Bendtner52's Roar Profile

After the joys of an injury-time winner against Hume City FC in the quarter-finals of the FFA Cup, the Gosford faithful came crashing back down with a crushing defeat to Adelaide in the semi-finals.

Football

Oct

A-League 2019-20 preview: Can it get any worse for the Mariners?

Bendtner52

Roar Rookie

A-League 2019-20 preview: Can it get any worse for the Mariners?

Football

Oct

The defensive side is another dilemma. Traore is an interesting case, given he’s played against Arsenal in the Champions League for Basel. He should be a key outlet for Victory this year as an attacking left-back. Given Victory are so short of people in the middle who can play, putting him in the middle could be a solution. Although full backs generally can replace the defensive midfielders as opposed to the play-maker of which Victory are so lacking on.

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The huge hole here (excuse the pun) is that there was never a holding midfielder.
We had Hargreaves and Carrick during this period, but neither peaked/featured as regulars during these tournaments.

Gerrard was a great player with Mascherano/Alonso next to him but as World Cup 2014/Liverpool 2013-14(Demba Ba) or Euro 04 showed – when he had to play the holding role he was a liability.
Lampard also didn’t play there.
If England had Javi Mascherano, Lampard and Gerrard in a 3 man midfield – they could have at least made some finals , but unfortunately Mascherano was Argentinian!

What happened to England's golden era?

Great article, while I hope Wellington do stay, I agree that Wollongong deserve a place in the league.

There is a deeper argument to combine the OFC and Asia, just as the OFC was pointless before with Aus>NZ>The rest, it’s even more pointless having NZ> the rest.

NZ would improve if they could also face Korea, Japan & Iran in qualifiers. It seems silly that only Aus are in Asia

Who could replace the Phoenix?

I’m comparing Sheff Utds resources with Man Utd/Arsenal/Chelsea and saying proportionate to the difference between these clubs and the giants of the A league(Victory/Sydney etc). Meaning the team with the most money doesn’t always win (although it often does).

But you’re right , two great groups of fans – I just think they deserve a bit more on the pitch.

You make a good argument, but playing the kids is one thing, watching at home on your laptop when your job is to lead your team to 50+ games is another.
There are all things in our jobs that we’d like to not have to do.

Given the league is having a “break” at the moment, and as recently as the early 1990s, they used to play each other in 5-6 replays until they got a result (which is by the way, ridiculous), i hardly see how poor Mr Klopp and his quite substantially well remunerated players can complain about being too tired or having too many games, given the amount of focus on fitness and recovery these days (again compared to years gone by)

I think its great that sides give the “kids” a run, as it is a squad game, but the manager staying at home for me, was a step too far.

What exactly was Jurgen Klopp disrespecting?

It will be interesting to see what direction McKinna and the new Welsh Coast can take the Jets in during the next two years. Carl Robinson comes from a league with a salary cap but not necessarily owners as tight as this lot!

Agree on that, the clubs have a responsibility to keep the teams competitive to entice more of these fans and the new younger fans in the area

Melbourne Victory finished with a front five of Toinoven, Kamsoba, Nabbout , Rojas and Kruse (well he didn’t technically finish). Too many similar players, apart from Ola, they’re all primarily wide players…it seemed a little unbalanced

Perth Glory and Bruno Fornaroli are back, but Melbourne Victory are goooooone

Great article , and the crowds would have been even smaller had it not been for the ’Cahill and Honda bounce’

AAMI should have all Victory games.
I went to every away game last year and WSW and Brisbane were by far the worst.

Docklands has passed its use-by date

Nov

It’s a mystery, all we know is he got released by his previous club for drink driving. But he was captain and is supposedly a very good player. Still absent today!

They have a good chance of sneaking into the finals. Especially if the Roar and Adelaide disappoint

I'm on the Western United bandwagon - and you should be too

Aug

They must have read the article 🙂

Time for Victory to get serious about Asia

2018

A good read.
Surely though, the best way to get serious about Asia would be to put everything into the ACL, with Honda leading the way. Success on the field could lead to some success off it with Honda as their poster-boy, to your point on ‘what he can deliver off the field’. Imagine if they were playing Kashima Antlers, every other J-league’s clubs fans would surely be rooting for their 98 cap man’s new club!

Also, some small promotion on Victories part around the Cambodia national team would only serve to educate Australian soccer fans on whether 4-1 against Myanmar is a good result or not

With Brosque a year older, and only Ninkovic & left alongside him from an attacking perspective, the change of manager could breed a completely different style. The use of pace will be critical to this change in style as you point out. It will be interesting how Corica develops as a manager. Rhyan Grant returning from injury is also like a new signing.

I think Newcastle have a huge advantage as keeper aside, the team is a settled one & hasn’t experienced a ‘merry-go-round’ like the other clubs.

Sydney are wisely recasting their attack