RIMB said:

Well, we suck.

The team is focussed more on complaining to the ref under the mentorship of coach Valkanis than doing what they are there for.

How can we expect better from a team when the entire coaching group abuses the officials all game?

At the ground there were a lot of decisions (both ways) that just made no sense. There were hacks and trips, shirt pulls and grapples that got waved away sometimes and called others. But that does not give an excuse to abuse the officials.

It makes for stupid players making stupid decisions - and that sums up a lot of our play now.

We had some really good players today - working hard to create and defend - and the only goals Mariners scored were well taken opportunities based on luck.

Strange, because their attacking play was cohesive and intelligent - trying so many different ways up the left wing particularly to get Ngor or Mauragis onto an attacking run. Really clever rotation and timed runs to create something.

The fact that none of the attacks really produced what they could have is beside the point.

We scored our goal - and no lie - I said to the people I was with "we are going to concede in the next 3 minutes". And we did. We are entirely dependable in that we are so vulnerable after we score.

Credit to Mariners for a deserved win. We kept out every thrust and failed to stop the two random flurries that counted.

On the positive side for us, D'Agostino worked and created well. Making good runs, challenging well for the ball and earning the chance to create. Salas and McGarry created for half a game but spent most of their time and energy passing backwards and defending. Unfortunately our attacks lacked cohesion and intensity and there were lengthy periods where we had the ball and had no idea what to do with it. Flat footed players and flat, reactive play.

As someone said earlier - we cannot string two passes together (unless you count passing to an opponent) and it is so frustrating to watch.

Valkanis, Ludwik and Bility all had moments of indecision, missed tackles or poor clearances. our defence is badly flawed and leaks. It looks to me like we are good at defending most clean crosses and the like - but as soon as there is a deflection or second/third phase of attack we fail to see the danger and concede. I think we think "system" and "who am I marking" rather than anyone actually paying attention to the game in general.

Klein is far better off playing the front half - having him as a DM shows up some suspect tackling techniques and limits our attacking options.

Vrakas is a crazed ball chaser with a bad case of tunnel vision.

Maieroni can do very good things, then follows it up with something stupid.

Bouzanis and long balls are getting tiresome.

Ruhs had a particularly ineffective game - mostly because almost every time we brought the ball up the wing we decided we did not have the pace to go further and passed backwards. The few times we tried it Ruhs got in behind using speed, strength and very clever (legal) body work.

In short - we have lost everything that was good about our play in pre-season and early season. Our defence is suspect without Herrington, our midfield is weak without Stajic at the base and O'Shea ahead of him, and our forwards do not have any idea about each others' play or how to combine to create shots.

Our mentality has moved from focussed intensity to a lack of accuracy and increased mistakes with poor decision making.

Not sure what we can do to turn this around and not sure if we can turn it around.

Valkanis is being tested and we are coming up short so far.

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