Victory at last: Kewell to finalise 3 year deal today!

[terry tibbs]

Like the wave before we'd won a few years back, that chant was just asking for it. Got lucky this time.

He's farken quality, just in a shite system with a rookie coach who has too many attacking options and not enough balance.

[Agostinho]

Speaking of chants, I loved Serg's goal celebration (pointing to the name on his shirt) after the away fans had been chanting 'Who are ya?' during the warm up. As he tweeted last night, 'I guess they know who I am now'!

[David Votoupal]

Playing him up front was just daft. Seriously, Durakovic hasn't shown to be a big improvement on Merrick and signing Kewell doesn't really disguise or maybe even adds to some of the fundamental problems that have been building up at Melbourne Victory.

Firstly, their defence isn't great even though Muscat's retirement improves it (they let in fewer goals without him last season). Secondly, tactics and balance are foreign words in the Melbourne Victory language. The squad is loaded with quality attackers, no doubt, but it's horribly imbalanced. Secondly, they rely as they always have on individuals, rather than a gameplan, to get them over the line and they've been left behind by the advances of this league shown in the last year by Brisbane, Mariners and Adelaide United. Thirdly, key players in their side aren't getting any younger, and they don't have the record of other clubs (Sydney, Brisbane, Mariners, Gold Coast) of bringing good kids through.

It didn't help last season that Thompson and Kruse were injured for good parts of the season, but the squad clearly looked stale and that hasn't improved. Now it's a wonderful thing to have as many attacking options as possible, but in this league we've got a salary cap, so squad balance and getting good value out of your second and third tier players is essential. Even in European leagues, getting quality and value out of your squad players makes a BIG difference (just ask Man Utd). They've not mastered that.

[shinAUFC]

Apparently vargas , alsop and pondljak have been given permission to seek new employers.
I always rated vargas tbh.......i bet they are in talks with wellington as we speak lol

You have to wonder though how much influence did durakovic have with his signings? Was signing harry more important then a premiership capable squad and was this a club directive?

Or did the harry saga drag out so long that they were forced to sign an extra attacker or two incase they didnt sign harry?

They didnt even have a quality keeper until covic signed , who i rate.

On the other hand durakovic did quite well in asia when it wasnt all about harry

[Interloper]

Kewell played quite well vs Sydney (not as well as some in the media claim,) I wouldn't write him off yet.

Also, his performance up front was key to Australia's direct style at the Asian Cup, so playing him up front isn't completely stupid. Though it does go to show how important physical strength and fitness in the game, as this was really the only possible area you could say Adelaide's defence is superior to the best in Asia (ie. Japan/Korea). This alone was enough to completely nullify his output.

[terry tibbs]

Harry playing behind Solorzano in a 4-4-1-1 or something similar would be a handful for any defence.

They need a Paul Reid in midfield too.