I think its important the club to tell its fans what the pass mark is for the season.A bit late to the funeral, but I'll add my eulogy.
I'll just start with the obvious positive of the game, defending from McGowan and Malik, top notch, especially with those last ditch tackles. Overall, in the past 2 weeks I think the team has done well with tackling (apart from coming up against Castellan, that slippery fish), not just the defence as well, the midfield has put in some good tackles as well.
Hall was really strong in this game, did really well to back up last weeks performance.
Our ball movement tho.........is......so.......farking.......slow. That wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is, if the team showed some intent to score or consistently opened up opponents. But it really was uninteresting, which hit me the most. It was boring, it really was. Some people in general don't like slow build up, I don't mind it, if the team however shows some real attacking intent. In previous seasons, we were also slow, but you could see the purpose behind it, you could see some results that reminded you that everything will be fine, there is a point to why we are doing this. But last Friday night, I really struggled to see that at all, and while we passed the ball around and kept possession, it seemed static. We were slow and boring. We are so far away from the attacking and entertaining team we were before, and its sad to see because its hard to find any positives.
Our problem last season has carried over to this one, but its somehow worse, we really, really find it hard to penetrate the opposition and get some meaningful shots off.
The times in the game where we looked the most dangerous, was when we had a lot of player rotation and moving into areas to create space on our wings. When we weren't so static.
Opposition team know that we do most of the work for them, they just need to sit back for a few seconds and let their forwards pressure our backline until we make a mistake or concede a turnover.
As to what to do to fix this, I would feel a little silly to just say work harder or faster. To my limited knowledge, there must be something more that could be tweaked or changed that wouldn't be as simplistic as that. But I'll concede that team moral is probably low, it hasn't been a disastrous time at the club, but it hasn't been an inspiring time, thats for sure. All I know is, when I rewatched the game, and I was agreeing with Robbie Slater, the fact that someone that thick can spot our problems, something clearly must be wrong.
As for that low moral, I can only offer something anecdotal and speculative that has no real weight or validity. I would say that Amor would be a great coach at MV, why? Because they are told they are the best from anywhere they look. If anything they need someone that would bring them back to earth, someone calm and collected. We on the other hand are the constant underdogs, we are told on all fronts besides this forum, that our style of play is largely shit and won't get us anywhere. We need a coach that will pump up our tires at times to make it seem that while other teams have more money, better facilities etc, that our philosophy, style of play and players at our disposal are enough to beat them. Gombau offered this. Its no secret that the Adelaide crowd can be a bit mutinous when things aren't going well, Gombau was always confident, even bombastically so if need be, he gave not only us but the players the confidence to do the impossible some times. Whether Amor can produce the same, I'm a little sceptical, and I would be so happy to be wrong. This, along with our mutinous crowd, and more importantly our blame-shifting board, if things don't change soon, I would say he won't be our manager past round 7-9 at this rate.
Isaias, had probably the worst game I've seen in play. Could not find his passing range and ruined a few chance for a quick break.
Elrich, played really shit defensively, as he tired towards the end, he should have been taken off. Made the worst clearance I've seen for a while. Shanked it maybe, that can be forgiven, why the flying fark, would you play it back inside tho! To the farking sidelines Tarek, to the sidelines where the opposition isn't lining up to capitalise!
Our distribution to the wings is not as great as it was with Boogaard at the back. But it could improve.
Dugandzic was better in this game. I found that while he still hasn't acclimatised himself with the rest of squad just yet, in this game he pointed into space where he wanted the ball to be played, which wasn't there in both games against MV. He also tracked back which was nice.
Amor doesn't seem confident in putting the youth on, with the injuries we have now, he may not have a choice anymore. Give Pollock a shot, I wouldn't mind tbh.
Its not the end of our season tho, its round 2.
are they happy if we just make the top six? If they actually came out and told fans we are in a transition on and off the pitch it would take so much pressure off amor and the squad.
