HIGHLIGHTS: Roar to top of A-League after Glory win

Well commented to both you guys, JB and Bes. Just catching up on some reading and always learn from your comments. Thanks.

MV also has to balance that out with players out for Olyroos, Socceroos and then on top of that ACL commitments. It will be a fair achievement if you can remain top after all that :)

As long as they sell clipboards with cup holders JB.

Bes - Your question?????? Don't know how long you've been attending games at Suncorp but I can think of at least 2 games when this system worked for the visiting team. Go back 2 years to the visits from Newcastle Jets when on both occasions they won the games 2-0 and 1-0. Up to the time the first game was played Roar had beaten Sydney 4-0,Heart 3-0, WSW 3-1 and Perth 1-0 Prior to the Jets second win Roar had played another 3 home games losing 1-2 to Adelaide,,beating Wellington 2-1 and CCM 2-1. In addition to those two wins Jets also beat Roar in Newcastle using the same system and won that fixture 2-1. I saw the 3 games(one was played in a downpour) and the Jets "stole" 9 points from Roar,scoring 5 goals in the process ,conceding only 1,not a bad return on 3 matches. ps My interest in football goes back some 60 years and in that time I have been blessed to watch some of the greatest players and teams which in turn has made me follow an "education route" in the game.I have coached and managed junior and senior teams,have served on commitees and boards of local and NSL teams,and try to watch every HAL game when it is being played. .I am only to happy to discuss the game ,at any level ,with anyone who cares to converse in a sensible manner. Cheers jb.

Exceedingly cool. Thanks Fuss

Can't see them being top of the ladder, with the ACL, but they're a good side and Berisha still looks as inspired as ever.

That sounds unappealing!

This website is fantastic - especially for comparing the ladder after "x matches" each season. Eg. Here is the link to 2014/15 HAL ladder after Rd 13 http://wildstat.com/p/7301/ch/AUS_1_2014_2015_RS/tbl/13 Also has results & ladders going back to the NSL days.

fair enough - btw - which stats site are you using that you can get previous season data? The HAL site doesn't seem to offer them. Or am I using it wrong :-)

ooops sorry jb - that should have read 'obsessed' not 'oppressed' in our game.... my bad.

Wow jb - I am duly impressed! You must truly be oppressed (in the best possible way) with our game. Or do you just have access to a web site somewhere called 'everything you could possibly ever want to know about football and then some..." Either way, all very educational. I dont have reason to doubt any of what you have explained but a slight question mark over the comment: "It is not pretty to everyone watching but has been proved over and over again to be effective when seeking, or sneaking, a draw or a win when playing away from home" It would be interesting, if probably totally impossible to truly analysis that and see indeed is that tactic has prevented more or in fact as I suspect caused more goals in its history by leaving opposition players unmarked on the penalty box. Especially when as you say they are likely 'better' players than you own - so to me, all the more reason to have them marked like barnacles on a rock. My coaching days were from U7 right up to U16 QLD regional rep teams - obviously as with so many dads, following along with my sons career. He did make it into the Roars inaugural 1st youth squad back in 2005, playing in the same squads as Zullo, Minnicom, Kruse and a year behind Vidosic (and against Nichols and co from the Southern Region), got loaned out to Bris City for their 1st team but just never quite developed the level of obsession that he needed to get over that final hurdle. Fun days and certainly earthed in me an undieing support for all things Orange :-)

lol the very detail in your post would say it's telling you something Fuss :)

@BES Crunching numbers to create a positive story for clients has been my bread & butter for the past 25yrs. :-) After doing it for miners, telcos, electricity retailers, clothing goods retailers, brewers .. the football industry is a piece of cake! PS: You can tell from the time stamps on the posts, it took me less than 1/2 hr to get those stats. In reality (you may not believe me) it took 3 clicks of the mouse - 1 click to get the MVFC home fixture, 2 clicks to get table from last season after 13 matches ... about 30 seconds in total. Time is money.

All depends on the lads 'above the shoulder'. I know they're technically as good as any other team. I know Muscat's system is tactically as good as any other team. But, the unknown is the intangible "hunger to win trophies". It was there last season; it's missing this season compared to what I've seen from Brisbane & WSW. Even SydneyFC seem to have lost that hunger this season. But, lots more twists & turns to come.

Hey FIUL - I do smile when you trot these kinds of posts out. I have this vision of you sitting in a darkened room in the glow of your computer screen with calculator and pen close to hand feverishly sifting through pages and piles of data and stats until finally EUREKA! you collapse back punching the air in triumph as you find a way to arrange the numbers such that MV still has a chance of being put at the top of them all! I truly admire your ability and driven desire to create might fantasy infrastructures that fill the sky in their phantom magnificence and severely odd shapes - all built so that your team is king - no matter what the dam stats say! I admire it of course because I applaud the total one-eye fan - of such I proudly am and always will be. I applaud your efforts yet again FIUL - it may well have taken you all night to get those numbers in the right order, so feel free to trot off to a well earned rest now :-)

So Fuss, will MV win this thing again? I'll be surprised, pleasantly so, if they're not in the grand final, but as you say, it's still way too early for an informed guess.

The table, after 13 matches tells me nothing. MV has not yet played Brisbane this season. MV has 2 matches to play against Brisbane in Melbourne. MV has 2 matches to play against WSW in Melbourne. MV has 2 matches to play against SydFC in Melbourne. Not even 1/2 the season is over. 12 months ago, after 13 matches, MVFC were 7 points behind No.1 This year, after 13 matches, MVFC is 7 points behind No.1.

Every now and again I think "City just might ...." then they trot out a performance like that followed by the excuses and they look like great pretenders again. One things for sure, the tables starting to stretch out and after this weekend there's fewer games left to play than have been played - time for doing and not talking is here for everyone.

BES - The "madness" you speak of is not new to football,it has appeared over the years in top football, with many and varied the reasons given for using it. Retreating defence is thought to have it's origins in Switzerland around the late 1930s, when an Austrian,Rappan,having been given the Swiss national coaching job and recognising the standard of player his team was likely to run up against, Austria ,Italy, etc decided to start "toying" with his team formation on the field.This was to morph into "catenaccio" as the Italians practiced it in the late 1950's and 60's and has since been developed by "modern" coaches to play the game as I described,lose possession and get everyone (maybe a front man excepted) behind the ball and start all over again in the quest for possession.The theory,similar to that of Rattan, is to be found when a team "thinks" it is going to run up against a "better "team, they can fall back on this tactic..It is not pretty to everyone watching but has been proved over and over again to be effective when seeking, or sneaking, a draw or a win when playing away from home Now, that explanation apart, I agree with everything else you have observed in recent games though you have to remember all the goaks scored against Roar have not been from set pieces,however the principles you describe are perfectly correct. . You do mention "junior rep coaching" but omit to say what the age group was so I'll not pass comment on that but do know that these tactics are "specialist" in their origins and should not be taught to kids under the age of 12-14 and only then as education not necessarily for use on the field. Cheers jb.

Still going with my round 2 prediction... Red Neck V Drive Bye for the title this year... from what I saw on the weekend I have no reason to change... Popa & Alaisse are both brilliant coaches ...