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