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A-League Mens 24/25 - Round 5

grazorblade said:
It is....but born 2007 and not just starting but looking really, really composed there.

He is a bit short for a cb so maybe he moves positions or grows a couple of cms
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Wouldn’t be mad if he became a RB at some stage, would be perfect for the national team.
 
Bility again shows himself to be suspect. Adelaide have done nothing up to now, but a sloppy and lazy piece of play from Bility undoes 30 minutes of good work.
 
grazorblade said:
waddingham and jelacic singlehandedly making the roar watchable
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I disagree Grazor.

O'Shea is being positioned further forward and he has shown some of his class. Caletti appears and disappears but is positive overall - his lack of pace is his biggest downfall but he is providing a useful link in our passing play. Shour has been caught out a couple of times but at the same time he has contributed some excellent defence.

Warland and Bility have been our greatest peril, and up front Waddingham had three promising moments in the first 10 minutes where he failed with each of them.

Regardless of the bits we are getting wrong though, overall we are playing much better football and it is generally all across the park. Our triangles and choice of when to break the triangle with a well spotted pass are being done by the whole team.

No-one in the team is playing flawlessly - let me say that up front. I have thought we were shot down many times in the first half only to have a toe in or someone else coming in to help.

Zadkovich has us playing a lot more dynamic positioning as far as I can tell watching the little bodies run round on my TV. Halloran is being more constructive not being limited to the right flank ahead of Van der Saag.

Somewhere around the 20th minute mark there is a shot of us holding to a 6 player hexagon through midfield when trying to get possession back. Looked brilliant and played well to dominate the middle at that stage of the game.

Nothing is certain looking to the second half, but on the strength of the first half we are playing much better as a team against opponents who are not shabby.
 
Zadkovich is out of his depth at this level. Going to 5 at the back is one thing, although I’ve no idea why you would do that and concede the midfield when it’s 2-2 with 35 minutes still to go. But to bring on van der Saag, who has been dismal this season, and move Burke-Gilroy to right centre back is crazy.
 
Keeper66 said:
Zadkovich is out of his depth at this level. Going to 5 at the back is one thing, although I’ve no idea why you would do that and concede the midfield when it’s 2-2 with 35 minutes still to go. But to bring on van der Saag, who has been dismal this season, and move Burke-Gilroy to right centre back is crazy.
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I have to agree on that.

Adelaide stepped up with the second half - no question. The speed, skill and combination play of Perias and Goodwin, fed by the rest of the team, was a big improvement on their first half attacks.

But to concede the midfield, where we were doing so much to control both Adelaide and the play, gave Adelaide all the time to build their attacks.

It may be that our players were just stuffed after a high intensity first half and Zadkovich had to react or risk a flogging. If that is the case, then we can expect better and better performances with coming games as they get their match fitness up.

But if Zadkovich tried to reinforce our defence at the expense of the midfield, then he did not learn the lesson last season when he did the same thing and we lost a game that we were winning.

I found the first half well worth watching and entertaining as a Roar supporter, and I felt confused and out of my depth as a Roar supporter in the second half trying to figure out where the missing wheel on our bicycle was.

Our forwards became invisible with no service. Our midfield chased shadows and lost possession. Our reinforced defence was poorer.

Still some really lovely moments in the second half (including but not counting Mauk going off) where we showed we could still pass through pressure and create excellent opportunities but that does not win games.

Onwards and upwards - definitely a better performance in the first half than we have seen for some time with our press and in possession.

Adelaide deserved winners and should have scored more in the second half. Gutsy effort by an exhausted looking Roar.
 
grazorblade said:
Brazete looked lively
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He did.

Compare his impact to Archie Goodwin - who also looked lively - and you can see where the young lively ones should be aiming.

Brazete had a similar impact to Struick. Both have some skills - with Brazete dribbling in space and traffic to create moments - but neither actually holding a position of threat and dominance. It was our team play today that put us up again like a proper Roar team. The sum of the parts producing attacking raids that exceed our individual skill level.
 
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