Henrique hat-trick sees Brisbane trounce Jets 4-0

Roarfan -Thank you for the info but as I haven't seen Adam playing for a while I reserve judgement until I do.By the way improving the team's performance is not MY problem,it is Roar's, but I never shrink from passing comment on what I see and it has been evident for some weeks they did not have another Berisha hidden away so a tactical formation change had to be the answer. I did mention my views on what could be done last Thursday in reply to Jim Morton. Cheers jb

Wainscoting - The idea, as you suggest, is not new, in fact the first recorded use of a deep lying centre forward was in the 1931 Austrian "Wunderteam" when a diminuitive genius called Sindelar,even smaller than Messi, was given the role by the father of modern coaching,Miesl. in order to get his Austrian team fully functional. This was followed in the early 50's when the Hungarian coach Sebes drafted Hidegkuti,an erstwhile left winger, into his teams to orchestrate supply to their 2 deadly strikers,Kocsis and Puskas. Later Don Revie was to try the role but never with the same success and the practice faded until Messi again made it work. Cheers jb

Jim, Adam Saroto is hopefully just a couple more weeks away. I seem to remember that he is a right - midfielder. He can probably play anywhere in midfield though. This may solve your problem. Great to see Steve Lustica developing into a very good player. He is really making a statement lately. Cheers Jim.

Bto -This game against Jets was a test case.It had been advocated that perhaps a complete change in tactical formation should have to take place and playing Broich in a position formerly held by a rough and tumble type centre was indeed a huge change.Naturally the change was going to take time to "bed down" and so it proved for Thomas took about 20 minutes to "find his feet" but when Henrique was introduced after 30 odd minutes suddenly things started to click. With Thomas no longer "parked" out left a huge space for attack became available and didnt Henrique,Lustica and Steffanutto relish the opportunity with 4 goals being engineered from out left. Now to the next problem how to get the right side functioning as well.The youngster ar Right back showed enough to be given a run in the position but it is further up the field changes may have to be made,Petratos does not look comfortable in the right midfield position and the youngster out wide on the right is undoubtedly one for the future but it is doubtful if he yet has the skill and know-how to play off the German playmaker. With Mackay away there is another move I would like to see tried.Presently Roar has a weapon that is not used nearly enough and I refer to Brattan's shooting power. At present due to the position he is playing,he is forced to speculate from 30 to 40 metres and I feel that if Mackay, never a consistent 'finisher", was given the "screening role" in front of North and Smith Brattan could be pushed further forward to link up with Broich .,As you appear tolike numerical formations this could be set up as 4,1(Mackay),2,1(Brattan),1(Broich) and 1 Henrique.The 2 positions on the flanks of the diamond would be the hardest to fill for hard running,hard working box to box midfielders are required and Lustica is worth a run on the left but the right still has a questionmark. Cheers jb

BES That statement concering "a good coach should never change a winning team" is an urban myth. Let's take it to the extreme,if Messi was out due to a minor injury and Barca won that game would Messi be left out ,if fit,for the next game?????. Good coaches do exactly the opposite,they should be constantly assessing every player in his team and if he feels he can improve the overall performance he should. Let's look at Roar. For 4 matches we had a centre-back playing at full back, not very successfully and yet apparently there was a right fullback sitting in the wings who suddenly appeared in the 5th game with not a little success.Also in these "losing" games we had different players tried in the centre forward role,somewhat unsuccessfully and yet the changes made against Jets appeared to work wonders.Latest question,how can Luke Brattan be brought into a position where his shooting powers can be given a better chance of success.Mackay may be the answer!!!!!!!!! Cheers jb

Considering what happened in Season 4 AZ I won't be surprised if the crowd drops off somewhat if this sort of form keeps being shown but then I think even last season or two you could have said that but didn't happen to that extent. All things being considered Fadida I think Gombau would have loved the potential of the club and region; Arnold was a big loss even though I don't think he ever had us on the list; Popa...well, one season as a head coach and he could school van Egmond on coach-player relationships and getting the most out of them. Then again I don't think van Egmond will ever learn that aspect of coaching.

I think Jaliens went RB because Stubbins has been waiting for Madaschi to get fit and play (and a question who would play RB with injuries). Personally I would put Regan on the bench instead and play Jaliens and Madaschi together (which I think is the preferred plan) but then that RB position.... Some comments on Flores being likely next weekend being "well rested" but seeing how he goes "during the week" implies to me that he may not be seen as working hard enough in training in the coaches mind. Well what ever is being tried now isn't working so maybe shake some others up by starting Flores. Similarly my only thought on why Jeronimo starts on the bench is for replacing Griffiths or Montaño during the game. He's so much better than that and was one of the more positive signings in preseason. Can only imagine how the mind games are working here but Jeronimo doesn't strike me as being lazy or not of the mindset at working hard at training... I think with minimal funds that a lot of departments have been affected, chief one being the conditioning staff. Disregarding those playing their first games players are looking below condition and some niggling injuries appear to be creeping in. If your below condition then it is harder to play well for the full 90 let alone 60-70... ...then we have the general psychology of the squad. Last night was very concerning. If publically the attempts are not working, I can't imagine what is being said to motivate 'the troops' in the shed.

Yes, Fuss has the correct number.

Financially Jets are on life support until new owners are found. Arnold was being chased but it appeared he may have to have taken on the NZ national team role to get the required wage level. Stubbins was in the running when van Egmond was appointed a few years ago. It seems to me that even if Stubbins was offloaded this week what coach are they going to attract for such a low fee? I think Zane would caretake indefinitely this season. My only thought would be that the likes of Mark Rudan or even Arthur Papas, someone looking for their first A-League coaching chance (like Stubbins), would take on the role rather than attracting some experience and a proven CV. A coach with any experience is going to see where the club is at and give it a wide birth for the time being, particularly with the for sale sign up. Speaking of that, one of the few positives is the members and crowd turnout. I expect the on field "product" (as Middleby termed it) was seen as critical to get a healthy price and attract potential owners. In that light some interesting decisions from Middleby et al if the next couple of games show similar 'spirit'.

I checked it and I was wrong. As a whole, we've only defeated them four times in Melbourne. Not a whole lot more but not twice.

From what I face seen they're a resilient and dedicated lot here in Newcastle. Luckily. They deserve a quality coach. Imagine what Gombau, Arnold or Poppa could do with the same players. Questions have to be raised offfield as to why players such as Haliti, Bridge, Elrich, Goodwin, NTS were allowed to leave. Not forgetting Burns, how he'd make a difference. Questions should also be asked as to how other coaches have turned them into men unrecognisable from their Hunter days.

He would probably think that you were after his job fadida. It might be available soon too! I didn't get a chance to watch the game unfortunately but from what you and others have posted, it sounds like Stubbins took the 2013/14 Newcastle template for beating Brisbane, successful on all three occasions I believe, and did the complete opposite. Very odd indeed...

Fuss Are you sure about those crowd figures for the cricket last night ? ...

RBBA, you must have watched a different game to me. I agree that we have played better, but I saw some real good football and some fantastic attacking moves. There was much more variety and some great goals.

Cameron, I am quite certain we have beaten them in Melbourne a lot more than that. I thought I had the stats but I cannot find them at the moment. Perhaps Jim Binnie or Fussball can help us out here. Over to you gentlemen.

The Jets are in deep, deep trouble on every front. I suspect the club will be in FFA control very soon.

Yeah... soon as I saw he no longer looked like an ageing hipster, I felt so much better about our prospects in the game.

Sorry from what I saw from the dross from BOTH sides Brisbane is going to get a touch up from Melbourne Victory next week by 3 or more goals. Quite Frankly that was one of the worst performances I have seen in the A-league from Newcastle. It is clear to me that the players are not responding to Stubbins and they have no faith in his coaching, furthermore, a lot of the trust between the players just isn't there. No one is playing for each other or supporting each other. It was awful and while Brisbane did get 4 goals they also didn't play well. It is a false dawn and they cannot rely on this result as a measure of where they are in the league. If they play like that against the victory they will be completely and utterly destroyed.

To describe Broich's position as 'centre forward' is something of a misnomer Roary, as he was playing in the capacity of a false 9. His job principally wasn't to score goals but distort the back line and impede communication between opposition defense and midfield, providing gaps for fast, offensive minded players to sight goal. You need to be an extremely intelligent player with a brilliant game sense to roam the oppostions half as they do so it's a rather rare approach these days. Messi used to play that role for Barca not so many years ago.

I hope you're right Fuss.