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Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

Yep, sums up the amateur /lottery recruitment of new players without properly scouting / evaluating them.
For me, Pope, Leech, Coveny, Lackey, Durso, Divison, Che, Skapoulis not good enough to wear smfc shirt & no need to mention the Mesarouni embarrassment - pure mediocrity.
Pretty much although I think there is a player there in Coveny, and both Leech and Pope are excellent second string players for cover.... Mesa, is a traffic cone sometimes and the new Indian kid looks the same... Swibel is OK and Cox is fast and tricky... maybe OK signings, will see.
 
THis comp was to put us on the map again so shouldve recruited accordingly as we have argued... int exposure again etc etc

We supposwdly took this seriously and we turn out that squad to win it?

This lineup wouldnt wven get passed st albans or magic.
What do you expect when the starting line up has more wings than a family bucket of KFC?
 
We are terrible. We did such a good job recruiting for the Aus Championship and now we’ve undone all the good work by not replacing Manny and Marshall properly and our depth is a lot worse without the likes of Lavale, Habib and Kaddour.

We’ll be getting slaughtered when we play proper teams like Preston, Heidelberg and Oakleigh in the NPL
Yes and No, Our best XI still has some merit, its the fact we are spreading our squad so thin Im worried about...
Javi in goals, Eliopoulos as CB, Pasquali and Tommy in midfiled and Swibel, Uki and Bonada all starting yesterday and we walk away with 3 points and 4-5 goals...... easy.
 
Whats concerning is how little we are testing these teams despite dominating possesion. Real lack of cutting edge. Then at the other end that zip 2-3 passes and we are completely exposed.

Its actually starting to piss me off how long our players wre holding onto the ball and not moving quickly, forget your spin moves and attempted nutmegs and just play the fkn simple ball.
 
Whats concerning is how little we are testing these teams despite dominating possesion. Real lack of cutting edge. Then at the other end that zip 2-3 passes and we are completely exposed.

Its actually starting to piss me off how long our players wre holding onto the ball and not moving quickly, forget your spin moves and attempted nutmegs and just play the fkn simple ball.
IMO .... this lack of quick distribution has been a problem for years! As an issue, it disappeared until Esteban's non football tactics, but under our previous coaches, it was evident. As of yesterday, it has made a triumphant return! Errggghh
 
Whats concerning is how little we are testing these teams despite dominating possesion. Real lack of cutting edge. Then at the other end that zip 2-3 passes and we are completely exposed.

Its actually starting to piss me off how long our players wre holding onto the ball and not moving quickly, forget your spin moves and attempted nutmegs and just play the fkn simple ball.
We DID for the first 10-15 mins of yesterdays match and the previous one... and for a brief spell in the second half...

They had a pretty simple game plan yesterday, cut the long ball through the middle, double team Yuki and let us have the ball so they can release and counter when we are too high....
 
Whats concerning is how little we are testing these teams despite dominating possesion. Real lack of cutting edge. Then at the other end that zip 2-3 passes and we are completely exposed.

Its actually starting to piss me off how long our players wre holding onto the ball and not moving quickly, forget your spin moves and attempted nutmegs and just play the fkn simple ball.

I think we also got too cute with short corners and short throw ins. They were undersized and a little extra aerial bombardment may have got us an extra goal.

It was an all round terrible match. I am hoping that the coach can use this match to identify and fix the issues ASAP. Another draw (coupled with an Auckland win) will likely mean that Auckland is all but realistically assured of top spot.

What annoys me is that we cannot win matches with our second string players. We need to play our first string players just to defeat some of these OFC Pro League teams. Players like Singh, Pope, and Shalamanov-Trenkova are clearly not up to it. They will hopefully be released in the next transfer window.
 
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Yes and No, Our best XI still has some merit, its the fact we are spreading our squad so thin Im worried about...
Javi in goals, Eliopoulos as CB, Pasquali and Tommy in midfiled and Swibel, Uki and Bonada all starting yesterday and we walk away with 3 points and 4-5 goals...... easy.
ALthough i agree the risk is so many games rises the chance of injury and the dirrerwnce between say AU champ starting lineup and this is visible beween it and the second steing its god damn chaotic... the recruiting has been an 80% failure... ffs who watched Singh and said yep he can rwplace lavalle or even Habib? Who decided Eliopoulos alone was enough cover post Marshall departure or that Coveny (who is raw and may grow into something) was sound cover,... dont even get me started on second keeper.. what a revolving door of failures that has been! We shouldve been building for AU Championship and had a set side for OFC... NPL couldve bled in the rest and it wiuld be win win.. now none of the titles look feasible for us without atleast 3 big named starters.
 


ALthough i agree the risk is so many games rises the chance of injury and the dirrerwnce between say AU champ starting lineup and this is visible beween it and the second steing its god damn chaotic... the recruiting has been an 80% failure... ffs who watched Singh and said yep he can rwplace lavalle or even Habib? Who decided Eliopoulos alone was enough cover post Marshall departure or that Coveny (who is raw and may grow into something) was sound cover,... dont even get me started on second keeper.. what a revolving door of failures that has been! We shouldve been building for AU Championship and had a set side for OFC... NPL couldve bled in the rest and it wiuld be win win.. now none of the titles look feasible for us without atleast 3 big named starters.
Have patience vre.... Remember April 2025??? We all thought the world was gonna end.... Im expecting the season to end all seasons this year... We'll have so many stars above our crest this time next year, we'll look like fucken Boca Juniors... hahahahahah
 
Have patience vre.... Remember April 2025??? We all thought the world was gonna end.... Im expecting the season to end all seasons this year... We'll have so many stars above our crest this time next year, we'll look like fucken Boca Juniors... hahahahahah
Είμαι Από κλασσικός Ελληναρας δεν κρύβεται άλλωστε ρε συ. Αλλά απ'το στόμα σου και στου 'ποδοσφαιρικού' Θεού τ αυτί ...και φτου φτου σκόρδο...
 
We will probably need a strong transfer window in July. If its any consolation compared to this time last year we are way stronger, the only recruits were Danish joke up front and Mells. At least you have Uchida, Pasquali, Giannokopulos now (stronger midfield). That said a few injuries will be problematic.
 
Im expecting the season to end all seasons this year...
With how we're running in OFC Pro League right now I won't be surprised if Sinisa thinks a mid-table finish or relegation from NPL Victoria are acceptable outcomes for us even if we do well in the Australian Championship, Dockerty Cup and Australia Cup.
 
With how we're running in OFC Pro League right now I won't be surprised if Sinisa thinks a mid-table finish or relegation from NPL Victoria are acceptable outcomes for us even if we do well in the Australian Championship, Dockerty Cup and Australia Cup.
Dont think anyone at SMFC would think relegation from NPL is in any way acceptable... especially not the fans! A mid table finish i dont mind if we get a good run and defend our AU championship, especially after having won say the OFC.. ideally though ... id want it all.... and that shouldve been the vision/focus when we recruited.. building on a successful side bc its not like we didnt have an understanding of what was required...
 
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