I’m a bit more optimistic. I think we saw a bit more resilience in the Derby. I think Leckie, Jakolis, Souprayen will have been better for the run after coming back from injury and Tilio and Jeggo from playing after really not playing a lot of competitive games for a while. I’d like to see Antonis start in the middle replacing Ugarkovic, Jakolis and Tilio on the wings, Lecks as AM. Galloway is injured so the new Chilean guy Fernandez will probably start. If him or Talbot are not working out might be time to consider 3 CBS.

Agree with this, the Australian cricket teams I most enjoyed supporting were those in the late 1970s/early 1980s which were decimated by players playing WSC and going to South Africa. Wins were few and hard to come by and the players left who played, whilst not champions, seemed to be more heroic by being the next level down. And it was good to see a changing of names/faces in the side rather than the same old names. The current cricket team and for many years before has seemed to be a closed shop; despite poor form some players are carried until eventually number of matches they play sees them eke out a century or a good bowling return, and then they can get carried for another year or two until the same happens ad nauseum. added to the fact that the team(s) quite often represents intakes from one specific state in Australia, it’s difficult for me to embrace that team as representative of me. That’s one of the reasons why I was supporting both Pakistan and the Windies, although I’ve always more or less supported the underdog.

Would not be surprised Stevo if he ends up at Melbourne City as a coach much likely Diamante is now

I forgot about that freekick. Yeah that was very poor too, I thought if you had Fornaroli or Goodwin on one of them should have taken that and made a better fist of it. I notice that the Foxsports team have given him a 7 which was the highest rating of all the Australians. So obviously i know nothing

I was a little disappointed with McGree which no one is talking about. That ball from Yengi which ended up being a dubious penalty was put on a platter for McGree to goal and was a woeful shot. He also had a number of other chances near the box where he seemed to lose the ball or over-run it or lose it under his feet. Probably because he has been out injured but you have to put players on the park who are playing regularly.
I think both full backs were poor but in the sense that they were not taking on players but rather recycling just about every ball played to them. That’s probably Arnold’s instructions though so it could be just the way they were told to play, who really knows because Arnie can make a player look poor just from his game play.

City are interested. As I said above Reis and Good and Hall come off contract at end of season. Only CB we will have signed up so far is Souprayen. I can’t see Hall getting another contract as has not been used. Good maybe but may be looking for that one last chance overseas. Reis is pretty much washed up and can’t see him being offered another contract as a Visa. City already have three Visas signed up for next season in Arslan, Sakhi, and Souprayen. Natel is likely to return to Corinthians when loan is up. Of course they could sign a second Visa CB but I’m thinking they might like the way Natta can play with the ball and Souprayen provides the height that Natta lacks.

There is some talk City will release Natel from his loan and pick up Tilio to replace. I’m not convinced and think it’s just rumours

Yes, I know City are also interested as Reis and Good are both off contract at end of season

Too true Grem. I follow both A-Leagues, City member (they exist) and AFL Richmond, and the AFL fans complain non-stop about the organisation. Every time the organisation makes a decision, good or bad, it’s always bad for football (either round ball or oval ball) according to some whingers. I’d wonder why they had 80 people employed, seems a little overkill, but I think they need to keep ‘Keepup’ or something similar. AFL has there own site, as does NFL in US, and EFL in UK, you can’t rely on the same content from google

I reckon he was just a little off for the day. Saudi Pro-League hasn’t had a game since 30/12 so about a fortnight ago. In 14 games there he has scored 6 goals, the latest on 24/12 a goal and an assist and is pretty much getting the full 90 each game. I’d still start him but if it’s not working after 45 you’d consider a change. Depends on if they play Bos instead of Behich though as LB this game.

Or Australia Day weekend could work. If you want more Victorians then Labour Day in March but looks like every other state does a different Labour Day.

Question for SS if he’s about. Nick Mori has signed with St Albans Dinamo in the NPL after starring in Shepparton. Is that Damian’s son or his brother’s or neither?

The other question mark you raise is O’Neill for Baccus. Baccus was’nt bad but he was’nt great either, had to recover the ball a bit after a sloppy pass. I’m really not sure as O’Neill did’nt really get much time on field to see where he is at, but I think O’Neill seems a little more composed than Baccus, who at times appears scrambly.

I’d also look at Atkinson and/or Miller on the RB replacing Jones who was not great there losing the ball quite a bit and not providing much in the way of attacking. Only problem with Miller is he has’nt got the greatest of first touch, but he will outmuscle the smaller wingers of Syria. Atkinson may be a bit too attacking and not as defensive, but I think I’d like us to be more attacking from the get go. Both Atkinson and Miller look quicker than Jones also so if Syria’s wingers are quick then might be best to fight fire with fire.

Actually I think Melbourne could stage it but you’d have to be ok with some games on Ovals. You would have to run three games at AAMI: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Then probably use Ikon (Princes) Park for a game (oval ground used for the ACL Championship game for City v Zheijing and was in good nick according to people who attended), and maybe a game at Marvel Stadium. Unfortunately South Melbourne won’t let anyone use Lakeside at Albert Park which is the next decent rectangular ground near the city. Possibly could play a game in Ballarat or Geelong as well like WU do sometimes. I’m not sure you’d get significant crowds though apart from the Victory game.

Yeah I did call this when you first bought it up. I understand he was similarly frustrating at City. Pretty much why Borges Rodriguez who would be his direct comparison got more game time than him. I’ll be interested to hear your take on his time at Adelaide.

Was Bernardo the guy SS was alluding to the other week that was’nt training and his contract was in doubt?

As a City member and active on their fan forums I can tell you that a significant proportion of the current fan base is based all over Melbourne and regional not just the South Eastern suburbs. So a complete move to Casey will see a drop off of attendance from those members. City as has been stated has moved administration and training to Casey and the facility there is up and running as I understand is the small stadium of 4,000 which is going to be used by the ALW and NPL youth teams in the near future. They are certainly investing time in the local south east area with clinics, free tickets to families from clubs in that area. However this is all going to be a slow burn probably taking a generation for fans to become rusted on. It’s not like a light that you can just flick on and volia thousands of supporters are made. I think the last thing they would want to go through is another rebrand after the failure of the CFG one after they bought Heart. This was the major problem alienating a lot of fans of Heart who were just gaining traction in their supporter base to have it ripped from under them. It is telling that since CFG buying Melbourne Heart and installing NYCFC, there first two acquistions after Manchester City (apart from Mumbai City which was a start-up) they have decided to stick with the previous teams colours and names for the teams they have bought e.g Montevideo Torque, Troyes, Lommel, Girona, Palermo, Bahia, Sichuan, and Club Bolivar. I doubt CFG is willing to stump up too much cash for Melbourne which is becoming increasingly the poorer cousin of the CFG stable of clubs unless their supporter base increases, so I think this has become a little bit of the chicken and egg which one comes first. Further with Victorian State Government already feeling pressure from large blowouts in costs on infrastructure affecting their record high level debt and downgrades being mooted by credit agencies I can’t see them being behind anything in the near future as well.

I’ve always thought it looks good if you give a rating to a player who looks like they’ve done something on the field
Tigerinthetank 84.7

WU always seem to get up for the game against City. Maybe it’s their sense of a derby. So this might be closer than you would think

Agree with Tilio’s move to Celtic did’nt seem to be the right move for a young player to get game time in what is basically the biggest club in the league they play for. If he was going to SPL he need to go to somewhere like Hibs, Hearts, etc where he would be more likely to get game time. Actually thought he’d be better on the continent like Bos and O’Neill who went to Belgium or France like Genreau, somewhere his lack of height and weight would’nt be such a problem and his techinical ability would have been better appreciated.
Jakolis is also getting much better, two very well taken assists in that game. City seem to have started to gel now which was expected to take some time with such a large player turnover and a very busy schedule with ACL commitments as well as A-League.

Couple of things here to pick up on. Devlin has fallen down the order at Hearts and is not been getting game time, a bit of bench action only. Iredale has been scoring and playing full games in Bundesliga 2, actually scored and won their latest game against Irvine and Metcalfe’s St Pauli who are top just last week.

If it’s a midfielder then maybe Oliveira. His father I imagine would be pretty upset though. As I said I don’t know how he was at City as a trainer but my impression was he could have played harder, I compared him to Borges Rodriguez, maybe unfairly but always felt it was the latter who worked harder to get his chances playing in the City team

Don’t follow Adelaide that much but love a guess. So if it’s a visa I’m going Ibusuki, and if it’s an Australian player then Oliveira. Ibusuki to me seems to be the sort of player who has come over thinking it would be a bit of a holiday and just has’nt worked out how he wanted it to and is now had enough of the A-League. Oliveira just because I think when he was at City he had the goods but just was’nt really tearing it down if you like in NPL games let alone A-League. But as I said I don’t know enough about Adelaide to have a really educated guess.

Just recently Des Buckingham has been appointed manager at Oxford United, after leaving Mumbai City who he won their championship last year which is a CFG team. CFG have now appointed Petr Kratky as manager of Mumbai City FC who was the current assistant Manager at Melbourne City FC and took the game against Buriram when Rado was ill earlier this ACL season. It will be interesting to see if Yokohama Marinos also look to appoint another Aussie coach. Maybe Kisnorbo might be given another chance at Yokohama Marinos since getting sacked from AS Troyes? Or maybe someone else in Australia, I reckon they might like the look of Stajcic, Veart, and Sterjovski or maybe even Millicic since he had time at City or left field would they look at Valkanis although he looks happy to work with JVS at Ajax