Brisbane Roar destroys lacklustre Mariners

Johnny - bin watching Petratos all season, You haven't obviously. You're regurgitating last seasons criticism. Buy yourself a ticket and get to Suncorp and watch him. You'll be surprised IF you watch ... somehow I suspect you won't. He's getting enough independent commentators praise to render certain fans criticism as out of date or just plane malicious.

100% agree

Bob, watch Petratos and take note of how many times he loses or gives away possession needlessly. It generally follows him fiddling around with his fancy feet going nowhere. Like I said, he looks busy but it is often ineffective. He regularly forsakes the easy ball.

of course JB. On another forum last week I was complaining about our set piece, and complete lack of goals from outside the box this season (Henrique's from half way excepted). Apart from a couple of headers from Bowles early on, we've had no spectacular free kicks and no repeat of Brattan, Yeboah or Lustica crackers we've seen in previous seasons. Then comes along North's header and Corona from outside the box, Nice. More to come I hope, saving these up to the season's tail end.

Lionheart and Bob -You can plan on the training field no doubt ,but whether the "third ball " to be played reaches an unmarked target some seconds later and only metres from goal is totally dependent, not only the original ,but subsequent marking being done by the previously "set for the free kick " defenders.It ia a nice thought to think these plans guarantee 100% success but I think you both know enough about the game to know that the outcome of these set pieces are a bit tongue in the cheek at best,if they work great,if not,so what????Cheers jb ps no matter what it was a good goal!!!!!jb

Just who is or isn't a weak link in any side is always subjective, Young v Theo seems to split Roar fans right down the middle for example. Petratis last season was under-confident and a problem; this season I can't agree he's the weak link - the role he's being asked to do is getting done well and he is playing very well. Fans often judge players on what they "don't do" or worse still, on what they think they should be doing lol. Petratos is fine for me. My "weak link" which is a bit simplistic possibly even a bit cruel, is (was) Bowles, we found his limitations at CB over the past few rounds (more correctly the opposition did) which gave now been fixed by Donachie.

You need to watch more closely. Petratos has been involved directly in 4 or 5 of Roars last 7 goals, he's second on Roars goal assist list this season, joint 4th on the HAL goal assist list, he's often involved in lead up to chances/goals and he's just won the 'NAB Young Player of the Year' nomination for January an award that overlooked fine young players in Sydney and Melbourne. He didn't do all that being "a weak link". Too many football "fans" in Brisbane form a negative opinion on players early in their career and won't let go - Young, Bowles, Donachie and Petratos all suffered this abuse. All are developing into fine players despite this. I suggest you go to a match and watch Petratos, he's easy to spot in those white boots. What you will see is a young player full of energy who covers a lot of ground during a game, he rarely stops moving, along with Maclaren he makes intelligent runs, he often switches the play 30-40 meters across the width of the pitch with pin point accuracy to Broich of Steff on the left, he links well with Borrello who is not a natural winger and you'll often see Petratos cut inside and draw defenders before making a reverse pass out to Borrello who now has space because of Petratos, Dimi is also the point man in transition out of defence, what you might call a "first receiver" who gets the ball, secures it 99% of the time and links other players in, he has a wicked shot and his two goals this season is a Meagher return but balanced by his 4 direct assists, numerous secondary assists and the 4 times he's hit the woodwork this season. Weak link? Definitely not! Most improved player this season? Definitely! Open your eyes my friend and stop watching re-runs of last seasons games.

Garcia wasn't very good but neither were CCM. He had a couple of class touches but that was about it. I suspect Bozza slept soundly that night lol

jbinnie - the North goal was planned, I think you could call it a "set play". The ball was over-hit to the back post where the waiting Donachie was the only player with a real chance of getting it because of his height and headed it back across goal to a line of waiting orange players. It should have been defended better all the same. The reason I know it was planned is I saw them practising the move in training midweek (where no one managed to score by the way)

Wanderers scrape last Mariners with a last minute goal and we are led to believe that was a good performance. Brisbane thump Mariners 4-0 in a dominant performance in a second half spoiled by heavy rain and some would try and tell us the performance isn't good enough. Football is indeed a funny old game.

Good points Chopper. It is way above expectations from last winter :)

Thanks JB. Isn't that how Leicester is winning the EPL? Practiced maybe? Jade working on his header and told to get in there, unnoticed. The way Jade North ran straight to Ross Aloisi to celebrate indicates something.

Petratos is very busy but largely ineffective. A weak link.

Lionheart - Most teams coming to Suncorp will attempt to sit back and let Roar take the game to them hoping for success in holding them and breaking when Roar backline players are caught forward. That is the game as it is being played today. . The goal you describe was in fact well taken, but "planned"??,,I very much doubt it,the defence should have been "set" for the free kick and Donnachie's header could have been expected with his height,but the space afforded to North by CCM was just rank bad defending. Now to your opening statement,sure Roar got 3 points and everyone appreciates that but another 2 goals would have put them ahead of WSW in goal difference,that's how tight the comp. is and because of that goals scored are becoming more important by the week. You may be right in your thoughts about Borello,he is no winger in the true sense of the word and spends far too much time working back to do "cover work" that should be being done by others,hence he has no chance of improving,either as a winger or a central striker and so his overall game suffers. Now to finish,Roar are not going to run up against teams performing in the manner of CCM yesterday and that could be a source of worry in coming weeks. Cheers jb.

You go to get the points, and Roar got three. Got to be happy but still, leaving the ground everyone's mumbling 'should've been10'. For mine, CCM looked like they were going to sit back and hold us out, then bring on Garcia and beat us up. But Jade North scored, and wasn't it sweet at last, to score from a set piece too. Noticed that Jade ran all the way to Ross Aloisi to celebrate, so someone's plan worked and showed me that Roar are working on things, like scoring against a stacked defense, and the game changed. Every week someone's not as good as usual, and others step up. I thought the defense stood up last night, and Corona more than paid back for his own goal last week.Still think he's the best player, technically, in the league, and Jamie McLaren must be the fastest. Those two are our best buys by far, since Bearish and Broich. I'm becoming increasingly unhappy with Borello. To me, he hasn't developed his game much at all, maybe he's gone backward from this time last year, apart from the very early games. I think he sees himself as an assist player rather than a goal scorer. Also noted for CCM that Garcia constantly called for the ball in front of goal, where we sat, and several times unmarked in a good position but they didn't pass to him. Maybe we were lucky there.

He spent a lot of time calling for the ball, especially in front of goal which was right where we sat, but they never passed it to him. I thought that was strange, not passing to him in front of goal. He often was in a good position too, waving madly and asking for an aerial ball. Maybe he hasn't been there long enough yet. There weren't lots of LFC jerseys around, not just the small group with banners.

JA this week stated that Petratos playing as a10. Too slow to be a winger really. Having said that there was a stage in later part of 2nd half when they seemed to play a 442 and caused CCM centre backs some problems.

I thought he was the best marquee eva ;)

jb, Waz and Real you have all given good critique of Roar's deficiencies and also the stronger points of their game and I generally agree with most points. After the winter from hell we surely are blessed to be in a high position and it is important for members and fans to look deeper into our performances to note where we can improve. I am not known as a big fan of Petratos but maybe that's because he is played out of position. He is a winger nothing more nothing less. Keep him on the sideline and let him run and cross and occasionally cut inside and have a shot and I believe we will get the best out of him. Give him sixty minutes then swap him for Henrique. Borello is another played out of position as he should spearhead the attack with Maclaren playing off him. I still think we lack a ball winner,an enforcer ( probably the job Thwaite would have done had he come here)and for all of Corona's class in the middle of the park, he is not that guy. On the CCM game it is hard to be too objective as apart from the first 15 minutes they were poor. I did however like the way Broich was played more centrally almost as a number ten because he was more involved in the play. I hope to see us reach the finals in either first or second place but that will require a fair amount of luck because against the other top teams I am nervous till the final minute even if we have a healthy lead. The real work must be done this winter in despatching the deadwood and bringing in some good new faces. The deadwood I refer to includes three visa players.

In complete agreement on all points, jb. It is interesting that these same problems have been with the Roar for so long, over the tenures of several coaches.