My prediction
Starting 11
Bolton

Behich
Thompson
Marrone
Hamill

Worm
Fred
Sarkies

David Williams
Maycon
Mate Dugandzic

Bench
#2 Keeper(?)
Germano or Curtis Good
Jason Hoffman
Alex Terra

My prediction for the starting 11:





Bench
Roganovic
Good
Duganzic
Hoffman

I reckon Hammill will start over Good, given Hammill has had international duty so he is a bit more match fit, along with the fact he knows the squad as he joined the squad last year.

Reckon Sarkies will get a start because he's a useful set piece specialist. Also JVS played him a fair bit when he could last season, so he seems to be a midfield preference.

Front three is a big guess! Our forwards will likely vary often so we'll be lucky to guess them.

Given NJ's craziness, we should pull this one off

I'd say Murph is pretty spot on with that line-up. Will be interesting to see how Maycon goes, from all reports he's not looked too spectacular in pre-season. Expect to see more of a 4-2-3-1 with Sarkies & Germano playing deeper to allow Fred more attacking freedom.

Encouraging signs. Towards the end of the season crowds seemed to be edging towards the 7k mark and hopefully will improve this year. Would like to see us averaging 8k without derby matches.

Edited by darkharlequin: 5/10/2011 10:15:24 PM

Always been a fan ;) those ones a pretty ugly though

Yep, same team for me. Our midfield got over run far too often last season, needs to utilise the strengths of the 3 central midfielders with posession. Also, with our speed up front I hope we don't play kick and chase like Victory, though it seems most teams go that way eventually.

Whitegoods manufacturer Whirlpool announced that it will be sponsoring the Melbourne Heart Football Club for the next two years.

Speaking about the partnership, Whirlpool’s general manager of marketing David Graham said the sponsorship represented Whirlpool’s commitment to Australian communities and grass-roots sport.

“We see the Melbourne Heart as a community-minded club and, with our shared values and ambitions, look forward to developing and cultivating a long standing partnership,” said Graham.

“This relationship cements Whirlpool’s commitment to building a genuine onnection with the community and the mums behind Australia’s largest participation sport. Grassroots sport is an integral part of Australian life and we have designed appliances, such as the Whirlpool 10kg Sports Washer, that support the role mums play in facilitating this,” he said.

Melbourne Heart CEO Scott Munn concurred with Graham, saying the partnership with Whirpool was a good match. “Whirlpool shares our dedication and enthusiasm to providing significant and tangible support to grassroots sports, making them a fantastic partner for our club,” he said.

The Melbourne Heart Football Club has played in the Australian A-League competition since 2010. The league, now in its seventh year, will kick off round one games this weekend, with the Melbourne Heart set to face off against the Newcastle Jets at Newcastle’s Ausgrid Stadium.

Allow me to self indulgently quote myself just this once. Yeah I know it's only round 1, but geez he looked good.

What attendance do people seriously think Heart will get on Sunday at AAMI against the Glory?

I think about 6-7k wish i could say more

depending on the weather, would say 7-8k on a nice day

if we had won against newcastle, i would've said 8-9k

Whirlpool, nice. Always thought it would be cool if Heart could get sponsorship from HART motorcycle training.

By the way, there was a great turn out at the Imperial on Saturday for the game. There were perhaps 100 or so Heart fans there and a great atmosphere. It's become the place to meet for away games and before home games.

memberships have been tallied today at 5312

good effort to surpass last years membership numbers ahead of our first home game, ESPECIALLY with all that has been going on with kewell. hopefully we can get up to 7500 but the end of this season

I would predict 8k this week. I hope it's more though.

Looking forward to the game. Can only hope we don't play as bad as we usually did at home last year. We played like a different team at home last year, and it was strange to see how that occurred.

Scotty Munn tweeting that #12 will be announced on Sunday. But we have a full squad of 23 players, with no long term injuries (unless Zahra's recovery is taking longer than expected). Do guest players count in the squad cap?

I'm guessing it's not a new player. Sounds like it might be a publicity thing.

Edited by Adrian72: 14/10/2011 08:44:37 AM

Ticker! Or the fans.

Edited by tomw: 14/10/2011 09:02:20 AM

Bingo! They wouldnt wait until sunday for a player

So yes it is the fans. Would have preferred a defender...

So I don't get it, the #12 top went to the fans? Where's my top? lol

Does John van 't Schip know that he's allowed to make THREE substitutions per match and not TWO??? That's two matches in a row where he's only utilised two of his subs, the first we were down 2-1 from the 68th minute and the last one, well - we all know what happen there - nothing!
C'mon JvS - PLEASE take Srhoj off instead of Thompson next time! Srhoj looked lazy and unphased and just when we looked like creating a promising play Srhoj would screw it up with his poor first/one touch!

...and remember THREE subs...that's 3!

I agree with you for last week, but this week he just had Hamill on the bench. The way we were playing there was no reason to put a defender in.

+1

have to disagree with you there Red_or_Dead

there was no reason to put a defensive option on when we were pressing to win the game. I thought Shroj had a better game than Thompson, and it was the right decision to take thompson off and put Hoffman on. Shroj and Germano were taking control of the midfield very well, and it was one of Shroj's better games i don't see why people criticise him so much i thought he was one of our better players on the weekend.

Shroj is great in defence, and even when he is on the ball he is quite good. But he can't pass to save his life. That is why everyone hates him. If he's gonna be played, he has to stick to DM duties and have the other two mids be the ones that push up.

I'm not going to disagree with you guys, Srhoj may have had a better game than his usuall standard, but I just don't rate him. His passing was inaccurate and it seems he always try to be fancy and look good than doing something constructive. He may be a good defensive mid, but when you're 0-0, why would you not try and spark your players back to life?

Yes we had some great chances and definitely the better of the two teams, but whatever we were doing just wasn't working (or we couldn't just convert). Fair enough, Hamill is a defender so that's why he left him out, but he took Terra off for Maycon whereas I think there's room for both those guys on the field.

Imagine, Hoffman, Williams, Terra AND Maycon pressing forward with Thompson and/or Shroj holding the midfield together...could be magic!

Don't know why our players think Maycon's head is a beacon to aim for when he is on.

+1
Every time Maycon is on the field they decide to convert to long balls and of course he usually gets beaten by the taller guy behind him - apart from when he got pulled down in the box to be awarded the penalty :-)

It is a little alarming how his stats on http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/players/-Maycon/3958 show:
Games played - 3
Attempts on goal - 2
Attempts on Target - 0
Offsides - 5
Fouls committed - 6

Let's hope he starts receiving some better balls from Srhoj so he can start getting more attempts on goal and more importantly, on target! lol

Where to from here Heart starters...?

Were winless and last on the table, sure we're only one win from fourth or fifth but at the minute we're struggling and confidence is low. The good news is (as Yazz would say) the only way is up...

Defensively we look strong(er with Bolton and Colosimo) but we look like we're lacking imagination going forward - surely we're not that reliant on a guy who's played just one full game for us (Fred). Most annoying is we have no tempo when playing at AAMI Park. We get it up front and then work too slowly for an opening and end up playing it backwards... ](*,)

We were a poor reffing decision and one minute from our first win so I don't think we need to make a lot of changes. I just think we need to play with greater tempo and take some more shots...

So, ideas... players, formations or instructions. Anything?