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The Orange Army. (Brisbane Roar Official Thread)

MacNicol and Brazete are worth picking up, once again what is Brisbane’s strategy with young players.

Clearly Herrington is a outlier.
 
RIMB said:
I don't know where the talk of MacNicol going to Melbourne City has ended up, and I agree about both getting opportunities.

The two seasons before, Burke-Gilroy was one of our best players - to the extent that we played him out of position frequently to fill gaps from injuries and the like.

I really liked what he brought.

Unfortunately, he just did not appear to fit with Valkanis' preferences (no complaints from me about McGarry at left fullback) and we did not see anything of him this season just gone. He is (was?) a better player than many we had - just not in the positions they occupied.

By the laws of football, we can expect McGarry to get injured next season and we will not have the quality of Burke-Gilroy to step in.
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Yeah I was going to say, isn't MacNicol going to City? It seemed when the rumours got out that he stopped getting playing minutes.
 
Surely Valkanis can't survive the chopping block. We seem to be on this merry go round where we make changes, but the changes don't actually have any benefit. It's also becoming clear that the changes really have no thought or process. Kind of a just chuck it and hope it sticks.

I'm confused as to what happened to the FA being proactive in trying to secure stronger ownership structures with our teams. We had talks with Red Bull, a US consortium, and even some of the PL club owners, but none have eventuated.
 
I am in two minds with Valkanis.

He has a lot of reasons for the lack of on-field success, which most would probably call excuses. I am a bit more inclined to think that we lost the season because we sold our fantastic centreback and our squad was not deep enough to cover the run of unlucky injuries.

As a business I think that we are always going to be losing our best players if they can be on sold, so I cannot in good conscience blame Valkanis for the weakness that Herrington's loss created. He was at least a "goal a game" player on the defensive side of the ledger and one less conceded goal would have made the world of difference to our results and our resilience going forward.

We were playing football I liked at the start of the season, and we were holding our own in the 6. Valkanis can take credit for that, and I would love us to pick that back up next season and manage to maintain that playing focus all through the season.

I equally credit Valkanis with what I see as more dubious decisions though.

As two player examples, I look at Dimi Valkanis and Vrakas.

I do not think his son is the best centreback we can find or afford. He is a decent centreback. Alongside Herrington they were an excellent combination - but without Herrington he is flawed. I would want a Herrington replacement to keep Valkanis on the pitch and I think it as unlikely that the family connection is in danger of being severed as I think finding another Herrington will be.

Vrakas failed to produce sufficiently all season but rarely lost his place. As a player picked and brought in by Valkanis, I think he was given too much time and protection in his continual selection. To me, Valkanis should have accepted his choice was not working out and made a change.

Off field, I find the constant questioning of officials repugnant, and I can't stand seeing our coaching team take it in turns to approach the fourth official constantly. The game of football is flawed and open to perspective and personal judgement. If you cannot understand that then you cannot really understand the game and you cannot build the mental resilience in a team to handle the decisions that don't go your way. There is an emotional maturity and intelligence required to instill composure and strength of character into players and so far Valkanis has failed to demonstrate he has that.

I want to see Valkanis pick it back up again and put us back in the frame we were in at the start of last season - with better squad depth and organisation to handle the injuries and disruptions that will happen.

Another manager is not necessarily going to produce better results and Valkanis did produce results before the wheels fell off.

I have basically talked myself into wanting him to go another round.
 
Ange's high line said:
Losing Herrington was lets say, a Red Herring(ton)..
.
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Perhaps it is indeed a ton of red herrings :).

But it is no coincidence that losing Herrington then Milorad Stajic (we've got to be made of Milo) marked a very clear change from defensive capability to vulnerability.

We did not have the goal scoring of the Jets to offset our defensive frailty.
 
RIMB said:
Perhaps it is indeed a ton of red herrings :).

But it is no coincidence that losing Herrington then Milorad Stajic (we've got to be made of Milo) marked a very clear change from defensive capability to vulnerability.

We did not have the goal scoring of the Jets to offset our defensive frailty.
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Maieroni Makaroni was your new Stajic I felt..
 
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RIMB said:
I am in two minds with Valkanis.

He has a lot of reasons for the lack of on-field success, which most would probably call excuses. I am a bit more inclined to think that we lost the season because we sold our fantastic centreback and our squad was not deep enough to cover the run of unlucky injuries.

As a business I think that we are always going to be losing our best players if they can be on sold, so I cannot in good conscience blame Valkanis for the weakness that Herrington's loss created. He was at least a "goal a game" player on the defensive side of the ledger and one less conceded goal would have made the world of difference to our results and our resilience going forward.

We were playing football I liked at the start of the season, and we were holding our own in the 6. Valkanis can take credit for that, and I would love us to pick that back up next season and manage to maintain that playing focus all through the season.

I equally credit Valkanis with what I see as more dubious decisions though.

As two player examples, I look at Dimi Valkanis and Vrakas.

I do not think his son is the best centreback we can find or afford. He is a decent centreback. Alongside Herrington they were an excellent combination - but without Herrington he is flawed. I would want a Herrington replacement to keep Valkanis on the pitch and I think it as unlikely that the family connection is in danger of being severed as I think finding another Herrington will be.

Vrakas failed to produce sufficiently all season but rarely lost his place. As a player picked and brought in by Valkanis, I think he was given too much time and protection in his continual selection. To me, Valkanis should have accepted his choice was not working out and made a change.

Off field, I find the constant questioning of officials repugnant, and I can't stand seeing our coaching team take it in turns to approach the fourth official constantly. The game of football is flawed and open to perspective and personal judgement. If you cannot understand that then you cannot really understand the game and you cannot build the mental resilience in a team to handle the decisions that don't go your way. There is an emotional maturity and intelligence required to instill composure and strength of character into players and so far Valkanis has failed to demonstrate he has that.

I want to see Valkanis pick it back up again and put us back in the frame we were in at the start of last season - with better squad depth and organisation to handle the injuries and disruptions that will happen.

Another manager is not necessarily going to produce better results and Valkanis did produce results before the wheels fell off.

I have basically talked myself into wanting him to go another round.
Click to expand...
I agree that the constant questioning and disrespect of officials was atrocious behaviour. That was passion going well over the line. I lost respect for the coaching team and the players in that lowest of the low behaviour, during half time at the game with Central Coast. This was called out by Warren Moon (who excelled this year) but I didn't see that anything came of the legal action threatened by the Roar. At least this behaviour subsided towards the end of the season, and I hope it is not repeated next season in any form.
Some of Bouzanis's immature antics also need to be kept under control next season.
 
Freke and Hore gone also. I don't think Hore was used effectively at all by Valkanis. Neither was McNicol, he nearly always looked dangerous and creative in the relatively few minutes he got. I suspect he will kill it at Melbourne City, or wherever he ends up.
 
Ange's high line said:
Maiaroni Makaroni was your new Stajic I felt..
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Maieroni was tried in a few positions, and ended up looking decent in DM - but he was not a patch on Stajic really.

Stajic was able to break up play and was a solid link bringing the ball forward. A real defensive mid.

Having been without a dedicated DM for several seasons it felt bloody good to have a proper defensive group (with the Big Herring).

I like Maieroni, and I hope Stajic comes back fully fit and ready next season.
 
Keeper66 said:
Freke and Hore gone also. I don't think Hore was used effectively at all by Valkanis. Neither was McNicol, he nearly always looked dangerous and creative in the relatively few minutes he got. I suspect he will kill it at Melbourne City, or wherever he ends up.
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Freke did a good job for us when we needed him. Not good enough to keep his place because of Bouzanis' long passing game I think but made a lot of good saves.

I agree on Hore being used ineffectively. I think Valkanis had the idea of Long and Hore being mutually constructive as a team, but when Long did not really shine he resorted to the Vidic and Ruhs body strength method of goal attack and reduced Hore to a desperate impact sub role more often than not. Hore is a full game constructor and distributor more than a half hour terror in my eyes.

Hore always lifted the team when he came on. Whether he had an impact on the score or not, he is an intelligent, skilful and willing footballer who adds more than his own contribution to the team.

I really hope he does well whatever happens next.

MacNicol's threat when he came on was similar to Brazete's the season before - but noting that their playing styles are completely different. MacNicol's runs in behind are skilful and dangerous in their own right where Brazete's are the ballsy attempts to go where there is no space and sometimes it works. MacNicol has the greater potential to improve himself and the team he plays for when he has a good team around him (and how would we know that I hear all you bastards ask).
 
Taff-01 said:
I agree that the constant questioning and disrespect of officials was atrocious behaviour. That was passion going well over the line. I lost respect for the coaching team and the players in that lowest of the low behaviour, during half time at the game with Central Coast. This was called out by Warren Moon (who excelled this year) but I didn't see that anything came of the legal action threatened by the Roar. At least this behaviour subsided towards the end of the season, and I hope it is not repeated next season in any form.
Some of Bouzanis's immature antics also need to be kept under control next season.
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There was an element of unchecked aggression and petulance throughout the team that I would add Klein and Vrakas to as well.

No professional restraint to channel the aggression into the play as 'hard football' and it had a negative impact on our play.

That comes from the coach setting the example I am afraid.
 
I had lost sight of Dimi Valkanis only being 20.

Plenty of growth and development to come for him so I am less concerned about his current vulnerabilities.
 
RIMB said:
I had lost sight of Dimi Valkanis only being 20.

Plenty of growth and development to come for him so I am less concerned about his current vulnerabilities.
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Yeah he is more than good enough for his age
 
Ange's high line said:
My ex wife was a dimi, similar to this dimi in a way. She would have made a great centrehalf, she was often loud, controlling and aggressive when she made a play.
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But perhaps not so slow to react when you got in behind.
 
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