Sydney FC v Adelaide United Match Day Jamboree!!!©

[Stuckey]

I said just prior to the season start that we would be fortunate to come away with 3 draws from our first 3 matches and we managed two; we might even have jagged a win, if Hiro hadn't been shafted by both Daniel Elder on the field and Kurt Ams in the VAR room. My expectation was that we would have no points at all from three straight away losses, so to have 2 points and only the one loss is worth celebrating.

I fully concur with everything that was said about the VAR process on this thread. The VAR was brought in to stop the howlers; obvious offside goals being allowed, mistaken identities for yellow cards, the ball crossing the touchline but not being awarded (eg. Frank Lampard's against Germany 10 years ago) and so on. That the howlers are not being corrected is an indictment of the VAR system. I was a supporter of the VAR being brought in, if it stopped the "clear and obvious errors", but if it does not correct those howlers, then all it has done is diminish the authority of the on field ref, for no benefit. That Hiro's card was rescinded by the MRP is an indictment of both Elder and Ams.

That nothing will happen to either of them and that noone will take responsibility for the continuing low standard of refereeing is criminal. I have every sympathy for the on field refs and will usually defend them against unwarranted criticism, but I cannot keep defending them when their decisions are so arbitrary. Hiro's foul was a yellow at best, but then in the second half one of the Sadney players went in studs up with clear malice and was only given a yellow, even though it was clearly worse than whatever Hiro did. The inconsistency of the refereeing decisions is killing the game - and well done to CV saying so in the presser, even though he risked a sanction from the FA, or whatever they are calling themselves this week, for speaking out.

Speaking of CV, I think that he has to be defended from the criticisms that are being levelled at him already in this forum, even though the season is only 3 rounds old. He has a very modest budget which has given him a modestly talented, but still worthwhile squad and he manages the challenges as well or better than any other gaffer in the league. We are not MC Petrodollars, Sadney or (thank God) the filth, so we don't have vast rivers of cash to draw on to attract big, flashy names to Hindmarsh. We have a solid, hard working bunch of unfashionable but keen triers who bust their guts every week. In EPL terms, we are a Brentford or a Crystal Palace - which is appropriate, given CV's own CV - but not a Manchester City or a Chelsea. Under CV, we have always been competitive and have very rarely looked completely outplayed; in fact I'm struggling to remember a single match with CV in charge in which we looked overwhelmed and outplayed for most of the game. Usually, we are competitive, probing and entertaining, which is not something that could be said of Aurelio Vidmar's or Marco Kurz's times. The game plan is simple, as befits a team with a modest salary bill, but it works 90% of the time - get the ball wide, get the CAMs into the box, overload the opposition in their own 18 yard box, cross everything we can from the wings and let the chaos ensue. It works most of the time (except when other teams shut down our wingers and wing backs completely), it's highly attractive when it works and it gets results.

I'll accept that CV doesn't always react quickly during matches when things don't go our way, but from his point of view, the team knows the Plan A and if they are not executing it, where does the responsibility lie for not executing correctly? In my extremely humble opinion, what others see as tardiness on CV's part for changing stuff is more likely to be CV trusting his players to be able to come back against adversity and correct what has gone wrong - which is exactly what happened against Sadney.

I'm happy to be corrected by WATR contributors who are far more tactically aware than me, but I still say that CV gets it mostly right, most of the time. I'm not sure that we could say that about any other gaffer, other than maybe Billy Love. Even Kossie seemed immobile in his in match decision making at times and would let bad situations drift.

Like I said though - I'm happy to be corrected by contributors who are much smarter than me!

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head.