I must say, been a while since I've ventured here or started this thread. Kind of lost a little touch with the A-league when I moved to the UK. Having been back a few years I got back in to things with the Roar, but things were horrible to watch, that intense interest kind of fell away a bit. 

I know we sit 2nd at the moment, maybe third, but one thing is clear, this team is stagnant and going nowhere quite slowly. I've been watching a lot of our games of late and kind of surprised that we are a professional football outfit. Our style of play was looking to be changing under Fowler, not sure what happened to him. I'm guessing it was COVID and all that. 

Be that as it may, we have Moon and quite frankly our play looks way to pedestrian. Very simple errors are being made and when we seem to get the ball forward, it is usually only one guy upfront and he is forced to turn back and build again. We also dilly dally a fair bit with the ball. Players are ball watching a lot in attack and defence. I'm watching live and the two most exciting things I've seen is when Champness has had a go and a run. 

It's been evident for a few seasons that we are stagnant and have fallen so far from the standard we set for Australian football. We've fallen so far back to everyone else's level and it seems that not just us, but the whole league is content with it.

Jesus mate, you should’ve seen last season.

I did. I saw some progression in style under Fowler, haven't see anything under Moon. Davies was abysmal. 

The style last season was sterile, boring and lacking in imagination let alone the skills. It was successful to some extent, but damn ugly.

Not sure what you watched last year .But Roar were the proverbial park the bus side.
We didnt play until the second half and then everything was slow and painful.Nothing exciting to watch.
The problem then and still now is a lack of quality players to create decent chances and put them away.
Today was hard to watch,mainly because noone could pass a decent ball and crosses were mind-numbingly stupid.
JOS who is the only real creative player was poor today.Continually gave the ball away with poor passes.Like everyone else unfortunately.
There’s a lot to improve.But are the players capable?Players like Brown and Hingert have been around long enough.

Welcome back zimbos_05.

I think you have lost sight of this being a salary capped league and forgotten that every good player who is not already signed for a lengthy contract or in a marquee spot will be pinched by someone else the following season.

We are necessarily in an up and down cycle as we rebuild squads and go again.

We have been through a truly hideous period as you know, but last season and so far this season we are far from dire. We showed real skill, creativity and quality last season on the back of a rock solid defence (perhaps too defensive in the eyes of most). But we were far from dull when we got our combinations working. Some really beautiful periods of play that often were blown at the pointy end by us not having a Berisha/McLaren/Taggart/Barbarouses on the end.

This season we started with much less defensive focus and we did create smooth flowing attacks that resulted in goals. Champness was a breath of fresh air in the pre-season games with his individual craft and speed with the ball at his feet - but tonight was the first time we have seen it back to that sort of level since the season started. Moon seems to have adopted a more defensive stance as the season has unfolded which limits what we have going forward. But in saying that, we have also seen more of a forward push in the last game or two.

You may be assessing us against the Broich era when we really did not have a weak player in our first team but I do not think you are being fair on the club to expect that every season. We are not that type of league where a single club can maintain dominance for longer than a few years.

This season Western United may have the closest thing to the Roar squad you are used to - but the quality of other teams (including us) means that dominating is not as easy as it used to be. I think the league has advanced and become more competitive rather than the level dropping. You would have to be an exceptional team to dominate every other team these days.

If you adjust your focus and expectation down from Berisha and Broich and more in line with the Frank Farina period you might find the quality significantly more palatable.

I definitely haven't lost sight of the league being salary capped or that players get signed up. It's the nature of football. We just took that as a disadvantage but decided to up the disadvantage on ourselves. Our recruitment was lacking (i discussed this with Craig Moore when he was at the club) and there was much left to be desired in terms of how we recruited and who we recruited. 

Our recruitment was definitely not what it could or should have been. 

In relation to the style of football. Granted, we did seem to be a team that started a little slowly, in saying that, if we look at our win percentage, 45% under Fowler is not the worst. What I saw under him, even though we did start slow i'll give that, was that we had attacking intent. We would not be afraid to take the game to the other teams and I began to see a little bit of smarts creeping in to the players. How they saw the game and how they played it was becoming a bit more using their head and not just their feet. 

We don't really see that in the A-league, and I saw plenty of that today (not using the head). Many times we had an overlap, but we held the ball too long. DWH is probably our best, but he missed a great opportunity because he was ball watching. Many times the ball came forward and the players was forced to stop, turn to face back and pass it back, which shows lack of positional awareness from the players who are meant to be running off the forward player. In defence a couple time, a player would clear the ball, then chase it leaving a gap behind them. 

I'm not here to cause argument. Just thought after having observed things for a few years, it's getting a bit frustrating to see how far we have fallen and how content we seem to be with it. The rest of the league is nothing to write home about. All these plaudits that Sydney get, they're not that amazing. The whole league standard is stagnant which makes it all more frustrating that we have not stepped up in the way we can. 

I'm curious how any regular viewers of the Roar would actually describe our style of play right now ? I've been to the past few games and still can't really understand what we are attempting to do out there. It's just so over the place in my opinion.
From what i can guess, we look to be playing wide at the back and with a high line with our front three more infield and using the wing backs to get in as many crosses (90% pointless with no one in the middle all the time).
I'd love an honest detailed view from a full on fan on their view of the way we are attempting to play.

Don't take my comments as argument - it is simply discussion amongst people with hugely differing football backgrounds and pedigrees and the opinions that have formed from that.

I am not well versed in the technical and structural side of football, and have no coaching experience at all, so what you get are the opinions of a fan who loves sport, has played a bit of everything, has watched an NSL club go broke and drop out, and is an expert on watching and supporting the Roar with as orange a pair of glasses as you can buy.

I am on the forum because the differing opinions and views are informative and entertaining - and most especially in my eyes on this excellent thread you started.

So disagree and open my eyes anywhere you feel fit.

On your comments - I was one of Fowler's fans from the start, and enjoyed the progression of the club as they continued to get better at his vision of football. We were slow off the mark in terms of the table, but I did not think us slow off the mark in the style of football we were playing and working towards.

We created plenty of quality chances, used footspeed and brains to bring the ball through any traffic, but were wasteful and inaccurate on goals. When we got Scott MacDonald, we gained time and space going forward - which is something we are more often missing as we build creatively into dangerous areas then panic and rush a nothing final ball.

We have been less effective this season as Scott MacDonald seems to have eased off somewhat and a few others half stepped up - but with his injury we went well back to the old panicked rushing at the front.

Champness provides some individual brilliance, and when he is on his game he is very entertaining - but to me it is still using footspeed rather than teamwork to breakdown well structured defences and that is something we cannot rely on to score goals.

Sydney got rave reviews more from their history over their two seasons of dominance than their current form. They used positioning and multiple support options by quality players to get around and through their opposition rather than relying on beating their man outright to create an opportunity. There was plenty to dislike in their style of play though with frequent fouling to break up a turnover and some pretty blatant cynical fouling and hacking. They actually play a lot cleaner now, but clubs like Western United, Melbourne City and even Macarthur have stepped up with playing rosters that are far from stagnant - although Macarthur going a goal up results in a quagmire.

I agree we have not developed tactically/technically as a league all that much, but I see significant change in the league as a whole over the last few seasons in the quality of players we have in the league.

From a Roar perspective, yes, some of us are happy to see us simply playing better football than we did in the previous season - but I do not think of it as contentment or acceptance that that is the best we can be or should be. Just that it is our club and we support them and acknowledge what they do achieve for that reason alone.

There has been plenty of discussion about our left and right backs, our defensive midfielder, a genuine striker, and more of a creative midfielder, as well as coaching decisions and playing tactics - I don't think there is a lot of complacency among us - just varying degrees of expectation for improvement.

Roar are carrying on where Fowler left off imo, with a bit of moonism thrown in of course. 

Again another enjoyable game, plenty to like about the way we are playing. 

We had good structure last season and this may be entertaining enough to some, but not most.  To mention skills and creativity is the exact opposite of what we had.

You must’ve been having a laugh when you wrote that, lol.

You know the context of my comments well enough by now :).

We played parts of games where our skill and creativity shone through. Where we carved through very capable midfields and beat the most effective high presses - and combined to create great opportunities.

As the season progressed, those moments increased - although certainly not frequently enough for many to consider it enjoyable watching.

I’m not sure if you’re starting to read the game like me or me like you. Agree with all you said and were the main points I took out of the game. Regarding Young though he makes simple saves look hard earning applause from the commentators. He has poor springs in his legs (weight, age issues?) that prevents him making those difficult saves. His peak is well behind him I think although I still value him. 

Just one observation - yet another 'off game' for Sydney when playing us.

That pattern of behaviour says something in itself.

Down to sixth.Teams below us with games in hand.Getting desperate.
How quickly our good start has evaporated.
☹️

But we have only been beaten by Perth, Macarthur and Melbourne City.

And we have beaten Adelaide and drawn twice with Sydney.

And we are one win away from second place as the table stands now.

That is how tight the competition is this season.

We have different perceptions of desperation.

And only just beaten by those three sides - Macarthur and City could easily have gone our way and you could say the same about the Perth game although we were given a lesson in finishing that night and got what we deserved for it

Perth got schooled by nix yesterday for the same reason. 

It just a damn close season. We could had drop as far as 8th if results didn't go our way or we could be 2nd. 

It is a most ridiculously close season.

After about 10 games each there are only 6 points between second and second last - so any team that wins or loses is going to be subject to huge movement in the table. Normally a table is relatively set by the fifth round or so - but after about 10 games first and last place are 4 points away from their nearest competition and everyone else is within a game of several teams.

I am not worried about where we might sit game by game - it is looking like every position in the table is going to be subject to opposition from at least 2 or 3 other teams - as early in this season as it is still.

Dropped points will hurt, wins will be priceless.

3 teams below us all have games in hand.

Mid table season looking likely

Might even be lower to be honest, its not like we are poor, creating plenty of chances but no end product.
Our passing and overall standard has improved but we are still missing that one xfactor player, hell some teams have two or three while Roar really have no one.
We don't even have a super sub like we used to have in Enrique in the past. 
In saying that this season is close overall, no team to me really stands out to me, Roar could beat any of them. 

You and your 'somewhere between second and eleventh is midtable' predictions;)

Mid table to me means between 5th and 7th inclusive. This where we’re heading IMO. No better. Don’t forget Hingert is in the first XI which sums up the quality.

The teams  this year are really close on the table and who knows if in the second half of the season,there isnt more of the same or a breakaway group.
Covid has clearly had an impact so far,because there has been no continuity.This really effected the Melbourne teams and PG .
The problem for Roar is they havent beaten anyone good yet.MVx2,NJ and AU pre Goodwin.We brought in GolGol and lost Macca to injury.Still no wins in five games.
WSW despite early season form had fallen away until yesterday,when they beat a good WU.But they do have depth,even if their imports are not dominating.
NJ’s had early form and have dropped off like Roar,while MV is a mess.
WP is improving and Taylor is coming back.
AU is improving with Goodwin and Strain back and another import to arrive.
The teams with real quality are SFC,MC,WU,PG and MB’s.CCM has shown that to beat them,you need to have energy to work hard and limit the  time their quality players  have on the ball.
Its a total lottery .But MC are the form team at the moment.

Has the chance to be 83.3333333333333% accurate .... don’t knock it. 

Correct in all of that. We don’t have a stand out player. Badly missing in the team. But that’s been the case since last season. What is the club up to? Mediocrity is not satisfactory.

A couple of games against Western United before the end of the month will give us an indication if we are good enough, or just making up the numbers.

Mid table is being realistic.