So Ola is injured for the derby, anyone got any deets?

Who's up front then? :/

Guess that means Ingham will defo be on the bench then.

-PB

Akbari is a great young talent, although he's conditioning wasn't the best in Japan with the young socceroos he's technically quite good and plays with a lot of confidence on the ball I'm surprised Brisbane Roar let him go given they dont have a great track record in keeping its best talent.

He usually plays as a CAM or a second striker, so he's probably a back up for the ACL whether he plays remains to be seen but a great learning opportunity for him.

Is the BWB ever coming back now that the Melbourne active's might be?

“It's believed the Roar were keen to retain him but they were unable to provide him with upgraded terms and decided to let him go because Victory's offer could help him better support his family financially.”

Now that’s a great club 👏👏👏

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/victory-sign-exciting-teen-akbari-in-time-for-a-league-kick-off-20181019-p50au0.html

Also note Victory were non-compliant with A League regulations not having the required number of youth players. We just happen to have youth players in spades.

Roar have O’Toole (18), D’Agastino (20), Ingham (19), Caletti (20), Brady (22), Barnett (17), and Bafford (17) so we’re well covered.

You’re welcome Melbourne

P.S. Thanks for Nigro. He looks much better than Brown.

I dont think either player is better than the other tbh, but both teams are definitely stronger after the 'swap'.

@jlm.

Hope so.

O’Toole is better going forward than he is defending (like Brown) whereas Nigro, from the handful of games I’ve seen, seems better defending than going forward.

Mv has signed 15 year old Adem  duratovic from dandy thunder . Signed for the npl and youth team 
And no he isn't related to mehmet . But is well known in the Bosnian community as a level headed kid who had a couple of offers to go o/s

Wonder if the plan is for Honda to be captain going forward.

Basically a whole new team on the pitch right now.

-PB

did you watch the Victory Doco the other night? Kev in his speeches kept referring to "Carl." clearly Valeri is held in the highest regard as a leader internally and probably explains why he is playing on this year. Potentially a future Victory coach? 

Despite the VAR controversy I enjoyed the game. Frustrated we didn't take our chances, but enjoyed watching Honda putting on a show. Muscat has a new formation which is a breath of fresh air.

1. N/A
2. Maybe - thought he was pretty good and looks keen.
3. Troisi did ok - lets hope he keeps it up.
4. Yes and he looks good.
5. Too early to call.
6. Georg is good - will have to wait and see.
7. Roux looked ok.
8. Nick looked ok next to Georg - Georg it is a good partner for Nick.
9. You would have to say yes at his stage.

Akbari confirmed by club: https://twitter.com/gomvfc/status/1054953127680458752?s=19

Hope you guys give him some game time

Edit: Im an idiot, this isnt the guy that did the backflip in the FFA Cup?

The kid has a heap of potential, I hope he kicks on at the Victory.

1 year contract extension for Deng. 

Great get!

Honda training injury scare?

-PB

Precaution apparently 

Gooooone

This diamond could be an issue if we don't sort out our build up play. We are struggling to bring the ball forward when the defence is already set despite having the numbers in the middle to do so.

The ball gets bogged up on the wings and the midfield aren't switching play quickly enough to relieve pressure (or when we do the fullback isn't receiving the ball cleanly) or the defence passes endlessly along the back waiting for Baena to be in position where he can turn and play forward to cut past the attacking press and open space up.

Not many teams will be as organised and defensively rabid as Perth under Popovic so I expect things to get a bit more fluid though as we get some more experience with it.

Our central defence killed us last night. I thought we deserved at least a draw. There's are bit of de-ja-vu about this season. But we need to sort our defence out. Fortunately we have played two of the top teams now IMO.

You know, the whole off-season I thought to myself 'shit, Kev has recruited magnificently for a 4-3-3'. Yet, here we are after Round 2 pointless, struggling to break down defences (as melbourne_terrace said, Perth are a phenomenal defensive unit, but City weren't) with the litany of attacking riches we possess because we've decided to shoe horn players into a formation that doesn't suit them.

This will definitely be another year when they come good towards the tail end of the season. We have to remember that only 3 of the starting players were here last season. None of those 3 are defenders. I doubt we will see any clean sheets for a while. It's also blatenly obvious we need Ola fit and starting. With Honda delivering the precision balls he is, an experienced striker will dominate. Kenny just doesn't have the experience yet, to take advantage. Until then Honda, Barbarouses and Troisi need to start taking shots from outside the box regularly.

Kenny will miss the next game anyway. He has a sore hamstring.

Kev mentioned Ola needing 'another week' prior to this, so assuming he'll be back. Prob off the bench though, but timing almost pretty good

not convinced with kev's system, but still early days. I'm not yet worried about oue defence. need time to gel. But i don't wanna fall too far behind the pack yet again. Hopefully winning the GF in Newcastle has got the hoodoo of the back and we get chalk up 3 points this week. 

Have we won a game since switching to the diamond? Pre-season or otherwise?

Not sure the victory have the cattle to play with two upfront, the fullbacks haven’t impressed me & would like to see Deng start.
Think the squad looks somewhat better on paper like this....

Thomas

Ansell. Niedermeier Deng
Kosta. Baena Antonis. Brown
Honda. Troisi
Toivonen

Any Victory news as to why they nominated Conroy  and Nikou ?

Nominee	Proposed	Seconded
Morry Bailes	SA	VIC
Joseph Carrozzi	MVC	WSW
Stephen Conroy	ACT	MVC
Craig Foster	PFA	not confirmed (TAS)
Judith Griggs	SA	MCY
Danny Moulis	ACT	TAS
Chris Nikou	MVC	MCY
Remo Nogarotto	NNSW	MCY
Linda Norquay	ACT	MCY
Heather Reid	PFA	not confirmed (ACT)
Mark Rendell	TAS	ACT
Mark Shield	TAS	ACT