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The Roar's A-League expert tips and predictions: Round 8

12th December, 2018
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Expert
12th December, 2018
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Aside from the opening fixture in which the struggling Roar will face the effervescent Victory at Suncorp Stadium, tipping in Round 8 in the A-League looks something of an impossibility.

That feeling is partly influenced by some atrocious selections and inaccurate theories that have seen me slump to the bottom of the table. However, realistically the other four games could go either way.

Evan Morgan Grahame still leads the way, yet the voice of the people stood up last week with four correct selections. Good luck with your tips this week, and be sure to include them in the sheet below.

Here is the way the panel sees the round unfolding, with the Sydney derby looming as the juiciest clash of the weekend.

Mike Tuckerman
Brisbane, Wellington, draw, Perth, draw

It’s now or never for Brisbane Roar. They’ve got the personnel, but putting a performance together has been a different story for John Aloisi’s team. Victory are the best team in the competition, but they may well be ambushed in a high-stakes Friday night showdown at Suncorp Stadium.

In the battle of the cellar dwellers there’s only been one winner this season. Wellington Phoenix thoroughly deserved their victory over Sydney FC last weekend, and they’ll be brimming with confidence when they host the Central Coast Mariners. Expect the Phoenix to make it back-to-back wins.

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It’s been a bit of a muted build-up to the Sydney derby, and the fact it will be played at the cavernous ANZ Stadium won’t do much for the atmosphere at the game. The Wanderers turned in an improved performance against the Mariners last week, while Sydney FC were simply dire against the Phoenix. By the law of averages this one could finish all square in Homebush.

The wheels will surely come off the Perth Glory bandwagon at some point, but it may not be in the Hunter. The Jets remain a tough side to beat, and they were good value for their win over Brisbane Roar last Sunday. This is a genuine test for the visitors, but they’ve got the quality to overcome it.

Who can ever tip what Adelaide United and Melbourne City are going to do? The Reds have lost only twice this season but have looked capable of losing a few more games, while City are a Jekyll and Hyde outfit if ever there was one. Will these two sides ultimately cancel each other out? Maybe.

Adam Taggart

(Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Stuart Thomas
Melbourne Victory, Wellington, Western Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide

I am truly sorry, John Aloisi, but it is over between us. I have supported you, talked you up and backed your team for far too long. The loss to the Jets last week has tipped me over the edge, and it will take something very unusual to see me tipping Brisbane in the short to medium-term future. However, if you do get the boys humming late in the season, I’ll be back on board. Victory by three clear goals.

On the basis of last week’s performance it would be easy to argue that Wellington will have too many weapons for a struggling Central Coast team. Yet the Mariners have been far from awful despite their paltry points tally. A few points have slipped through their fingers already this season, and this is a chance to rack up their first full complement. Westpac Stadium may prove the difference, however, and it will be interesting to see what size crowd the Phoenix can draw after an unbeaten fortnight.

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Western Sydney will win the derby on Saturday night. Going in as favourites for the first time in what seems like an eternity, Sydney’s lack of punch up front could see them held goalless for the second week running and the red and black prevail. The Wanderers have the talent to expose some of Sydney’s issues at the back that were clear against the Phoenix and could win this one by a single goal.

The Jets showed enough last week to convince me that they may well be on the way back. Melbourne City were fairly docile against Perth in an uninspiring game and looked troubled up front. Against the Roar, Newcastle passed more briskly and purposefully (and in a forward direction) than they have so far this season and Jair, Dimi Petratos and Ronald Vargas were destructively creative.

Adelaide United are building something of a reputation under Marco Kurz. Quiet efficiency in defence and a strikerless attack where players chip in for goals when needed looks to be the style to which they are committed. That is, until a big name striker – Bobo? – comes into the squad in January. They were no match for the Victory in the second half last week but showed plenty earlier on and should be able to deal with Melbourne City at Coopers.

Scott Galloway

(Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Paul Nicholls
Melbourne Victory, Wellington, Western Sydney, draw, Adelaide

John Aloisi needs to make a massive change to get Brisbane Roar firing. Maybe he could front up in a T-shirt, shorts and thongs to Suncorp for the game against Melbourne Victory.

It’s hard to see the Roar containing the rampant Victory forward line. Ola Toivonen is proving a class player and Terry Antonis’s form surely must have come across Graham Arnold’s radar. Victory to win 3-0.

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Mark Rudan deserves all the plaudits after Wellington’s away win against Sydney FC. He has new Kiwi citizen Roy Krishna running in top gear, and at home against the so-so Central Coast Mariners I can’t see anything but a Phoenix victory.

Western Sydney take on Sydney FC in the second Sydney derby of the season. Wait a minute, wasn’t there an edict at the start of the season that all teams would play each other once before they met again? This one will be hosted by the Wanderers, and it would have been great to play at Penrith rather than the cavernous ANZ.

Markus Babbel will be happy with the recent form of midfielder Alexander Baumjohann and his German compatriot, defender Patrick Ziegler. Goals still look a little hard to come by but sometimes you need only one.

Have the Newcastle Jets turned a corner? Dimi Petratos is getting back to his best and coach Ernie Merrick will be delighted to get a return from ex-Avondale NPL striker Kaine Sheppard. At home on at a sunny McDonald Jones Stadium I expect Newcastle to give it a red-hot go against Perth, but the Tony Popovic-coached Glory are a different side this year and should do enough for a draw.

Adelaide United are the competition’s dark horse while Melbourne City’s performances shift between a thoroughbred and a mule. Adelaide should prove too good at home and win 2-1.

michael-zullo-sydney-fc-a-league-sydney-derby-2016-football

(AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)

Evan Morgan Grahame
Melbourne Victory, Wellington, draw, Perth, Adelaide

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As the giving season approaches and we’re all forced to react to acutely underwhelming gifts – “A grow-your-own indoor fern kit, just what I wanted!” – so too was John Aloisi seen accepting that historically deathly present, the dreaded vote of confidence from the Brisbane Roar board. The 2-0 defeat to Newcastle last weekend dropped the Roar down to second-bottom of the league. Torpor, ennui, lassitude; these are all slightly pompous words that come to mind. A thrashing from Melbourne Victory, who look incredible with Toivonen greasing the wheels of every attack, may well deliver unto John another unwanted gift by Christmas; you know, that thing Santa throws over his shoulder.

Wellington have really clicked in the last two games. Their 3-4-3 gives them a pleasing abundance of passing options in all portions of the midfield, and in Roy Krishna and Sarpreet Singh they have two players tethered by a crackling, electric footballing connection, constantly threatening to spark in attack at any moment. Central Coast have sent Ross McCormack back to England to have his knee checked out, and Tommy Oar and Jordan Murray are both yet to recover from their knocks. At home, where they’re normally better, Wellington should win this.

Ah, the Sydney derby. For the first time the Sky Blues look vulnerable – underdogs, even – coming into this. Yes, the Wanderers’ win last weekend over the Mariners felt good after the evisceration in Melbourne the week before. But the writing off of Sydney is succumbed to all too easily, and we must remember that their result against Wellington was so shocking because it was so unlikely. Sydney are a wounded beast, a dangerous thing to saunter up to and mock, and will be roused by the heat of the derby, to be sure. A score draw and a cracker of a match.

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When Jair scored last week, sealing a 2-0 win for Newcastle over the Roar, it marked the end of the attacker’s harrowing personal goal drought. “The Brazilian is Jair-borne!” Andy Harper quipped, a really atrocious pun to burp up, when “He could feel it coming in the Jair tonight!” was right there, hanging juicily from that low-hanging branch. Still, that game did little to change the statistical facts of Newcastle’s finishing – the Jets have taken 99 shots, per Fox Sports, and have hit just 28 of those on target, which is a league-worst shot-percentage of 29 per cent. Perth have as many shots on target as the Jets and have taken 20 fewer total shots. The Jets are missing Roy O’Donovan’s finishing badly; this will be the last game of his 10-match suspension, so one suspects the hyper-efficient Glory will take this one.

Melbourne City returned to their ponderous worst again last weekend in Perth, somehow ending up in a position where Scott Jamieson was stating un-ironically that they made Perth look ordinary, and Warren Joyce talked of his team dominating the game despite failing to register a shot on target all evening. The good cheer gathered from the 3-0 win over the Jets two weeks ago has leaked somewhat, and the club were forced to tweet mid-week that Bruno Fornaroli had won their goal of the month competition – in fact, after tweeting the announcement, a tidal wave of mocking replies and retweets caused the City media team to delete the comment before then tweeting it again, thereby expunging many of the more embarrassing roasts. Adelaide are a good defensive team, who pressure passers, and allow relatively few shots. Adelaide to win.

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Round 8 Mike Stuart Paul Evan The Crowd
BRI vs MVC BRI MVC MVC MVC MVC
WEL vs CCM WEL WEL WEL WEL WEL
WSW vs SYD DRAW WSW WSW DRAW DRAW
NEW vs PER PER NEW DRAW PER PER
ADL vs MCY DRAW ADL ADL ADL ADL
Last week 1 1 3 2 4
Previous Total 10 9 11 15 10
New Total 11 10 14 17 14

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