Staritng this because we're done with a first XI. Some teams closer than others. 

Sydney FC

                                    Moss
Hoffman  Boogaard  Topor-Stanley  Koutroumbis
                       Ugarkovic   Kantarovski
Fitzgerald               Petratos        Arrojo/Champness
                                 Sheppard

Need another striker and improved fullbacks 

To be honest I think you need more than just that. It's a squad with good HAL experience but no stand outs in my opinion. I don't really think Newy have any players that would walk into the starting XI at other clubs. Needs improvement IMO because that squad would be lucky to make the 6. 

Yet with a worse team last year we had the most shots (but worst conversion rate) with our main striker out for 10 games. Compare also the team that was robbed in the GF, only Sheppard, Fitzgerald and Arrojo were not present. Due to the budget we are apparently not signing anymore foreign players, so any new signings will be local - I will not be surprised if the squad as is remains as so for the season. We will be heavily dependent on injuries and Petratos/Sheppard firing.  

Is Nabbout confirmed? He was superb for you guys and will go a long way. My concerns are more regarding defence, especially CB - both Boogs and NTS are average, with their biggest strength being their HAL experience. But both are slow, not especially adept with the ball at their feet, and probe to brain snaps (Boogs much more so than NTS though). Moss is a good GK but won't save everything. Hoff seems inconsistent and then do you have any quality fullback coverage? I'm not trying to put the boot into Newy for the sake of it, I actually have a bit of a soft spot for them. I just don't think this is a squad on paper that matches up to SFC, Glory and co (not that AU are that much better off yet either).

There is no word on Nabbout. As a Newcastle fan I know he will go to another club because money talks. NTS is not a liability, Boogs most certainly can be. This will be the last season before a major clear-out. Wouldn't be surprised at all to see Merrick retire at the end of the season - only if things go balls up will he resign. 

I see Millar starting at RB and Arroyo starting up top. I like Sheppard but don't know if he's a guaranteed starter yet. Hoffman will inevitably end up playing most games plugging holes all over.

I think the season hinges on Champness keeping fit and Petratos thriving with a lot more pace around him (Millar, Arroyo, even Fitz). We've missed that since Nabbout.

I don’t support the Jets but I agree with this.

I think the Jets definitely need some more depth, especially at full back. Why they didn’t go after Doyle is beyond me.

I would sign a right winger as well but I don’t think the Jets gave the funds to do so.

Yeah, there's quite a lot to be worried about. Topor AND Boogard at the back doesn't instill confidence, but if Jackson is good enough he should be banging down the door. As long as we don't see him again at left back. We could really do with a left back.

On the plus side, feels like Angus Thurgate could have a breakout season which puts pressure on Uga and Kanta to perform.

I read somewhere that there there are no more funds for foreign signings, but surely there are still a couple players to come. Hopefully that's not Merrick raiding the bargain basement for Nathan Burns or something. I'd be down for another Kaine Sheppard-like NPL punt.

Agree with all this.

Millar should never start at RB. He will be an asset to the Jets but he is very poor defensively. He has a great engine to get back and help but don't trust him to do the job alone.

I agree but Ernie seems to want to play him there.

honestly the sydney team look like they can beat the socceroos 

with city it's good just wouldn't put brillante and rostyn together it's too defensive for me 

I wouldn't be surprised if Berenguer partners Brillante tbh.

Izzo
Strain/Marrone Elsey Jakobsen Maria
Boland
McGree New
Halloran New New

Do we even have eleven players? lol

I think we have 12. So we could field a starting side but only have a keeper on the bench. 

13 if you include Barnett and 14 if Antonis stays.

Of course we do...

Thomas
Broxham - Deng - Broxham - Broxham
Broxham - Broxham - Broxham
Broxham - Toivonen - Broxham

See, nothing to worry about 

With what they have currently, not including new imports...

Izzo
Strain/Elsey/Jakobsen/Maria
Marrone/Boland
Mileusnic/Mcgree/Kitto
Halloran

There's no way Marrone's playing midfield especially as we have Nathan K, Lia, Brook and D'Arrigo on the books as well.

Verbeek only wants to play with one DM as well.

Marinovic
Fenton/Taylor/Devere/Cacace
Payne/Rufer
(w)/Davila/(W)
Ball

As a nix fan, am a wee bit scared going into his season - that team is very, very weak on paper.

2 aging CB's who are often injured. Fenton isn't yet back from his major injury last year and is struggling. Payne hasn't played at a pro level for a few years and on his best days is more of a hard worker than anything, and both Davila and Ball have unflattering CVs.

Those last two imports better be fucking good.

If we kept Krishna I'd be feeling different. 

                 Marinovic
Fenton, Taylor, Devere, Cacace
          Steinmann, Rufer
Davila                             Piscopo
             Ball, VISA ST (McCowatt/Sotirio/Waine for now)

RB; Eliot and TAHW will give Fenton a good push.

                  Young;
      Neville, Aldred, Gillesphey;
Inman, Pepper/new, O’Neill, Mauk,
                  O’Shea;
       Holloway, O’Donovan;

Bench: Crocombe (GK), Wenzel-Halls, Bowles, Mells, O’Toole 

We’ve only got 6 midfielders for 5 positions so the squad is looking unbalanced at the moment. They pulled out of the chase for Brattan early and I can’t see them filling that spot with any quality close to Bratts/Brillante now. 

Reddy
Lowry/Spiranovic/Grant
Castro/Kilkenny/Juande/Franjic
Keogh/Fornaroli/Ikonomidis

Velaphi
Tratt/Djulbic/Mrcela
Ingham/Wilson/Brimmer/?
Harold/D’agostino/Chianese

Did atkinson not go to Perth? Or am I imagining that?

He was heavily linked but I think it’s off now. He’s been training with City and is contracted for another season

Firstly ,Castro playing as a W/B wrong on so many levels. Secondly, Keogh is a one trick pony, in that, he can only play one position and thirdly, if it doesn't get desperate,  he may not play much at all. Why, because he was supposed to be present for the first day of pre season and didn't show. Popavich won't take that lightly.

Something like this?

Western Sydney Wanderers 

                       Lopar
Russel Zieglar McGowan Georgevski
               Baccus Shwegler 
                      Majewski
      Kamau     Yeboah     Duke

We'll be stronger than last season. A bit too early to pick a starting 11 as there will be more new signings.

Yeh I agree. We'll most likely sign at least one more player who should be in the starting 11.

Not at all convinced of Yeboah and Kamau being game-changing attackers. You need a better front-man. 

The rumour is we're signing an out and out striker, meaning the wing positions will be contested by Duke, Yeboah, and Kamau.

Smurfs look good on paper. I don't give a shit about you guys but looking at your midfield and attacking third, I can't believe you're not starting Caceres  either as a holding or attacking mid. I know what the german can give after watching him play with us last season and imo, Caceres is better in every department. Technically and without a doubt, in work rate. I would start him instead of the german or brattan.


Don't rate WU squad. Won't make top 6. I would start with Burgess instead of Chapman.


MC will be more of the same. Lot of promise but no end product. Don't know much about the 2 imports from Uruguay. Who knows? Hopefully one of them will be another fornaroli.

Lucky for Sydney that Corica is the coach. Caceres one flaw (and it is a big one) is that after he has beaten a player once he tries to beat them again, and when he has done that he tries to do it again. Eventually he loses the ball. Technically a very good player, his uncle admitted he was better than him when he was only 13, but holding onto the ball unto you lose it is not a winning tactic.

Sydney looking too strong. Perth will need to make a big signing for lb/lwb to be in contention. Spira seems in doubt too. 

Looking forward to see how WSW and City go too. Not that fussed by any other side. Still a lot of preseason to go though.

Anyone got word on whether Spiranovic will stay? Last I heard he’s due back in Perth next month when he’ll have made up his mind

Nope. Hope to hear something soon. He's one of the most important players going into ACL. 

ATM without knowing who will be brought in for LB and Spira i think we will line up like...

                     Fornaroli 
            Castro             Ikon
Chianese   Jaunde    Kilkenny    Franjic 
        Lowry     Mcrella Tratt
                      Reddy 

I'm bored so I'll do some of the other sides too.

CCM

I'm assuming they are playing a 422 diamond and the two Koreans will sign.

                 New GK
Gordon Tongyik Rowles Clisby
                   Kim E-S
            Lee S-H      Oar
                      DDS
               Murray Majok

I think they will use their last visa spot on a CB. If they are able to offload McGlinchey, then I'll think they'll sign a striker.

 I think they need to sign Jack Duncan as their #1.

Mariners not looking to bad 

They need two defenders badly. As well as a striker 

1 defender. Rowles is quality.

I don’t think they’ll sign a striker until they offload McGlinchey.

City

Birighitti
Galloway Windbichler Delbridge Jamieson
Brillante Berenguer
Noone Luna Cabrera
Maclaren

Western United

Kurto
Calver Gulum Aspro
Risdon Pasquali Chapman Vujica
Kone
New visa player Stamatelopoulos

                Acton
Roux Broxham Deng Brown 
               Lesiotis
   Hope Toivonen Barnett
     Kamsoba King Kenny 

Good time to reboot this less than a month out from the start and with most teams making signings. For us our early recruitment means were the same as we were when i first made the thread:

Agree redkat with above. 

I am am very interested in the mariners this year. I’m a Sydney fan through and through but am really intrigued to see how they line up. 

Could someone with with more knowledge than me give us a starting XI?

Birraz 
Gordon Fox Rowles Clisby
Kim
DDS Djuric
Silvera Simon Oar 

CCM are still looking for a fifth visa player.

Thanks mate. Not a phenomenal side but at least they will be competitive. Especially with staj 

Still a work in progress. I think Giancarlo will force his way into the back four probably at the expense of Rowles. GG may also go to RB to give more speed wide and Ziggy to CB.

Would look a whole lot better with a good quality visa striker. 

Jets...

Moss

Millar - Boogs - Topor - Burns

Kanta - Uga

Fitzgerald - Hoolahan - Petratos

Arroyo

Bench: Koutroumbis, Hoffman, Jackson, Thurgate, Sheppard, Italiano, Ridenton etc.


Injury to Hoolahan obviously changes things. Can see Ridenton playing a lot given Kantarovski's injury-interrupted pre-season (pretty much to be expected, sadly), and Hoffman always gets his share of games. 

Both Hoolahan and now Sheppard out till the new year... There's a big gaping hole in Jets' starting 11. And that's with Fitzgerald already a starter. 

Victory 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1

                Thomas
Traore  Hoogland Deng/Donachie Roux/Deng
                     Basha        Poulsen
                              Dobras
Nabbout                                                  Kruse
                            Toivonen

               

Izzo
Marrone/Strain Elsey Kitto
New DM
Mcgree Boland
Halloran Opseth Maria

Bench: Margus, Marrone/Strain, Nathan K, Mileusnic, Toure

AU are obviously looking for a DM and another defender. Our last visa spot will be used on a Chinese kid.

Marrone and Strain are evenly matched and keep displacing each other in the starting XI. 

Maria was originally signed as a replacement for Galloway but will play on the wing as Goodwin has departed.

It'll be interesting to see if Kurz sees Hoogland as a CB or RB, but I think this is the best use of our talents:

Pretty much this. I'd probably switch Deng and Hoogland, but they are interchangeable. I would almost go as far as saying its the most adaptable starting 11 we have ever had. After 2 years in Australia, I think Kurz has worked out this is the key to success.  It also feels like we have a bit of depth with the likes of Broxy, Elvis, Roux and Lesiotis on the bench as well as youth coming thorugh such as Carrigan, Kirdar, Lauton and Palazzolo. Hope, Kenny and Brown will probably get their chance at some point, but are nothing more than making up the numbers you'd assume. 

The big question is who will be the one to step up and take the opportunity to fill in for Kruse once the inevitable happens?

Elvis will be first in line. He is having an outstanding preseason. 

+1

        Fornaroli               Ikon
                           Castro
Kim        Jaunde        kilkenny       Franjic
       Grant      Wuthrich     Mcrella
                          Reddy

Sure there will be lots of rotation with ACL but other than wing backs im pretty happy with who can step up. Castro would be a concern but think Ikon can be called on to play a similiar role.

WSW

                             MEIER     -     DUKE
                                    MAJEWSKI
GEORGIEVSKI  -  BACCUS - SCHWEGLER  -  ELRICH
               JURMAN   -   ZIEGLER  -   MCGOWAN
                                      LOPAR

BENCH: YEBOAH, KAMAU, TASS, O'DOHERTY, SURMAN 

Difficult to say exactly what Mombaerts is thinking but i think this is the likely starting XI for most games

                            Bouzanis
Galloway  Windbichler   Delbridge  Jamieson
    Berenguer           Brillante        Metcalfe
Luna                      MacLaren                    Noone

Glover, Cabrera, Griffiths, Genreau, Najjarine

Najjar, Good, Atkinson, Wales, Assorted scholarship players

Roar for me, a definite 3-5-2:

                       — Crocombe —
     —- Neville — Aldred (c) — Gillesphey —-
McGing — 0’Neill — O’Shay — O’Mauk — Perkins
                    Holloway — O’Donovan

No Young?

No Inman?????

Inman was a tough leave. Been playing well. 

I'd argue he's been our best in pre-season, and it would be absolutely criminal to have him outside the starting XI. 

So where do you start him and who do you leave out. 

(Agree he’s been one of the best in preseason by the way) 

No idea, but I suppose that is up to Fowler to figure out. In my opinion we need Inman starting. 

Easy one for me. Play him instead of Mcging. I havent been overly impressed with Mcging in the games i have seen (though admittedly i have only seen 2 preseason games and that may be to do with his combination with Neville more than Mcging struggling). Inman has experience in that area and i believe that was where he played  when AAH was fit.