HIGHLIGHTS: Roar too good for Melbourne City

Here's a good independent analysis of this game from a web site that always provides good value: http://leopoldmethod.com.au/the-petratos-and-borrello-show/

Seems you get confused quite easily jb.....you also accuse me of "discussing out of context" where with regards to this Post, it was you who started the "discussion out of context", also I did not do any research with regards to your past work history, I could care less. Have a look through your previous posts on this subject and you will find it was you who has printed such. As others have said, it appears whenever someone contributes where you disagree, you slap them down as it portrays that you seem to want to have the last word and of course you think you are always correct, this is not always "worthy of true debate" as you put it.

Bob- Totally confused by the comment. Please ,please don't read anything that I write seeing that it appears to be " Double Dutch" to you and I will promise just to ignore your comments and in that way there is no bad feelings generated.OK???? Cheers jb PS You'd better not make that suggestion to Fuss he'll come down on you like the proverbial ton of bricks.!!!!!!jb.

You are away again Hogdriller.You'll discuss "usually out of context" any comment I make whether it addressed to BES,Waz,Fuss or for that matter anyone,but at least they try to answer byputting their ideas down and that causes structured debate. Now how in the name of God or the Devil do you know anything about my work history and yet this latest effort deems to know it all. Your knowledge of these things greatly surpasses what you know about football for you don't offer any opinioan at all other than to say "Henrique scored a great goal" What nonsense,the little man took a chance and it worked but I note you still do not pass comment on the positioning of the goalkeeper when that "great goal" was scored. Now fora final time I will try. These sites are for people to put their views and opinions and in normal circumstances the result is good debate, Sometime a reader will take offence at what is said and will immediately reply and put his view,this can go on for three or four comments and in my time I have found it a heartening experience,and you know I still discuss at length withguys k like Waz,Fuss, Lionheart,Bes, and many many others but in your case I will make an exception for try as I might I can't get you to talk sense about our game. By the way ,my name is there so did you work where I worked? for I made many long friendships in "my factory" and to the best of my knowledge left with no "enemies" Now don't answer this ,for your comments are not what a blog site is designed for and are not worthy of true debate.. Cheers jb

Jb I think we're getting off track, you're not an easy person to discuss with on these pages. End of debate/lecture lol.

Jb you use the expression "As a fan you were enthralled ...." which carries a certain implication that you yourself are not "a fan" and yet the detailed, insightful analysis on this page has come from others and not you. You speak like a fan not a coach. Anyone that disagrees with you is slapped down as "a fan" while you seek to occupy some invisible moral high ground from which all truth is spoken. It's comical. I sometimes wonder whether you and Fuss are the same poster?

RBB - totally agree. And a lot of training with goalkeepers goes into improving reaction times, quick little half-side steps and of course getting down quickly. How and why that ball got passed the keeper is a sequence of good footballing events leading up to the shot he couldn't save. Even then he got a hand to it, and coaching attacking players where to put the ball in such a situation it's either keep the ball on the ground or blast it into the roof of the net as both give the keeper the biggest stretch. Borrelos shot was actually near perfect. How often do see shots like that come at the keeper 1/2 a meter high providing an "easier" shot to stop, quite often right? So to write this off as a keepers mistake without and analysing the full passage of play is a little short sighted imp. I imagined myself sitting down in the video suite in training this week with Sorenson and thinking through what would I say if I was his coach? What could he do differently, what could be improved? Not a lot imo.

@Waz I will chip in on this one. I also get frustrated when people say "the goalkeeper shouldn't get beaten at the near post". It all depends on the quality of the shot and the positioning of the keeper. In this case Borello does execute the shot quickly and it does surprise Sorenson, but I thought he still has a decent chance of saving it. The positioning of the keeper was fine, I thought the position of the shot itself should have been closer to the near post and it almost looked like Sorenson fumbled it slightly. I wont go off at Sorenson too much because I think he has been terrific this year but he will be a little disappointed he didn't do better. There are times when a keeper will get beaten at the near post and there is nothing they can do about it. I just don't think this was one of those times.

jb, I'm sorry but I just find your analysis of the game far too narrow; for example you say "Borello makes far more covering runs back into defence than does any of his midfield counterparts" (this is also true of Broich by the way) but if you had a broader understanding of Roars game plan you would know this is the job the coach has asked him to do, when Roar are in defence Dimi has been asked to drop centrally and be the "first receiver" in transition when the attack breaks down therefore Dimi does not track back as Borrello does, this is at the coaches request therefore critique the coach not the player for following the play book. This has been debated before on this site, published on more analytical websites than this (I can give you the link if you're interested) and it's been mentioned by Aloisi himself at the fan forums. But you need a broader input than watching TV to appreciate that. I'm sorry, you just do. As a further example of what I consider your narrow view to be - it's a cliche to say the keeper should "never be beaten at his near post" which you used to describe Roars second goal. There's always a context to that statement if you are a player or coach. Examining the TV replay for goal 2 shows the following: - Petratos recovers the ball and moves across the goal. The immediate threat is a shot or cross from Petratos towards the keepers right side (far) post - TV footage shows (the experienced international/EPL) goalkeeper to be correctly positioned for this threat. - Petratos doesn't do the obvious and instead plays a clever reverse pass to Borrello. - the threat now changes to the keepers left (near) post and he is forced to change position to cover the new threat. - borellos shot is immediate exploiting the advantage the reverse pass has given him. This denies the keeper time to adopt a new position to a new threat. - the shot is quick, low and hard and the keeper does a decent job of getting a hand on it but it's a goal at the near post. But you simply start your analysis from the shot to the near post and you assertion that it was a mistake by the keeper who should never get beaten at the near post (cliche!). But I would argue the keeper did everything right in the evolving circumstances he just got beaten by better football played faster than he could respond to. Your analysis imo, and as I've outlined above is therefore too narrow and I challenge you on this as you claim to be an experienced coach on this site; in this case I'd argue the keeper can not be in the correct position to defend the initial threat from Petratos AND be one step to his left to protect the possible threat to his near post. It's impossible for him to be in two positions at once, and an experienced coach would know that surely? So I will ask you a question (which you normally don't answer by the way) - how would you coach the keeper after the game on what to do differently? As far as I can tell the keeper had correct positioning for the initial threat (Petratos shot/cross) and responded quickly to the reverse pass and I would say it's a very difficult one to say to the keeper "mate, you stuffed up" ... but I'd be interested in your reply (And please lose the "chip on the shoulder" stuff, it's antagonistic, and I'll do the same with some of my inappropriate quips, we should both remember that the way we read things isn't always as blunt or as direct as the writer intended, it's just this medium. This would be a great conversation with a whiteboard not over social media)

It seems on these posts you obviously want to get your point over no matter what, and only critique any others who question such. And after reading your reply to BES 29th Dec @ 4:52pm where you state you, " studied supervision,man management, time and motion in the workplace and operations management over 7 years at college.and about a further 20 years in running factory sections and football teams", seems to shine some light on you and your attitude towards others. In other words you were someone who would stand over others, your so called 'fellow work mates', clipboard in hand, noting discrepancies, whether there up to the job or not, performance indicators etc, then go tell the bosses if they weren't eh? Sounds like you were real proud of it as well, bet you were real popular there yeh? And that's the attitude you bring to this Forum. Or it may be that your just another Inspector Blakey from 'On The Buses'.....now I know what the 'B' in jb stands for. That my friend is another debate jb, all the best for the New Year.

Hogdriller- You are starting to bore me with trying to explain my thoughts to you. The question ---- Would Henrique have scored the "bloody good goal" if Sorensen had been where goalkeepers are supposed to be.???????? Answer ---Highly doubtful. That's what was implied when the 3 goals that Roar scored were being discussed and to add to that,just in case you didn't understand,the theme of the discussion was on "why Roar are still finding it difficult to score the goals that their outfield play merits".That is not a criticism as such but an investigative question. Now if you did not pick up on that "vibe" I suggest you put your "pen" away and stop making comment on something you quite obviously don't comprehend,---as it is known ----The Queen's English.Cheers jb ps Hopefully I will have a good New Year and I will start to get some worthwhile comment from you in that time not some puerile attempt at criticism for criticism's sake. That my friend is "good" debate. Cheers jb

I liked the comparison with Benteke's failed effort for LFC that was all over the web. Ricky did really well to score, cool, calm and composed. And doing the Roar thing - going for goal and not the corner flag.

"Only once have the Roar had a better record after 12 rounds since the start of the A-League in 2005" ..... that statistic probably sums the season start up.

I could care less what you now say your original comment was aimed at, seems you've had to explain yourself to others a bit since then anyways......... I was replying to you saying that Henrique's goal was "hardly the result of good football". So, why don't you just give the goal a tiny wee bit of credit for what it was......a bloody good goal? Also I wasn't trying to convince you "that the 3 goals they did get was in anyway the result of their superior outfield play".......no, i never even mentioned or said that ?? Delusional ?? who cares mate, as said before.........go check your meds, and then have a sensible New Year.

Waz -I did point out that DP did not make a winning tackle 3 weeks ago but that was a criticism on his suitability to play in midfield and you well know I would love to see the same player played out wide on the right.Last weekend I did note he made 2 successful tackles but that is not enough to convince me he is a midfielder for this Roar team,which is peopled with players ,none of whom are noted "ball winners".I would take the observation further by saying Borello makes far more covering rnns back into defence than does any of his midfield counterparts and that to me is putting a huge load on the kid who ,whether we like to admit it or not ,is still one of Roar's major goal getters. Cheers jb

hogdriller - As a fan you were enthralled by the little man and that is great but the mistake was made when City decided to send their goalkeeper into their opponent's penalty area,a gamble that failed miserably so instead of 2-1 it was 3-1. Now my comment was aimed at the fact that Roar could have,by virtue of their outfield dominance, been leading by many more goals than they scored.You may well be the best Roar fan in the country but you are surely not going to try and convince me that the 3 goals they did get was in any way the result of their superior outfield play. Cheers jb

and to you too jb. Hope Santa was kind. Robust debate today.

Bes- You really turned the clock back for me when you put up this latest discussion point, back to the times when I studied supervision,man management, time and motion in the workplace and operations management over 7 years at college.and about a further 20 years in running factory sections and football teams. A good trip back in time ,thanks. Your problem in my mind is that you seem to have some comprehension about these facets of management but for some reason or other you have me portraying JA as some sort of standover merchant at training or in dressing room. I have never said or implied that in any comment but perhaps you know something I don't. By the way I got rid of those textbooks the day I stopped work ,ok????? You go on to hint that in trying to improve a player,or a group of players a coach is actually being "negative" you see that's where we differ, I think he is being seriously positive after all that is part of his job Now what you have to absorb is that I put my name to my comments so that if you don't wish to read them,please just ignore them. Your last statement about AP's comments gives out an ambiguous meaning which to be honest I find hard to follow so perhaps it is better we just keep our opinions to ourselves Cheers jb. ps. Did you look at the video and see the things I corrected you on,2 not 1 target men and the lack of "picking up" evident when the City goal was scored, not by Route 1 but a header over a centre back who was left without any cover whatsoever.You did not mention these. jb

Waz - From where are you forming the opinion that I see myself as the only one who "provides it".?? You go on to use two words and attempt to differentiate between "critique" and "criticism" which according to the Oxford Dictionary mean exactly the same thing, the meaning given as "a critical essay or notice". That is not what AP asked for , he asked for constructive comment on how our coaches ,players,and teams could improve their performances as he feels there is much to be taken out of that type of comment ,much more than harping on about some feuds between the FFA,the Owners or the PFA. I heartedly endorse his comments. With all due respect to you that is exactly what I try to do,I watch a game,and if I see flaws that IMO can be easily remedied I will state my opinion and try to back it with facts,exactly as you suggest. Now lets clarify one thing I am not anti JA,I am not anti Roar, in fact I believe JA has the makings of a squad that could well win this competition provided he keeps trying to mend obvious faults,and that is his job no more,no less. Cheers jb

Waz - First of all my comment was aimed at Bes for I simply told him to view the video "leading"the article that showed two Roar targets (he said there was only one).!!!!!!! If you read my comment to him again you will see I did end the description with the words "We'll never know" which you do mention in your breakdown. Re. your analysis ,nothing I disagree with, probably my only question being I think Sorensen (already moving forward) was probably a bit nearer the "line" of Steff's cross than Bes made out. If you get a chance check it out. Re. Kisnorbo's own goal.No matter what slant you put on it ,right or wrong, I don't thinkPaddy meant to put the ball into his own net,I would prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was looking at giving away a corner kick.so his "mistake" adds to that percentage you opened your statement with. Chhers for the season. jb