Leroy George slams A-League standard as "not very high", says players "booze all week"

But the fact that Sydney finish 14 points clear of second seems to hold no weight. Of course finals rewards the top 2 but the fact is, finals don't always, and increasingly rarely lead to the best team winning. If there were 9 more matches in the league and no finals series do you honestly think Sydney would've lost the league - let alone Melbourne win it. Had Victory kept Milligan they would've had an extra Defensive Midfielder to rotate so they only would've been less tired. Plus his tireless performances for the socceroos prove that he has good stamina. It's true our midfield at the start of the season was weak, but you were blaming our defenders so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. As I said Antonis was solid, but for a Box-to-Box midfielder his goal/assist numbers weren't anything exceptional. We certainly didn't sign George for his defensive work or his work rate in general, he was signed for his technical ability and his work rate shouldn't take away from his incredible efficiency on the ball. Barbarouses played on the opposite wing so to say he covered George isn't correct - he did however, have a much better defensive work rate. The point I'm trying to make is that Victory were certainly not the best team in the A-League this season, but to say Barbarouses and Antonis carried the rest of the team when Berisha had the highest shot accuracy of any player that took over 20 shots (in the league), George was involved in 60% of all MV goals (more than any other player in the league) and Rhys Williams won 80% of contests is simply false.

The finals structure rewards the teams who finish in the top 2. Having a final series does leave the door open but what opened up was Newcastle sell off of Nabbout and bringing in the lazy foreigners, and Sydney's difficulty with dealing with the ACL with Arnold not resting players with weak engines. Melbourne also had to deal with the ACL, the difference is they had Antonis and Barbarouses, these two have big engines and dont fatigue between matches. If they had retained Milligan on the other hand it would have been the end of the road if he was in the midfield. The one match Antonis was out MV shipped 6 goals in the ACL. I watched nearly all the matches, and the problem early in the season was while the attacking quartet even with the strange looking Troisi and Berisha were the best feature, the defensive midfielders were misfiring short passes, lacked in penatrating passes ,exhibited poor control under pressure, they weren't lasting the matches and particularly Milligan was struggling big time unlike in previous years. Antonis fixed that, he had great control and a good engine. The reason his passing stats were at 78% is because he attempted a lot more penetrating longer forward passes. His error rate on normal passes was very low. Leroy George was rivalling Merjervski in attack, however he was also not doing his defensive duties a lot of the time and tired by the second half. Barbarouses was potent in attack but also pressure and tracked back up and was critical in that one of the midfielders would cover behind Leroy George knowing Barbarouses would always be tracking back. So thats how Antonis and Barbarouses carried MV. Leroy George carried the attack but he got carried in defence. I would bring back Ansell, Deng is young and already better than DOnachie so he can improve.

The fact that Victory got a lot of wins with Antonis doesn't prove anything. He had a good season but I wouldn't even put him in our best 3 (78% pass accuracy in midfield is decent, but only 1 goal and 3 assists in 17 starts isn't anyhting exceptional). To say "its not the finals structure" is a bit silly because Victory would have finished 4th 20 points of the top of the league otherwise. Leroy George played on the wing either side of Berisha - so yes he had no creative force behind him and didn't benefit from the same amount of opportunites he had in previous seasons - Troisi only picked up 4 assists with 69% pass accuracy. I'm not going to bother to respond to anybody accusing MV players of being drunk during the season. Deng was solid both in defense and on the ball, while Donachie - though he isn't a Ball Playing defender, rarely gave the ball away and was always solid alongside Rhys Williams, with a few rare exceptions. Can I ask how many Victory matches you watched last year because it sounds like you only watched the semi-final? I understand people have different opinions but to claim Victory were carried by Antonis and Barbarouses is ridiculous. The truth is, MV simply didn't play that well and were allowed a second chance in finals.

Actually the standard is getting better

I’ve not understood why some people got into a huff over the assessments made by our foreign coaches about the standard of our players. The assessments were made by people who stood outside the hot house of Australian football and in the main we’re pretty accurate. You are right to say that Ange played politics and played up to our nationalistic pride but in the end the results were much the same. Our 2006 squad was a high water mark in terms of quality across the whole pitch. No shame in saying that.

Fad -I watch ,pray and hope that one day we will have what everyone will admit is a competitive A League. By competitive I mean comparable with other leagues overseas that we deem "top drawer" However, in the last 8 years ,(3 world cup "stretches",), we have had 4 different coaches picking our Socceroo teams and the one outstanding feature of their selections was that none of them got even remotely near to picking players that were playing in our top competition. Were Verbeek,Osiek,Postecoglou and BVM all wrong in their assessment of players good enough to play for our national team.? Verbeek got crucified for daring to suggest that the A-League standard was not good enough,Osiek kept quiet and got us to a WC Final comp, Ange played politics,talking up the HAL and picking HAL players in those 32 man squads but "cuttin" them just as quickly,,and BVM took Ange's "plan " just a tiny bit forward using"locals" as subs., but even then when one looks at the overall performances in 3 consecutive World Cups there is little difference over each competition. So perhaps it is time to ask questions on our supposed improvements that cost millions of dollars to install and yet over the last 8 years have shown little or no improvement in our WC performances. When a player, any player, talks about our standard of football perhaps it is time to start asking questions and stop criticising the commenter out of hand. Cheers jb.

Speaking of MV, I've just heard that they are on the verge of signing the former Rosanero and Italian NT defender, Andrea Barzagli (in case you're wonering, he's male).

What are you on about?

With Antonis starting MV got more than half their regular season wins in 10 matches , their record over the other 17 would have seen them miss the finals. Could they have won three in a row in the finals without him. Its not The finals structure but when one team can bring in a top player for the final series and the other team loses one of their best. You say Leroy George was excellent, and at the same time Berisha had no creative force behind him thats a contradicition. Berisha had more easy chances this season than any other but missed so many it was embarassing. Berisha,Troisi and Milligan looked pretty odd during the season, and you think they only drank after the grand final. Deng and Donachie their distribution was poor, of the two I would go for Deng as a defender, Donachie he is better in the air but easily beaten on the ground. .

No, they're Aussies.

Some of the MV players who won the Grand Final have a different recollection of the week after their win...

Most of the Socceroos are players who are from Croatia. Says are lot about the development of players from the A League

unfortunately the standard of the A league has been in decline every year since Duff left the scene and the governance of the league is an embarrasement - the truth hurts, the A League is becoming very ordinary and the public had stayed away

"we" being anti-football, crash and bash followers who support the best and only leagues of their chosen sports in the world?

I think this article is a little inaccurate. He wasn't criticising MV players for 'boozing all week', and it certainly didn't happen throughout the season. He was talking about AFTER the grand final. To say we were carried by Barbarouses and Antonis is ridiculous and frankly shows a lack of understanding - yes, Victory were lucky to win the championship, but that's down to the A-League's structure. Berisha was decent with 13 goals despite not having a creative force behind him, George was excellent with a bunch of assists and goals, while Deng, Williams and Donachie were brilliant in defense. George made a statement recently claiming that he never said the A-League was "not very high standard" anyway. I think all of this can be solved if the A-League transitions to a European structure. There's barely any point in having finals in terms of TV revenue and crowd sizes because only really the grand-final sees a distinguishable increase in these, there should be at least 3 marquee player slots and the salary cap could be relaxed a little.

No-one can hate the guy for merely speaking the truth. Unfortunately in Australia all our best ball athletes are split between Australian Football, the Rugby codes and soccer. We just don't have those technical players. All those wonderfully skilled Aboriginal players are playing in the AFL. Look at his Betts magic last night with an oval shaped ball. Imagine what he'd be doing if he spent the last 25 years practicing with a round ball. Would be one of the world's best players. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvVJHdJbALc

We have been saying for years that the standard is poor.

Bollocks. Given he often failed to last a full game I think that he needs to look at himself first. One person says that the standard isn’t very good and fools like you jump in and criticse all clubs, players and FFA for not taking it seriously? Damien Duff said the conditioning was as good as anything he’d seen. I’ll stick with his view

So he criticised the standard of the A-League as “not very high” ? It may be that level of standard that made him look better than he actually is? Stick to overseas mate, we dont need you.

Is this the sort of culture that arrogant coach brings to this club. On the booze on finals week .wow. Great example this club sets for its supporters junior players and game in general . the FFA should be handing out massive fines to MV for bringing the game into disrepute .we are rewarding mediocrity with a ten team comp and a finals series .we need to be more professional or no marquee will ever come out and our national league willbe already is a laughing stock World wide .