R3 vs Perth Glory | Sun 27th Oct | 6:00pm | RoF/SS7 | City Mission Collection

I think Waine offers more than Sotorio, he is quicker in my opinion, has a better passing game and is better technically. Other than experience, I don't see what Sotorio has over him.

Not saying Sotorio has been horrible, but he just doesn't stand out in a meaningful positive way to deserve to start.

Davilla for me is wasted on the right, but I don't know if I would start him in the middle as he goes missing? not sure what to do there as something needs to change.

Hoopers penalty win showed his class - positioning and use of body... the rest of the strikers would have looked to header the ball or strike it somehow and scuffed it, becuase of where it was at. Smart.

Almost forgot... I didn't think it was a red. Ugly and from behind, but the contact was minimal. Had we been given a red for that I think as fans we would have been grumpy!

Sotorio is a Appiah/Pav type player. He has speed and strength, but no touch, pass or shot. Until Uffie can work with him on those aspects, he has to be moved to the bench. But he is also being asked to play in a system which doesnt utlise his strengths well, so that also needs to be taken into consideration. 

I think there's a few issues with this take, which I do understand. 

The performance was very similar to last week in that we conceded soft goals and our attack wasn't good enough to create many clear cut chances. Perth really had u a right where they wanted us for most of that game and we're a level above in terms of experience and professionalism. Remember this is always a tough game for them given the travel so they probably started the game happy with a point. 

I actually think we have ajor issue, which is our fullbacks. At the moment Louis's defensive vulnerability isn't being off set against n attacking threat. His final ball is really bad. Cacace has been better but even still, his crossing hasn't been great. We need more from them because our system creates space for them. Scott was awful defensively but you can accept that if he threatens going forward, which he didn't 

Biggest problem for me is the lack of defensive urgency in the box and lack of pressure on creators like Castro - he had so much space to roam around; not sure what Rufer/Steinmann were doing.

I think we've also seen that while Steinmann is a solid player he is prone to getting caught with the ball in really dangerous positions. This is an issue as Rufer already has that problem - now we've got 2 of them, resulting in around ~4-5 chances gifted directly to Perth from absolutely nothing.

Would like to see this formation and maybe some of these players as DeVere is too sluggish on the ball and slow getting back, Fenton is prone for defensive errors and can't cross a ball, then TAWH and Piscopo would add good energy in the middle of the park and Davila centrally will help him a lot.

I actually thought he got put in those situations by others. Countless times yesterday, he was given a hopeless ball. Rufer being the main culprit. That's not to say there weren't a couple of iffy moments from him, but by and large, he was passed the ball when he really shouldn't have been. 

Man, that's the worst insult I can think of. Sotirio is after you now, like Watto was after patrick.

I don't think Rufer was at his best yesterday. Following the Sydney game last week, I was quite disappointed with the performance.

First half we invited pressure on ourselves with some silly touches and poor passs, leading to direct counters by Perth.

Bring on the double Melbourne trip - not sure either of Melbourne A or B are firing yet - could see our first points

Play Davila central, 433 with ball, hooper, Waine up front

Agree that DeVere has been found wanting - just his general play is really poor; he takes one or two touches extra basically every time, often slips over in the box and just generally doesn't look very solid.

Would also like to see Payne get a run, he's been pretty good when he's been given minutes.

Payne for Fenton is a decent shout... Fenton can't cross a ball.

One bad game is not enough to drop Rufer... has been one of our best over the last 12 months.

I hate football

actually that's a good point. We could get a player with talent to perform this role - Williams would have been good at this, and Rufer I feel can do this centrally by roaming the midfield and dragging his markers around. Sotirio wouldn't give enough defensive cover even if he could use his energy to hamper wingbacks trying to get forward

must use this shape, Davila offers so much more centrally! Maybe Rufer instead of TAWH?? Think De Vere does ok but with Steinman and Rufer pushing forward in the current 4-4-2 we lose the civer that is needed at the back.

Don't think formation is the problem, honestly.

not saying formation is the biggest issue, I'd just like to see davila played centrally - hes the most likely to set up hooper and ball just not while he's playing on the wing. Rufer and Steinman as the two central players are not helping matters. Steinman can't be dropped - he is playing way better than Rufer. If we went to the 4-4-2 diamond, we keep the same players on the field, but give them the best chance to do what they do best.

biggest issue for me is conceding silly goals that we should be stopping.

In this formation, Davila has been drifting centrally anyway - I think he's been really good these last two games; he's shown a lot of fight, which surrpised me after the first game where I thought he got pushed off the ball really easily.

I still have some hope for this season as long as Hooper stays fit - you got a sense of what he'll bring in that cameo; one instance where he track backed slightly and completely muscled one of their players off the ball, then slipped it to Waine, was brilliant.

drifting central - yes! certainly been more physical than game one, when hooper came on and davila moved central that combo was ore dangerous.

clearly hooper and ball have to start together, davila is waaaaau more useful central he is wasted wide. Steinman is easily our best central midfielder, Rufer seems off his game but I can see him getting better as he plays more. Rufer and Steinman need to decide who is goning to stay back and who is going to bomb forward.

Harsh- Fenton has been best on quick counters and fast ball movement. Hitting crosses into Ball and Sotirio with 6 defenders in the box isn't anyone's strength.

I wonder if we're looking for in games because we concede early and the other team looses a bit of impetus.

agreed, fenton has done well on attack, but the tactic of crossing into a striker who is not tall seems redundant, really needs to be cut back to a centrally attacking player.

Not suggesting Rufer should be dropped, I just think at the moment he and Steinman are trying to do the same job and its causing some issues. I'd prefer it if we keot either Steinman ro Rufer as a CDM in front of the back four. We could then play a flat three across the mid, with Davila, Rufer/Steinman and Piscopo or McCowatt. With Ball and Hooper up front.

was at the game and would like to see replay to confirm thoughts. Although we went forward down the flanks ok the aimless crosses where we were typically outnumbered will not see us score very many goals. Like the idea of creating width to open more direct efforts on goal or cut back the crosses. Think Hooper will be great asset and was good for the small amount of time he was on.

Defensively poor - ball watching and we dont close down players around the box letting them et their head up and picking their spots. Thankfully our goalie pulled off some very good saves

Watching replay now on SS7, first goal was just poor defending, lunging in on Castro and he dances passed two then slides a cross passed three defenders including Taylor. Scott was in the wrong position to stop Fornoroli's toe poke.

and that tackle on ball by Perth's #4 should have been a god damn red! Tackled from behind, catches ball with both legs not even an attenpt at the ball.

Yeah, I hate it when a centre back isn't very good on the ball

Have you got any comments on his defensive work, i.e. the main function of a centre back, because from what I have seen he's doing this pretty well and our problems are coming from the space outside and in front of the centre backs

PS, for anyone missing durante, you need to re-watch last nights game

he's a legend, but watch the game and  see him getting caught out with these little darts into midfield that he makes

WU have the same issues at the back as we did when Rudan was using the back three.....Durante comes too far up the pitch on atack and leaves two CB's isolated - whilst he's still good on the ball and good defensively he lacks the pace to get back into position.

I don't miss him because he's great, I miss him because he's better than DeVere (who has gotten away with a lot of errors but has generally been very bad)

I disagree that his general defensive play has been great. He's made multiple mistakes (slips, passes direct to opposition, missed headers) which we've been lucky to get away with.  I also think Taylor hasn't stood up this season and lead the team like he could. 

Next week.

City will be without Delbridge due his red that evens out us being without Cacace

Some talk also that Maclaren has a hamstring issue. He was clutching at it during last nights game. Didn't stop him scoring at the end, but if he doesn't play that should balance out Hooper not being fully match fit for us. 

Could be another close game. Always tough away in Melborne tho. But no reason we shouldn't go there and give it everything, keep improving and try to get the three points.

Maclaren being out would be absolutely huge; currently best striker in comp

what was the attendance?

They reckon 7000

Soccerway says 6,054

thanks leggy. it didn't look like that, but it's hard to tell

McClaren is out for 4-5 weeks so City will be without him and Delbridge so promising signs for us https://twitter.com/DanielGarb/status/1188664749715668992

I guess the defender said that he got all ‘Ball’ and the ref agreed ??

I think we all just need to have some patience and let Ufuk craft this team. From my view last night at game, I don't think we were as bad as many seem to be making out here. No doubt we're often missing the final ball and there's some frustrating errors at times, but I thought we dominated large parts of the match last night. Castro and Fornarolli are class at this level. 

I saw enough to make me think we've got a more than capable team this year. The results aren't far away. 

Think people are prepared to be patient but dont think people will be patient if we continue to leak unnecessary goals with some rubbish defending in and around the box.No doubt the signs are there that we may be onto something good but like Kurto last season Stefan cant be expected to save the defensive errors all the time.

I was at the game and have now watched the recorded version. I agree with many, it's actually looking very promising. It took Rudan a few games to get them going, and I think it's the same here. I really feel like when we click we are going to give someone a good old fashioning dicking.