recruited well and you'd expect them to be right up there.
Brisbane - same deal, they seem to be building a decent squad
Mariners - probably the best Mariners squad since they won the league
Victory - starting to build finally, but need more depth. Can't expect MV to be outside the 6
Sydney - look stronger than last season, enough said.
Wanderers - look to have recruited well and could have a big season

Above are my picks for the 6 based off recruitment, so then you're left with

Perth - look OK but with recruiting of others might struggle, will push the other sides
City - If they don't replace Fornaroli with a top striker they may be in trouble, but again will push that top 6
Newcastle - recruited a lot better, won't be pushovers and will want to finish in the 6
Wellington - only club I can really see struggling this season.

I reckon we're going to see the quality of football improve this season overall.

Easy that's Sydney FC, can't beat the quality of Bobo, Ninkovic, Boijs and the new fella from Poland who looks class already. 

I prefixed it at the top to show that movement between a-league clubs are classed as retained. This was because a player moving clubs is a partially known quantity compared to a brand new foreigner.

@ inslah brah

"Comparatively, some other HAL clubs will value add because of their coaching staff - CCM and AU come to mind" .... if city can't add some value in the coaching department, an area that is free of the cap restrictions therefore a source of potential competitive advantage, then they should fold the club.

The days of HAL teams being coached by the HC and his assistant have long gone - several clubs have an army of coaches which (should) outweigh the efforts of any one individual like an Okon

They look assiduously at the performance of the coach's team  and the opposition.

Where?

When?

Why?

Who?

What?

In  Ball Possession and Ball Possession Opposition in the three thirds of the pitch. 

So, who does modern coaching methodology blame? .... The referee?

I'm tipping City for 10th, or last  in the league. They looked awful against SFC. I think Wazza looks clueless.

For all the criticism of JVS and Valkanis, City were a much better team at this stage last year, virtually with the same cattle. Valkanis and Monte are obviously frustrated with Wazza's methods. Wazza may not be as well trained as Aussie coaches who've had access to Continental European style methodology in their coach education.

Wazza comes from a coaching culture where the coaches always blame players for lack of success. Wazza's solution will be to keep changing the cattle as they fail. This is coaching by personnel. Not many English coaches have to operate on a relatively even playing field within HAL salary cap scenarios.

Comparatively, some other HAL clubs will value add because of their coaching staff - CCM and AU come to mind. 

O'Donovan is a new signing for the Jerks

I 100% agree with this. 

I agree, I was just making sure milan's list was accurate if he was heading that way. 

I've got to agree with that - the other point this season is a lot of them seem to be a couple of years younger than we've seen in previous seasons.

I know I've said this before but this season might just be the best foreign contingent ever. And a couple clubs still have some space. Can't wait for the season.

Perth, Sydney, Wanderers are probably top 3 but Adelaide and city's are very good too. Victorys are mostly proven performers in berisha and kosta and have added two players with vast top flight experience. But every team in my opinion have recruited really well in regards to foreigners.

we'll see how city looks through the new season and under a new coach when wazza falls to shit.

but sydney have four absolute beasts as marquees. the new guy adrian just murdered us in the cup.  they are going to be great to watch this year.  

But at what point is the decline in physical abilities detrimental to the success of the team and there own individual ability. The reason why players who are 27 could be better is because they are in the prime of their career and one could argue someone who is in the prime will be better than someone who is a season or injury away from retirement even though they played at a higher level the majority of their career.

But the big reason why i think Roar haven't had a great window and will struggle is because i don't think having Maccarone to be the man to lead the line will lead to good things. We'll see if he proves most people wrong though but if i was a Roar supporter i'd have no faith in a 38 year old to replace the goals you have lost even slightly. 

Who really knows at this point, at the moment we can only speculate and his last few years haven't been that great. Its fine to be optimistic, but also need to be realistic that there is as much of a chance he is a squaddie as there is he turns into a players that rips the league a new one.

I was thinking Adelaide off the top of my head. But with that list before you..... can't go past Perth

Sydney, by a fair margin too. Laughable to list other clubs as remotely close. 
Our boys are proven not only as capable at this level, but as standouts and champions. The new boys at Glory, WSW, Roar etc have to firstly prove they are up to the requirements of the ALeague. 
Then you have our new boy who's not even a marquee and likely the best signing of any club this off-season. Only have to see how he was ripping apart City with ease in his first game to see his quality. Made someone like Brattan look very, very average. Even looked sharper than Ninkovic, and that's saying something. 

@ City Sam

Thankfully we will be able to stop the theorising soon hey.

Age is one consideration and one that you/others seem to put a lot of store on. But you can be old and still be good enough/fit enough though .... the one thing you can't be is young and experienced so with a lot of these visa players coming in that are say 27 it's questionable what extra they might bring? But again you can be young and good enough/fit enough but you can rarely be young and experienced...

The scrutiny in certain quarters is biased towards age though, Roar have a policy of playing players on ability not age - that's why they blood so many kids and why the likes of Broich play till they're 37 .

But City today sign an absoloute noboby but it's okay because he's 27, and Victory sign a guy that's spent 3 years in the European backwaters and looks like he has no right foot, but that's okay because he's only 30.

Time will tell.

I think you are under estimating Bautheac.

ahh, the age thing - so never mind how good they are lol

Let's see what happens in the next couple of months; it's hard judging one visa player let alone a whole group 😉