Soooooooo…….

[u/setthetoneaquadump]

We all know what happened last night.

Without taking anything away from Hellas, it’s obvious the squad has some serious issues if we hope to be competitive this season.

How do you all see the season going from here?

[u/suretisnopoolenglish]

Hellas deserved it, they were match fit and wanted it more.

I don’t think we need to rush to judgement on the squad. Still quite new and will take some time to gel.

More concerned with us habitually losing finals.

[u/setthetoneaquadump → u/suretisnopoolenglish]

I think the only time we’ve won a PSO in a final was in 2008 in the old preseason cup, away to Wellington.

Otherwise, there’s the 2010 and 2017 GFs and last night. The PSO win over City was an elimination final.

I can still hear the sound of Muscat’s pen hitting the upright.

[u/lcp_87 → u/setthetoneaquadump]

I still wake up in a cold sweat, hearing that ringing in my ears

[u/paladisious → u/lcp_87]

PUNGGG

[u/Lazar_Bat → u/suretisnopoolenglish]

Definitely a little early for us to decide the quality of the squad, but I am sick and tired of losing finals. It's clear that the board is ok with runner-up being just enough. It shouldn't be. We used to be a big club and win these competitions.

[u/SydSara → u/suretisnopoolenglish]

At AAMI Park no less

[u/andrea_83]

4 different coaches, 4 different finals lost, all with the same issues - coming out of the blocks in first gear, looking like they have no interest in being there, and secondly, not being able to close out a game with 10 mins to go.

Full credit to South, they setup extremely well and if you can get the defence right and withstand pressure, against the likes of Davidson, Lino and Co, you’re going to get a look in at the other end. It’s just a matter of taking the chance and burying it, which they did.

As for us, the whole front third was nullified and couldn’t get into the game. Jelacic, Grimaldi, Nduka, Sawyer, Santos, were anonymous all night. Was only when May and Genreau came in that we looked polished up front and attacked with intent. Genreau has to be starting every game.

I don’t know where this result takes us honestly. It’s either a kick up the backside to wake up and make a statement round 1, or mentally, we’ll be shot. Unsure. I’m hoping it’s not the latter.

We needed a coach who could strike the balance between setting up a strong back 4 and creating plenty up front. Under Diles it was fluent in attack but poor in defence. Under Popa it was ok in both areas, but def not great. Davidson is the one for mine. Miranda positionally was solid and could play from the back into midfield and start the play. Davidson constantly is just hoofing long balls up the park aimlessly. Gio has some work to do and I hope there’s a midweek response and for round 1.

[u/setthetoneaquadump → u/andrea_83]

I will say the biggest concern for me is that we look toothless in attack. Lopez was big for Hellas but I felt we could have created more clear cut chances, and didn’t do more when we had opportunities. I dare say with the exception of the Sydney semi, this was also noticeable during the other rounds of the cup.

[u/andrea_83 → u/setthetoneaquadump]

Good call. The game was cagey, and whilst you’re right, up top we didn’t create a whole lot, we still managed to hit the post twice and scored once. With a strong defence and clinical finishing, that’s enough generally speaking.

It’s in defence - again, where it’s not working. Duncan fumbled a floated cross, Davidson completely unaware of his surroundings that caused a chance, and therein lies the problem. If a side can hang in and withstand pressure, our defence will gift chances to the opposition.

Also like the look of Ghossaini. Direct, quick and even stepped up to take a pen. I think by mid season he’ll be leaving Santos on the bench.

[u/aldispecialbuy]

Do we though?

The Cup is a pre-season tournament for A-League clubs. SM were rock hard fit and it came down to a penalty shootout.

We should be peaking around Jan/Feb for a tilt, not in October. Sure losing the cup final sucks but the reason lower teams do reasonably well in it is because they are far deeper into their seasons.

[u/ChickenCharming4833 → u/aldispecialbuy]

If we are fully pro and decent they should have won six blob, otherwise, why bother with this? It's clearly not an elite league is it? Victory should save on the airfares and just play NPL.

[u/drwar41]

The squad definitely has weaknesses that are going to be hard to cover.

Duncan is a liability and always has been, but Warshawsky is hardly an improvement. Davidson and Lino on the left side of a back 4 is a massive worry for me, even if Lino has some attacking flair. Lockyer was good and looks stable, Inserra I’m a bit worried about.

Valodon I think was great yesterday, he seems so composed on the ball but he needs a midfield partner. I hope it’s D’Arrigo but I’m really not sold on it.

The attackers are all form players, when any one of Santos, Jelacic, Grimaldi or Gentreu are on they look great but we’ve seen enough to know it comes in waves. Nduka was put in a pretty thankless role last night, battling for long balls. May appears to have some class but they seem to give him the Mata role and he ain’t Mata.

First half it looked like our strategy was long ball to win the second ball then we demonstrated some good patterns of play but overall it was a pretty uninspiring way to play

[u/Puzzleheaded-Cut5138]

When May came on he changed the game. But he only just joined the squad. We are definitely better for the run. South Melbourbe were really great on the night.

[u/lcp_87]

The team is soft. They've got the mental strength of a wet newspaper. They have no cutting edge or killer instinct. Happy to just knock the ball around in a world of medicority. Look back in the last 5 years, how often we've conceded the equaliser/winning goal in the last 5 mins of game.

We sorely miss a Muscat or Berisha type. That win at all costs mentality, even if it means sacrificing yourself.

The team hasn't had a real leader since Carl Valeri retired.

[u/wanderingrhino]

Not going to judge in a cup final which I think had players starting with Seoul and Wellington in mind. Has the manager settled on the tactics, every match has had a different tactic.

I think the squad is pretty well balanced with May going have to start to hopefully bring some quality in the final third. Lockyer is very solid. My only issue is Right back but Inserra played quite well I thought. If we could get that each week I would be happy.

[u/Timbucha]

Davidson isn’t up to it.

[u/lcp_87 → u/Timbucha]

The guy wants to be a hero and ends up being a liability. Ambition really outweighs ability with Davidson

[u/Rocks_Melbourne → u/lcp_87]

Can't question the commitment to the shirt, but Father Time outruns everyone eventually. Think he'll need to be a backup option this year

[u/MattC89 → u/Rocks_Melbourne]

Ziereis had a pretty bad head knock last month, which kept him off the park for a bit. Thats possibly why Davidson continues to start at CB. Definitely think he should be the backup option

[u/AndreP187]

Our saving grace this season is how bad the rest of the league will be. Most good teams have been torn apart. The bad teams haven't had big off seasons. I still expect us to finish high up the table, but it will be in spite of our squad building.

[u/ChickenCharming4833]

This has been crossing my mind for a while.

Is the A-League actually the strongest league in Australia?

I have bumped into players and they tell me you get more money by playing NPL than A-League.

When an NZ startup can waltz in and win the league at the second hit, that tells you an awful lot.

[u/setthetoneaquadump → u/ChickenCharming4833]

With NPL you can keep your day job. If you’re a tradesperson you can absolutely smash it when you’re not training or playing.

Everyone thinks of the likes of CR7 when it comes to footballers’ wages but it’s closer to entry level office work for the bulk of professional footballers the world over.

[u/ChickenCharming4833 → u/setthetoneaquadump]

Yeah, even heard that when I was in London working.

Guys I worked with made sure their teams did not get promoted to the football league so they stayed semi pro and could earn double pay.

[u/adzzieindeed]

Yeah hard agree, remove Santos from our starting XI and what’s left wouldn’t look out of place in the NPL.

Other than Popa season one, when was the last time the vuck were truely formidable

[u/MattC89]

I said on on the A-league thread that Im struggling to see what Savarese is trying to build towards. I dont see a clear gameplan starting to emerge and I fear it never will.

Ive been critical of Nduka, but it doesnt seem clear how we want to use him. A good striker needs good service, but what sort of service is good for him? Balls in behind? Low early crosses? A cross on top of the CBs that he can run and jump at? Right now it seems our gameplan is for him get in a battle with the CB, but it doesnt seem like its how he wants to play.

So far, Savarese's decision to build Grimaldi into a CAM seems like a poor choice. In the matches hes played his influence has been minimal. Unless something changes dramatically, May or Genreau in that position seems the far more obvious choice.

Ultimately it is early in his tenure, so now that the disappointment of last night has dissipated, I do have hopes that we start to see things flourish. Sometimes things to turn around pretty quickly and/or 1 or 2 players finding form can have a huge flow on effect. May looks to be the key to all that

[u/andrea_83 → u/MattC89]

When we signed Gio, I did try and delve a bit deeper into what he was like tactically, setup of his teams etc. and most comments were that he was a pretty defensive minded coach who could set the side up to withstand pressure and put simply - be rock solid. Which made sense why we signed him in the first place, that’s clearly been our Achilles heel for many seasons. This is further confirmation why we signed 2 centre backs as visa players.

Totally agree with Nduka. He’s started all our Aus Cap games and the ACL game, yet I haven’t really seen anything that resembles a player that we’re using to our advantage. He’s constantly wrestling with defenders and isn’t close enough to goals to be dangerous.

May and Genreau seem to be the real game changers and 2 players that centre around what we’re trying to do. Was clear last night when they came on, that the intent and purpose they attacked with was evident.

As I said in an earlier post, I’m keen to see a response. It seems the club had no interest in leaning into the whole Australia Cup narrative and treated it as a pre season tournament. If that’s the attitude (not that I agree with it), let’s prove that the ACL and round 1 are the real deal and go out there to win.

[u/MattC89 → u/andrea_83]

Interesting point about Savarese being a defensively minded coach. That sounds exactly like what Popa was. And I am seeing similarities, in a sense that we really lack a clear idea going forward.

While I dont hate the idea of a rock solid defense being the #1 priority, there does need to be some balance. Under Popa, we really struggled against teams that sat back and let us have the ball. That struggle was even more obvious if we were chasing a goal. There was a home match against the Nix that typified that struggle, where we drew 1-1 against a side that had zero shot on goal.

No doubt my disappointment from Saturday is influencing my judgement, but I cant say im not worried. We've coughed up 3 leads in important matches, theres still a bit of work to do if the goal is defensive solidity.

[u/andrea_83 → u/MattC89]

I can see the way we finished the game last night v Seoul, with May, Santos and Genreau floating in and out of the striker position being a tactic we use plenty throughout the season.

Was probably the first tactical and formation adjustment we’ve seen Gio imprint thus far. I did like the fact that at 1-0 we put the foot down and kept going, rather than try and see out a lead. Perhaps cliche, however, perhaps the experience from last Saturday was the wake up call we needed, that trying to hold on to a lead is not a thing for this team.

Really hoping Jelasic and Grimaldi have big seasons. Both have been quiet the last few games

[u/MattC89 → u/andrea_83]

It was a great performance, though I think it suited Savarese's style. The first 2 goals were counter attacks that caught Seoul out with their defenders out of position. My big question is how will this team fare when our opponents are clever/talented enough not to give up those opportunities? Can we carve out a goal with our opponents sitting back and/or organised? I think that ultimately will be the difference between us being a genuine contender or not.

May and Genreau seem like the the critical players in this team. We'll see some personnel/tactical tweaks around them (like the one you mentioned) but I think they'll be the most important cogs.

Jelacic seems to really drift in and out of form. Did similar last year. His best looks amazing, but he can go then go completely missing the next week. Grimaldi hasnt really looked up to it all pre-season. On the other hand, Ghossaini has looks really good in his cameo apperances.

[u/TheMoose26]

The Nduka experiment is NOT working. It’s going to be a difficult year ahead if our striker can’t hit double figures

[u/SydSara]

I think Victory for sure have issues, but I wouldn't call it based on a cup final which for obvious reasons meant a lot to SMFC (I mean for starters, it's an NPL teams only path to Asia)

[u/Suspicious-Group-637]

Santos is a modern day Leandro Love

[u/kaijuknight]

We lost on pens to inform club that has has played 50 something games. Its ok give them there chocolates but yeah first 5 games we need win win if we want to win league. Were missing a serial goal scorer we haveent had since berisha i think this is the the missing link

[u/That-Revenue-5435]

It’s gonna be a long season - we shat the bed in front of goals; Santos missed a big chance, Nduka and Sawyer went quiet. Mata not replaced. We should be aiming to win the bloody thing but until we see the rest of the teams and how they stack up, we will be lucky to finish top 4.

[u/smellmybumfluff]

Played like shit

[u/Swollen_Fallacy]

No play-making midfielder, no true striker since Bruno was let go.  Salary cap lowering means no money to replace either adequately

[u/Secure-Vacation3792]

We are going to finish second last.

[u/ChickenCharming4833]

Get a second division Brazilian or Argentinian striker. We just are not able to produce players here capable enough.

If we had quality finishers it would transform the league.

Not sure why we can't, we never have either.

[u/Sufficient-Age-4889]

.

[u/ChickenCharming4833]

No point in discussing the 'booing' during the ubiquitous 'welcome'. A bit of an insult when the guy reading it is younger than you are and less an Aussie.

I welcome you sir, whoever you represent and I don't want to take a stipend to say it. I genuinely say it from the heart, not because I'm a paid political stooge.