Aloisi refusing to give up on injury-ravaged Brisbane's finals hopes

Brisbane Roar now have Franjic unavailable for the Perth visit in Thursday. They have also been looking for a lead in song for the team, may I suggest Queens "Another One Bites The Dust"

Unfortunately he has his excuses in early: - Disrupted preseason (still not sure what that means). - state of the training pitch - injury crisis (not my fault although the last strength and conditioning coach did leave after a squabble) - and finally, I’m building for the future. He’s rock solid.

I can’t think of anything else ?

jb. At one of the pre-season games (Lions I think) Ross Aloisi was chatting with fans and used words to the effect “the players are confused about the system we want them to play”. It sure looks like that confusion persists.

Roar is pretty done for this season and I can't see JA improving next season either. I hear Marcelo Bielsa is available. Wait .. I prefer Bielsa to take the Socceroos job tho.

Waz - let's go back a year or so ago when the "in thing" was to have a "player's group" to consult in most things for players welfare, a worthy aim,no doubt. I think the "Roar four" from memory ,were Theo, Mackay,North and Broich, four players vastly experienced but all nearing that retirement age for most footballers Now I know that up front that "players group idea " has been shelved ,but is it arguable that most of those players,originally in the managers "closed circle",would still wield some influence over a manager's thinking. After all, it is not Shankly, Ferguson, or Mourhino we are talking about here ,but coaches ,many of whom have never played at the level of their "players group",and so become wide open to any suggestion those "chosen few " might make,hence the tete-a-tetes between Aloisi,Broich,Mackay, North, and no doubt Theo, when the occasion arises,during, or after, a game. Cheers jb..

Lion - Your opinion of Slater as a sports commentator in neither here nor there,but the man has played football at the highest level and one would hope,from that experience,he would have acquired a basic knowledge of formation and system being used by a team. Unfortunately I had to agree with his observation,Franjic ,listed as a right flanker, was more often in midfield ,Khalfalla didn't appear to know where he was playing and young O'Toole must have got fed up making good runs down the left with only intermittently getting balls delivered in front of him. Skipetas,listed as a midfielder, spent most of his time interchanging with Franjic and then, when receiving a ball out wide, invariably cut inside where he ran into more and more defenders and his efforts went unrewarded, So you see, I too was a bit confused as to what Roar were trying to achieve. Cheers jb.

Waz- "from recruitment, to fitness levels, to formation,to discipline,to team culture"! What else is involved in managing a team? Not too much I think you\ll agree, leading to the question, ,how long does one wait for change. Cheers jb.

I watched Berisha closely at the game as hadn't seen him play for a while and was suprised at his lack of energy or enthusiasm. Must be getting old..he certainly wasn't racing about harrying players and charging to get into the box. He was hardly offside all night which is a real indication something is going on. Brisbane are having the season they had to have in my view but injuries are certainly cruelling them.

Tezza - "Striking" is a very specialised position in today's football. In any "normal " situation the striker will be double marked,so his chances of receiving a ball "to feet" ,take on these 2 defenders,,beat them,and get a shot on target.makes it a very different proposition from that of the other forwards Looking at Maccarone's performances so far he seldom ,if ever, gets a ball played into a space that his movement will have given him an advantage In the last couple of matches he has scored two good goals,one by moving away from his "cover" and hitting the ball first time.His goal on Sunday was a classic example of how a striker should be used, with Mackay bursting forward and without any hesitation,laying a square cross, hard and low, behind the opponents back line.where the ball found Maccarone, ideally positioned between his 2 markers, who ,with strength,he brushed both aside,killed the ball with a deft touch and side-footed it home. Now you could be cruel and ask why the Roar's midfielders and some time wingers don't play many more of those balls into that danger area where defenders ,having been" turnedf" are faced with a footballer who appears to know his business if and when he is given the proper service. More and more I find myself likening his style to that of Berisha, only a Berisha without the service that Berisha enjoyed. Cheers jb..

Pacman - Some shrewd observation. "Possession football" is the most mis-used description used in the game today for it has become measurable by the number of passes that a team makes whether those passes be forward ,sideways , or for that matter ,backwards The description is based on the fact that it has long been recognised in football that a "short" pass has a much higher chance of reaching a team-mate. This has resulted in the fact that the "lesser" the player the more inclined that player has to make a "short" pass that will reach a team-mate without any consideration as to whether the team, as a unit, is moving forward towards the "target area" as a result of the fast,short, accurate pass. Because of this we get screeds of "possession figures" used as a measure as to how a team is performing when really it would be much better to measure the "attempts at goal "as a more accurate assessment as to a team's effectiveness. Cheers jb.

Thanks JB. I do think Slater is an insult to a fans intelligence and consider myself lucky that I don't have to tolerate him on Roar home games. I'm not sure that Victory went into their shell, maybe they did but it appeared to me that Roar had much more intent in the second half. Honest, I left that match feeling that Roar had put up a decent fight in the second half and could well have had a few more goals of their own.

I was at the game, and along with many others, was gob smacked when Matt Makay was announced man of the match. As jb pointed out above, Jamie Young was the one who prevented a 4 or 5 nil blowout by half time. Apparently Young won the Fox Sports man of the match, and rightly so. Is there a clique in the Roar dressing room? From the outside, it certainly appears likely. Something needs to be done - probably a cleanout similar to the one conducted by AP a few years ago. Then, we have the reluctance of Roar players to take a shot at goal when in or on the periphery of the penalty box. Instead, they display a tendency of overdoing the passing game, thereby overlooking the opportunity to create a possible goal. Is this unwillingness to shoot due to the fear of losing possession? If so, that is overdoing the possession game.

Yeah no problems, and I’m not going to stick my neck out to defend Maccarone I just think the problems start behind him that’s all.

Lionheart - I am afraid your analysis has to probe much deeper. You mention two shots Roar had early in the game ,hit by two ex- Socceroos. I may add,,one nearly cleared the stand and the other appeared to be aimed at the corner flag. Lets be honest ,Matt Mackay has never been a finisher in all his time in the game so why do we expect him to score goals. It is doubtful if Franjic is fully fit yet here we had him playing supposedly at outside right with the new lad Skepetis playing in midfield with another "comeback ,after a long spell off,." Kristensen. The game was not very old when the commentator Slater picked this up, commenting he wasn't sure who was playing where ,or even worse who was "supposed" to be playing where., for the Roar's "shape" appeared to be constantly changing. In one of very few good "moves", we again saw what a ball played accurately and quickly can achieve with Maccarone doing what he has been brought to do. The pass from Mackay and the actual goal scoring should be mandatory viewing at this weeks "game analysis". As a fan you are entitled to better,but this state of affairs has been going on too long now, Roar are a "toothless Lion" and it isn't all the fault of players. But for Young, Victory could quite easily have been up 4 or 5-nil up by half timeand that cannot possibly be entertaining for any fan. The fact that Victory went into their shell in the second half is another investigation altogether. Cheers jb.

waz, it looks like we have to disagree on this one but imo a marquee striker makes and takes his chances and doesn`t need them layed on a silver platter for him.

Chops, Broich still hasn’t recovered from his second ankle operation (apparently) but whether things could have been done differently who knows? But we are missing Broich’s leadership, how many times did we see him come to the sidelines to discuss things with Aloisi - who’s doing that now? I am with you though - from recruitment, to fitness levels, to formation, to discipline, to team culture things are badly wrong ... and the coach either fixes it or goes.

“The wide midfielders are just way too quick and get to the 18 yard area and have to wait for him to catch up” .... I can’t agree with that, Roars wide midfielders are basically ineffective and rarely in wide positions. If Maccarone is a problem the ten players behind him aren’t doing enough to highlight it, give him a couple of chances and he scores one of them - but how many of these chances are the team creating? Very few imo ...

The long term fix is to remove the coach. JA was an average journeyman striker and is now an average journeyman coach. His recruitment has been abysmal and I can understand why Kalfallah thinks he is great because JA was suckered into signing him. Add Holman who has to be the worst marquee signed by anyone, then Maccarone who, might have been OK had we kept someone like Broich to feed him and Gamerie who just adds to our hospital bills alongside Devere,. Waz will say Broich has not recovered from his operation yet and he may be right but I would rather have Broich in the squad and injured as opposed to the cattle we now have. The truth will come out eventually on why Broich was shown the door and I believe it comes down to him having a better football brain than the Aloisis and Moore combined. The crap and excuses that Brisbane Roar are serving up is only pushing more fans away from the club.

Waz, I don`t think Theo should come back in. Jamie Young`s performances whenever he has had to fill in for Theo have been very very god and he deserves to keep his spot. I also think Maccarone has been a failure so far with the way the Roar attempt to play. The wide midfielders are just way too quick and get to the 18 yard area and have to wait for him to catch up.The goal he scored Yesterday imo was offside slightly but all the other balls that were played through for him he had no hope of getting there before his younger defenders.