Here is an interesting question: who has the best home record of all the clubs?

Could well be that AU, CCM and the Jets are up there.

IMO There are a few reasons the Roar dont score enough goals at home to win games;
1. They dont get enough bodies into the box when the ball is delivered…have watched a number of their games and made the comment to my son. Part of this reason could be because at home they seem to rush forward and maybe midfielders/wide players cannot get to the box in time. Due to their appalling home record now you add the psychological factor of trying too hard (rushing and making wrong choices) which compounds the above. Away from home the team doesn’t have the pressure to push forward as much and so can build up the play patintly without the crowd on their backs.
2. The wide defenders dont get forward to support attacking plays often enough and this may also be due to the first point.
3. Finally you dont have any out and out clinical finishers and never have…even Brosque in the 1st year wasnt prolific in front of goal. The few clear chances that are created are generally wasted.

Anyway most HAL teams struggle at home even MV at TD. When away teams sit back and defend in numbers the majority of teams dont have the quality to break them down, become frustrated and are susceptible to the breakaway.

Apart from the MV game, I have been tipping for the Roar to turn it around, and say the same thing every week: the Roar just has to turn it around this weekend, and then watch in disbelief as I curse myself at bucking the obvious trends with my tips!

It’s an interesting thing with sporting trends (or hoodoos as we call them in Victoria, not sure if the term is used widely elsewhere) some can be quite unbelievable and persist for years such that you have to conclude: well, this is no longer conincidence (not saying the Roar will not win at home for years…)

Which two A-League teams have this bizarre record where they continually beat each other away from home? – I’m sure the Roar is one of them, the Jets or CCM might be the other. I can’t recall whether it persisted into the 4th year – but it must be damn close.

Of course there are stacks of hoodoos in the EPL because the home grounds of the top teams are such fortresses, and with smaller clubs spending long periods out of the top flight, they can go literally decades without winning an away game against a big club. When was the last time Villa defeated the Gunners away? Something like 15 years? That’s actually a smallish hoodoo! This could be the year where quite a few hoodoos are broken.

I sit & watch every home game. I converse with the regulars about the same deja -vu game. We blame everything ,but do we have any real answers? As you say there away record defies logic. Some blame the graveyard underneath the stadium.
Who knows. Maybe you could watch a Roar match at home(Perth this Sunday) & give us an unemotive assessment Of WTF is up at the Roars home matches..

I have doubts about Franks coaching. I’m not alone at the Roar. His home record is marginally worse than Mirons & hes long gone. Unfortunately Frank is regarded as a bit of a prodigal son in QLD football circles due to his Captain/Coach win in 1997 with the Strikers,then after of course Socceroo coach.

Miller’s goals yes. But in other areas he was ahead of the game & the less”professional” Roar players failed to read his plays.
Plenty of times this season I”ve seen him control & hold the ball in midfield,a little turn here to give himself space ,all the time shielding the ball. What for? nobody running into space intelligently for him to pass to. Eventually his cleaned up by the usually quicker younger defenders on the opposing team. Wasted oppurtunity.
I welcome any constructive criticism. You saw what careful planning over a number of years can do with the”Silk Purse” Gamba Osaka. They were once at the “Sows Ear ” stage of most A-League clubs.
It is in the AFC’s & MBH’s best interest for the A-League to improve to the level of the J-League so that what we discussed before(ie 5 or 6 Asian Super leagues can evolve with the best Asian players fed into them so the ACL can eventually be a smaller version of the ECL). We will be pushed into developing “Professional Football” whether we like it or not.

I’d rate most of the Socceroos ‘74 squad as domestiques – Jimmy Mackay, Jimmy Rooney, Ray Richards and so on.

But how many of the current Socceroos who are enjoying world fame and fortune would you call domestiques, while not really being arrogant or petulant.

A few of Miller’s goals early in the season must have come close to meeting your exacting standards?!

Actually, when talking about problems with the A-League, surely our dearth of quality full backs is key amongst them. It seems to me that on the rare occasions that a full back reaches the by-line, the ball ends up either in row z behind the goals, or way, way over the other side of the pitch – absolutely no one can hit the hot spot with any regularity! I can’t think of a single player.

Now I know we’re well off the quality of the EPL, but check out these two fine examples of full back play on the weekend:
1. Boswinga’s goal from the corner of the box – a classic full back’s goal (incredible debut season for him); and
2. Garrido hitting the by-line at pace and then spotting up Ireland just on the edge of the box who finished with a great goal (his finishing this season has been superb)

Speaking of formations when I played the 5-3-2 system was in place. Despite seeing a variety of modern systems with nouveau names for players, my own opinion is that this was & is the best system ever invented. Each player knew his job,Big strapping centre forward fed by clever inside left & right Forwards or flying wingers who could cross accurately. Centre forward marked by big strapping centre half & inside forwards marked by left & right halves who worked their butts of but were equally as skilful with the ball as the inside forwards.. Wingers marked by “bring em up from mine “full backs.
We talk about modern coaching & the pressure placed on the poor sods well I believe that the 5-3-2 system allowed the players to run the show not the coach. Therefore they could express themselves better on the pitch without having a tactical system nagging away at the back of their brain. To me was the closest to allowing the true footballing ability of a player & therefore team to be expressed.
We wont ever go back to it of course,the modern coach is a demi-god. Mores the pity.

With half the A-League clubs persisting with the common 4-2-3-1, how are both MV and CCM getting away with three up front? And the answer is that amongst the three strikers, you have hard workers who chase down defenders and hassle them in their own third, I’ve already mentioned Simons for CCM, and Arch and Danny boy certainly do that for MV.

Also, he must have the best damn touch in the world for such a big bloke. If there was a ratio of touch to bulk – he would win it hands down!!

Actually I can recall seeing one defensive forward previously of that ilk – the first leg of our qualifier agaisnt Uruguay in 2001 – remember that little lone striker who spent the whole game hassling the defenders – never even put one shot on goal all night – can’t remember who he was – but it worked – Australia had a lucky one goal advantage and it wasn’t enough.

Do not be surprised if Pimbo unleashes the defensive forward tomorrow morning – at least for some of the game – espeically with Cahill carrying a foot injury that will most certainly stop him from seeing out the full 90.

By the way, Matty Simons is quite an effective defensive forward, except he is actually scoring goals this year!!

I think you were talking while back about trying to stop the other team building from the back

He add so much value to our system. Our maintanence of posession during the World CUp on the attacking half relied on him and lots of his good work goes unnotice. Only in Australia where our most technically gifted player is our “domestique “

But I think we have our very own domestique in the NT, and he plays in the front half – who oh who might I be referring to?!

Certainly in German football the importance of this type of player is widely recognized – one thinks of people like Dieter Eilts (who was so silently prominent at Euro 1996 that he made the tournament team) and, in more recent times, Torsten Frings.