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Joined June 2018
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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.
Leroy George slams A-League standard as "not very high", says players "booze all week"
What are you on about?
Leroy George slams A-League standard as "not very high", says players "booze all week"
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.
Leroy George slams A-League standard as "not very high", says players "booze all week"
How was Craig Foster involved in the Socceroos match fees?
Where does all the money football generates actually go?
Clubs can negotiate this type of fee (sell-on fee) themselves anyway though – I’d say that’s what a lot of them do, at least the ones who don’t terminate their players’ contracts.
Farcical transfer system holds back A-League clubs
I’d like to see the A-League move towards a more European transfer system. It is frustrating watching players switch clubs, season after season, searching for the highest paycheck. Plus, how can we attract top talent (Australians and foreigners) to the A-League with a strict salary cap that forces clubs like MVFC to turn a profit every year that can’t really be reinvested into players. It would be huge for Australian clubs to be able to compete in Asia. The only issue is that it would definitely hurt the competitiveness in smaller clubs – but at this point, what do we have to lose? MVFC and Sydney tend to sit around the top 4 every season anyway, and the rest of the league’s financial might is fairly equitable – not to mention finals will give these clubs a chance to upset the odds.
The only positive step the FFA has taken is the loyalty player allowance introduced in 2015. I think long-term contracts should get partial salary-cap exemptions as well, but I doubt much will be done to the salary cap under the FFA.
Farcical transfer system holds back A-League clubs
But surely anything is better and more fair than ‘fair play’? It isn’t as if this is a common occurrence, just a tiebreaker to prevent teams being knocked out for simply being assertive. Plus, FIFA are revising the rankings system, so in 4 years time it should be far more representative of non-European teams.
The unfairness of the 'fair play' rule
Wouldn’t a better solution be to use FIFA’s rankings?
The unfairness of the 'fair play' rule
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.
Leroy George slams A-League standard as "not very high", says players "booze all week"