John Aloisi....... not a target man

[serious14]

No idea who's tactic it is, but I'm over it - Aloisi spends 95% of the time with his back to goal as the front man receiving long balls all f*cking day, with 2 or 3 defenders climbing all over him, so little to no chance of doing anything striker-esque...... i.e.  WHAT WE SIGNED THE MAN TO DO!!!!!

When will Lawrie drop the long ball sh*t??  When will we see Aloisi front on to goal??  I'm starting to wonder what Lawrie thinks sometimes, not to mention his RUBBISH substitutions.  Sorry "gaffer", but 13 minutes is not enough time for anyone to really get into a game, especially one as high intensity and importance as this.  Come on man, drop the conservative crap and bring back our sexy short passing game - LONG BALLS ACHIEVE NOTHING!!!!

 

[From the dug out]

Wow, I agree, would never think to say it though!

 

[soccersensei]

No arguments here. Needed to try and crack it open much earlier than the ol 70 minute routine.

 

[mariners_4_ever]

well I'm sorry too but have to agree whole heartedly. short passing and for f**k sack take a shot !!Far too many times well within strike range and not firing !! Aloisi is always well covered we should have someone coming through to work of his passes and shooting. you send the ball at the goals often enough some are bound to find the net. Back to basics and play short quick passes.

GO MARINERS & LONG LIVE THE YELLOW ARMY !!!

 

[Pete]

I hate to say it, but Aloisi is being set up for a good hacking every time he has to trap the ball with his back to the goal, and try and turn to get into a shooting position.  This is why he appeals for so many freekicks when he gets obstructed by the defenders and cops a trip or falls over.

Maybe, we could use Simon as the target man , and if he can hold up the ball long enough for Aloisi and Saso to get into position, then offload to them as they come through. Tommy and Hutch try that a bit, but their lack of physical size means they either have to keep moving the ball around or take on the defence themselves ( or get pushed over/dispossessed).

 

[radar]

We were explaining to a mate what was going wrong, and we basically came up with the same idea - when our short passing game is on we can split defence like no-one else. The long passes don't cut it.

 

[skilbeck]

Simon would be the best target man we would have with Mrdja being injured. I believe Aloisi and Mrdja would be a gun combination but I doubt we will ever see it

 

[LFCMariners]

Earlier on in the game last night we looked really sharp around mid-field, lots of speed and getting the ball to the forwards quickly. But I'm also sick of seeing players boot the ball half a kilometre out in some Beckham-esque hope that it'll creep into the net. That's not how we got the Premiership.

 

[striker]

- Aloisi spends 95% of the time with his back to goal as the front man receiving long balls all f*cking day, with 2 or 3 defenders climbing all over him......

That's because he's too slow....... Sorry to say this, but Joel Griffiths plays as a lone striker and he has no problem getting free of opponents.

 

[serious14]

Bump.

Striker #9 - Griffiths plays in a much more classical No. 10 role, COMBINED with his out and out striking duties.  Quite often you'll note that somehow (don't ask me how, the Jets midfield isn't that fast) he has a shitload of space to work in as well, as both a No. 10 and a No. 9.....

Now look at Aloisi - yes, we all know he's an awesome striker.  But that's the thing, he's an awesome STRIKER.  What do classical out and out strikers do??  Score goals, with their front to the goal........ all of us have spent the second half of this season watching Aloisi spend 95% of his time with his back to the goal and getting incredibly frustrated, only to become this scoring machine slotting them in all which ways when he has been unleashed as a striker.

Surely there's a lesson to be learnt here??    i.e.  PLAY THE MAN AS AN OUT AND OUT STRIKER, NOT AS AN INEFFECTIVE LONE TARGET MAN!!!!

Would it be too much to hope that we ditch our conservative tactics and actually have a go??  I'm starting to worry about Lawrie......

 

[Bear]

Simon - long balls all day, milks free kicks well as he is so lanky

Aloisi and Sash - run off those long balls

Id start all 3 next game. Need to win, second chance if we dont, f**k it, throw caution to the wind

 

[grecquemariner]

Didnt we try that against Wellington? and hey it worked. fancy that.

 

[Ursus]

I agree with the identification of the problem but I see the solution as having more people working off Aloisis in support.
It is just not happening.
He holds the ball well, draws three defenders, Where is the support?
Adam Griffiths can do it. Our midfielders should be having a field day. Kwassi and Hutch should be steaming in early from the sides, or Tommy and Jedi attacking the middle. Hopefully we will see more of this next Sunday.

I would move Hutch back to the middle and play Tommy wide with a roving licence and either bring GregO back at some time in the match or start him for 30 mins depending on his fitness as our other wide midfielder.

 

[Newieutd]

when our short passing game is on we can split defence like no-one else.

I think it is quite clear that that is what the Jets do best.

What you guys do best is work for each other, run off people like Petrovski/Aloisi etc.
Not short one touch passing

 

[From the dug out]

The problem with playing the long ball is that it creates a huge gap between our strikers and our midfield. Our strikers need the support of our midfield (especially if they have thier backs to the goal) so that they can lay the ball back, whether that be a 1, 2 or 3 touch exercise. The midfielders need to be mobile (creating options so that they can recieve the ball whilst entering space). From this point our second striker should be making a diagonal run (very hard to mark and stops him from getting off side). If we rely on the long ball, that then gets flicked on, we will never win as we don't have speed up front in Aloisi and Pretrovski.

The longer the game goes, the harder the challenge as it is an energy sapping experience if your in the middle. Nothing wrong with the long ball from Danny being that of a goalkick or out of his hands, as long as we compress forward closing in on the space, so that our midfielders have half a chance.

From open play though, it is suicide.
 

 

[FFC Mariner]

Disagree (a bit) - Aloisi has played the target man in Europe and for Australia. He is a senior enough player to let the coaching staff know how he wants to play.

The problem is that we dont play 433 so he doesnt have 2 quick forwards trying to feed off the knockdowns, we lose the 2nd ball and it comes pinging back at us for 90 mins (sound familiar). Then we get caught defending to high and the opposition turn our slow(ish) defence and away we go.

Matt S/Tommy would both be better than Sasho because neither are as lazy.

 

[From the dug out]

Agree (a bit) - Matty/Tommy as options up front will give us speed rather then the lazynes of Sasho.

Matty's only problem is his finishing (derr).

Nothing wrong with Alosi being the target man, all I am saying is lets have the ball under our control in there defensive third. The guy needs help, with high percentage options.

We play a 442 as you are aware. When any of the strikers get the ball, why flick on a 50/50 that we have no control of (we are not able to out sprint them, Maybe Matty could, however refer to my 2nd line above). The safe option is to play the ball the way we are facing. It will also give us time on the ball.

Depth = time.

 

[striker]

Striker #9 - Griffiths plays in a much more classical No. 10 role, COMBINED with his out and out striking duties.

No He's not a classical no. 10 ...... every game I've seen, Jets play the 4:2:3:1 ..... and griffiths is the lone striker up front.

 

[serious14]

But does he play there for more than 10% of the game??  You can refer to the lovely Fox Sports graphic all you want, but the point I was making is that he has a combination role....... and in some games it's almost a free roaming role - note on Sunday he was present on the left and right wings for a lot of the time.

Anyways, Greenpole, I agree with you somewhat - Aloisi can be a great target man, but this isn't the club for it.  We've got Sasho and/or Simon who can do this target man business, and Tommy and John can be the strikers (well, AM in Tommy's case) running off the hard work that Simon and Sash could do.  To be honest, anything is better than the rubbish we're throwing up up-front at the moment - one of the best "out and out strikers" in Australia, and he spends the game with his back to goal, and in the 2 moments he's set free to actually be a striker, he gets over-ruled by the linesman or some other bollocks-upped bullshit.

 

[marinermick]

i guess that the fact we are premiers and that aloisi scored seven goals in twelve games shows the system is working

if breeze and assistant referee were not such a clod and aloisi grabbed his penalty, we could be here with a 2-1 victory, sitting pretty and not criticising the system

the circumstances behind our loss on sunday had very little to do with our system