Official South Melbourne Hellas thread 🔵⚪

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Esteban treats too many teams like they're Real Madrid. We started the game with 3 defensive midfielders ffs, why? Where was the manic aggressive press we showed against the Knights? We could have pinned these little brats back but instead we let them come at us and they grew in confidence the longer we kept them in the game.

- 100% this ... totally diff game plan, he must have been worried about their pace???? I can't figure it out?

Bonada has been great up front but we are going to burn him out forcing him to chase like a dog all game whilst his teammates are 2km behind him. - he does look ultra fit this season and ultra motivated ...

. I worry he will burn out but for now he is playing like 2 players...

Eventually we will likely have to go 2 up top with him and Moller. Brennan is proving to be a massive concern, still has a good burst of pace but often leaves the ball behind, young sub Durso similarly has pace but seems to struggle with it at his feet.

Also what happened to Leech? Was decent in round 1 and has since vanished, injured? -

was on the bench I think???

We will win a lot of games again this year, a good chunk of the league cant handle our long throws and aerial ability, but i think we will fall back to the pack, unless we do something miraculous in the back end when the transfers reopen our championship window may be closed. -

transfer window is far to late to affect the regular league... lets hope our depth sees us through..

transfer window is far to late to affect the regular league... lets hope our depth sees us through..

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Where does one start with Monday night.

We let them come at us and try and play on the counter attack. Rather than force our game on them, we were passive and in parts just barely holding on.

The Victory kids came to play and good on them. They knocked the ball around and looked to move the ball quickly stretching our defensive lines.

I don’t want to hear about we made a great comeback. We were 1-2 up with minutes left. Close the match down.

For me, it just shows how poor the standard in the NPL Victoria competition is. We are ugly to watch. It is at times effective, but I think Monday night highlighted our glaring weaknesses when up against ball playing teams.

TBF we havent, at least in recent memory, had to deal with such pace in front of our backline .... The "NPL way" of attacking us, is usually dealt with by pushing them out wide quite easily .. Lampard and Painter were, at least until midway through 1st half, always 5-10 meters behind their wingers, and couldnt push the player wide when they turned and ran at them... they both struggled afterwards to keep up... I agree, we SHOULD have (and could have) sewn this game up by half time, and iced it with 15 mins to go if nothing else.. Never thought I would have to worry about our defence....

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

We clearly have an issue when we come up against ball playing teams. What we faced on Monday night was a kiddies version of Avondale in terms of style of play and we got ripped. We are very fortunate only a handful of teams play this way.

Whats clear to me is that Esteban is genuinely petrified of teams that can play through the lines quickly on the deck, so we just play behind the ball. The other issue is these teams will knock it around and they try keep the ball in play, which limits our set piece opportunities. Only generating 3 corners in this match is simply not good enough.

Tricky week next week, St Albans on Monday and then the very short turnaround to Preston on the Friday. Assuming we will see some heavy rotation on Monday night but the 3 points are a must.

Kiddies version of Avondale was the perfect description....

 

[southmelb]

Our 2nd halves in all 3 games have been bang ordinary. Who knows how the Knights match would have panned out if we didnt score a minute after they did.

 

[southoftheyarra]

Might be a slight rouge opinion here, but am I the only one that thought the players looked like they were putting in very little effort? Yes we could point to Esteban's tactics but the players didn't rly shift out of gear until they were loosing... Bonda puts in effort because he is an animal constant pressure on the defense and trying to help out whilst tracking back, but majority of the players looked lazy and half assed. I understand if they thought the game would have been a walkover, but evidently it was not. Refereeing was strange, but that's a given at this point. IMO Brennan always starts the season of a bit shaky but ends up being one the best by the end.

 

[southmelb]

Interesting opinion. Personally i thought the team was trying, to me it looked like we were unsettled with the technical ability and speed of ball movement of the opposition that we perhaps arent use to most weeks (Avondale, Oakleigh and Heidelberg aside)

I trully believe Estebans teams give 110%. We've all seen this movie though the past few years, we cant combat this style of play. When a team is running rings around you and can create the illusion that effort isnt being applied.

 

[SMFC1959]

To be honest I thought the team was trying. It was that they were simply outplayed.

 

[SMFC1959]

Our 2nd halves in all 3 games have been bang ordinary. Who knows how the Knights match would have panned out if we didnt score a minute after they did.

Didn’t think much of the Knights. They looked very average.

 

[southmelb]

Didn’t think much of the Knights. They looked very average.

They did, but momentum in games can change quickly. I had people telling me in the 60th minute on Monday "no way these kids will score, they had all the ball against Heidelberg and couldnt score,"..we saw how that panned out lol.

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

They did, but momentum in games can change quickly. I had people telling me in the 60th minute on Monday "no way these kids will score, they had all the ball against Heidelberg and couldnt score,"..we saw how that panned out lol.

in fairness, it was off the back of some pretty horrid defensive lapses.. First goal was poor Marko pass, 2nd was free player at front post (unforgivable for experienced defence) and third goal was us committing too far forward and being caught with our pants down....

Not trying to take anything away from the Victory youth but those were NOT goals a serious NPL side should be copping...

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

@southmelb and @SMFC1959 don't forget to go and "badge up" your profile ... the mighty blue and white army is growing

 

[smfc_hellas59]

Leech had an interrupted pre season and missed a big training block right after Xmas and looks like he only returned the week of the Port Melbourne game and then hasn’t been sighted since so maybe picked up another injury?

Brennan looks cooked can’t run out 60 minutes, if we really wanted to challenge we should have signed another winger and Brennan should be coming on and causing problems for teams with half an hour left

 

[smfc_hellas59]

I don’t think Inglese and Archibald should be playing in the same midfield we look way too slow. Archibald and Mells were an unbelievable midfield duo for Port a few seasons ago, if we add someone like Pope or Halfpenny in there we might be ok until Leech comes back and then the midfield 3 would be Archibald, Mells, Leech but Esteban does love his tall defensive midfielders in the side

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Leech had an interrupted pre season and missed a big training block right after Xmas and looks like he only returned the week of the Port Melbourne game and then hasn’t been sighted since so maybe picked up another injury?

Brennan looks cooked can’t run out 60 minutes, if we really wanted to challenge we should have signed another winger and Brennan should be coming on and causing problems for teams with half an hour left

Andy ran his guts out at the Port game ... and was solid during the Community Shield final ... even the Knights game he put in a good shift... I agree he was pooped on Monday though....

 

[Monoethnic Social Club]

Bloody Monday nights .....

 

[smfc_hellas59]

Looks like half the team will be rested tonight for Friday… interesting

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

Bloody Monday nights .....

Im not understanding why the persistence with these days?? Does athletics vic have the grounds booked for weekends wtf?

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

Looks like half the team will be rested tonight for Friday… interesting

And we re already paying for yet another precarious coaching decision!

 

[southmelb]

7 changes to lineup, what a fkn joke lol

 

[Hellenic_blue&white]

7 changes to lineup, what a fkn joke lol

The take aways from me were the following:
1. Our depth is nowhere near as good as what we hoped, especially not for as long a season as this one. Pope a good example of this IMO.
2. Our fringe players given a perfect opportunity to shine, didnt look hungry or worthy at all, like Leech etc.
3. Teams have worked out Esteban and its showing. The long balls style to no one/ nowhere was frustrating! Especially when you dont have a classic imposing striker (in this case a steiker full stop!)
4. Our defence continues to struggle without serious explanation as to why, unable at times to string 2 passes together.
5. A lot to get in order by friday night! Only standout was Mikkola (only) and partially the subs at start of second half. Lets hope Javier is ok!

Worst of all though, yet again we looked borderline disinterested and lacked any conviction especially when we went behind and everyone expected a reaction!