11.

The difference is the defence. Roar are facing a structured defence when they have the ball, wanderers facing free grass.

@ clockwork

On the other thread you said

“Yep, our season rests on bursts of individual brilliance. Nothing else.”

Do you know, I could live with that because Lopez, Taggart, Bautheac, Mauk can all deliver that .... BUT ... I’m more convinced JA has these guys colouring by numbers and his rigid “set plays” are crushing us.

Yeah I agree. In fact did you hear Daniel Garb say JA had told him how he had Lopez playing more as a six - Lopez clearly not playing as a 6 when he scored. So as long as our attacking players disregard JA’s system we could be alright!!

ha ha, true.

Didn't see game but listened to it on ABC radio with Paul Wade on the call and he was scratching his head too with Mackay in the #10 role.
However in the end he would have given the game to Brisbane on points. So big turnaround at half time.
He gave points to Eric 3, Mackay 2, Lopez 1.

In all honesty I don’t know what formation Roar were playing, they were kind of “unstructured” most of the time. Lopez sat deep in the holding role and TK/Mackay in front. I’d maybe guess they played 4-3-3

To be honest, Mackay had a really good game.

But I was watching the stats and they all swung Roars way after the second goal, that was a good thing but WSW still had enough of chances

Player ratings:

BRISBANE ROAR
Jamie Young — 7

Did fantastically to save against Riera’s penalty and was genuinely unlucky to see the follow up from the Spaniard go in. Continued to make good saves throughout.

Jack Hingert — 6

A fairly solid showing from the right back going forward, but defensively he was consistently pulled out of his position by Kamau and Fitzgerald, leaving ample amounts of space for the Wanderers to work through.

Jacob Pepper — 5

No argument from the player or his teammates, the central defender gave away a clear cut penalty. Lost his cool at times.

Avram Papadopoulos — 6.5

Imposed himself well against the Wanderers attack, winning many of the challenges he through himself in to.

Connor O’Toole — 6.5

A sturdy performance from the left back who also sent in some positive crosses to his teammates.

Thomas Kristensen — 7



Intercepted and distributed the ball well, but was most essential in the amount of headers he contested and won for his side, especially as the Wanderers attempted a late flurry.

Matt McKay — 6

A good asset across all areas of the pitch, combining well with his teammates and forever providing an option. A true leader.

Alex Lopez — 7.5

Lopez demonstrated an impressive creativity in the attacking third, maintaining his positive work going forward having previously made 41 total passes in the front third in the opening three rounds of the season (second only to Luke Brattan’s 43). Impressively shifted away from O’Doherty and displayed sumptuous technique to fire from range past Janjetovic.

Tobias Mikkelsen — 4

Dispossessed frequently due to the urgency of the Wanderers in their pressing. Hardly sighted and was kept quiet.

Eric Bautheac — 6.5



Tested Janjetovic with a good drive that would have been an instant equaliser had it slipped through. Brisbane’s chief creative force and responsible for the Roar’s second half equaliser, as he was brought down in the box by Baumjohann.

Adam Taggart — 6

Unsuccessful on the goal front in the first half, albeit not for a lack of trying. The second half was again mixed for the peripheral Socceroo, slamming home a penalty, but seeing some of his touches and shots go awry.

SUBS

Henrique — 7

Brought on at a fantastic time as Brisbane began to truly balance out the game. Linked up positively with Taggart.

Daniel Bowles — 6

Defensively solid, having been brought on to help retain the point for Brisbane.

Dane Ingham — N/A

https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/western-sydney-wanderers-v-brisbane-roar-player-ratings-515385/page0

Hoping that once Mauk is back we’ll see a return to how we played week 1. Tipping a 2-1 win to us @ home to City next round with Mauk and Taggart scoring, and hopefully it kickstarts the rest of our season.

On the game, I think Pepper needs a spell. His start to the season has been poor and mistakes and poor positioning have cost us a few times. Tobi has been really disappointing after how good he looked in week 1.

We were better than last week, but still quite a few hopeful crosses into the box when we look much better keeping it on the deck.

Hopefully the week off does the boys good and we come back firing v City.

Mikkelsen is the big worry. R1 he was superb but a 4 yesterday suggests a rapid decline.

The defence is still a shambles which is hard to take when Avraam is playing so well. I saw Pepper on several occasions battling for the ball by the right touchline, now a CB shouldn’t be that far out of position unless it’s an act of desperation or he’s told to play that wide

Galling to hear Aloisi blame travel (back from Perth and then to Mudgee) for the slow start - there is no end to the excuses

Agree Waz.

Wonder if he’s struggling to adjust to the weather? Coming from a career in Scandinavia, would be difficult to adjust. He’s been so ineffectual last 3 weeks.

That right side of defence is definitely an issue. Last 3 goals we’ve copped have all been down that side.

Last 4** goals? I think. Both last week and both this week.

Yeah, after that second goal O’toole Really stepped up and was a big reason for our turnaround.

The right side as you say is a mess. I think Hingert has been playing poorly so Bowles in next time hopefully

When is Devere back? But like Holman, he is just injury prone. So not sure we can rely on him plus it will take him half the season to get up to speed.

Bit surprised Bowles hasn't given a shot as I feel pepper inexperience in the position is not helping the defense.

I hope mikleson is not like that Spanish bloke we had in a aloisi season. Had a great first game and hopeless for the rest. 

Can't agree with all those ratings, I'd have to say Bautheac 8, Mackay 7. Papa 7. Otherwise probably agree.
Different tactics to see Mackay playing #10, and he must have been instructed to pressure high and assist Taggart in those areas. Idea was probably to use Mackays work rate to help Taggart find some clear space.
Gotta say I reckon it worked. Tho I was doubtful about it in the first 30 minutes.

Gotta say it looked like 2 strikers at times but that was part of tactics .........as Mackay will invariably drop deeper as is his normal role.

DeVere is back now, he’s not injured he’s just not getting selected. I’ve seen him in training a few times now and he’s doing the full load

But again I don’t think it’s a personnel issue, I think it’s what they’re being asked to do, whatever plan that is - a little bit like last season when we experimented with 3-at-the-back I wonder if something new is going on?

With Mikkelsen someone did say that after R1 his wife had given birth and it was somewhat a difficult birth with complications. If she’s back in Europe still, the guys heads probably not in the right space (I don’t know whether she is, she might be out here but even that might be enough to disrupt him)

We’ve Te’o eeeks before the next game, Mauk must be back for that surely.

I think Mikkelsons touch looks fine and couple times he was just a yard short of connecting with a good cross. Maybe it's the climate change or the wife, I don't know.
He looked pretty spent when he came off and Risdon was on that side so let's hope he settles in. At least Henrique can sub on there and make an impact, like he did Saturday.

McKay's contribution has been quite good in his 2 appearances this season, so a higher rating for him from me.

I will preface this with i haven't watch the game yet as i have been travelling with no reception but i said it last week, we need to do something about our defence. it is completely disorganised and it sounds like it was the same again this week. I have said it plenty of times about Pepper that he is yet to completely have a defenders brain and will often get pulled out of position. this has a huge effect on the others around him as Papa/TK/HIngert/Mckay then have to cover or organise him when they really shouldn't have to. 

I havent seen Devere this season so dont know where he is at but he has always had a defenders brain. Given what Waz said about his performance in the last preseason game (along the lines of Papa and devere looked like they had been playing together for years and were very solid) surely it is time to change it up to devere and papa at the back. 

our defence has been shambolic at times this season. this needs to change.

www.sackaloisi.com.au

So Mauk is injured and Plan B is McKay as our number 10? Am I the only one seriously worried by that?

14 games now and the team is still a shambles.

Individual brilliance is the only thing that will give us good results, when and if they come. Will have little to do with JA.

WWW.SACKALOISI.COM

Johnny should go for signing Mckay again, been shit for years. 
He is not starting 11 material, not even good enough for the bench.

Don't you know that passing backwards and sideways is the best route to goal. Aloisi master plan.

Lopez should be our 10, even over mauk. 

You better hope not :laugh:

2-2 kind of masked how bad we are in defence.
That's four games in a row where we have been terrible at the start and conceded goals.That's when teams press us amd we fall apart.Then as happened against WSW ,they slowed and we started to keep the ball.
But we are still slow in transition.When we break we dont have the pace to get forward before the defence resets.Most of the time are attacks are against a compact defence or a long ball with zero chance of bearing the defender.
I agree Mikkelsen was pretty woeful amd our backs struggled.
O'Toole was the best at getting forward along with Bautheac ,who was everywhere and trying to create.
I wonder if Bautheac would be better as an AM,to allow some one else to run up and down all day.At least he is creative and defends.
Also this would allow a faster , hopefully younger, winger to play on the right and press and run all day.Ingham?
I would rather see a youngster playing than Mikkelesen if continues to be rubbish.At least they would have energy and can press.
As to the defence.Meh

Plan B is Holman, however he is injured.

Do we still have Emilio Martinez on our books?

Emilio Martinez is still on our books. Don’t recall seeing him in preseason though, anyone else ???

i think he got one run early on maybe the game before the cup but dont quote me on that

In all honesty I think I’d only be making two changes v City. I’d have Mauk back in which is the obvious one (Mackay Out ) and I’d change Hingert out who is looking more and more like Corey Brown on a bad day.

Not sure what it is with Hingert but I’d bring Bowles in and either play him at CB alongside Avraam with Pepper st RB, of slot him straight in at RB.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence the right side is our issue and both Hingert and Mikkelsen are there.