HAL 13/14 Rd 1 - Sydney FC vs Newcastle Jets - 11/10/13 k/off 730pm AEDST

[plague]

Hold up everyone. We are all jumping the gun.
Deans was on the wireless today saying it's only 1 game out of 27 so it's no big deal.
Phew, that makes me feel better.

[scarfy96]

Well in the rag today Dutchy has basically said Chillie out and Bridges in with Burns going right. This is a better setup IMO but if Burns and Goodwin play as wide as they did why do we have overlapping fullbacks? Do they need a forward to hold their hand going forward so they don't get lost and are there to offer advice and direction when we loose the ball?

Overlapping fullbacks are fine IF:
1) The defensive midfield actually cover them rather than leaving us exposed
2) The "winger" or whatever you want to call him moves into the channel to offer something other than just someone to applaud if the overlapping back actually gets a cross in.

Apparently in the pre-season the thing we had to work on was getting other players in and around Heskey to offer him support. Now I know Heskey wasn't in the centre Taggart was but did anyone tell the forwards that? They seemed to want to stay as close to Heskey in the stand as they could not play in closer to Taggart!

By the time you get an overlapping back, a winger and an out of position defensive midfielder out wide, if you can manage to drag your number 10 out there as well then you have 4 guys manning the sideline. U12's could defend a cross in that situation.

Apparently the forward third need to "work on their positioning" a bit. WTF have they been doing all pre-season? Working on their ****ing hair dos?

[Maito Mitch]

Apparently the forward third need to "work on their positioning" a bit. WTF have they been doing all pre-season? Working on their ****ing hair dos?

We've been working on it for 2 years... This is as good as it gets!

Does GVE actually attend press conferences or do we just send in a tape recoding from 2 years ago? If not, we should. Might give him more time to work on that front third

[hawk]

Hold up everyone. We are all jumping the gun.
Deans was on the wireless today saying it's only 1 game out of 27 so it's no big deal.
Phew, that makes me feel better.

I too was getting worried there for a moment. Thanks Deans, cant wait for the giantic turn/reach around

[plague]

I too was getting worried there for a moment. Thanks Deans, cant wait for the giantic turn/reach around

auto response from Deans/GVE
Games 1-9 - "we're only (x) games in, theres no need to panic"
Games 10-18 - "mathematically we're still in it so as long as we make the finals anything is possible"
Games 19-27 - "this gives us a good building block for next season and gives the young blokes some exposure and a full pre-season to develop their game".

[seldom]

Really? I remember a mate & I were chatting for around 10 full minutes leading up to the Heskey goal about how useless Virgili was, and how bad GVE's system was. I remember this because it was one of those moments where you say "that guy is useless" and he does something amazing (similar to how you try to recreate a computer/phone issue you're having, but it works perfectly when you show someone). Because I remember ending the conversation with "Virgili should NOT be starting any HAL game" and then within 10 seconds he setup Heskey. And FTR I celebrated wildly. And FTR I don't remember him doing anything else that game.

Virgili is a Ryan Griffiths type player. Is remembered for his brief moment of greatness in games where otherwise he's a passenger for the other 85 minutes.

TBH I hope Virgili, Neville, Gallaway, Bridges get a solid 5 games in the lineup. Losing 5 games is surely enough for HSG to sack GVE.

Whoever on this foz keeps bringing it up was spot on the money - Flores is looking more & more like another Smeltz, the one we'll forever hate ourselves for not getting. Flores costs CCM 150k per year, and MV pay the remainding 250k of his contract. I fail to see, after we let Jesic (who was on 140k - kutgw Branko) & Ryan Griffiths (200-250k from what I heard - plus "we got a transfer fee for him" so not only freed up his wages but earnt money off him #yeahright) and the others (no idea wages) go from our squad last season, how we couldn't afford to chase Flores. Even taking into account Jaliens and the short-term Burns signing.

Smeltz and Flores...why would we sign a goal scorer and a playmaker...doesn't fit our system.