I gained the impression that we'd done what we always do, played down to our opposition. Unfortunately, it bit us in the arse good and proper tonight. I would have been annoyed and disappointed with a capitulation but to do so comprehensively in the first half is something Veart has to work on. Not happy AU, especially seeing we know they can do so much better.
We lacked leadership. Our captain is too busy trying to score that he forgets he’s a defender and should be organising from the back. As one of nearly 13,000 who attended tonight I think I deserve an explanation from CV as to what happened. Why it happened and what step he’s going to take to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Thankfully I missed attending but that was a pitiful showing from the reds. Timid and a lack of steel against a high press, it’s kryptonite for the reds.
There is a clear lack of leadership in the team this year, especially at the back (Ansell will never convince me) and the midfield is non-existent without Isaias.
It seems CV still has the same game plan of last year, this year- last year pass it to Goodwin and he will make it happen, this year pass it to Nestor and he will make it happen. The squad is paper thin, last night we saw the reality when the team has 2-3 key outs and a few down on form.
But really, the whole thing was pathetic yesterday, absolutely got spanked and boys vs men.
I think we will continue to struggle against the top team as we really got played off the park for the majority of last week and should have been 3-4 down at HT against MV if not for Gauci.
The question is, were the first two games an anomaly (ccm hopeless so far, city clearly under par and coach sacked) or us at our best being unplayable? Jury is out on that I think
Ps- I thought hiro, Halloren and Tunnicliffe were all extremely poor and Clough seems a front runner to me. All very disappointing as senior players.
Again great to play kids, but you need a lot better in senior players to support that than the current batch we have.
Was Tunnicliffe even out there last night?
For me we need an Isa of 5 plus years ago at DM and a McGree/Mauk type in the middle of the park. That’s it. Everything else is just minor tweaks and time but we need that steel/leadership and class to pull the strings and drive things from the centre, pulling everything together.
I’d also start Luca up top and give him time (same as what all the kids need).
Heaps of positives at AU but we do have some key personnel problems that need facing.
I did warn everyone that tunnicliffe will be a waste of money ( similar to clough - that's several hundred grand were wasting on 2 bang average players ) players from the uk really struggle in the a league
Mauks off contract in 6 so weeks time, nows the moment to start those negotiations to bring him back home
I think it's a bit harsh to start dismissing Tunnicliffe - and Clough has already proven himself. It took 6 months for Isaias to prove himself when he first turned up and there were plenty calling for him to be sacked, not just dropped, before he gained a feel for the pace and the strength of the Australian game. Now he is integral to our midfield.
The problem was that Sadney played a really high press against our back four and then crowded and harassed the ballcarrier, sending pretty well everyone forward to create the overload on the AU ballcarrier, who was then obliged to knock it back continually to the back four, who were then harassed off the ball. It was only when we managed to break their very high press and get in behind that we looked dangerous. Their goals came from the overload and the very high press - which was exactly how Talay turned around Wellington.
Once we worked out what was going on, we played them on pretty even terms; the second half was actually a draw. Of course, by then the damage had long been done and the match was over as a contest by the half.
It's not panic stations yet; it was one very bad half of one match, the season isn't even six weeks old and the kids will learn how to break a very high press and play through an overload. The match did show, however, how badly led that Sadney were under Corica. They were tactically miles behind everyone else (before Talay came in) and their morale was shot to bits. Now they have their swagger back and they will be much, much harder to beat than, say, a week ago. We suffered both the new gaffer bounce and vastly improved tactics from a side that was absolute bottom. So let's retain perspective and not start a round of executions at dawn. The kids will learn from the experience; the whole side will recognise where they went wrong, move on and reset to the way that we play best next week.
Re: Adelaide United v Sydney FC Match Day Jamboree!!![emoji2398]
Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2023 4:45 pm
by Woy of the Wovers
I did warn everyone that tunnicliffe will be a waste of money ( similar to clough - that's several hundred grand were wasting on 2 bang average players ) players from the uk really struggle in the a league
Mauks off contract in 6 so weeks time, nows the moment to start those negotiations to bring him back home
Tunnicliffe has to take a lot of the blame, he was in a position to marshall/organise the rest of the side around him around him but was completely absent. (By proxy Veart to for setting things up)
Jovanovic was the worst of the subs IMO, the only one who came close to being as bad as those that went off at half time. Hr has very little awareness, and his runs are often poor or mistimed and cut off passing options that aren't him in the process too. He spurned a couple of very high quality goal chances too.
I was at a wedding last night so missed the game but saw the score and watched the highlights. Couldn't bring myself to watch a replay. I think we're going to have to accept this year that we'll be sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit.
Our team list doesn't scream consistency. We'll get great performances from players one week and they'll be invisible the week after, it's just how it will be.
Take me back to Leckie, Dodd, Flores and Sergio Van Dijk or Cirio, Carrusa, Isiais and Mabil <3
