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Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:14 am
by blahblah
Thought Maria got better as the game went.

Toure good too.
Agree.

Toure looks to be an exciting prospect.
I have to echo these sentiments. It will be interesting to see how he and Blackwood go fighting for the second striker position.

Nice to have some competition at the pointy end and it was also nice to have Halloran playing wider.

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:51 pm
by Reds United
Although there were positive signs {Toure,McGree, Maria, an experienced and attack minded coach as well as a settled squad} out there,for me an area of concern is our midfield. We are all accustomed to seeing Isaias taking command and running the show from his deep lying position in the midfield. However, his departure highlights the fact that we are lacking a top class defensive midfielder. McGree is top class as an attacking and creative midfielder, but there are question marks against Konstandopoulos and Boland. Djite says that we are still trying to secure two more signings, but I think that we need two top class midfielders and a centre back (Schenkeveld?).

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:56 pm
by Old Gregg
Have to agree RU - Isaias is a big loss structurally. Boland and Konstandopoulos together are good but it's a very different style of midfield.
Knight's best chances came from pinching the ball in centre mid and spraying it forward from there - they did it well but that doesn't happen so much with an Isaias on the park!

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:00 pm
by Reds4Life
Finding another Isa won't be easy.

I think it's a matter of those 2 getting comfortable with a new style of play. I can't see us going OS for a defender personally.

I reckon McGree could play deep like Isa, then sign another AMZ.

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:11 pm
by shinAUFC
I don't think there is much point reading a whole lot into the performance apart from the general intent to play good football.

We know from experience converting to a more progressive style will cause problems in the midfield and defense initially.

A perfect example of this is when fans simply decided this isaias guy from spain was a total waste of money and didn't know how to play football in the first third of Gombau's first season when in reality the struggles of the DM and the back four were the result of other short comings during the initial period of adapting to a new progressive style.

Personally I'm excited by the prospect of Kitto and Maria being totally interchangable positionally, the manager clearly has confidence in kittos defensive abilities which allows our left side to be quite dynamic and much harder to match up against. While Goodwin was a massive loss the dynamic of Kitto/Maria could also work very well for us going forward.

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:13 pm
by bpowell454
I think Elsey is good, but I wonder how good he is without Isaias in front of him. Schenkeveld would be good but too expensive I imagine.

Plus we have 1 visa spot which is supposedly going to a young Chinese player.

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:31 pm
by shinAUFC
I think Elsey is good, but I wonder how good he is without Isaias in front of him. Schenkeveld would be good but too expensive I imagine.

Plus we have 1 visa spot which is supposedly going to a young Chinese player.
I'm looking forward to the possibilities of a promising chinese youth in our squads.

The big point of contention is does the chinese youth of equal ability get the nod of the local youth? My feeling is the chinese youth will get the nod given his potential value in the chinese market which does not sit well with me but may be a necessary evil trade off to all this new found professionalism i suppose.

Re: FFA Cup Round of 32: Melbourne Knights v AUFC

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:13 pm
by Reds4Life
I think early days we might see a fair few Chinese kids coming in, make the club some money and spend that money on better profile OS players.