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General A Leagues thread (Men and Women) 2025/26 season

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Víctor Campuzano catching strays 😂
 

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Have had a look at Serie A recently, or more specifically the Italian Cup.

In the early days of the AL it lacked technical quality compared to the Serie A. In the old AL 2006-2011 distances between the lines were much greater, the ball was in the Transitions ( Defensive and Attacking) or colloquially known as Contested Ball Phase a lot, teams had to work very hard to retain possession under pressure, etc.

Now these facets of play are much closer in standard - but a different phenomenon is manifesting. With a lot of the younger players playing AL they are quite small and puny - compared to the Wrexham players playing friendlies in the off season in Aus, and, the Serie A players.

I've weight trained for 50 years, so I'm pretty brawny. It is good seeing a lot of shorter players in the AL ( after a past era where we were obsessed by 'big lads'), but young Aus players of all heights need some some big sessions of Weight Training in the off season and to continue it in the regular season to bulk up with much needed muscle.

Caputo, Walatee, Esposito (bulking up), Villupillay, Clayton Taylor, and the Toures are the exceptions, but Wrexham overpowered Vic in their friendly in 1v1 duels.
 
Decentric said:
Have had a look at Serie A recently, or more specifically the Italian Cup.

In the early days of the AL it lacked technical quality compared to the Serie A. In the old AL 2006-2011 distances between the lines were much greater, the ball was in the Transitions ( Defensive and Attacking) or colloquially known as Contested Ball Phase a lot, teams had to work very hard to retain possession under pressure, etc.

Now these facets of play are much closer in standard - but a different phenomenon is manifesting. With a lot of the younger players playing AL they are quite small and puny - compared to the Wrexham players playing friendlies in the off season in Aus, and, the Serie A players.

I've weight trained for 50 years, so I'm pretty brawny. It is good seeing a lot of shorter players in the AL ( after a past era where we were obsessed by 'big lads'), but young Aus players of all heights need some some big sessions of Weight Training in the off season and to continue it in the regular season to bulk up with much needed muscle.

Caputo, Walatee, Esposito (bulking up), Villupillay, Clayton Taylor, and the Toures are the exceptions, but Wrexham overpowered Vic in their friendly in 1v1 duels.
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one tricky thing about comparing the technical level with seri a is that it is not so easy to desegregate the athleticism and technical ability

in europe the strength and conditioning starts at 12 and you have elite atheletes who are quicker off the mark so close down space quicker, they are fitter and more agile. So you develop your technique against players that are more athletically gifted and therefore able to put you under more pressure.

When our players go to europe, the drop in time and space really affects our players, they get less touches on the ball per 90 and can sometimes struggle with how quickly they have to make decisions. Even if their 1st touch looks great at home, they can sometimes have loose touches when they start playing in europe
 
grazorblade said:
one tricky thing about comparing the technical level with seri a is that it is not so easy to desegregate the athleticism and technical ability

in europe the strength and conditioning starts at 12 and you have elite atheletes who are quicker off the mark so close down space quicker, they are fitter and more agile. So you develop your technique against players that are more athletically gifted and therefore able to put you under more pressure.

When our players go to europe, the drop in time and space really affects our players, they get less touches on the ball per 90 and can sometimes struggle with how quickly they have to make decisions. Even if their 1st touch looks great at home, they can sometimes have loose touches when they start playing in europe
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Some good points there, Grazor.

In Serie A in the passages of play I was watching, there wasn't much intensive Squeezing whilst Full Pressing either. The tempo was similar to most of the AL I view, but a bit quicker at times.

Serie A might be far less physically demanding than the EPL - which was renowned for very high tempo.

I did learn a lot from the Adam Field Sports Scientist podcast on G and G.

UEFA isn't homogeneous either. There are differing characteristics of UEFA leagues.
 
Decentric said:
Some good points there, Grazor.

In Serie A in the passages of play I was watching, there wasn't much intensive Squeezing whilst Full Pressing either. The tempo was similar to most of the AL I view, but a bit quicker at times.

Serie A might be far less physically demanding than the EPL - which was renowned for very high tempo.

I did learn a lot from the Adam Field Sports Scientist podcast on G and G.

UEFA isn't homogeneous either. There are differing characteristics of UEFA leagues.
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yeah so its a bit deceptive

at the highest levels players get so press resistant that geigenpressing stops working for the most part (I believe the one exception, leipzug a mid table bundesliga club, have to get their cbs involved in the press to make it work at a good level, but thats still not the very top)

so what teams try and do is pressing triggers where teams mix it up a bit to be a bit unpredictable

where you see intensive squeezing is the level just below the top

but whats deceptive is it looks like they aren't running much at the top. But I believe GPS data indicates they are actually running quite a lot
 
grazorblade said:
yeah so its a bit deceptive

at the highest levels players get so press resistant that geigenpressing stops working for the most part (I believe the one exception, leipzug a mid table bundesliga club, have to get their cbs involved in the press to make it work at a good level, but thats still not the very top)

so what teams try and do is pressing triggers where teams mix it up a bit to be a bit unpredictable

where you see intensive squeezing is the level just below the top

but whats deceptive is it looks like they aren't running much at the top. But I believe GPS data indicates they are actually running quite a lot
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Very interesting.

The naked eye can miss quite a lot.

Do you have access to any data showing how much players run, and the percentage that is intensive, with comparisons between AL, Serie A and the EPL?

The pressing triggers are interesting too.
 
Gonna have a crack at a club here, Adelaide United - this lot have taken the supporters and the city of Adelaide and made fools out of them. I watched the game against the Mariners and i couldnt believe the back 4 they put out.

Imagine being a casual observer of South Australian football once upon a time and seeing defenders the likes of Alex Tobin, Milan Ivanovic, Sergio Melta etc, here i am watching a bunch of babies that are nowhere near top level standard. Big respect to the people turning up to watch that crap but fcuk i'd be demanding much better from a standalone professional SA club.
 
southmelb said:
Gonna have a crack at a club here, Adelaide United - this lot have taken the supporters and the city of Adelaide and made fools out of them. I watched the game against the Mariners and i couldnt believe the back 4 they put out.

Imagine being a casual observer of South Australian football once upon a time and seeing defenders the likes of Alex Tobin, Milan Ivanovic, Sergio Melta etc, here i am watching a bunch of babies that are nowhere near top level standard. Big respect to the people turning up to watch that crap but fcuk i'd be demanding much better from a standalone professional SA club.
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Check the match thread I was arguing with Sunderlandbear and someone else about it. It's stupid and anti competitive
 
erogenouszone said:
Well this is interesting.

football360.com.au

Rising A-League star embroiled in racism probe

Football Australia is set to take a closer look at complaints that Justin Vidic, who is of Serbian descent, was racially abused by Medin Memeti.
football360.com.au football360.com.au

The City forward, who is of Albanian heritage, is accused of calling Vidic a “gypsy”, a term that has derogatory connotations in the Balkan region.
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Only Jets fans can use the word Gypsies or gypos, and only toward Mariners:cool:
 
southmelb said:
Gonna have a crack at a club here, Adelaide United - this lot have taken the supporters and the city of Adelaide and made fools out of them. I watched the game against the Mariners and i couldnt believe the back 4 they put out.

Imagine being a casual observer of South Australian football once upon a time and seeing defenders the likes of Alex Tobin, Milan Ivanovic, Sergio Melta etc, here i am watching a bunch of babies that are nowhere near top level standard. Big respect to the people turning up to watch that crap but fcuk i'd be demanding much better from a standalone professional SA club.
Click to expand...
The club fucked up their recruitment and signed a very top heavy squad.

Folami and Kwaaitaal will probably leave so hopefully some of those wages get put towards a defender.
 
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