Adelaide United is making this fella pretty freaking mad...

[Jase]

Let me start off by saying, I am usual quite a phlegmatic who is known for the occasional burst of melancholy...but tonight, this phlegmatic just about lost his sh*t at the Adelaide United game...

Why o' why do we persist in playing one up front when we are chasing a game. It took 66 minutes, that's right 66 minutes before AV took off the most pathetic excuse for an Adelaide United player ever, Kristian Sarkies.... He had one "shot" in the first 5 minutes and then spent the rest of the game trying to hit 75 yard slide rule passes, and hitting free kicks into the wall.

That being said I'm not sure if Christiano had a touch when he came on ...

The back 3 of Fyfe, Rudan and Cornthwaite weren't really troubled all night but Eugene had what can only be described a shocker, he may have not had to much to do but you don't get caught out at the near post from a cross and you don't parry a ball back into the middle of the 6 yard box...But he has been our best player for the last year and a bit so I will let him off this once...

There is no midfield, well there is but they are not commanding enough to be truly classed a midfield... Pantelis is to light weight, Hughes can't pass, Sarkies is garbage and Cassio had a bad night as well.

Between midfield you have Dodd running around a lot and not creating much, and up front you have Lloyd winning everything in the air, but what's the point as there is to much space between him and the midfield who should be supporting him....

The Victory just sat back deep, so Adelaide couldn't counter attack into open space and we just played long ball after long ball to a one man forward line, dumb dumb dumb...

No matter what you say about Muscat, he may be a dirty begger but he is smart, he knows how to win and we desperately need someone with at least a bit of his mongrel in our team...

So where does that leave us, in deep deep trouble....This season is going to go down hill eve further unless AV pulls something out of his hat, he has only one game plan and it doesn't work.... We need to play 4 4 2 and the team needs to look like this...

Eugene

Fyfe Rudan Cornhole Jammo

Dodd Alameo Reid Cassio

Lloyd Christiano

This gives us Dodd and Cassio running them ragged down the wings, with Jammo supporting on the Left, Alameo the creative midfielder, Reid the holding/defensive midfielder and Lloyd and Christiano to try and build a partnership....if this doesn't work....then when he is fit Barbiero in for Alameo who moves out to the right midfield, Christiano hits the bench and Dodd plays up front as a striker, not an attacking midfielder but a striker....

So I am sorry for the long post but I'm still furious, no doubt tomorrow I will look at this and be very embarrassed but at the moment it's how I feel....

Anyway ratings for tonight...

Aurelio Vidmar - 2 ( need more that one game plan Craigy, I mean Aurelio)...
Eugene - 3 (two bad mistakes)
Fyfe - 6 (solid)
Rudan - 7.5 (looks the goods)
Cornhole - 6.5 (not bad for a bar room brawler)
Jammo - 4.5 (worst game in a long time, terrible distribution)
Pantelis - 5 (Not a good game, he's better than that)
Cassio - 4.5 (see Pantellis)
Hughes - 3 (terrible, can't pass and looks petrified)
Sarkies - 2 (he is a disgrace)
Dodd - 5 (tried but needs to pull the freaking trigger)
Lloyd - 6.5 (tried all night, I feel sorry for him)

Subs -

Christiano - 2 (meh)
The Kid - 5 (not on for long but got involved)

Oh and just to leave you with this, in the program for this weeks games there was a stat which is telling....Adelaide had had 19 shots at goal in 6 weeks...that's just over 3 a game, no wonder we can't score, no one freaking shoots...

Anyway apologies for the length but I'm not a happy Reds fan....

Jase

[Not Scared]

I just posted this in the A-League Round 9 forum, so I think it's pretty fair to say that I'm with you:

Could we start with a 4-4-2 against Perth? I doubt it but I think we should. Owusu needs a bit of help up there. He is working hard but he's got nobody to dish up to when he's getting scragged by two defenders. Our midfield doesn't work hard enough to make the 4-3-2-1 work, and besides that Cristiano is good enough to get a start.

Sarkies + Hughes = useless, so play a 4-4-2, give Leckie a start in the midfield and play Cristiano up front. That's the way it's gotta be at least until Reid and Barbiero come back. Also, this is genius, if you score one early then you can drop back to a more defensive formation and make it hard for the opposition to score.

I do believe Aurelio is a good coach, but he needs to stop being so stubborn and concede that his formation is not working with the players he has on the park!

[Dogwatcher]

Agreed. It was so frustrating on Monday night watching the game.
Why no Cristiano and Owusu together? Isn't that why we recruited Lloyd to begin with?
As for the Sark.....no more needs to be said except "terrible". Go back to playing Doogie Howser.
Leckie was sensational and really opened things up when he came on.
It was really enjoyable seeing him run and the noise from the spectators near me when he came towards us told me that everyone else liked it too.

[Dirko]

Trust me Cristiano is pissed off !

United will NEVER win anything unless they take it up to the teams they're playing and start a 4-4-2, or at worse a 4-1-3-2 formation.

They need to have big Lloyd up front with Cristiano hovering around his feet. Lloyd holds the ball up so well, and controls it, and that's where a striker like Cristiano does well in poaching the ball and working off the big men.

Very frustrating to watch, especially when Lucas gets the ball and has a run, and then gets pushed off it likes he a paper doll....

Hopefully Viddie sees the light and starts to ATTACK !

[Choccies]

Now I'm going to tread into unchartered waters for me and comment on the soccer and particularly Adelaide United. This comes from listening to Aurelio Vidmar on 5aa last night and hopefully others out there who are alot more knowledgable than me can provide me with some answers because to be honest I thought his interview last night was weak, it made my blood boil a bit and he had more excuses than a 6 year old kid with his hand in the lolly jar...

Firstly, what is happening at that club from a fitness/player maintenance point of view ? How can Dodd, Rudan, Fyfe, Cassio, Pantelis, Reid, Marrone, Barbiero, Sarkies and probably more be injured or carrying injuries in this part of the year already ?? What sort of pre-season do they do out there because I honestly can't see in a game that I perceive as being fairly low on contact can induce as many injures as United have had. Obviously fitness is a concern for one thing but there must be other issues to this...

Secondly, I realise the club went through a fair amount of turmoil in between seasons but to get to 2 weeks before the season and realise you don't have a defender and rush out and recruit a guy like Mark Rudan then it makes me wonder what is going thru the managements heads. Is there no squad planning at the end of the season prior ?? "Hey, we are a bit short on defenders, maybe we should start looking now ??" "Nah... lets wait a bit" ????

Thirdly, the Korean guy Shin. According to Viddy last night he was pretty much plucked from obscurity, wasn't playing soccer in Korea and was going to Uni. Viddy commented something along the lines of 'He's not the best trainer' and 'His form even in the youth team at the moment is terrible'. So.... get rid of him ???

Fourthly (is that a word ??). He was commenting on some players and saying that their passing skills aren't the best feature of their game. So why isn't this being targeted and improved because these guys are supposed to be professional footballers and have access to the best coaches ?? Surely that's a skill you learn at age 7....

Lastly, I just can't help but think that over the years the fitness level of the Adelaide players is way below what it should be for a professional soccer team. I know a few years ago they assessed that this was an area they could improve in but if I was to be honest I don't reckon some of these guys are anywhere near as fit as they should be, and if they were then the injury toll wouldn't be so high.

Now as I said, I felt compelled to write this because I thought the interview was pathetic, riddled with excuses and not good enough for the supporters. And I figured some of you are way more knowledgable than me and could provide me with some answers...

End rant

[aceman]

Tonights game versus Melbourne whilst being quite good, shows that United lack a few basics, the last goal being a prime example.
How does that guy remain unmarked in the box while 3 or 4 United players look on and Cornthwaite misjudges it so badly??

[Dogwatcher]

Concur.

If i was a soccer journo, my article in Monday's paper would be about why Viddy doesn't have the belief of his players.
They just don't seem to want to play his game or unable to do so.
Some of the basic skills (marking in the box, first touch play, intuitive shots) are missing.

And....why does the Sark keep getting a game? The dead ball specialist has yet to achieve anything in three seasons with his specials.

[Jase]

Haven't been able to post for a while but there are a few things I would like to add (or amend) in my original rant...

Went to the Sydney game and didn't recognise the team on the park playing in Red...They were awesome, Leckie came in and terrorised the Sydney defence, and everyone else just worked hard, very hard....

Watched the Melbourne game and for the first half, it was normal service has been resumed...missed passes, non-existant midfield, Christiano looking lazy, Leckie, Jammo, Sarkies, Rudan and Eugene working hard but not getting much support. They scored, we clicked into gear a bit, they scored again, we went up a notch got a goal, dominated, Cornthwaite misjudges a head, ever other defender stands flat footed and they score another...3-1, the streak continues and nothing much seems to change...

I must admit though that I think that Sarkies is working a lot better in the midfield now, but shouldn't be allowed to take any direct free kicks or corners until he can hit a barn door at training....

My family are flying up to Canberra this weekend to watch the Reds play the Central Coast, I hope the Adelaide side that played a full game against Sydney turns up not the one that only plays for about 50 minutes...it could be a long weekend, but not in a good way...

Go the Reds....

[Il Duce]

After losing our 8th straight game against Melbourne (pretty freaking mad about that record) the Red Army has come with up this idea for a pull over on our next trip to Melbourne in Janaury as nothing else has seemed to work, we thought we would as brutal honest as possible

aaBanner_wideweb__470x296,0.jpg (35.41 KiB) Viewed 706 times

You think it would work?