ON the pitch: What is our problem?

[ChillyPhilly]

What are AUFC's issues on the pitch? Why are we title-less? Why do we have these fade-outs in what is initially a promising season? Do we need to get in the sports psychologists? Are injuries to blame? Are we simply stuck in a cultural rut? Do we need to change the club-cultural habit of chronically playing players out of position?

2010-11, now this season. So much promise, then all of a sudden we hit a snag.

[Interloper]

What are AUFC's issues on the pitch? Why are we title-less? Why do we have these fade-outs in what is initially a promising season? Do we need to get in the sports psychologists? Are injuries to blame? Are we simply stuck in a cultural rut? Do we need to change the club-cultural habit of chronically playing players out of position?

2010-11, now this season. So much promise, then all of a sudden we hit a snag.

Well for this season specifically I would say:
*Poor fitness in the first XI
*over-reliance on an unintuitive, overly-complicated and predictable strategy and formation. (Which I would have discussed at length in my epic, abandoned and non-existent pre-Kosmina Departure essay "Fauxtal Football: Cargo Cult Soccer.")
*Despite the existance of effective plans B and C, (see ACL and early rounds,) they are never used.

edit to add one more

*Long "mental follow-through" for a lot of players after they do anything.

[davidbloop]

I think it's mostly psychological and mostly just players having bad days.

We all know the team is good enough to smash any other team... the problem is just that, this team doesn't always turn up, especially if there's not something really firing them up for it.

I hold higher hopes for the finals than the rest of the season, I think that finals football will bring out the best in them. That's why we looked so good in the melbourne matches, coz the crowd fired them up.

[davidbloop]

Or Voodoo, it could be voodoo

[bpowell454]

I think there are a number of factors-


-inconsistent starting XI, due to injury or suspension (especially the back 4)
-player fitness
-we are extremely obvious with every move we make, that's why we have so many interceptions
-we play the same formation week in week out and don't change tactically whether we need to chase the game or solidify defensively
-every other team knows all of the above and know if they press us high, our defenders will eventually turn it over to them

[Old Gregg]

(Which I would have discussed at length in my epic, abandoned and non-existent pre-Kosmina Departure essay "Fauxtal Football: Cargo Cult Soccer.")

Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter...

It's a question of whether we're a good team currently underperforming or a shit team who batted above its average in the first third of the season. I think it's the former - or at least I hope it is, considering most of the players are signed on for at least another season.

The fact that we generally do well at home and play like horse shit away from home suggests that it's psychological more than anything else - the team need the motivation of a Hindmarsh crowd behind them. I don't think it's a tactical issue so much as a crisis of confidence. If the team had the belief that they could grind out a result irrespective of the circumstances (playing away, having players injured, a coach in the stands) then that confidence would be self-fulfilling.

Get a shrink in, AUFC. Meditate or some shit. Find your happy place. Go out into the forest and beat some drums. Just do something...

[Old Gregg]

I'll also just say that injuries, players playing out of position, etc are not really valid excuses IMO, same happens to every club. Sydney have the same problems and still beat us...

[General Ashnak]

The team can play with the same desire as WSW yet only do so on occasion and they should be doing it every week no matter the opposition.

[shinAUFC]

i cannot believe everyone has resisted the pink elephant in the room and neglected to say "because of a pissant town " .

ok , i feel better now

Seriously though i think we need defenders who are better on the ball. How many AWOL passes from defenders cause the ball to bounce right back?

It puts our talented midfield under pressure and can cause them to take that extra touch which breaks up the counter.

With out bruce on the pitch the chance of the counter breaking down while holding the ball up is increased tenfold.

IMO our biggest problem, as has always been the case at this club is we never make the most of a counter attack.

You would assume with Mckain or Ozzie as DM breaking up passes and connecting with chelo or dario on the counter with the speed on our wings and the hold up play of bruce we would be banging them in for fun.

[supsup]

What's with the desire to score goals on the counter? Surely we have a team to play more than counter-attack football?

[ganas]

^^^^^ this!

im still waiting to see us put on a show like in that first half aganist bunyakdor(spelling?)

[shinAUFC]

MV are a ball playing team with great build up play. But most of their goals come from turning the ball over and a talented midfield pushing through on the counter for archie or Rojas to finish off.

How many times during a match do you see us win the ball back and have a 3 on 2 situation upfront only to see the counter opportunity end due to everyone sitting on their heels.

Sure our build up play should be much better also. But they get no chance to work into a rhythm when more often then not the defenders cannot give the ball to our mids without putting them under serious pressure.

IMO we have 2 of the top 3 players on the ball in this league ( dario and chelo ) why is it that we can never find them any space to play ?

surely this is a coaching issue?

bottom line though every AUFC team has always been mentally weak

[bpowell454]

Agree shin re chelo and vido, the way I see it, if those two are allowed to play well the whole team lifts, when they are both denied space and time on the ball whether its from the other team closing them down or from our defenders not being able to supply them, the whole team suffers.

-----------------Talent--------------
Average-Average-Average-Talent
-----------------50/50--------------
Average--Talent--Talent--Average
-----------------Talent--------------

With all of our play starting from an average back line it really isolates our central players, the game changers.

[ADEL-GOONERS]

this forum is great all of the comments on this page are pretty well spot on , but the winner imo is voodoo lol, i think our players either dont have the will or the balls to play like they did last week , how can they be so bad so quick, i dont think its the coach ,because of what i have seen of him , he is not one to slacken of, so to me ,imo its down to the players again imo

[ChillyPhilly]

Mentally, there's one thing I can pick out that has really killed us this season.

6-1.