Victory beat Roar in lopsided FFA Cup tie

In the last few seasons, but last year in particular, the vast majority of games were just boring. The tactic of a defenders pulling back attackers trying to get a counter attack going was out of control and watching the coach inspired 'tactics' was a waste of time. That brings me to the Roars FFA Cup outing whereby there was no intent to actually do something positive. The game was fairly well promoted yet no attempt was made by Roar to treat this game or their fans with respect. Any prospective new member would have walked away with no intention of joining up for the next season, it will be the same diehard 11-12k. I once wrote to the FFA about the chronic time wasting in the last 15 mins of just about all a-league games, replacing fit players to waste time etc. and the fact that any attempt to counter attack is stopped on half way by fouling players. Their classic reply was 'you have to expect some gamesmanship' to which I replied 'you have to expect fans to stop going.The FFA just cannot seem to get it through to the coaches that their job is to entertain not 'win ugly'. That was it for me, add to that is the fact that FOXTEL bought football, run football and they will ensure football never becomes a bigger product that FOXTELS big investments in NRL and AFL. So we have negative coaches, clueless FFA and FOXTEL all turning the game into a big NOTHING.

Roar going to have another go: Victory v Roar; pre-season friendly in Ballarat. Friday, September 1st: http://www.hepburnadvocate.com.au/story/4851112/a-league-friendly-confirmed-for-ballarat/?cs=12

need to get TK out of there for a start

Yeah, apparently it's 3421 as the base and 3241 as an alternative. I don't think it matters that much, it's the three at the back that's relevant

Wanderers behind closed doors at Robina on Friday night. Wanderers are actually the home team as part of a package fhey have

Buddy - It has long been known that up to 80% of the play actually takes place in what coaches term "the middle third" so it should not surprise you when you see a coach use a system that sees this area "swamped " with players thus making it easier to win back and retain possession of the ball. Forget the "numbers game", chess is played on a board and requires the player to make a move. Thankfully we have not reached that point yet. Cheers jb..

The article quotes Moore “The plan this season is to have two systems that we can use at different times depending on we are playing and what suits us”. That begs the question somewhat.

Wanderers? interesting, I thought I'd read that they were playing an NPL club, closed doors.

JB - sorry, it was a bit vague but overall I'd suggest they are really playing a back five and 5-4-1 disguised as 3-4-3. The objective is a solid defence whereas 3-4-3 usually suggests an attacking motive. The difference being that with the resources available to the club they have some of the very best players to work with and it looks as though it works....... so many started to copy!

Roar defending their approach to the FFA Cup and confirming they've been playing and plan to stick to, 3-4-2-1: http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/football/brisbane-roar-deny-sleeping-on-ffa-cup-despite-third-consecutive-roundof32-exit/news-story/c4f30ad222ca5f3859ec3ab2fea9222f

Agree with that. But don't be too harsh on Aloisi for the performance. If (if) he is attempting a 3-4-3 then he's going to learn which players can adapt to it and make it work. It's a simple formation but devilishly challenging to make it work in attack and defence. If he sticks with it then it will look more like old Roar as well as being less susceptible to the high press. Given the personnel he had last night I would have abandoned it for a game and gone 433 or even 442 but maybe that's not the right thing to do? I think we've got wanderers next week on the coast so will be interesting to see what transpires

buddy - Don't get your point. You say you don't agree and then go on to describe the Chelsea "make up" of 3-4-3 naming most of the players in their respective positions.. Forget where the midfielders play ,that is the fluid area of the pitch where most of the work is done whether defending or attacking so it stands to reason there will be lots of player movement in that area. Cheers jb.

it's more than that Waz, believe me. Losses can be acceptable, but honourable losses. They must put their best forward, give the extra, never give in, die for your State if you have to, play fair. That's been the Roar culture, grand final v Mariners, our ladies semi v City two seasons ago (they lost, but wow, and we sack the coach because she didn't play the Roar way, ffs). I'd hope that's still our culture, but it's not apparent.

Play your best team when you are playing top quality opposition. Hopefully jag a win and progress to the next round. Then hopefully jag an NPL team or lower, which Sydney FC have done, and then you can afford to manage a few players workloads. You run a slight risk of being victim of a boil over, as Mariners and Glory have had happen, but its a more calculated risk in my opinion. Playing anything other than your best team against Melbourne Victory is likely to blow up in your face most of the time. Maybe not to the tune of 5-1, but Aloisi just made it needlessly hard for himself to start the season like that. Roar officials were surely wise to us the fans general sentiment about the FFA Cup (i.e that we don't really try and its frustrating). Those people that they expect to pay money and time to go to these games. They chose to ignore that which is worse than an isolated 5-1 loss in my opinion.

hey.......that's blatant plagiarism Waz......you can't describe the Brisbane sporting public that way. Sydney has that position copyrighted and signed in blood by a few million casual sports or big event sports fans!

JB - I have to say I don't really buy the whole back three deal - at least not at Chelsea. For most of last season they played Azpilqueta Luiz and Cahill as a back three - yes I don't deny. But then Matic and Kante sitting in front of them both pretty outstanding defenders in their own right which to my mind gives them a back five with flexibility. Azpil can attack down the flanks, Matic up the middle and Kante was everywhere due to his fitness and willingness to run and Luiz - well he's a maverick! You then had a midfield of four with a lone striker usually in the form of Costa. However, at that level the link up came with Hazard and Fabregas or Moses or Pedro or Alonso or Kante and even Matic - look who was lurking for that goal against Tottenham. The way it is presented is as a bold attacking move only playing 3 at the back whereas all too often it was the opposite and made a five man wall that was very difficult to break down. The reason why JT didn't feature much was that the formation requires intensity and really good levels of fitness and stamina which undoubtedly those players have and they had age on their side although Cahill gets found out every so often......... but there is an enormous difference between that set up, the Socceroos and the A League. It isn't so much an argument though just a different way of looking at that set up I suppose.

"Over and over, time and again we just keep scoring own goals in the battle to grow fans" ..... exactly. It's a long, long, loooooooong history of stuff ups and turning fans off. If Aloisi and Kingsman want to see how brisbane treats teams who cop thrashing regularly look at Lions and Reds ... if we did the same and our crowds followed a similar % fall off we'll be down to 7-8k crowds It's important both understand the QLD sports market. Fickle doesn't begin to describe it.

thanks hope he works out, sure was a nice goal

I think you're over reacting - far too early to make those predictions. But to me, it shows that this club under its new regime does not understand its fan base, or doesn't know what it's got to do to grow its fan base. Over and over, time and again we just keep scoring own goals in the battle to grow fans.

The squads good enough (imo) but playing three st the back cost them. Victory had 7 chances last night and scored 5 ... the reason was the Roar defence was awol and gave good players good chances. Play 433/4231 with our extra players and it's not 5-1.