What needs to change

is Piscopo injured? Rumours he wanted to join Melbourne before the season. Cos we need him. 

Waine and Muratovic aren't bringing impact at the moment. Lewis, handy, but not that quick off the mark yet. It feels like we're one or two players short of a strong team. 

Last year we simply had better players in better form than most other teams, this year we don't have much of an advantage.

Ahem!

Make Sotirio a permanent 80th Minute substitution. (David Fairclough was the same at Liverpool) and he'll score for us.

this

So which player do we scapegoat into scoring the winning goal this week? My vote is Hemed.

^^^^

He keeps pushing that offside border line. Just stay a foot onside would help. one lousty foot. He has the talent to do some awesome stuff for the Nix - if he stays onside.

Stefan Marinovic has to go now! He is to fat and slow at this point of the season to be any good for us, Bench him to he loses a few pounds and have Sail in goal for now. Sail knows how to command a backline with free kicks and crosses and is quite fast with is reaction time stopping balls from goal. We are not Perth Glory who score goals for fun so we need change were it matters.

Unfortunately because the club wont let Talay spend we are stuck with Hemed for now, however should we wait a half a season on him just to assist a goal or should we give the kids a run and let them progress into something better then what we have.

Feel you are wrong on both points. 

We have three recognised forwards at A League or above. We need to get the best out of all of them. That's on Uffie to manage and coach. Stefan is a great player and can hardly be blamed for having little confidence in his defence to cover through balls. That's something coach and defence need to work on, but it's only going to get more difficult with no Cammy Devlin buzzing everywhere and making tackles.

Basically Uffie I trust, but we're missing Taylor, Cacace and Hooper, plus Steinnman. That's a lot of quality gone. We've gotta be a bit patient. Hopefully having Piscopo back will fire up the attack.

Piscopo back is a big plus. He looked keen as last night. Ok, he left his scoring boots at home but he tried and took any chance rather than playing safe back to the defence like so many in the A League do. Definitly miss Taylor and Hooper, for a big lump of a lad, had the vision and touches to create for others, not just himself.

I still think we need to give Hemed time, he's not been playing a lot and is new to a-league and the team. Hooper took an age to get up to speed and he proved his worth. Uffie will get Hemed and the team working together. At least we can see the desire from Hemed, he wants to be here and he wants to be winning.

I hope so Prof.

Hemed hasn't scored a goal for 3 to 4 season of football and with the A-League being on Par with the Philippians Prem League (As stated in AFC rankings) he should have more then a assist by now. Look at Sotirio he is a miss bag, comes from a lower level of pro football them Hemed and barley scores but has assist and scored a few from his own doing. Why cant Hemed score goals from his own doing? Why is everyone blaming the service to him? He cant even take on the man!. If he comes good i will eat my words but for now he is drift wood.

Ah yes, the Philippians.  They eventually discovered their goal-scoring form too, thanks to their inspirational manager Paul.

We need leadership at the back, wide players that are willing to drive at defenders and strikers that can make space for themselves for a half turn to shoot or lay off in the box. So not much missing right? Mostly the team just needs some leadership, that seems to be they key difference from last season. last season Taylor was organised, charismatic and lead by example. Hooper was a player that made space to shoot, head or pass without being penalised and always talked to the players around him. That is what we are missing this season and no amount of knocking the ball around will fix it. There is a transfer window coming up that was adjusted for the season dates and I assume? Some injury replacements required now too. Things could turn around with some leadership, here is hoping anyway.

How many minutes have we been able to put out our best XI this season? 

I don't think we have been able to for a single minute.

Unfortunately your right, Sail is in the best 11 and has not seen a min of game time.

give it up mate, this kind of dribble that you post day in day out hurts any credibility you have - if ever. Marinovic is clearly the #1 keeper in the country, and clearly doing enough for the gaffer to keep playing him. The goals we've conceded havent just been the keeper's fault (excluding a couple that were) - the backline have not done him any favours.

I honestly believe we havent been too bad defensively and in the midfield bar last nights game, we just can't finish for shark. According to doctor google we have taken 97 shots across our 6 games and only scored 6 goals (one was a penalty to boot) - thats fudgeing trash. 

Prior to last night's game, we had taken the most shots per game but also conceded the most per game.

We have to be concerned about both those stats, shooting the most is great, but our conversion rate is diabolical. Conceding the most shots ins concerning, suggests we've been lucky not to have been on the receiving end of a 5 goal blow out. Both ends need to be sorted, for mine we need to focus on the defense first. I'd rather a nil-all draw or a 1-0 win than a 3-4 loss.

I tend to agree. I think its the defensive 3rd needs sorting out. For me without Devlin we had no steel in midfield, I don't think Rufer and Ridenton are a good DM combination. They both tend to stand off rather than put pressure on opposition ball carrier allowing them too much time and space, and when in possession often there tempo is very slow, which sets the tone for a slow build up by us. Devere has not looked happy at all this season, and does not appear to have stood up into the leadership role, which has lead to lack of clear communication at the back. 

TAHW is definitely overdue his chance at CB. Although he was given a bit of a hospital pass last night coming on straight after we went down to 10 men, without having had any decent minutes up till that point. 

I don't know what the solutions are. But with all our injuries, the wider squad will now get a chance to prove themselves. Can the likes of McGing and TAHW step up. I think we need to give Fenton more minutes. And hopefully Devlin is recovered for the next game.

The club is in a tough position financially having to cover costs of being over in Aus. So I don't imagine there is much budget for replacements. But if there was one I'd be looking at is James Musa who is a free agent. 

But maybe its just a year to consolidate until all this covid crap is a thing of the past.

I'm not confident that next season won't be impacted by covid - we could be Wollongong Phoenix for at least one more season.

If both NZ & Australia get 60% plus of their populations vaccinated by end of this year - and everything suggests they will - high chance that quarantine free travel between the 2 countries will be possible. With health passports, proof of vaccination or whatever.

Bearing in mind that if the 2022 A League season becomes a pure winter comp, it won't start until Feb/March 2022, ie 12 months from now.

This is an estimate on when countries will reach 60% vaccination coverage (hopefully no new vaccine resistant variants in that time)

Problem is the quarantine period, unless they're in NZ or Australia already you've got to not only do the contract negotiations but then get them into the queue for managed isolation, then wait the two weeks, then get them integrated into the team.

It took weeks or months to get Hemed through the Australian quarantine system apparently.

Talay has said he might bring over people from the academy for the next few games, but then that was before Australia closed their border so with injuries and suspensions we might actually struggle to field a squad at some point over the next few games.

Given all the hues of the rainbow this is an awful map. I'm colour blind so basically I just see two shades there. I presume that USA will have it's herd immunity before Senegal?

Anyway Ardern's said NZ's vaccination program should be completed by year end. I'll trust her over The Economist, for knowing on what's likely to happen downunder.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus...

There will definitely be plans underway to facilitate quarantine free travel between NZ & Australia ASAP. Expect that needing to have had the vaccine before boarding will be part of that, so any members of sports teams who are anti vaxxers may not be allowed to travel.

So in theory you may not need 'herd immunity' to be achieved, for vaccinated people (incl sports teams) to fly between NZ & Australia. 

USA and most of Europe before Aus/NZ, yes.

Sorry off topic, but I find having a frequent look at the country tables in this link, cheers me up that normal life will eventually return. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-t...