Sydney vs Adelaide - Post Game

Another home game and another missed opportunity. This time however there is noone to blame but ourselves.

With the unexpected late withdrawal of Milligan thanks to an injury and the ludicrous suspensions of Corica and Zadkovich, I think our already unbalanced squad just about bottomed out.

What frustrates me the most is that we are now 9 rounds in and we still have not settled on a system or style of play. 3-5-2 one week followed by 4-5-1, even a few 3-6-1s chucked in there for the sake of it. Tonight what Branko drew out of his hat was a 3-5-2:

------------Bolton
----Fyfe---Poppa---Rudan
Middleby---------------NtG
-------------Talay
-------Casey--Juninho
------Patrick—Brosque

Like I have been preaching all season, Poppa and Rudan together once again didn’t work. Nathan Burns made them look like the statues that they are and once again showed class well beyond his 19 years. 2010 he WILL be wearing the green and gold mark my words. This kid is so far above anyone in the league that its not funny. With Fyfe rounding out the back 3… No I’ll stop myself there.

Now I rate Robbie Middleby. He never stops trying and quite often changes games. Tonight he again, in a wingback role, looked one of our most dangerous outlets. You could see he was a little short on match fitness but now Zad is once again considered a centre mid, he surely is higher up the pecking order than Casey for this position. So Why didn't the players use the flanks more? Playing this system, our main attacking outlets should be the wings! I just get more and more disheartened every week watching this team that just cannot play football....

On the left flank, 17 year old Nick Tsattalios (Nick the Greek for us that are ‘lingually challenged’) was finally given his chance and I think took it with both hands. He was always going to be a little bit of a liability in defense but he offered a lot going forward, never afraid to take on his man and seemed to have a decent passing range, continuously looking for one twos. For me, this League is all about youth. They are the most exciting to watch and especially this season have proved to be the most talented on the pitch. I was stoked to see NtG but was disappointed that Biddle missed out.

Talay is not the player that he was when he first came back. His passing range doesn’t seem to exist anymore and he is definitely not capable of playing a lone holding midfield role even with a central back 3. Also, I would like to know Branko’s thinking behind bringing a 2^nd holding midfielder in McFlynn on for Casey while 1-0 down at home and already doing well in the possession stakes??!! Casey needed to be subbed but surely Zdrilic from the remaining subs was the only option? Does he now regret not putting Biddle on the bench as a replacement for NtG who he obviously had in his mind would be subbed early on?

Brosque, Patrick and Juninho all were quite good in attack. I love the way that Patrick will take players on and try things but sometimes I think he slows things down too much and unnecessarily. Same can be said for Brosque on some occasions however, unlike Patrick, he is at his best when running at players. Adelaide defended strong and were well organised. Yes Patrick hit the bar but to be honest, we never looked like scoring. I will also hold my judgment on Juninho off for another week as we all know he is playing well below fitness.

Looking to next week there are a few positives. Corica, Zad, Milligan and Bridges all to come in, and with Rudan suspended it forces the Poppa/Rudan statue partnership to be broken.

DANE