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Mariners V Roar

Ads

Well-Known Member
Unless your a striker that steals a ball and goes straight to score, otherwise your only as good as the player next to you.

The pass you make, or the pass you receive determines everything about the movement of play.

Balard, Niz, Steele, Tulio, Silvera and a few others are seemingly hit and miss because of this principle.

Our tactic is to go from the backs with a sweeping ball to wide front.
So much of our play is passing sideways as a tactic to draw the opposition in so we can go around them, rather than through.

I hate it but it makes our midfield look like they are not attacking well or making lovely diagonal balls through to strikers but simply every now and then when they do get on the ball facing forwards our opponent is well setup to close passing lanes because we are so slow getting it out of backline.

They are ready for us.

Start of season we were doing calculated risk counter attack football.

That has slowly died each game trying to play safer and safer as we loose confidence on the ball and end up chasing opponents counter attacks.
 

Hello Sailor

Well-Known Member
Just looking browsing through some stats earlier because my life is just that interesting:

Balard 22/23
86% passing accuracy (from 700 passes)
56% duels won (67 of 120)
17 shot assists
Dispossessed 14 times

Stensness 20/21
85% passing accuracy (from 1051 passes)
53% duels won (118 from 221)
20 shot assists
Dispossessed 27 times

Steele 22/23
87% passing accuracy (from 440 passes)
58% duels won (34 from 59)
11 shot assists
Dispossessed just twice.

Nisbet 22/23
89% passing accuracy (from 919 passes)
60% duels won (62 of 104)
18 shot assists
Dispossessed 10 times.

Not arguing that these stats tell the whole story by any stretch, but they at the very least allow you to at least start painting a picture as to whether these players are “up to A-League standard” or just “meh”.
Stats are good but as you say, they don’t tell the whole story; these suggest that there is little difference in the ability between Rusty and Nizzy. But, when Nizz plays well, which is most of the time, the team seems to do well too. I don’t think this can be said of Steele.

If all A league centre/defensive mids were ranked, would an unbiased observer place Steele in the top, middle or bottom third? I’d be surprised if he made it to out of the bottom group.

Many of the responses defending Steele tacitly agree that academy players’ shortcomings should be accepted because they are a work in progress, and/or that this is part of the business model for the club.
So, it seems that academy players aren’t judged by the same standards as others. Is it reasonable to identify players we could replace with upgrades? I think it is. Are some academy watchers more knowledgeable about academy players? No doubt, but does it come with a bias? It probably does. I’m sure there is great pleasure in watching a young talent in the academy and then see them gain a contract in the A League.

Although it is a large part of it, the club’s business model is more than finding young gems, polishing them and then selling them on. Some gems will be flawed [eg Jok]. It’s also about cost cutting, and also offering second chances or rehabilitation to undervalued talented players eg Mark Boznic, Cummings, or Theo. Maybe there’s a talented DM warming a bench that could be used as an upgrade for Steele.

My intention was not to insult but the discussion that resulted has been interesting.
 
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Ben10

Well-Known Member
Maxi’s spatial awareness in these sorts of situations is actually fantastic. Countless occasions he’s had the ball coming to him facing our goal, will know exactly what is/isn’t on behind him, will feel an opposition player coming in to close him down, shimmy one way and turn the other, taking the opposition player out and creating acres of space to drive forwards into. So simple, and so, so effective.
Generally once or twice a game Max makes these fantastic driving runs, generally through the middle of the field and looks fantastic. Fairly sure he did it the other week, but into the box, and won a pen. Still very hopeful he'll turn into an absolute gem in a few years, I feel like his ceiling is very high, possibly higher than Nis.
 

ConsKrypt

Well-Known Member
Pink round - played 10, won 3 (12/13, 13/14, and 20/21), drawn 2 (15/16 and 17/18), and lost 5. Bearing in mind we were rather shite for the majority of those years, those stats don’t surprise me all too much.
Hoping we give city a fair run, we did in pre season but that's a while different kettle of fish
 

Corsair

Well-Known Member
Maybe there’s a talented DM warming a bench that could be used as an upgrade for Steele.
Are you going to front the cash to pay their salary? We're never going to have a team full of superstars, we just don't have the funds. I would suspect we're already spending more on salaries than we have for many years.

Cultural fit for us is also very important, hence why promotion of academy players who are already cultural integrated and a known entity comes into consideration.
 

Hello Sailor

Well-Known Member
For me Josh Nisbet is the most underrated player in the comp. I have no idea why he is not starting if he is not injured.
Agreed, he has the ability to play for the socceroos, and yes, it is a worry. I don't know which is worse, a chronic post-covid fitness issue, a falling out of favour, ala Bozanic or a financial consideration [I think McKinna benched Gumps so that a clause in the contract wasnt triggered]. Some info from the club on this would be nice.
 

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