Would Steve Corica and Graham Arnold like to swap places right now?

Unfortunately for Arnold, promising that we were going to play like Liverpool, may not have been a wise thing to say. Firstly, Liverpool haven't won anything under Jurgen Klopp (yet!) And secondly, as good as some of our players are, they are no Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Bobby Firmino. Perhaps if Graham had his time again, a softly, softly approach may have been a better alternative.

Arnold only lost 4 games in 2 years, so it's not like we were able to hear him much & Corica has already lot 4 times, so I suppose you have experience there. What about the other coaches, they don't whinge? Muscat? Babel? Merrick? Can't say Poppa, he's in the Arnold category, hasn't lost a lot this year.

Under Corica, Sydney always look like they are just hanging on. Too much depends on Ninkovic and he looks to be struggling with age and the heat. Reza and a fit de Jong should make a huge difference. Corica does seem to have gained confidence recently - early in the season he looked timid and self-conscious. As for Arnold, apologies for reusing a post from another article... Arnold says things publicly to motivate his own team and mess with the minds of the opposition. What he says publicly is unlikely to be exactly what he thinks. That’s what all coaches/managers/leaders do. I can’t understand why people can’t understand that. We should also cut the team some slack because the reality is this tournament was badly timed for us. For one thing, Arnold had few opportunities to work with the team beforehand. That was obvious from the Rhyan Grant’s performance. He knows the kinds of runs Arnold relies on to open up play and he made a lot of them but they were mostly ignored by the rest of the team. In general, the team looked a little lost about where each other would be and so did not play instinctively. Given more time with the team Arnold would have sorted that out. Arnold also lost the three players most likely to solve our longest running problem i.e. creating real chances and scoring goals. Like most countries, we don’t have much depth in those departments and losing Mooy’s passing and Arzani and Boyle’s ability to run at defences was a huge problem (but there is no way Arnold can say that publicly). It meant opposition teams could simply close Rogic down and then watch the rest of our attack spin aimlessly. It wasn’t all aimless spin though because Ikonomidis and Mabil created some good chances. It was actually encouraging for the future that we still created chances even without Mooy, Arzani and Boyle. Sadly, we have no obvious solution for our striking problem but I reckon Arnold would have used Leckie as a striker had he not been injured for most of the tournament. Arzani, Leckie and Boyle rotating up front would have been great to watch. All up, I was resigned to an early exit once Mooy, Arzani and Boyle dropped out, and Leckie was ruled out for the opening games. But on the evidence from the tournament I’m really looking forward to watching those four in the team for World Cup qualifiers.

Ha! Don't let Punter hear you!

Show me where I said Merrick was an angel. He's a painful whinger

I know, and the Western Bulldogs have played AFL matches there too. Ballarat has already hosted Melbourne Victory and the Matildas at Morshead Park which is rectangular but WMG want to use Mars Stadium instead. So they'll be representing West Melbourne but playing matches in Geelong and Ballarat while they wait for their own stadium to be built in Tarneit. They may as well call their new team Western Expansion. One team, two ovals, three cities.

Smooth transition for Sydney FC. Arnold hands the reins to Corica. Before every game "we expect to win". Then after a loss, every excuse under the sun. Both whingers.

Mars Stadium is a VFL ground.

Fadida- Don't misquote me...I said affable. He is friendly and easy to talk to and that doesn't mean to say you have to like him or agree with him but as someone who turns the volume down or changes channel whenever GA or KM are interviewed - he's a saint by comparison.

Arnold had far less injuries and better players in 2015/2016 and could not make the finals. De Jong is an injury basket case for about 5 years, and no club would have wanted him. Val Linden has been a disaster. The only good player Corica has gotten is Le Fondre. As usual Arnold heads for the hills once things get problematical, he ran from Mariners once they ran out of money, and Sydney no longer spending the big dollars because of being put into exile at Kogarah. You have Wilkinson who is well past it. The suprising thing has been Brosque defying age while he is obviously has less pace, he still can get through a lot more work than any other attacking player and he is of the main ball winners. The other thing that is suspicious is how the refs have turned against Sydney Fc once Arnold left. While Arnold never got the sort of favouritisim Muscat has commanded in the A-league the refs must have been scared of him. Corica has done well to be where he is but thats also due to penalty saves of Redmayne. All Arnold needed to do to do better in 2015/2016 was play Holosko who was quite a decent finisher as striker but he couldn;t do it. It was beyond him mentally even despite Holosko being big and a good header of the ball, because Holosko could play wide he saw an opportunity to double up on bigger bodies. This is the classic Australian big tall syndrome which saw Hoffman pencilled in as Australias next striker leading to non qualification for the Olympics in 2012. Then you saw Blackwood play a lot for Sydney in that year to replace Brosque, yet another big body where its obvious to anyone with half a brain cell thats the chance to play Ninkovic in his proper position.

NEWS: Could Mars play host to a new A-League club? - (actual headline) - "Other sports including soccer will be discussed going forward. We wouldn’t have built a facility of $21 million just for community use, it was important we entice the bigger games, AFL, rugby, soccer and other games which will all be of great benefit to us and they need a particular type of oval. This is it, this is the stadium for elite level sports.” - Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5887715/could-mars-play-host-to-a-new-a-league-club/ - COMMENT So, Western Melbourne will be playing matches in two seperate stadiums, both of which are oval. Sounds like Tasmania's bid.

Arnold Hallmarks, you mean winning? I mean we lost 2 of the best players to ever grace the A-League in Adrian & Bobo, including a a very competent central defender in Bujjis & while SFC nowhere as dominant as the previous 2, we despite playing quite poorly at times remain very high up on the table. As for the whinging, yes horrible, unlike Merrick who is an angel.

Corica isn't remotely likeable. His whining about referees on the few occasions SFC have had a decision to against him, and even when the ref has been right, shows a man built in Arnie's image. The jury is still out on his coaching I'd argue too. The team retain many of the Arnold hallmarks. Has Corica just maintained what was there?

Great post

Of the traditional big 5 in Asian football (and who competed at the last World Cup) none would be that pleased with their performances. Iran started well but faded out. Japan save for an impressive semi didnt really do a great deal. Australia Korea and Saudi’s didn’t really ever get started. Truthfully I never expected to win and I also didn’t expect great performances. In the last 20 years tournament nation football is littered with defending champs from World Cup, euros and Asian cups spluttering their way along and either going out with a whimper in knockouts or not even reaching that far. Arnie has had six months in the job and 2 or 3 hitouts with the team (Ange had had 15 months plus a World Cup by the time 2015 tournament came around) so flat performances don’t surprise me. It simply wasn’t enough time to effectively stamp his style/mantra. That said the flat performances need to be remedied over the next 6-9 months before WC qualifying starts. This next 6-9 months is actually more important for developing Arnies long term tenure and eventual legacy than the Asian Cup. As for Corica I’d say he’s doing good - but not great. It’s definitely been a stop start year with injuries (I’m still cursing Durante’s tackle from behind on De Jong as the Dutchman had just started to show what he was capable of). Not sure about the Austin signing but I suppose it improves depth. The Reza signing could be the missing link and take sydney up another gear. We’ve been there or thereabouts most of the year but just failed to have that extra gear sometimes when required to get a win from draw or draw from a loss. That’s what separates the good teams from the great teams. Last year we had it. This year we haven’t quite found that. Hopefully Reza can help deliver this.

In a way, the fact that The unfancied Qatar took out the Asian Cup has given a reprieve to GA on the coaching front. Perhaps there is a new order in asia? Well, the tournament was not dominated by Japan or ROK and definitely not by the Socceroos and apart fromThailand and China changing coaching staff there doesn’t appear to have been a great wringing of hands and cries of despair around the region. I have never been a fan of hanging all my hopes on one or two players, or blaming injuries on key players for poor performances but I’d concede that when stocks are thin, it is hard not to focus on the negative impact the missing players appear to have had. I’m a great believer in the notion that games and individual battles can be won and lost inside the head and it did feel as though without the key players, it was a lost cause. Timeto regroupand rethink and maybe change things arund. To me, if GA is worth pursuing in the position he will take a different approach to his next batch of games and find a way of motivating a squad that sometimes appears to believe it is somewhere near the top without putting in the work that gets them there. As for Steve Corica, the team is going along pretty well with no major catastrophes and unlike his predecessor, he is quite affable and does not cause neutral fans to take an instant dislike to the team/club. Despite long time involvement in the club, he is still new and perhaps a bit green, so surely he is allowed a first season to adjust and make his own mark at the club? Maybe WSW should have thought more about developing Hayden Foxe in a similar fashion. When JG took over last season, Foxe had guided the team to a win and four draws; better record than both of his successors!