Is attacking football more important to the A-League than winning?

FIFA should make a rule that there are to be NO substitutions in extra time. Apart from time wasting, it's pointless. Any injuries...bad luck as well. Simples.

@JBinnie, Even if it started in the 1960's, it is still part of football. I believe it has existed long before that, especially in South America. Take a look at any video highlights of old South American football. Take a look at this 1954 World Cup match between England and Uruguay around the 3.20 mark where the English player is shocked by the gamesmanship of the Uruguayan player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1nElO54ZsY

Mark. Not sure who's missing the point. The tactic of "diving","feigning injury","wasting time","slow exodus from the field" etc,etc,etc, did not appear in the game until the early 1960's and are credited to one Herrera, the coach of Inter Milan, who was a self confessed amateur psychologist. Pele.and Puskas were playing their top football long before that time and I feel it is an insult to two of the greatest payers ever to include them in what you are trying to say.cheers jb.

Not sure what game you were watching that day, but we definitely didn't fluke that win. Hit the crossbar, 2 goals that were offside we were overall the better team that day. Brisbane had chances but didnt take them, thats the bottom line. If you dont take your chances you lose

JBinnie, you’ve missed my point entirely. I’m not depicting great players as ‘divers’, I’m responding to those who whine and complain about gamesmanship tactics. There is nothing wrong with gamesmanship. Stalling for time, exaggerating contact, staying down on the ground when hurt, creeping a few metres on throw ins or free kicks etc. These are all normal parts of the game. I was simply pointing out that many, many great players play this way. Watch any match of the players I mentioned above and you’ll see that.

In the era of win loss being the be all and end all to sporting analysts the idea that sport is actually about individuals mastering skills and showing them off is buried in the dark ages. Now if goals were the way results were tabled .... Then there is no place to hide for those who covet personal glory on the back of sacrificing a beautiful game for a means to an end.

I rather see a coach getting rookies to run around than a coach getting old players in the small box to defend. In the long run, the latter coach has closed his entrance into the list of great coaches. In this season, noticeably there are at least two teams have rather old players. One is WU and the other Glory. The other two teams that are likely to win the premiership and championship are Sydney FC and Melbourne City. Talking about two, Melbourne Victory has 2 marquee players while Brisbane Roar has none. No mistake, none not one. If playing conservative style, defend-and-counter-attack, is so unbearable, Melbourne Victory’s fans and officials are just being positive and patient. They have not just 2 marquee players but also more than two senior national players. They are Kenny Athiu, Jakob Poulsen, Elvis Kamsoba, Migjen Basha and Adama Traoré. And they have more than 2 World Cup players: Ola Toivonen, Robbie Kruse, and Andrew Nabbout. Plus, there are numbers of U-xx national players. Plus, plus, another overseas player, Kristijan Dobras. Anyhow, how can they have so many good and overseas players? Nonetheless, Marco should be given at least 2 years to get his ideology right, same as Ange Postecoglou, same as Robbie Fowler. Hope the saying here can kill the pain of many Brisbane Roar’s fans and officials for 2 years. Haha!

Mark - Are you serious???? Pele scored 1221 goals in 1363 games , Maradonna 293 in 583 games, Rinaldo 510 in 676 games, and Puskas 518 in 683 games. That gives them in total a "success rate" of scoring in 77 out of every 100 games played ,and yet you choose to depict them as "divers". come on man waken up, before you go into print with observations. jb

Waz - this comment shows a completely negative approach as to how a defense should be deployed at any dead ball situation, usually by the club captain, if he is in fact a defender.. Firstly one must examine from where the ball is being played and at a rough guess I would say this kick was taken from about 25-30 yards from goal. As at any dead ball delivery a defence is usually given sufficient time to prepare for the delivery and in this case Roar could not be faulted for having men back in position. It was the placement of these defenders that comes into question. You choose to blame Young for not charging into an already crowded area with the idea of cutting out the cross either by clutching or punching the ball clear. The cross as played was an excellent cross the ball reaching the ground about 1-2 yards beyond the far post and the only Roar player within a yard or so from Paine was------Young, albeit he was being forced to try for a rebound clearance. Paine's direct opponent Neville was nowhere near his "target" and where or what the rest of the 'defenders" were doing will remain debatable but they were no where near the scorer. The other goal was engineered out wide on Roar's left and the cross ball was played excellently to one of the league's best marksmen. Young had no chance. What the other 'defenders were doing whilst this was happening surely points to Roar's problems as being somewhere else rather than between the posts. From one pal to another have a long hard look at Roar's "transition time" from defence to attack and it is there you will hit paydirt. Cheers jb.

No problem with “winning ugly” my problem is with the diving, the faked injuries, the coordinated time wasting by players and coaching staff .... nothing wrong with winning ugly. Then there’s what Western Utd did .... cheat.

Geez, you mustn't watch football from other countries then. Or watch the world cup, or other major tournaments. The gamesmanship and good game management that you call "cheating" is an everyday part of the game and is highly evident everywhere in the world, especially in good quality leagues.

Absolutely Reuster. If Roar had won all their games this season but were playing like WUN did on the weekend I'm pretty sure this article would be full of adulatory comments about Fowler's genius and the Roar's smart football.

You've seen 2 games in 3 years where stuff happened you didn't like and that's you out forever. With that hit rate you would have ruled out every sport in the world by now. Gamesmanship (which time-wasting is) and even cheating are rife in every sport, except may be golf (except when Donald Trump is playing).

Lionheart. Most of the people refereeing our A-League matches were not born when catenaccio ruled top football in Europe. The tactic has it's origins in Europe when a thinking coach decided to "stack" his defence as against playing the worldwide 1-2-3-5 formation. In it's original form an emphasis was placed on physique and how strength could be used as a potent weapon. When it began to develop in Italy the man credited in taking it to it's optimum effectiveness was Helenia Hererra, a coaching "master", known to dabble in psychology as a hobby and it is he who saw the "benefits" of world class players, diving, feigning injury, and in fact stopping the game in any manner to allow the defensive wall to be regrouped. The tactic lost popularity in the late 1960's when most of today's refs weren't with us and probably don't even know how the tactic was presented to the public. It has raised it's head more than a few times ,especially in games where one team was deemed superior to the other and over the last few years we have seen it used more and more in important games, world cup ties and European finals. Cheers jb.

Maradona, Puskas, Pele, Baggio, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc, etc. All knew that there is value in going down when fouled and all knew the value in taking time and running down the clock. Welcome to the world game people. If you don't like it, I don't care, and neither do great footballers.

missed my point. Aloisi only had a couple of oldies which upped the team average (Maccarone mostly, who was quality). The conversation was damming, and actually went on two years after Maccarone left and our youth team was playing. Witness the conversation about WUN, it's very matter of fact, in no way critical.

Great comment. Roar have just passed 10,000 members. That's a massive achievement off the park given the results on, in recent years. There's a lot of A League fans in SE QLD. Roar has to catch them and keep them, or another team will.

How insecure is everyone if they are worried about the cricket being advertised during the soccer?

The few times I've watched Brisbane playing under Fowler, I've found his tactics are working extremely well. His attacking tactics have created the most High Quality goal chances in the A-League and his defensive structures have allowed the opposition the fewest High Quality goal chances in A-League. Over the next 17 matches, I'd expect if Brisbane can consistently replicate the tactics they'll win more than they don't win. Will it be enough to qualify for the knockouts tournament? Wouldn't be surprised if the final spots for the knockout tournament are decided in the final round this season.

Play however you want. There is more than one way to play football, and I enjoy watching different teams with different styles. It's also great to see good teams play smart and use gamesmanship. I love it when players think.