And yes Brisbane are 2-3 players from being a good team. As are a few other sides in the competition too, worst thing that can happen is other sides strengthen and Brisbane hope that this side makes a big improvement. 

I also don't think Fowler is a bad manager at this point, he must know that it's the squad he has signed up and I hope he is just trying to steady the shit put points on the ladder until Brisbane can strengthen with new players. There is a picture/game plan that I can see. The cattle is the problem. 

I tend to agree. The issues at Roar are totally repairable with a couple of signings. You just need to look at the stats to see that the Roar are doing many things right. They hold the highest average possession rate of any club this season. They have a higher passing accuracy and completed more passes than both SFC and PG. They have more clean sheets than SFC and MC. The issue is their abysmal conversion rate. O'Shea has created more chances and put more crosses into the box than any other player this season. They simple aren't making the most of their chances. If you dropped a player like J-Mac into their current squad, the Roar would be a top 3 side, no question.

the way i see it is we are 3 players away from a very good team, unfortunately they are 3 right in the spine, where we currently have 3 players that are depth/bench players starting and playing regularly. these are CB in bowles, DM in pepper/oniel, and striker in ROD/AAH. we dont have a DM that can dominate the midfield and stop attacks by himself, this means that we have had to dedicate extra midfield players to defensive positions (JOS, Mauk, Inman) just to cover, and given these players defensive frailties it has caused trouble for our CB (particularly gillesphie who i think would be a great CB if he was not exposed by the midfield so often). it also stops our wide defenders getting forward as quickly as the DM isnt covering them when they do get forward. 

a stronger DM who can hold the middle by himself strengthens our CB's and allows our wide backs to get forward.

even with a strong DM our right CB is still weak and gets exposed. this stops our right back from getting forward (because he is constantly having to chase back to cover the right CB) if you improve the CB then you have more options getting forward as the wide defender can get forward more. 

finally our striker is weak, whether it is AAH or ROD, they are not scoring enough we have one of the highest chances created/balls in the box of any a-league team yet we have a dismal conversion rate. so even if we do sure up the defence and midfield we would still be under-performing up front. this needs to be addressed unfortunately we are carrying too much dead weight.

3 players and i think we could have a title winning team

----------------------------young-------------------------------
------------CB?----------Aldred---------GIllesphie---------
Hingert/Neville------------------------------------------JCP
---------------------------DM------------------------------------
-------------JOS-------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------Inman--------------
----------Mirza/Rod-aah-------------St----------------------

So has McDonald actually been signed? Given the flurry of news I thought he would be with the team already.

I would not be surprised if Rudan uses gamesmanship to leave him out for a couple of weeks so he loses some fitness and is not as great a threat for whoever gets him.

Rudan is an absolute snake so yeah, he’s do that just for the sport. 

To play devils advocate, why should an opposition do anything to help a rival club? In a proper league WU would receive a fair transfer fee and there would be no complications. It would barely be a talking point. That's what transfer windows are all about. 

To play devils advocate, why should an opposition do anything to help a rival club? In a proper league WU would receive a fair transfer fee and there would be no complications. It would barely be a talking point. That's what transfer windows are all about. 

They picked him up on a free and aren't playing the guy.  Many teams in "proper leagues" will mutually terminate contracts of players that aren't in the coach's plans and allow them to move on.  I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but the recent exodus of staff at WU would seem to suggest that Rudan might not be the easiest person to work with. 

I would agree with that and with all the exodus One wonders is there something unsavoury happening at the club, 

Rudan seemed to do well at Phoenix but Ufuk Talay had totally trumped him. 

so maybe Rudan is not having the dream season he expected and is not dealing with it  too well. In any case I'm off him and hope he never comes to Brisbane. 

Now that Muscats gone, we need a new coach to dislike?

I reckon Rudan is part of the problem in relation to attracting fans. There is nothing likeable about the guy. He pulled a snake move getting the job and was completely dishonest about it. He has an extra $400k in the cap to play with but hasn't been able to create a dominant side. Many people in Melbourne were excited to see Pasquali back in the HAL but that hasn't really happened. There is the whole Mel McLaughlin USB stick thing the people haven't forgotten about. On top of all that he seemed to be using fake social media accounts to defend his move away from the Nix like a petulant teenager. The guy would be difficult for fans to embrace.

So we are nearly half way through January....but no word on anyone being brought in ....time is slipping ....I fear we will muddle through till the end and come about where we are now in the league .
Not a good way to appease fans. We have been waiting for some progress for quite a while now.
If I wanted to support a perennial near bottom dweller I could just buy a yellow and blue shirt .

Corey Brown has been released. CCM, Jets, or Roar I think.

Not Roar. Categorically denied Roar had any interest in him at the last home game by DP. 

Thought Jets had no money either?

Corey Brown has been released. CCM, Jets, or Roar I think.

I can't see Roar signing Brown. If they spend any money this transfer window why would they spend it on a second (or third) choice left back. 

We have McGing,Neville and Hingert for RB and IP ,OT and CP (injured ) for LB .

So CB is not as outrageous as people might think.
Then we have GM and JI.
Clearly we have excess dead weight.

Don't know if they signed anyone but they certainly tried hard.