There's always going to be latent physical attributes that will help in all cases and the great technical players also have those physical attributes. If you prioritise physicality, then there's diminishing returns.

Dobson is a good example, he has good physicality and is technical, he usually uses his technicality to get out of trouble or get past a player, but uses his physicality to close down players or strength to protect the ball. Clayton Taylor was the opposite, he used his physicality to get past...

I've said it before, but England is to physical focused still, while it's an important part, it's not the be all. Physicality will take more out of players obviously, where a technical player can control the ball/tempo and not make it so demanding on a player. I think you see it with Spain, they...

He's at a good club to develop, who knows what will happen in the future, I don't think he's right for the NT right now. NT isn't club football, we should choose players best for the positions/roles at the time imho.

TBH I wasn't to impressed by him, he's still pretty raw,

I remember they had signed him during the last few games, started out rocky, but was a really good CB for us.

Agree, that's what I had against the whole thing at the start, the PFA (especially Foz) were advocating better wages for players they said, but in reality they were advocating for the few highest earners. They didn't raise the minimum wage which would effect all players and a salary floor is as...

Yeah true, I guess it's recognition of the clubs ability to develop players and brings in extra income. Then it's fun to follow them overseas and see how they do and watch the next hopeful brightspark whith the whole process starting again. It is what it is and unless there's a lot more money...

A strange phenomenon, but the best can demand higher compensation and certain leagues have more access to funds than others, concentrating those that are desired into those leagues. The A league doesn't have anywhere near access to funds like other leagues, let alone leagues in Asia. If you want...

Didn't Monty do something similar with CCM when they did the treble?

Denmark, but then you have Iceland as well iirc. Not sure of Clairfontaine, Germany or Spain.

I guess there would be the mandatory development fee, or they could introduce a mandated 10% or something, then it's up to the clubs if they want to take them on. I wouldn't think so, they'll go to a club they want to how it happened before, maybe they'll go to a NPL club, or even overseas? AFL...

TBH I wouldn't be the right person to ask, but I think I remember something about leaving it in each states FA hands and yes the club academies.

You would probably need to set one up in each state, i guess it all comes down to costs and earnest lobbying of the gov.

Yeah, but I think those times of putting the irons in the fire really developed him as a manager, he may not have liked it haha.

He definitely skirted around the reason and was a bit vague, whether that was to keep his cards to his chest, or to not discourage some players is another thing. Poppa does the same, if asked he won't give an answer on grounds he doesn't want to give the opposition any insights, or just say it...

IIRC we were light weight in the FB positions, especially RB and Anges systems utilises the FB's a lot. He did it to disregard them altogether and have wide wingers. I think the biggest problem was that he only played with one holding midfielder, 2 would have given the team a bit more...

OOf, another good signing, Vic could be tough to come against.

I have heard a few people mention him now, interesting

TBH they wouldn't say anything else publicly, behind doors is another thing.

oof before my time. I just watched a couple of blurry highlights and he seemed like a tough defender.

Good pick up by them.

Yeah, I didn't rate him much at City, but over the years and especially at WU he did pretty well, I wouldn't be against it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't put this on the players at all, they all played to their best in the conditions set for them. I don't want to diminish their efforts at all, as they played admirably. I put it down to the coach, he made some bad decisions that cost us. We had a good chance to...

It was 'their' expectation, it's how they would say it's been successful or not, maybe we can call that par. It's not like we had to face France in the knockout game, the round of 16 should still be the 'expectation' of success imho.

The FFA expected to get to the round of 16 in the past, now it's changed to a lowered bar?

Our last group were Denmark, France and Tunisia. France like the USA were the powerhouse in the group, Denmark were perennial performers at the WC, Tunisia weren't bad. Turkey it was their first WC in decades, same for Paraguay. Of which we got out of the Qatar group to the round of 16. The FFA...

We've gone from getting to the round of 16 was the goal and getting out of a much harder group, to getting to the round of 32 and getting out of a much easier group as one of three teams in four?

We have stats for the games, no ones randomly claiming anything imho, but even still football is a game of opinions and hold similar subjective value.

I personally think we have always performed better with local coaches than foreign on average, so I personally would advocate for a local coach more than not.

I'm just iterating that the values of players don't hold much weight, considering two of our outstanding players Beach and Okon are playing in the A League.

No, but it's pretty equal to Egypt.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

Appealing to authority of the market is silliness, for instance look at Volpato who was undervalued at Aleague and yet Parma saw something in him. Players get undervalued for all sorts of reasons, or looked over.

We have made it to the round of 16 and pushed the eventual winners to close margins, this should be the average we aim for, below that is below the average and above it is bonus.

It's mediocrity, that's what you are saying is par, or what we should aim for as par.

Not arrogant, but ambitious, we should be aiming for a round 16 game as par , otherwise it's advocating for mediocrity.

Is it? We should expect to get to the round of 16, this is a new format and a round 32 is akin to the group stages in the old format and coming against Egypt, we should be ambitious enough to expect to go through. I think personally round 16 is par, this is more like a bogey.

His deadball specialty would've been handy and would have been a better selection than Leckie.

Goodwin is past it, he didn't even have a very good season for Adelaide.

I don't like him for the NT, poor at his defensive duties, hardly scores or gets an assist, he just doesn't perform as high as his ego thinks he should.

Ah, lol.

Rollan Ballah signs a 2 year deal at 15 yrs of age, a RW from our NPL side. https://melbournecityfc.com.au/news/20260702-ballah-signs/ Played LW against Snt Albans for the first goal. RW for the second.

CF certainly, it's always been a problem since Dukes. I think we have some good players for CM, with Popaball they are usually outnumbered and sit back, so all our play was usually down the wings and excluded them.Holding we have Okon, O'Neil, Devlin, Ballard, Trewin. B2B or 10's we have McGree...

This new lot could have done alright under him I think but there's no chance now, those bridges have been burnt. Maybe Muscat can be convinced, or Milligan with a few more seasons under the belt? I'd like to play a less pragmatic game and these two coaches seem to be the goods in that regard...

That's all Asian teams out right, we were the last one?

Oof, it says there are six midfield players and four who play the DM role already, unless they are looking to offload.

Isn't there a rumour FC Gronningen is interested?

exactly, I do believe we've been better with Aussie coaches overall as they know the players available, maybe Milligan can get the gig after Popa.

Yeah they looked shaky when we pressed high. Thing is we couldn't score the second and penalties has so much luck involved, I don't think Ryan covered himself in glory, strange decision with Izzo's penalty history. I'm pretty devo right now. roll on Asia cup.

Agree, although Okon and Mabil were pretty good when they came on.

We might see Mabil I reckon and Okon

Brilliant save!

Great ball from O'Neil for the goal, not sure if Trewin was the right choice but bottom of the barrel with our FB's now. We've wrestled some control, but this ref is a monga.

This is becoming a clusterfuck of a game, need a bit more control in midfield and Bos is the cherry on the cake.

I would love an Aussie or two at Hannover, I don't recall them ever having one before.

For a young bloke it's not a bad move, he'll expect to get game time and show himself off, he's 21 isn't he?

Every time a team wins they get decimated, it'll be tough campaign for them in Asia.