The Melbourne City Thread

[kangaspurs]

As far as I'm concerned, he's no world beater, but Hoffman is adequate at right back and Germano is another option there. Chapman has looked very good as a central defender and one of Kisnorbo/Wielaert alongside him looks more than decent in those positions. Even Wielaert/Kisnorbo is a reasonable (albeit slow) pairing still. Garuccio is ok on the left, but it's clearly not his natural position and I 100% think that's what should be targeted this month. Even if we don't get a left back, when healthy we'd be looking at this as a lineup, which I don't think is hopeless at all:

Velaphi
Hoffman/Germano, Chapman, Kisnorbo, Garuccio
(Archibald, Wielaert, Ramsay)

Now, the cracks are appearing when more than one of our nominal starters is unavailable, as we saw against the Mariners. But if we got a quality LB as well? Then you're looking at Hoffman or Germano as the depth at right back, Wielaert as our backup for the central defenders, Garuccio on the left and Redmayne as the goalkeeper. I still don't think we've seen enough one way or the other to determine exactly how good Tando is as a GK, but as far as I'm concerned, bringing Hoffman, Chapman and a left back to be named in to the current squad immediately turns our defence from a complete fiasco to quite decent.



My understanding is that we're very close to the limit in terms of the salary cap as it is, so we're restricted in what we can offer any new recruits, international or local. Getting rid of Kalmar helps, but I'm not sure that the apparent departure of Miller has freed up any cash (as I believe he was only contracted through the end of 2014 anyway) and I'm not sure who else we can really afford to lose (people might point to Wielaert, but that would mean Archibald is literally our only option as a central defender if either of Chapman or Kisnorbo is unavailable the rest of the way. I say we need to keep him. It would be pretty harsh to chop Germano too, when he's just started back in the senior team).

So the Kalmar money on its own is hardly going to create a war chest for us and we would appear to be limited to pushing for an Australian that is desperate for a short-term move to get game time (as kangaspurs has noted, Davidson fits the bill here and would be an absolute dream signing - he'd possibly be the best left back in the league from day one), or perhaps a Manchester City player in the reserves squad that they believe needs some senior exposure, for whatever reason.

To be fair, Germano actually looked quite decent when he came off the bench against the Mariners and could do a job there, although Hoffman wasn't exactly great earlier in the season. I never want to see a Kisnorbo/Wielart pairing in the centre of defence this season, together they're just far too slow and I just think Wielart's past it. Don't really like Wielart at RB either as he's slow and doesn't get up the pitch to provide overlap for Duff when he needs it. It's definitely Chapman's spot to lose in the second half of the season.

I just read something earlier that will make a Davidson, or a loan for anyone, incredibly difficult. It was an article about Frank Lampard and how apparently he was very keen to come to Melbourne City on loan before his MLS stint started. However, the FFA had just changed a rule that meant the wages of any player that is loaned falls within the salary cap. It was effectively a rule change to stop us getting both Villa and Lampard in the same team. This rule would make it very difficult to loan Davidson or anyone really. The only question I have over it is that if the parent club pays 100% of the players wages whilst he's on loan surely that would mean nothing would be added to the salary cap, or is that ignored and whatever the wage of the player is is added to the salary cap anyway. I don't really understand how that works.

 

[dascman03]

We've signed Glory defender Jack Clisby for the rest of this season and next year. Good to see us sign another young defender. Clisby can play at left-back or centrally, so dare I say it, we might even PLAY A LEFT-SIDED DEFENDER AT LEFT-BACK!

Also Liam Miller has signed with an Irish team. He leaves us after two largely forgettable appearances.

 

[eth-dog]

We've signed Glory defender Jack Clisby for the rest of this season and next year. Good to see us sign another young defender. Clisby can play at left-back or centrally, so dare I say it, we might even PLAY A LEFT-SIDED DEFENDER AT LEFT-BACK!

Also Liam Miller has signed with an Irish team. He leaves us after two largely forgettable appearances.

Garruccio has done pretty well IMO.

 

[sverik25]

Garruccio has done pretty well IMO.

Yeah, but that isn't his natural position and he probably isn't realising his full potential there. If we can free him up for his preferred position then that suits us I think.

 

[eth-dog]

Yeah, but that isn't his natural position and he probably isn't realising his full potential there. If we can free him up for his preferred position then that suits us I think.

Possibly. Now if we could replace Hoffman at RB... Although Wielart isn't bad there.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

To be fair, Germano actually looked quite decent when he came off the bench against the Mariners and could do a job there, although Hoffman wasn't exactly great earlier in the season. I never want to see a Kisnorbo/Wielart pairing in the centre of defence this season, together they're just far too slow and I just think Wielart's past it. Don't really like Wielart at RB either as he's slow and doesn't get up the pitch to provide overlap for Duff when he needs it. It's definitely Chapman's spot to lose in the second half of the season.

I'm more than happy to have Chapman as the permanent starter alongside Kisnorbo (with Wielaert giving Kisnorbo a spell if/when needed), but I think Wielaert is adequate, albeit expensive, short-term depth. There's a few whispers around that we're actually a good chance to get Ivan Franjic as well and Mark Birighitti is also very keen to get out of Newcastle, having been dropped as the Jets first-choice GK. No idea if (or how) it would be possible, but Birighitti in goals, Franjic on the right, Chapman and Kisnorbo at CB and Clisby on the left looks pretty bloody good to me.

I just read something earlier that will make a Davidson, or a loan for anyone, incredibly difficult. It was an article about Frank Lampard and how apparently he was very keen to come to Melbourne City on loan before his MLS stint started. However, the FFA had just changed a rule that meant the wages of any player that is loaned falls within the salary cap. It was effectively a rule change to stop us getting both Villa and Lampard in the same team. This rule would make it very difficult to loan Davidson or anyone really. The only question I have over it is that if the parent club pays 100% of the players wages whilst he's on loan surely that would mean nothing would be added to the salary cap, or is that ignored and whatever the wage of the player is is added to the salary cap anyway. I don't really understand how that works.

Not sure. I presume it simply means that if a player is on the equivalent of $AU1 million and he comes here on loan for a month, 83k of salary would have to be dedicated to said player inside our cap. I don't really know what a player of Davidson's ilk would be on at a club like West Brom, but you're right: it would seem like signing a huge name like Lampard would be simply impossible from here on. I can see where the FFA is coming from with a rule like that (particularly with our club's unique global set-up, compared to other A-League teams and the potential to use loans to give us a ridiculous advantage) and I'm not against it, but I just wonder if it should have been relaxed/phased in a little, while the league is still growing.

 

[eth-dog]

I hope we get Lampard as the guest stint player next year. Imagine a midfield/forward line that looked something like:

Paartalu - Melling
Lampard - Mooy - Koren
Kennedy​

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Possibly. Now if we could replace Hoffman at RB... Although Wielart isn't bad there.

Germano is a legitimate option and, of course, if we can somehow get Franjic into the squad, he's an automatic selection in the team. The great thing is we might start seeing something that I can't say I really have since I became a member of this club three years ago: genuine competition for spots at every position and the ability to drop players whose performance as starters is consistently not up to scratch (the likes of Ramsay, Dugandzic, Williams and Hoffman).

 

[kangaspurs]

I'm more than happy to have Chapman as the permanent starter alongside Kisnorbo (with Wielaert giving Kisnorbo a spell if/when needed), but I think Wielaert is adequate, albeit expensive, short-term depth. There's a few whispers around that we're actually a good chance to get Ivan Franjic as well and Mark Birighitti is also very keen to get out of Newcastle, having been dropped as the Jets first-choice GK. No idea if (or how) it would be possible, but Birighitti in goals, Franjic on the right, Chapman and Kisnorbo at CB and Clisby on the left looks pretty bloody good to me.



Not sure. I presume it simply means that if a player is on the equivalent of $AU1 million and he comes here on loan for a month, 83k of salary would have to be dedicated to said player inside our cap. I don't really know what a player of Davidson's ilk would be on at a club like West Brom, but you're right: it would seem like signing a huge name like Lampard would be simply impossible from here on. I can see where the FFA is coming from with a rule like that (particularly with our club's unique global set-up, compared to other A-League teams and the potential to use loans to give us a ridiculous advantage) and I'm not against it, but I just wonder if it should have been relaxed/phased in a little, while the league is still growing.

Birighitti would be an outstanding get. He was close to the best goalkeeper in the league last season IIRC and now seems to have fallen out of favour after he said he wanted to leave when he had a trial at Bayer Leverkusen that fell through, affecting his performances. I was actually thinking about Franjic the other day when someone on Fox Sports mentioned he was looking to try to get a loan move back to the A-League, obviously it would all depend on the loan move rules which we don't understand. He would be another good get though as he's a class above Hoffman and Germano.

Does anyone know if Clisby's actually any good? I watch a fair bit of A-League but I can't say I've ever noticed him or heard him talked about.

 

[eth-dog]

Birighitti would be an outstanding get. He was close to the best goalkeeper in the league last season IIRC and now seems to have fallen out of favour after he said he wanted to leave when he had a trial at Bayer Leverkusen that fell through, affecting his performances. I was actually thinking about Franjic the other day when someone on Fox Sports mentioned he was looking to try to get a loan move back to the A-League, obviously it would all depend on the loan move rules which we don't understand. He would be another good get though as he's a class above Hoffman and Germano.

Does anyone know if Clisby's actually any good? I watch a fair bit of A-League but I can't say I've ever noticed him or heard him talked about.

Which in itself is a good thing. When a defender doesn't get noticed it means they're doing a good job. It's like not noticing someone like McMahon or Baguley for our footy sides.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Which in itself is a good thing. When a defender doesn't get noticed it means they're doing a good job. It's like not noticing someone like McMahon or Baguley for our footy sides.

Well, not quite, because he's barely been playing. He came on for a couple of minutes in each of the last three games before the break (including against us) and before that the last time he appeared was November 1. Still, that's hardly a surprise. If he was a first team regular at Perth (his hometown) and since we can't offer him huge money, there would be no reason for him to leave Perth for Melbourne at this point of the season, given the respective positions of the two teams. He's pretty clearly coming here for playing time and we can certainly accommodate him there, if he's good enough.

And furthermore, the best full backs are two-way players. Hoffman is a reasonable defender, as far as I'm concerned, but he rarely sets up any attacks. When Behich was at his best for Heart (before his first move to Turkey), he was about the most noticeable player on the park...he'd be flying around everywhere and setting up the play for us.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

And to be honest, I know nothing about Clisby as a player either, but he's got two things going for him:

1. He's a genuine left back (giving us a total of one in the squad)
2. Glory supporters seem to be a little disappointed to see him depart in their thread (always a good sign)

 

[bungareepremiers06]

Please, Hoff shits all over Wielaart at RB

 

[eth-dog]

Please, Hoff shits all over Wielaart at RB

Hoff is better, but Wielart has been reasonable at RB.

 

[Vdubs]

Hoff is better, but Wielart has been reasonable at RB.

They are both good A-League players.

 

[dascman03]

Well, Davutovic reckons we're the "front-runner" to sign Ivan Franjic, who is unhappy in Russia, on loan.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/f...ssia-to-a-league/story-fnk6pqhd-1227191194377

The Torpedo Moscow player’s form has attracted interest from several A-League clubs, including Sydney FC and his former side Brisbane Roar.

But City looms as the most appealing option after Roar signed fellow right-back and former Western Sydney Wanderer Jerome Polenz.

At least CFG has identified our principal weakness...

 

[dascman03]

I'm not even such a fan of Franjic, who's certainly been exposed at international level... but at 27, he should be entering his prime and would be an unmistakable upgrade on Hoffman/Wielaert.

 

[eth-dog]

Velaphi
Franjic - Chapman - Kisnorbo - Clisby
Paartalu - Melling
Duff - Mooy - Koren
Kennedy
​

I like that side. Our flanks aren't exposed and have class all over the ground.

 

[Ashton Agar]

Franjic would be a good addition. Definite upgrade on Wielaert and Hoffman.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Not sure how we could possibly afford him without cutting someone else loose. Maybe Williams?

If that happened (Williams out, Franjic in) and we went in with something like eth-dog 's team as a preferred starting eleven, we'd also have reasonably handy (and/or experienced) depth all over the park. Redmayne, Germano, Hoffman, Wielaert, Garuccio, Murdocca, Brown, Ramsay, Mauk (how is he not getting a chance ahead of Retre?), Dugandzic and Marino. And several of those players are pretty versatile as well and could fill a variety of roles.

 

[kangaspurs]

Velaphi
Franjic - Chapman - Kisnorbo - Clisby
Paartalu - Melling
Duff - Mooy - Koren
Kennedy
​

I like that side. Our flanks aren't exposed and have class all over the ground.

I would prefer a new GK as well but I think we'd be close as it is to the cap. Does anyone know anything about Safuwan Baharudin? I've never heard of him.

 

[eth-dog]

I would prefer a new GK as well but I think we'd be close as it is to the cap. Does anyone know anything about Safuwan Baharudin? I've never heard of him.

Who is he?

 

[kangaspurs]

Who is he?

New signing. A Singapore international defender.

 

[eth-dog]

New signing. A Singapore international defender.

From what I've read he's a Centre-Half. Seems like we want to keep Wielart on the right.

 

[kangaspurs]

From what I've read he's a Centre-Half. Seems like we want to keep Wielart on the right.

Or out of the team.