What's the plan, Man??

Robbie Thomson and Daniel MacBreen are back after a short break to chat all things A-League, including Zadkovich' s plan for the Roar, Sydney on the slide, and do Nix have a comeback? Featuring Brisbane Roar Legend Erik Paartalu.

#football #soccer #aleague 

Transcript

Erik (00:00.098)
Maybe that's it.

Ronaldingo (00:00.392)
have. shit.

Ronaldingo (00:08.65)
Welcome to the latest episode of A-League Off Air. Now we did have a week off over Christmas and New Year's and for that we are entirely unapologetic. But I would like to say it's not without a little bit of regret that I acknowledge we're not going to be able to talk about Ryan Scott's Hail Mary Superman dive to try and catch Costa Barbarousas' chip. We're not going to mention Sega

and JK giving us another A-League Off Air choreographed goal celebration. Or the fact that someone found Jake Brimmer after two years with that superb little nonchalant flick of a goal. We're not even going to talk about Zinedine Mashash and Bojadar Kryef accidentally finding themselves at the centre of an existential debate between what is red and what is yellow. Fuck it. That's old news.

It's gone. And fortunately for us and for you listening, there was plenty of drama to be had this weekend. The news cycle moves on. Before we start, I'd like to have a special moment. Thoughts and prayers to fans of Brisbane Raw, Perth Glory and the Newcastle Jets who were basically exposed to the full brunt.

of the injustice that professional football can bring to the table. It made me think of another song that I've got to share with you the lyrics of. So here we go. I hope you're all ready. This is from Lee Hazelwood back in 1971. Looking ahead, this is the man that wrote These Boots Are Made For Walking. Mind you, he's an absolute legend. And he wrote this. In the beginning,

There was nothing. And it was kind of fun watching nothing grow. You came walking into my life carrying your own dreams. You could have been... You could have been so good. So why were you so goddamn mean? But till you, I never had any fun. So I'm glad I never. Aren't you glad I never?

Ronaldingo (02:33.536)
Be glad I never owned a gun.

Ronaldingo (02:40.032)
Now I think A-League fans in general, but certainly A-League fans of those three clubs can share in the sentiment of that song, even take solace in the fact that Wellington Phoenix can also take solace from those lyrics without the bit about having dreams or any fun. Because their fans, fuck, they must be doing it tough at the moment. All right, without any further ado,

We wish you a very happy new year, you A-league off-air motherfuckers tuning in to listen to this. It's great to have you here. Macca, how did you enjoy your week off?

Erik (03:16.442)
god.

Daniel McBreen (03:23.19)
I fucking enjoyed not doing this with you, mate. The pressure we under do this on a Monday morning is fucking growing every week. It was good to just switch off.

have four or five days where all I did was watch football, call a couple, but not have to do all the shit around it. And surely the name of that song that you just gave us the lyrics to was called Peak A League because fuck it, it fits so perfectly to our lovely game that we have here in Australia. And it's back to the fucking grindstone from today on, isn't it? Back to normal.

Ronaldingo (03:53.948)
Exactly.

Ronaldingo (03:59.666)
It is and that we are going to have to because the summer of football as A-league fans are all too well aware means that there's football on every day. It's awesome. There's A-league on tonight as we record this. So we're to have a little look ahead to MacArthur FC versus Adelaide.

Daniel McBreen (04:19.492)
Think about it.

Ronaldingo (04:19.764)
this evening almost slipped my mind that could be a good game. Tomorrow night Melbourne City are in action again I'm on that one. Wednesdays there's a game I'm on a game on Friday as well but to help us break down what was a completely fucking peak A league weekend of football I'm very pleased to say we've been joined by our favorite Aussie Estonian and the man that was front and centre

Erik (04:44.941)
Wow.

Ronaldingo (04:49.726)
of the biggest fairy tale moment in the 20 years of the A-League. We should warn him right now, we don't do fairy tales on this fucking podcast. Especially not around my co-host who we really had to battle to get this one across the line. It is with great joy that we welcome Eric Partaloo to A-League Off Air this morning, Monday morning, but this afternoon or this evening whenever you're listening to it. Eric...

Daniel McBreen (04:58.469)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (05:02.23)
fucking shit to bed now.

Ronaldingo (05:19.19)
You're back from India, you're calling the A-League, you've got your finger on the pulse. How the fuck are ya?

Erik (05:24.546)
Good, thanks for the introduction. Yeah, I can't promise I'll last until the last minute of this podcast, but usually I'll pop up when I'm needed here and there. Yeah, it's been good. really, sorry, Macca. You know, it's been a really good couple of years for myself. Finished playing and straight into this sort of gig in India. Yeah, I had a good think about it this morning that, you you never really want to give up football, just...

Ronaldingo (05:32.214)
Ha ha ha ha.

Daniel McBreen (05:37.44)
Hahaha!

Erik (05:54.381)
It happens that way and I had the tap on the shoulder and it was an opportunity that I really enjoyed, you know, taking a challenge on and four years later I'm still doing it and then just trying to rub my head together with some of you guys in the A-league now and see if I can, you know, do a little bit here and a little bit there. Yeah, but enjoying it. It's been good. It's, the league's completely different out there. It's growing. But yeah, coming back here, it's completely different as a broadcast and as a league, it's much quicker.

Ronaldingo (06:11.722)
Mix it with the big boys.

Erik (06:24.229)
Heaps of young kids bloody hell. I can't believe how young the A-League's got at the moment and you know, we'll talk about that later I'm sure but yeah pleasure to be here

Ronaldingo (06:27.329)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (06:35.282)
Excellent. Let's hope you don't get that next little tap on the shoulder at some point during this part move you on to it to something else

Erik (06:38.594)
Yeah, I might get one.

Daniel McBreen (06:41.274)
Hahaha.

Erik (06:43.725)
Might be a cup of coffee, hopefully, from the missus, but it's not coming.

Ronaldingo (06:48.812)
All right, Makkah, I have to ask you, when you think of Eric Partaloo, what springs to mind? What's the first word? How would you describe him? What did you call him?

Daniel McBreen (06:52.334)
Yes.

Daniel McBreen (06:59.355)
I'm joking. Look, I'll be honest with you. Look, I was wondering how long it would take you to bring up the Pardaloo Grand Final as I call it. Nah, look, we get along very well.

Erik (07:01.793)
Hahaha

Ronaldingo (07:09.781)
You

Erik (07:10.914)
Hmm.

Daniel McBreen (07:16.076)
I don't blame Eric at all for what happened. I blame the referee for not giving the foul on Pedge. I blame Svansvik for not winning the header and I blame Rosie for going off the post. So it's everyone else's fault. It's got nothing to do with Eric. look. we've... Fuck. Yeah, well, the thing is, right, I speak to...

Erik (07:27.638)
Wow.

Ronaldingo (07:29.952)
Ha

Erik (07:33.484)
You've analyzed that well, Makka. That's a pretty good analysis, actually. Yeah.

Ronaldingo (07:37.93)
He's had fucking, he's had 11 years to think, 12 years to think about it.

Erik (07:39.847)
hahahaha

Daniel McBreen (07:41.326)
Well I speak to Phil Moss and he says I've never watched that game back and I'm like you fucking serious? I've watched those moments quite a few times to go alright what the fuck happened?

Erik (07:45.964)
Yeah.

Erik (07:50.935)
Do know what actually happened there is that the last, when you guys went 2-0 up, I think I was playing at the back and wasn't playing in my natural position. So when I came up for that corner, I started from the halfway line, very deep. Nobody picked me up. So if I was playing as a six, I would have probably been a little bit closer, already been in there, got marked. But there was enough people around to try and win a header. Sorry, Makka, but someone should have got there. It was me in the end.

Ronaldingo (08:18.988)
All right Exactly exactly we're all happy everyone's happy here. All right. Let's get into what is the meat and drink of this podcast, which is Three blokes talking about the a league and we had for the first time I can remember a mega triple header on a Friday night That went late into the night very very late

Erik (08:19.437)
You got your goal a couple of years later mate, you got your goal.

Daniel McBreen (08:19.52)
Did him?

Daniel McBreen (08:35.386)
That's it.

Ronaldingo (08:46.89)
I reckon almost not quite outdoing 120th minute, there were some some there was lots of late drama. Let's kick it off with Melbourne City versus Wellington Phoenix. And as I made reference to in the intro, it was a 2-0 win for Melbourne City. Harry Polatiti's got his first ever A-league goal in the seventh minute. Nathaniel Atkinson got the second to make the game safe in the 83rd minute, you'd think.

with 77 minutes in between those two goals to chase the game that Wellington Phoenix would have been fucking, you know, kitchen sinking it, particularly like nothing. Fucking nothing. They finished the game without a single shot on target. They had one shot in the whole game and that was from a 16 year old playing in his second game in the A league who clearly is not aware of how he's meant to play at Wellington Phoenix.

Macca, what did you make of this one?

Daniel McBreen (09:44.25)
Yeah, it was dire from the next and we've seen this from them before.

Ronaldingo (09:53.716)
It wasn't much better from Melbourne City to be fair. They had 20 shots, but no, hardly, you know. But anyway, I'll let you go.

Daniel McBreen (09:56.249)
Well...

Yeah, well Melbourne City reminded me of the week before when they played the Mariners and the first half was just absolute domination. Absolute domination where I don't think the Knicks got out of their half. They had something like seven passes in the opposition half to 230 or something ridiculous. I actually thought it was a mistake on the stats when I had to go back and look at it again. And I thought, you know what they're going to do here? They're going to...

Erik (10:22.754)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (10:28.76)
do what they did against the Mariners, they're going to have all this domination, get one goal and then the Knicks will come back and do what they do and get one chance and score. Obviously it didn't pan out that way but Eric touched on it there when he came in about how many young players are in the league and when you look at Melbourne City and you go through the attacking players that they don't have, I...

I think they're doing a wonderful job to be honest. They started with two 18 year olds and a 22 year old left back who's playing as a left wing in Polatiti's. They're without Caputo, they're without Lekki, they're without Tillio, they're without who else? Colin, they're without Coon came off.

Ronaldingo (11:04.629)
Naboo.

Daniel McBreen (11:05.944)
missing someone else in the boo. So there's six players in their attacking line. So you've basically got their first three, their second three, you've got Jego out as well. But they're dominating games and you can probably see why they're not creating like these fantastic goal scoring opportunities. They're creating these half chances. They do have a young front line and Chifi was in his post-match press conference was talking about, you know.

Ronaldingo (11:07.883)
Yeah.

Lopane... they got... yeah.

Daniel McBreen (11:35.247)
didn't have Rufa and Rojas was out but Rojas has hardly played for them so it's not like they've had time to adjust to him. I think it just goes to show how big a player Rufa is for them in that position but and he said you know we didn't have much on the bench and I'm thinking well that's not really an excuse anymore because everybody's the same now. You look at the bench for Melbourne City they started with two 18 year olds and then they had 18 year olds and 17 year olds on the bench to come on with and they're just getting on with it.

And just feel, all last year we spoke about the Knicks and when is it gonna fall, when is it gonna fall because you can't have that little opportunity to score goals and you can't have that little going forward and constantly find the results.

Are we starting to feel the second year syndrome where everybody's, you know, the first year was great and they're running, the second year's always hardest. Are teams now starting to work out that, you know, this is what they're going to do, we just need, if we can get an early goal, then they have to come out and we can get at them because we was at four losses now in the last five games and they still are riding on my ideas that Costa Barbarousas will save them every game.

Erik (12:45.495)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (12:46.116)
Costa can't have a fucking blind at every game. know he has a season in a bit, but I just feel like...

Ronaldingo (12:51.286)
Well, Chifi said it, Macca. Chifi said, I make no bones about the fact that I'm building my team, that I've built this team around Costa and what he can do up front. I mean, last season it wasn't even his position. They had Zavada up there. So now you're building everything. But he did say that in the pregame, that Costa is a great player and they're building this around him. Eric, it's a tough watch for Phoenix at the moment. What do you make of City firstly though? Because...

Daniel McBreen (12:58.352)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (13:02.318)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (13:07.567)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (13:16.872)
And they all these kids are coming through their academy as well. Mikey Gossaney, who laid on the goal for well, was involved in the goal. They've all got big raps on him and he's only 17 as well. And he's he's one of these kids we're seeing now, who was a Melbourne Heart fan, or Melbourne City so young, he was probably a Melbourne City fan, not a Melbourne Heart fan.

Daniel McBreen (13:23.225)
Yep.

Erik (13:35.692)
Yeah, I've got a few theories on both sides really, but I think going back to the injury thing over Melbourne City, I think when I was there, when we trained in, was it Bandura, we changed onto a new pitch. was a state of the art pitch, artificial weave, and it was okay until it got to the summer months. And then we started having a lot of problems with players, like, know, wetting the pitch. It couldn't get wet enough on the hot days because the dry stuff would be really, really dry.

I'm thinking since they've shifted out to their new training base. Is that something that they've now fallen short with in terms of the surface? I mean, it could be as simple as that while they've had so many hamstring injuries. The young players, yeah, I mean, I wouldn't know half the team to be honest, because it's I think Melbourne City has one of the highest turnovers of players, you know, in the country. What I liked about the way that they played was they really pressed Wellington Phoenix and they stayed up there and they won the ball back in the right areas. But

I was really surprised, what was Wellington Phoenix doing? don't, from the outside looking in, watching them last year, they were quick on the counter, getting forward, scoring goals. This year, they were playing out from the back, but like Macca said, no real final third entries and playing in their own half. So what was the strategy there? I didn't understand what they were looking to do. And I think the arrival of Auckland this year has really unsettled.

you know, the apple cut a little bit. think it has and they've lost twice to them already, but I think, you know, Macca as a player, I think some of those players must be thinking already halfway through the year, is Auckland an option? It's not just Wellington now. And we have seen some players re-sign for Wellington. I think that they've upset the apple cut Auckland and that's why Wellington are really struggling.

Ronaldingo (15:17.974)
We're getting a little window into the mind of a professional footballer here, Six months into the season, hmm, grass is looking greener.

Erik (15:22.805)
Yeah, yeah.

Daniel McBreen (15:24.558)
jump ship straight away.

Erik (15:28.162)
Possibly. mean, you know, there was you know, some players have resigned for Wellington over Auckland I understand that but I just feel now If you're if you're sitting there at Wellington Phoenix and you've got six months left and you've seen Auckland Nailing it doing a great game day paying more money. Maybe a better city. Some of those boys must be like be tempted. No, Maka

Daniel McBreen (15:51.577)
I think you've jumped the gun but yeah look, and also I look at it as well and say right well

The Knicks had a whole country to pull the young players in to, you know, to their academy to sign in scholarships and bring them in. Now they've got this, well, they're a new big dog in town, aren't they? Because they've got a billionaire owner who can go, well, we will give 10 scholarships to in the squad. We can do that. And that might sort of, I do think you're right. That can change the whole dynamic of a club that was like, all New Zealand kids are gonna wanna come to us.

we've to actually up our game. And I'm not saying their game wasn't good before, where they weren't doing things right, they had it. We talk about Chifi saying before that...

that Auckland have been lucky with their draw and all that kind of stuff, they were the only team in the country. And talk about being lucky, every kid wanted to go to you. There was no competition unless they were gonna go to Australia and then they're in New Zealand so all that stuff comes into play about foreign players. So they've had it good for however many years they've been in the competition now and now these boys down the road have gone.

Erik (16:44.621)
Hmm.

Ronaldingo (17:00.34)
years.

Daniel McBreen (17:04.12)
where the new big dogs in town and I do think you're right that has disrupted them but whether or not that's turned the eye of players yet in the season I just think as a player and I've said this I think before playing in that system where you're getting limited opportunities to go forward now so look at the stats on the weekend the percentage when you look at the the action areas I don't think I've ever seen 6.8 percent was the how much the ball was spent in Melbourne City's back third I don't think I've ever

Erik (17:10.507)
Yeah, know. Bit early.

Ronaldingo (17:32.512)
in the...

Erik (17:32.98)
It's crazy, isn't it?

Daniel McBreen (17:34.047)
seen that before in a game of football. I was going to try and go back to that Melbourne victory, Wellington game, where they didn't have a shot on goal but managed to score a goal because it was an own goal.

but I didn't get a chance to look at that. They had two touches in the opposition box. passes in opposition half is 75 to 392. If I'm playing in that kind of thing, and this is the same thing every week, they're four, five, one, five, four, one, and chiefly likes to say, oh, we like to move this, and we like to, I wanna play this kind of way. They sit in a block and they go. And we've said this time and time again. The law of averages and percentages over time will tell us if you don't create many chances, you aren't gonna, over time, it's not gonna be productive.

Erik (17:43.373)
So.

Erik (17:51.681)
Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Daniel McBreen (18:13.006)
You might do it for spurts and spits and I think that's one of the reasons they fell away at the end last year and we predicted it is that when you only have two, three good chances or chances at all in a game and the opposition is getting seven, eight, nine, ten, twelve, well of course the odds are going to say they're going to go in and if you can see it early, well then you've got to go for it, then your whole thing changes. But they didn't go for didn't seem to go for it at all and...

Chivvy said they had opportunities to go forward when they didn't. They just felt, I thought you're right, City did the same to Mariners a week before too and they pressed and they caught them under pressure and they didn't allow them really to get their head up to play forward. And I think City are going to be, when you think that Leckie, all those guys I've just named, when they're all back, fuck me, look out. They're going to be a team to look out for again.

Erik (18:59.276)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (19:02.156)
Well, what's interesting about what they're doing with all these kids, you mentioned, you know, two 18 year olds, 17 year old coming off the bench, all this sort of thing, but they have, they know how to play, they know how to do that press, which is the important thing because we've seen it at Perth, we've seen it at Sydney, we've seen it at Western Sydney, sides where you make a few changes, become completely unbalanced and can't play anything even resembling an organized pressing game. And here,

They're losing experienced players every week. Kuhn went off after 13 minutes. He's your playmaker in the middle of the park. He's already laid on one assist. And yes, I think that they are lacking a little bit in the final third just for all their domination. But in terms of organization and discipline, they're bringing these kids in and they're ready to play that system. So they're getting something right.

Erik (19:54.157)
You need a squad, absolutely. And it's amazing you're right with the players you just named there to be out and injured and still have the impact they have. Even Nathaniel Atkinson wasn't, you know, years ago wasn't really playing that way. I think he playing as a fullback, if I'm not wrong. And now he's playing this forward momentum midfielder and getting that goal was a great passing move, but they waited for Phoenix to make that mistake. And I just can't believe that Wellington Phoenix aren't using

Ronaldingo (20:09.29)
Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Erik (20:23.222)
someone like Acosta Barbarousas who can score and has been scoring amazing goals this season. Why wouldn't you build your team around that and have that more of a focal point? yeah, I think Vidmar, he'll be extremely happy with what he's seeing so far. And if they get it right before those players come back, then we've got a great chance this year.

Daniel McBreen (20:42.523)
I will throw out there before we move on to the next one because I know you're going to want to move on Robbie. Chief was also asked about, know, he said last year that he's a model off the derby and they want to play that way and he threw out the quintessential, I don't want to make excuses and I know it's a long pre-season but we didn't have enough time to work with the players in the way that I want to play and soon as it fell out of his mouth I think he was saying, fuck I probably shouldn't have said that because you you can't say in the Australian...

Ronaldingo (21:09.964)
You

Daniel McBreen (21:11.47)
pre-season you haven't got enough time to work on the things you want to play. Zrula said it earlier and he got smashed by everyone. So yeah, look, maybe it's the second year, it's a little bit different, people are starting to wake up to the way you want to play and it's always harder. It's easy to be...

Ronaldingo (21:14.729)
Exactly.

Erik (21:18.445)
Hmm.

Ronaldingo (21:22.795)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (21:29.616)
Should we have a quick little French football reference in here, Maca? Deserby is coaching Marseille at the moment. They just won 5-1, beat Luave this morning. Mason Greenwood is playing as their number 10 at the moment at Marseille and doing very well. So there you go, Luave are bottom though. And if I can...

Daniel McBreen (21:50.522)
Did they sit back and did they only have two touches in the opposition box and seven passes in the opposition half? Is that the way they play?

Ronaldingo (21:55.756)
They had a couple of chances in the first half. But anyway, let's not dwell. I've been up since 2 o'clock in the morning. I also got to commentate PSG vs Monaco in the French Super Cup, which was played overnight. Usman Dembeli, goal in the 92nd minute. That goal went in about 4.15am in Australia. So I've had a long fucking night.

Erik (22:24.631)
You look energetic, mate. You look pretty good.

Daniel McBreen (22:25.026)
Always working, always working mate, aren't ya? But this is a-legal affair, not fucking legal one-ot affair.

Ronaldingo (22:25.228)
Yeah, exactly. Always work. All right, next up, let's find some more people that aren't working enough. next up, Brisbane won Central Coast Mariners 3. This is another one. To be fair, Brisbane weren't probably on the balance of play 3-1 losers to the Mariners, but not because they were amazing. The Mariners are

Erik (22:37.742)
Ugh.

Ronaldingo (22:53.79)
a little bit average at the moment. They managed to get across the line late. Walled Shaw gave the Mariners a helping hand with an 11th minute own goal. And then it was a very, you know, even contest really. Ben Halloran scored a great goal in the 71st minute to equalize. And then Harrison Steele scored a fucking great goal in the 81st minute, the diving header, before Arthur de Lima.

Erik (23:16.961)
I

Ronaldingo (23:22.92)
on debut, got his first ever A-league goal and again, I mean, he was looking to put it in one corner, bounced down, went in the other corner, only just, but fair play, nothing wrong with scoring on debut. Eric, let's go to you because as we've already mentioned once or twice, you did play at Brisbane for a couple of years during quite a good period for the club. Ruben Zadkovic, after the game, said incredulously when asked,

the question, are you the man? I am the man, he said. And I think he was, look, is he? Is he Eric? Is Ruben Zadkovich the man? Because, you know, I've got a stat attack coming up, a shat attack, a shat stat coming in a moment, which is not at all glorious for Brisbane Raw. How long can this continue?

Erik (24:11.031)
You

Erik (24:19.33)
Hopefully not much longer, to be honest. It's difficult for me to comment because I don't, I have an attachment to the fans and the history and what we did. But I don't really have an attachment to the club. The club that I knew that I played for has been gone for a long time. And I hate to say that. I hate to say that on the behalf of the fans and all that.

I've distanced myself a lot from when I've played and I've just moved on to my next club and I try not to look back too much and get involved with it, but yeah coming back here and covering the games I've got Brisbane on Tuesday night and yeah the last four seasons they've you know not been in the the playoffs last three season not been in the playoffs fourth in 21 and fourth in 1920 that's not such a bad finish but you look at the way that they're playing

last season, the way they're playing this season, they're like boys versus men and you can be young enough and good enough to play in the league but just the professionalism of the players, just you know the naivety sometimes, I ability gets sent off like just it's crazy the first tackle and then to get sent off the way it did it was just a bit naive but that's the way that Zadkiewicz has got the guys playing I think it's when you've got a leader that's a bit

Ronaldingo (25:36.288)
Yeah.

Erik (25:43.848)
inexperienced, I think we're now starting to see the way that he's coached or the way he's learned to coach. I don't think he's had enough time to have that experience in going and making errors and why for the life of us, is he in one of the 13 jobs in the A-League getting that experience? So for me, zero wins in 10. I don't know if you bring in another coach, it gets better, but...

You know, you can't just be coming out and opening yourself up and trying to play when you're bottom of the table. They had moments, mind you. Corey Brown with that ball and looked like a handball. Great ball in for Haller and he scores his first goal and was it 12 years for the club, but he'd been away for a long time. I think when you're going up to Brisbane now, apart from someone like a J.O. Shea who must be so frustrated, it's a holiday. Boys are going up there now, it's like the contract, great, I'm gonna get paid.

mixed in with young boys who are not being led properly. And that's as nice as I can be at the moment for Brisbane Royal. Do they need a new coach? Yes, but do they need new management, new owners? Yes. The direction's not been there for a long time.

Daniel McBreen (26:53.701)
Yeah, look, we all know, I think, the Bakery group.

Some fuck all really for the club. Let's be honest. All on Sunday we said they need to go but who else is going to take over if they do is the big question. The league can't afford to subsidise a club. Again, they've done it for a few clubs recently and I think they're financially not able to do it. Getting back to the coaching situation. I know Robbie's going to pull out all the world's worst stats to show that they're fucking terrible.

Erik (27:02.593)
Yeah.

Erik (27:09.697)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (27:30.17)
People are going to start asking the question because...

Ruben to me is the best politician in the world at the moment because he gets asked a question and he doesn't answer it and he, to be fair to Ruben, he fronts up. A lot of coaches in the past have just when it's this bad just go, I'll send this, I'm not going to do it, I can't do pre-match. To be fair to him, he fronts up to every interview. But when he fronts up, he doesn't answer a question, he always falls back to it's gonna take a time, we've got a plan, we need to use three windows. So then I think people start to ask a question is, what is the fucking plan?

then? Because you keep talking about this long-term strategy, this long-term plan and you're going to need windows. Well, you signed 15 players in the last window.

So if you sign those 15 players in the last window and there's players that you couldn't get off contract, alright, so go back to this time last year when Ross Alawisi left, this team was sitting fifth in the league and playing really attractive football. They were, to be fair, we all like, Jesus, we never expected this. So the players that are there could produce. Now you've brought in 15 players and now you're saying, you need three windows to bring in players. Well, you've just brought in two thirds of the squad.

Ronaldingo (28:28.832)
Cup finalists.

Erik (28:30.125)
There you go.

Daniel McBreen (28:41.581)
My question would be is, what is the long-term strategy? If you have a long-term strategy, you must have player profiles that fit that strategy. So if you've got the player profiles, did you get the player profiles wrong and you can't see a player and you brought in 15 players that don't fit the player profiles, so can you not see a player? Or who is in charge of that? Because you've obviously got your player profiles wrong that you brought in. Or there wasn't a long-term strategy that's in place and your player profiles aren't there and you've just gone and got players willy-nilly.

and brought them in and they didn't, they're just not working out. So either way, it's wrong. There's something going on. So this long term plan to me, we've heard it time and time again with football coaches over time, it sounds like you're buying time for yourself. Especially when you've brought in 15 players in the off season. This three window thing is bullshit in my eyes because you've had the chance to do it in one window. And then...

Ronaldingo (29:36.736)
Well, another curious one, Makka, a curious one at the moment is that Henry Hoare is back. Now, he was there in his Brisbane Raw polo watching the game and Ruben was asked the question about that and immediately said, Henry's going to make a massive difference when he comes in, when he's available. You know, he's he last year, he was our best player. All this sort of all this sort of stuff, all this rhetoric as though.

It's a fucking knight in shining armor is riding in. And it's like, the coach, you know, I think it's great. Like you say, Ruben fronts up and Ruben does occasionally, you know, express himself well and say and say lots of things like that. But I don't think he should be saying that. They're they're sort of words that when you've got a squad, a whole squad that are busting their balls and losing and then one guy who's been out on loan is coming back and you're saying he's going to make all the difference again.

You set yourself up, but also you're saying one player can make all the difference. What about the players you've had there that aren't doing fuck all? I mean, it's crazy.

Daniel McBreen (30:40.901)
Yeah, well we've said this before, where there was a pre-match press conference where he said, you know, this is where we talked about the windows and we need new players. And then after the match, he said, I wish I had the players they had to bring off the bench, when he had Beron Gare and these other guys sitting on the bench. And I said to them, if I was a player, I'd be like, fuck you, we're not good enough for you, maybe you're not good enough for us. Like that's how I would have, as a player, gone, so you're saying we're all not good enough? Get fucked.

Ronaldingo (31:01.643)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (31:09.53)
Eric, I don't know if you said you're not too much in touch with the club anymore, but what are the players thinking about this? I know they're not going to say in public, they're always going go, yeah, we'll keep working, and they're going to say toe the line and all that, but are they happy with the situation? Do they feel like this is the right place?

Erik (31:29.196)
I think it'd be an unsettling time, know, to be bottom of the leagues, never nice. You've got a young coach, I'm sure he's trying to get the players all on side of him. Exactly what you guys just said there, the messages never seem to be clear or one way.

with Ruben, like, you know, he's a young manager. played against Ruben when I was a kid, same age group as me. It's great he's had the opportunity, but you read between the lines and you hear things behind the scenes of what actually has transpired in his career. And, you know, it's hard to speculate, but you're wondering what and how.

you can play for a manager that has had the history he's had and problems on the field with players. And I think he's a very good frontman, like you said, and I think behind the scenes, if you're going to be an SOB, a son of a bitch, then that's fine. You've got to be a son of a bitch and get results. You can't be behind the scenes being like that and the boys are going further even down and not getting results. But at some point they need to make a decision. They're not going to make the finals this year.

So, you know, what's the club waiting for? Do they think this Henry Hall is going to make a difference? I agree with you, Robbie. They need goal scorers. They need experienced pros. They need a better direction. you know, to lose to anyone at home at Brisbane when we played was unthinkable. Not because we were so good, but it was the heat. literally could pass the ball around and teams would struggle.

in the humidity in Brisbane. I just, think it's, it's, everyone looks at Brisbane and goes boom, three points. So as a player at Mac, I think right now sitting there bottom of the league, zero wins. Motivation must be extremely low and they'll be looking to somebody to pull them out of it. And I just don't think, you know, if you have the same manager and the same team out there, you're going to get the same results.

Daniel McBreen (33:27.032)
Now know you're going to go with stats for Brisbane but let's just flip and just talk about the Mariners for a sec. You can throw your stats in after. Because we have said the Mariners haven't been playing great football, they haven't been really good in the front third but what do they keep doing? They keep finding a way to pick up points. They keep finding a way to get a draw when they think that you look like they're going to lose. They keep finding a way to get three points every now and then. they're a shadow of former self.

Erik (33:30.029)
Yeah

Ronaldingo (33:31.114)
I am.

Yep. Yep.

Ronaldingo (33:53.258)
Yeah, the difference, difference, Makar, is that last year they were finding a way to win every game. And we said this last last season, it was impressive. They would always find a way because they went through a long period where they were struggling. This season, the difference is they're finding a way to win every two or three games and maybe steal a point every two or three games. But it's a lot harder slog, isn't it?

Daniel McBreen (34:09.784)
now and then. Yep.

Daniel McBreen (34:16.408)
Yeah, yeah, and look, don't, Mark Jackson has said it's a completely different kettle of fish this year. He's been in his press conferences and said that, you know, they've already said in this January window they would hope to strengthen the squad, but you're right, we just talk about there where you've got one team who you could pretty much say they probably were the better team in that game.

the stats will show that. But they've got no way to find a win at all or find even a point at the moment. And you've got another team where you look at them and go, fuck, they are looking pretty ordinary. Because I suppose we've expected Mariners to be up here because of the way they've been the last two seasons, but they find a way. when it went to one all the other night, I thought there's only one winner here. Brisbane should go ahead and win this because Mariners were just defending, defending, defending. But then when bang one all up.

Ronaldingo (35:00.608)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (35:05.262)
Yeah, okay, was it one-all? Fuck, I getting my heads right? Yeah. And then when he scored, yeah, you thought they're gonna come through a minute and then bang, they go up the other end and they find a way with a young guy coming and scoring a goal. They just, that's the difference when you look at a team that I think believes they can do it and a team that just goes, we're...

Ronaldingo (35:09.238)
2-1 when Harry scored.

Erik (35:27.255)
You look at the midfield they've got though, even like Mikael Doker. I saw him play the other night, did a game against MacArthur and you know, his influence is just massive. You don't know where he's going to play and that could be a good thing and a bad thing for Mark Jackson. But guys like Doker and Storm Rue with that ball he put in, McAlmont, Harry Steele, they're really good players and you've lost four or five good players every year. And that's the most impressive thing about the Mariners. Maybe they've had the stutter.

already this season, if they can add maybe another goal scorer in their ranks, I can see them going on a run now. They needed that game against Brisbane. They needed that confidence booster.

Ronaldingo (36:09.228)
I think the key for them is to get rid of a goal scorer first and then bring in one that actually can regularly score goals. Cause that's their problem. They've got options up there that just aren't consistent. All right, it's time to shit out a stat for you all courtesy of our legendary stats man, Andy Howe, Stato on Twitter. Go and check him out, give him a follow.

Daniel McBreen (36:13.262)
Yeah.

Erik (36:13.397)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (36:16.378)
Yeah.

Erik (36:16.395)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (36:35.678)
Stato is talking today about worst season starts ever. Sorry, Brisbane Raw fans, turn away now. Or if you're the type of fans that love a trainwreck, turn up the volume because this is for you. Brisbane Raw's two draws and eight losses ranks as the equal worst in A-League men's history after 10 games. Equal second worst of any Australian men's team since 1977.

Daniel McBreen (36:46.554)
you

Ronaldingo (37:03.476)
That's the start of the old NSL. The Roars two competition points after 10 games has only happened once before in the A-League when the Central Coast Mariners also had two points and eight losses at the start of the 2018-19 season. In the NSL era, there was only one worst start after 10 games. Canberra Cosmos were on zero points all the way to their 13th game.

Erik (37:18.273)
Wow.

Ronaldingo (37:32.682)
of the 1998-99 season. Initially under coach Rally Rasic. Then Tommy Samani took over Canberra's coaching reins in round 14. Ultimately, the Cosmos picked up four wins in that season, but still finished 10 points behind second last. So if this is where Brisbane are headed, it's not a good sign.

Erik (37:38.86)
No way.

Ronaldingo (38:01.132)
And total aside, because Stato loves to give you a stat, but then he goes the extra yard. Raleigh Rasic, of course, we all know, coached the first men's World Cup team in 1974. Tommy Samani coached the first women's World Cup team in 1995. And according to Stato, this is the first time in world history.

that the coaches of a country's first men's and first women's World Cup teams coached the same club to the wooden spoon in a single domestic season. And I reckon he's got it spot on, nailed it. Stato, you're alleged. And, and Maka, you were saying, you were adding because I know you're, you're, you converted to the church of stats now and you're shitting them out the whole time whenever you get the opportunity.

Erik (38:36.631)
Wow.

Wow.

Daniel McBreen (38:40.942)
He's done it again.

Ronaldingo (38:54.464)
that you've already looked into just how shit that Mariners run was in 1819 and Brisbane still have the chance to not be as bad as them, amazingly.

Daniel McBreen (38:59.737)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (39:04.154)
Yeah, think there's still a few rounds to go before the Mariners picked up another point in that... what is it? Anas Horribilis. I'm trying to remember who the coach was that year. But yeah, I think it's another three rounds or so before the Mariners even picked up a point. So, least Ruben can look at that and say, if we pick up a point in the next three or four rounds, we're not the worst ever.

Ronaldingo (39:14.528)
Yep, that's it.

Ronaldingo (39:23.616)
Yeah. Exactly.

Ronaldingo (39:29.686)
Get the monkey off the back. I was going to bring up a talking point about that Brisbane losses, but I think it's perfectly applicable here because this is even more flagrant in that Perth snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in this one. It was spectacular. They were leading Western United, probably deservedly so, on the final installment of Friday Night Football.

Adam Taggart got his 50th goal for Perth glory before Matt Grimaldi equalized almost immediately. Jared Carluccio then scored a great goal set up by by tags. And then in the 91st minute, the implosion happened. Tate Russell equalizing before Jordan Lawton showed in fact, who is the fucking man in the A league at the moment. Jordan Lawton.

Erik (40:23.511)
Hehehehe

Daniel McBreen (40:23.892)
Hehehehehe

Erik (40:28.311)
Bloody hell.

Ronaldingo (40:29.054)
In the 95th minute, with the bicycle kick, this was just fucking outrageous. Eric, you were calling this one. Did you see this coming?

Erik (40:36.343)
Yep. Aw, mate.

No, so I mean early on Olly Sale made some massive saves. Western United should have been a couple of goals up. And I think if you're still, if you forget the score line, if you're a team analyzing the Perth glory, you're still, you're rubbing your hands together. The back line still.

all over the shot, they're a bit too high, they're crossing over each other, lots of space afforded. What I loved about Western United's game, I think you guys have watched it obviously more than I have, but Angus Thurgate, he just keeps making this late run. you know, to Perth Glory's credit in the second half, they tried to win the ball back and play it quickly through the space that he'd vacated, they just couldn't find Adam Taggart quick enough. But I really like Angus Thurgate's game, I like how Western play.

But yeah, that Jalen Peerman, he might be a talent lads. He's big, he's strong and he literally just turned off his right shoulder and clipped a ball on and Adam Taggart, he makes some really, really good smart runs and the timing was perfect. And you know over there, Macca, if Perth Glory can get that home crowd behind them, you you shit yourself as an opponent. You go across there and you're like, fuck.

Perth Glory on top, home crowd, their vocal half of them pissed in the shed up there shouting abuse at you anyway. But then it got to the end and I I analysed the game after as well, just looking at it and the defending was so poor from Glory. They didn't know what to do. Brandon O'Neill came in to try and shore things up. the Russell goal, Tate Russell goal at the far post, was like, they didn't clear their lines. know, he's run.

Erik (42:25.005)
30 meters unmarked and scored at the far post. And then the Jordan Lawton goal. mean, you could argue Angus Thurgate's been making that run. Don't let the cross come in. Backline sitting too deep and no one picks up Jordan Lawton. But when he's scoring a goal like that, you could just see David Zrilich just be like, what else can we do to try and win a game? But they're conceding too many. I think goal scoring is maybe not a problem. I think tags can score. Yeah, so tags can score a goal.

Ronaldingo (42:50.764)
that's 30, 30 against now.

Erik (42:55.085)
But yeah, was all about Jordan Lawton, great hairstyle and I think Tayo had a really good goal shout for him as well. was just like, no way, no way. We couldn't believe it. was bloody awesome.

Daniel McBreen (43:07.898)
It'll go down as one of, I think it could be the goal of the year, but also, you know, we talk about Arias-Piols earlier in the year and I'm sure there'll be others, but it was the context of that. They were down, down with only about three minutes to go and then they come back and he gets the winner.

Erik (43:23.725)
Hmm.

Daniel McBreen (43:25.976)
You're right, Olly Sale had a great game for them and there's obviously nothing he could do about that last goal. He made a couple of great saves and you've got to feel for Perth Glory fans because they keep turning up. They're there in force, you can hear them getting behind their team and then they just got...

Ronaldingo (43:39.744)
Yeah. Pissed and swearing in the shed.

Daniel McBreen (43:43.227)
Yeah, constantly and they just got kicked in the balls again. And you're right, if you go back to the first goal, the equaliser, it's Liz Alowski, is that how you say it, Liz Alowski, he's so much deeper than everyone else and if he stepped up, he probably wins the header that gets flicked on and it doesn't go on. And these are the small details of the killing. We said it time and time with Perth at the start is, but they looked okay.

Erik (43:45.485)
Good fans.

Ronaldingo (43:51.372)
Ha

Erik (43:59.702)
is lousy.

Ronaldingo (44:00.662)
Yeah.

Erik (44:05.815)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (44:13.18)
hey, they look like a football team again and they were playing some good football, they were challenging, they were in front and then those little moments is what kills you as a coach because there's no reason for him to drop that extra two metres, he shouldn't be there, he should be up with everyone else and as they go to flick on he's there to win it and it doesn't happen, they see out the game and they win. And Jordan Lawton, I'll be honest, he put that ball through against Sydney when Michael Ruse went through and scored and in that game I remember thinking, fuck I like the cut of this young fella,

Ronaldingo (44:36.266)
Yeah. Yeah. For Michael Ruse. Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (44:43.273)
Just his body shape, his positioning, not to mention his hair, he looks fucking unreal. But all the little things he was doing in this game, I was watching and they were equal and I just remember thinking he wants the ball all the time and when he gets it, his body shape's right and his touch is perfect and he bounces the ball and he looks to play. And I was like, gee, I really like the look of this young fella and I haven't seen much of him but what he does, and as I'm thinking, Nils, he goes in and pulls that fucking overhead. And I think I did the same as everyone in Australia, we all just went, what the fuck?

Erik (44:47.883)
Hahaha

Erik (45:08.821)
Yeah. Nuts.

Ronaldingo (45:09.804)
You

Daniel McBreen (45:12.956)
What was that? It was just fantastic. To show that such a young player to have the confidence just to throw that in as well. I think, as I say, the small we've seen of him, he looks a player. And if he keeps that hairstyle, he'll be recognisable all around the world.

Erik (45:13.217)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ronaldingo (45:15.504)
You

Erik (45:33.133)
Can I just add, I think what that does as well, just quickly about the young players I said at the start of the show, you know, we're now not seeing just young players getting opportunities to play from the start. We're guys coming in and Aloeisi putting Lawton in and saying, go and make an impact. And I think 10 years ago, 15 years ago in this competition at 2-0, if you're a midfielder coming in there or whatever, you may be thinking about staying on the edge of the box and you're going, I'll make sure we don't get counter-attacked. We'll take the 2-0.

Ronaldingo (45:34.036)
Exactly.

Erik (46:02.893)
But the young guys in this competition are gonna make it exciting. They might get a lot wrong, but they make that run forward. I mean, I still don't know how he actually angled his body, because usually you go for a scissor kick when the ball, you go past it and you have to readjust and go. He's moving and just decides, oh, fuck this, I'm just gonna go for it. And I don't think anyone else would have tried that. I think that boy, he's got that confidence in the locker.

Daniel McBreen (46:28.548)
Yeah, and I... Get on Robbie. I was going to say... We've got a little delay here haven't we fucker. I just want to...

Ronaldingo (46:29.322)
Yeah, no, I think he's... Go, Mako. Well, I was just gonna... Yeah, you go. Okay, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Daniel McBreen (46:41.303)
look at the last four games, four wins in the spin from Western United, one point off second. I've said this before, I picked them to come last this year because I looked at how useful their squad was, their third youngest in the league. I thought they were looking at Angus Thurgood, who I think is a great player, but is he the one at 24 years of age, he's gonna have to be the one that really runs this show in midfield. I thought Ibasuki, they're gonna have to sit back because they're so young and they're gonna have to go quick and Ibasuki's not gonna have the pace

Erik (46:44.429)
Mmm.

Daniel McBreen (47:11.206)
get in the box but he's dropping in the midfield at times now over Sukies well and combining and then letting the other guys go forward at times. John Alois has done a really good job with them and the fact that he's got a 17 year old in the heart of his defense who's the youngest ever goal scorer, the youngest ever own goal scorer, the youngest ever sold sent off but like you said Eric that they'll make mistakes, they'll they'll fuck up and do you know what? It was asked John Alois how's he gone through all this his period is like he's fine because we just said guess what everyone makes

Erik (47:25.037)
crazy.

Erik (47:30.632)
It's a good game, isn't it?

Erik (47:40.193)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (47:41.069)
mistakes just get on with it just go and play football we didn't put any pressure on him so he just steps back into the team you're still going to play and that experience of am I

Thurgate and Ibasuki has just sprinkled in there, he's fantastic and then you add that quality of your Lawton's, your Leonard's, Wallerty, he's been quality as well. I think John Aloisi is doing a fantastic job with this squad and I've been very impressed with him and you're right Angus Thurgate is a huge cog in that wheel. He is everywhere on the pitch, he's up trying to score goals, he's back defending. He got clocked a couple years ago at some speed that was

like phenomenal when he was at the Jets chasing back. He does the same now and you watch him, he'll go forward to join the play, they lose the ball and he's one of the first back in the box making a covering tackle because he just fucking runs his heart out and he's a massive part of their game.

Ronaldingo (48:39.252)
All right, let's move on. Maka, you mentioned that you picked Western United. Who did you predict to win the league? Okay, so let's talk about Sydney FC now, Maka, because they are shit as well. Okay, Newcastle. Newcastle were 2-0 up here with 12 minutes left to play against Sydney FC.

Daniel McBreen (48:46.074)
Sydney. Sydney. Someone fucked all around.

Yes.

Erik (48:54.465)
Ha ha ha Jesus

Ronaldingo (49:07.44)
And I was watching this one down in Melbourne before commentating Melbourne victory and me and Harps were sitting up in the commentary position with this one on and just watching it and just thinking, is it going to happen? Is it going to, is Sydney going to come back? Because, and this is, I'll ask, I'll ask this question before we get into the game to both of you, because it's relevant. It's a relevant question to the last, to the last three matches. We talk about, or perhaps,

I see, when I see a great run, an undefeated run or a run of victories or, you know, Brisbane going 36. You know that Brisbane must be a great side if they can go 36 games undefeated, but it is actually phenomenal to go that long and not have a bad day at the office, to not have a bad refereeing decision, to not be at the mercy of...

a bad refereeing decision, the ball hitting the post, bouncing in instead of out, a penalty that was never a penalty. All those things that don't happen to you, for you that you're able to win or go up 36 games without defeat. I'm starting to get the feeling that the opposite is also true. Because these guys just can't fucking get a win. None of those three teams can get a win. I mean, they have won Newcastle and Perth have both won, but

Erik (50:27.745)
You

Ronaldingo (50:34.432)
But fuck here again, just like Perth, they're in front with just seconds remaining here they're in front by two goals with minutes remaining at home in front of their biggest crowd of the season, a whole lot of goodwill, which they haven't had a lot of, and yet they find a way. And it's like, you'd think for a Brisbane raw, they never had a bad day. You're thinking these guys, Eric, they're never going to have a fucking good day. And something that's why you think it's not only luck. They're not, it's not, they're not out of luck.

Erik (50:56.513)
Hmm. Yeah.

Ronaldingo (51:04.33)
There is bad luck involved. is, but fuck, if you go 10 games, if you go eight games where you can't win, losing becomes a habit.

Erik (51:13.677)
Sure it does, absolutely. I think from the Jets point of view, yeah, they didn't defend that one at the death there off the corner. Keepers made two sort of claims at it and, you know, Caseros hit a great volley. I think just, yeah, again, the mentality of playing in the A-League, it's got to be consistent. You can't be, you know, throwing up different performances or...

You know different game plans for you. I think with Brisbane was a very different time in the league for us It was you know teams weren't playing out from the back and we started doing a playing possession and everyone knows the history but I look at these teams even with Sydney FC for that matter just sort of the identity of You know, we talked about Wellington Phoenix sitting in and playing at least I had something they had something where they're gonna sit in and play You know, whatever they're trying to do, but with new cast of jets. I struggle to find how

they play, how they operate. That ball in that Aqualina's ripped in though, that was one of the best balls I think I've seen in the league. And you're watching that and you're going far out, this team could be good. And then all these gaps starting to appear. And I think when it comes down to it, quality at Newcastle with Jets probably hasn't been there for a long time in terms of foreign signings, even the locals are not really...

exciting to you know and you're up against yeah that is a problem yeah and then you've got guys like you know Lolly coming in and you know for me at Sydney FC and for the league he's been one of the best imports we've had because he quietly goes about his business you can see he's a cut above everyone when he's playing and Kaceres has been performing

Ronaldingo (52:41.876)
Yeah. Well, there are very few locals, Eric, in the team. That's one of the problems and the fact that they had no owner for however many seasons as well. So, you know.

Erik (53:07.565)
for so long. when you put those ingredients, go, do the Jets deserve to win that game? Well, probably not. So I know it's problems for them and they're going to hang around the bottom of the table again, but I just think identity, philosophy, quality, I just think that the quality is there.

Daniel McBreen (53:27.588)
Yeah, key elements in the game is that they bossed the first half.

Sydney looked like they were running in mud, were lethargic, were slow. Ouflake Talley was apoplectic at the end of the first half because he was just constantly saying, why aren't you going forward? Why are you not moving the ball quickly? You could hear him. It was 45 minutes of frustration from him. on the flip side of that, the Jets were very well organised, they mastered well, they pressured well, and they did start to move well and they caused problems, particularly down the left.

Erik (53:38.519)
Yeah.

Erik (53:43.277)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (54:04.892)
Eli Adams, was, was it, Will Marie as well was getting involved. They were causing problems down the left hand side and they just didn't have that final touch. But then as the game wears on...

Erik (54:09.591)
Wombaring,

Daniel McBreen (54:21.132)
it's that mindset, Robbie, where you talk about if you're a winner, you think, we're gonna go over steamroll teams here. The mindset starts to creep in and they start to alter a little bit from, we're dominating this, keep moving the ball around, and then it starts to get a little bit deeper in defence, a little bit drop off, a little bit further, and then once they made a couple of changes at one stage, I think I said in comms that was, Wellesol was at left back, they had a six, a back line of six, three in front and one in front of that, and you're like, you're just asking Sydney.

Erik (54:48.301)
Yeah. Inviting it.

Ronaldingo (54:48.566)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (54:51.076)
to come and get themselves out of this. It was just this, whereas if you think you've got that winning mindset, Wellesol goes and pushes the presser's the guy a little bit higher who's going to play that ball to wherever it's going to go. And then when that ball got rolled out to Lolley, Will Marin got caught a little high and he was busting his ass to get back and I was thinking the whole time, don't overcompensate, don't overcompensate because you know what he's going to do, he's going to cut back on his left foot and go inside you. And the whole time he was running back I was thinking that, okay, you fair,

Erik (55:13.569)
Hmm. Yeah.

Ronaldingo (55:16.897)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (55:20.956)
yourself a bit out of position, don't do it, don't do it and then he just let him inside and as soon as he went inside before it even hit the ball I'm like this is in the side netting. You fucking knew it and it's like how much would have they have spoken during the week about do not let Joe Lolley cut inside.

Erik (55:24.013)
Yeah, you knew it man

Ronaldingo (55:35.87)
Yeah, about that exact moment. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (55:38.203)
It would have been fucking battered into them all week and that's when you think bang there's the moment in the game that they've switched off, they don't think about what they're supposed to do, they're not thinking about their 1v1 duel with that player, what is his strength, one of the best players in the league, to cut inside and shoot into the far corner, I'll fucking let him do it. And it was, you could just see it unfolding. And then from there it's all of a sudden, the ass starts to go a little bit and you sit at your ass sitting deeper

Ronaldingo (56:07.562)
You

Daniel McBreen (56:08.156)
you look at the corner, have a look at where all the Jets players are. They're all back in the six yard box. It's no longer, well I'm gonna mark him, I'm gonna mark him. It's everybody all back in here to just try to stop everything. And Ryan Scott fucks up, he'll admit it. He didn't punch it well. His second punch is under pressure. But then, Kisaris is standing on the penalty spot, free as a bird, just going, fucking, I can volley this in no problems. And you look, and there's nine field players standing inside the

Erik (56:18.881)
Yeah, I killed the keeper then.

Erik (56:34.573)
That can't happen.

Daniel McBreen (56:38.106)
six blocks, six yard box, and I think that's a mentality. I think that's...

fuck, we've all just got to get back and cover the goal, not do your job in these areas. And it becomes, as you say Robbie, becomes that thing where you do it subconsciously. You're not really thinking about it, but it's like panic stations, panic stations, everyone back in here and they've paid the price for it. Because ultimately, let's be honest, for 78 minutes of that game, they did deserve to win the game. And they were good. And they played well and they scored a couple of good goals. Okay, one was a known goal, but it was well worked.

you thought they're gonna get something but they didn't.

Ronaldingo (57:17.502)
Okay, so then the question is, what the fuck's going on at Sydney? Because this is the team, Makar, and I didn't only bring it up to take the piss out of you for saying that Sydney are going to win the league. But everyone thought Sydney has the best team, one of the best teams we've seen on paper in the A-League in the last few years. Douglas Costa, when we saw Leo Senna, Caceres, Waeim, Klimala. I mean,

Fucking hell, that's quality. That's a quality front five who now we're seeing aren't always playing. Is Leo Senna as happy as he was when he started? I start to wonder. There are people asking questions of Woofie in the fan base saying, is this what we need because we're conceding too many goals?

You know, I think there are are plenty of issues and maybe we need to start looking a little bit more critically, Eric, at Sydney FC because they're one of the big teams. They've got the big budget. They've got the big players. They're one that, you know, Joe Lolley, Douglas Costa. You're talking big, big players and it's not happening. And when it's not happening in this sort of situation, you think, but these players are so good, there's something going wrong.

What is going wrong? Is it a mentality thing? Is it a ego thing? Is it a mentality? Is it a spirit, an attitude?

Erik (58:50.443)
Yeah, look, they finished fourth last year, didn't they? And I think when you look at them now, they're only what, four points off being right up there. That probably helps out, keep the dressing room going on. I really think that when you, I talked about Newcastle not making any marquee or quality signings. I think when you go the other end or the other spectrum and you sign a Douglas Costa,

You know, who's not like a mid-level foreigner, like a lolly that can make an impact and everyone sort of hides under the radar. There's been a lot of press. There's been a lot of publicity and I can imagine what it's like going to training with him with all the hoo-ha quality player, no doubt. But as we've seen so many times coming across to Australia within a couple of weeks, couple of months, bang, there's an injury or they kind of adjust to the pace or the heat or the travel, whatever it is. So as a coach.

you know, how much was that known, right, this is gonna be part of the game plan at the start of the year. I'm sure Ufuk had an idea of how he wanted to play. And then all of a sudden you throw in an extra ingredient, does that make the game plan better or does it make it more difficult to then navigate how do we utilize this amazing skill that we've got, but it's gonna detract from what I wanna do 20%. And I think they're in the...

the midst of trying to find a way to incorporate that. Now, with Costa injured, I dare say that might be a better thing for the coaching staff in terms of trying to get their team to play the way that they really wanted to play. They still have the quality to cause problems, but I think that mentality shift of, I think when you play with a marquee signing, and I play with a couple down at Melbourne City, know, Damien Duff, Robbie Corran.

Tommy Sorensen, David Villa was there for a couple of games. And when you have, you know, the ones I mentioned before, David Villa were enough to sort of throw you off, but they were buying into what we wanted to play and were there for the pre-season. Then you had David Villa in for four games at the start of the year. And all of a sudden you're like, whoa, what are we like, just get the ball to that guy and he'll do the rest. So I think for Sydney FC, that's probably the biggest problem that they're facing right now is that,

Ronaldingo (01:00:59.821)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Erik (01:01:07.873)
they're not understanding how to handle or incorporate that skill set.

Ronaldingo (01:01:12.908)
All right, let's move on. We've got one more game and I'll bring it back to the to what you were saying there. But unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on you know, who the fuck gives a fuck. It's time for Who the fuck am I? Our weekly quiz. So here it is here. The answer to last week's weekly quiz was of course, Vincenzo Grela, who came back after an illustrious career to play all of 23 minutes in the A-League.

with Melbourne Heart. He actually tore his calf muscle during the game when he was on but had to keep running, refused, just kept tearing it worse and worse because and he retired after the game but he refused to go off having waited so long to play his first ever game. He tore his calf and kept playing and by the end of the game said okay that's it. Ladies and gentlemen, good night.

Erik (01:01:53.907)
wow.

Ronaldingo (01:02:09.066)
Hats off Vince, you are a legend. Hope things can turn around at Catania as well, where he is working as part of the Perth Glory satellite club. Or is it the other way around? Let's see. Okay, who the fuck am I? After emerging from the youth academy, I spent five years at my first club, winning promotion to the top flight and playing over a hundred games before moving overseas.

I spent the next decade with two clubs, winning a league title and losing a cup final in the same year. After a brief spell in the Netherlands, I moved to Australia, scoring in my second cup game and then eight minutes into my A-league career and never scored again. Although I did win the league and the cup during my stay down under and was named

Erik (01:02:57.527)
Patrick's Van's Bike.

Ronaldingo (01:03:06.89)
my club's Player of the Year. In homage to Daniel McBrain, I was called up to my national team but never got on the pitch. Who the fuck am I? There we go. Now, Eric, do reckon you have a clue?

Erik (01:03:23.117)
Dutch player. You're not Dutch. You played in Holland. You played in Holland. You're a foreigner. Well, the promotion thing sort of helps you out. Didn't get promoted in Australia, that's for sure. Geez.

Ronaldingo (01:03:26.42)
I am not Dutch. No. I am not Dutch, but I am a foreigner. Yep, did play.

Daniel McBreen (01:03:28.789)
Ha.

Ronaldingo (01:03:42.764)
I was actually reading that out. couldn't remember who it was because I don't have the name written anywhere and I was thinking who the fuck is this? But then no, so played in a cup game FFA Cup then scored in the next one and then scored eight minutes into my A-League debut and then never scored again in the A-League or Cup or anything anyway.

Daniel McBreen (01:03:45.184)
Hahaha

Erik (01:03:49.749)
Scored in their second A-League game, did you say?

Erik (01:03:55.393)
Yep. Yep.

Erik (01:04:04.447)
I never scored it, Jesus, wow.

Ronaldingo (01:04:09.034)
That's what we'll our listeners... Macca never has any idea.

Daniel McBreen (01:04:09.483)
No, I'm fucking hopeless at this mate, I never get it. I never have any idea and then when people got put on Twitter, is this the answer? I like fucking leave it for Robbie because I'm like, I don't have fucking clue.

Erik (01:04:10.539)
Macca? Anything for that mate?

Erik (01:04:20.845)
Just let it go through the keeper.

Ronaldingo (01:04:25.039)
Alright, now Eric was just talking about how perhaps Sydney FC, Makar, while your internet dropped out on us, how Sydney FC could possibly entertain the idea of being relieved or somewhat happy when someone, or when your marquee player like Douglas Costa, who's come into the team, gets injured and you can play perhaps a different style or a style more suited to you.

Alan Stajic at the Western Sydney Wanderers only has one fit player and it is Juan Mata. So he is playing him in the number six role at the moment. We have to talk about that just because it's the red line through the season for Western Sydney. Very quickly the results. So Roderick Miranda scored in the 29th minute.

Daniel McBreen (01:05:04.95)
Yep.

Ronaldingo (01:05:22.45)
Aidan Hammond equalized for Western Sydney after a terrible Roderick Miranda mistake, but I think the guilt can be shared around the back three. Then Nick Milanovic scored a great second goal to give Western Sydney the lead with 15 minutes left to play. Only four, I think it was Clisby to be penalized for diving in with his hand outstretched and Ryan Teague equalized from the penalty spot.

Daniel McBreen (01:05:44.949)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:05:51.628)
So that's how that finished. It was a pretty entertaining game. I thought Western Sydney are very good confirming that, you know, they've found something. But Maka, Juan Mata, because Shikluna was out. Brillante is playing in the center of defense because they've got no central defenders. Brillante gets injured about 10 minutes into the game, plays until five minutes into the second half. They're basically just walking wounded all over the place at the back.

Daniel McBreen (01:06:01.173)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:06:21.676)
and Juan Mata plays in a 6 and to be fair for the second time playing in that number 6 he could have been dragged at half time because he had no impact on the game whatsoever.

Daniel McBreen (01:06:32.403)
Yeah, exactly right. I must admit I had a message during...

Ronaldingo (01:06:37.674)
And the week before, playing in a wider role as a number 10, he looked good.

Daniel McBreen (01:06:40.777)
Yeah, exactly. I think we all know that his best position is further up and I don't want to... It looks like when he's in the sixth position... When he's chasing and running back, he looks a little bit older and he doesn't need to be doing that. I wouldn't be putting him in those positions.

I actually got a message during the game saying, you know, we could look at this, at what matters role in this game for the tactician this week and at half time I said I don't think we'll be doing that. Because he just wasn't involved, he didn't have anything to do in the game really, he had no influence but it's not his...

Erik (01:07:11.523)
Hahaha.

Ronaldingo (01:07:12.108)
You

No, didn't get, they played with 10 basically.

Daniel McBreen (01:07:16.587)
Yeah, it's not, he needs to play in a 10 roll, whether that's in a wide winger that comes inside or as an out and out 10, but Stead plays that 4-4-2 and he's not gonna have an out and out 10. So that's the way he's gonna play, but I think we can all agree that the six roll isn't his forte. He still looks to get on the ball, but it just doesn't suit him at all.

I looked at this game and thought it's two teams that look very good going forward. Western Sydney, like Milanovic, Spirello, cause problems. Sapsford as well, he's a good player. I don't know what your thoughts are. said you think it can...

first goal for Western Sydney could be attributed to a few people. just think to be honest, Moranji just fucked up his pass and then went, fuck, why aren't you there? I think he fucked it up. So he cancelled out his goal with that. Ryan Teague got his penalty, but Ryan Teague's defensive effort for Milanovic's goal was poor as well. He just kept dropping off and dropping off. You could see Milanovic actually, just sort of, he's running and looking and then he goes, fuck, if you're gonna keep dropping, I'm shooting. He had to stop.

Erik (01:08:19.735)
Could have got closer, eh? She should have gone straight to him, yeah.

Daniel McBreen (01:08:29.277)
one stage and address the ball and he didn't. He ended up scoring the penalty so they both logged off each other. Two great teams going forward, really good going forward but Western Sydney defensively 22 goals against and they know I think they're looking to try and reinforce in that area in this break. think they're talking to a few... well yeah but I think they want...

Ronaldingo (01:08:33.9)
Hmm.

Ronaldingo (01:08:53.74)
they have nobody left.

Daniel McBreen (01:08:57.319)
a senior defensive player to come in from what I can garner and are talking to some players there which they need. think know Marcelo although he was starting to you could sort of see the years catching up with him at the end of last season especially with balls in behind he was still a big dominant force in that area and to take him out and not have someone in there as a real leader role I think they're finding that to be a problem. Melbourne victory going forward

Fuck, they look good, but then all of sudden, they just can't finish. They've got the worst conversion rate of any team. They are dominating teams, and this has been going on for a number of years now. They really dominate teams. They create loads of chances.

Ronaldingo (01:09:33.164)
They can't score, yeah.

Erik (01:09:34.753)
Yeah. It's crazy.

Daniel McBreen (01:09:44.779)
Do they put away the chances as many as other teams? No. And I don't know what it is. We talk about that mindset of when you're winning games or you're losing games. Have they got this mindset subconsciously in front of goal that, fucking hell, we create all these chances, we just don't score. Is it a thing? Is it a subconscious thing now? Because seriously, in some of these games, they should fucking wallop teams the way they control the game. You've got Piscope, you've got Machache, you've got Daniel Arzani, all these players fucking coming in and doing good things. And they just can't seem

to kill teams off. And I don't know what it is, they've got Bruno Fornarelli, fantastic goal scorer, Virgos, who's scored a few goals for them. They should be scoring more goals. Yeah, exactly, it's... Yeah, you're right. What are you...

Ronaldingo (01:10:26.058)
Yeah, for Lupele, they've got players everywhere.

Erik (01:10:29.933)
Should have won at the end maybe.

What happened to the big Korean boy for Wanderers? Where's he gone? Is he injured? What's he done?

Daniel McBreen (01:10:35.175)
injured yeah

Ronaldingo (01:10:37.972)
Injured. Expected. Expanded back another three weeks.

Erik (01:10:41.033)
Okay, then that's that's someone they need to get back if you're talking about experienced defender. It was no nonsense wasn't it did a little bit of Australia Cup with him and he you know playing for John book and you know playing some big high profile games. You're not a great communicator, but they need someone just to clear the ball and just manage the back line. It's as simple as that.

Daniel McBreen (01:10:58.603)
But

But to be fair with him, he wasn't aggressive enough. He wasn't. He wasn't aggressive enough at the start of season. And I think he was at fault probably for three or four of their early goals for not being aggressive, which we thought, like exactly what you just said, Eric, coming from Korea, fucking dominate, blah, blah, He just wasn't aggressive enough. And he started, I'll be fair to him, after four or five rounds, it's like Stadge pulled him and said, I want you to start kicking some fucking cunts here because you're not intimidating anyone. And he started to change.

Ronaldingo (01:11:02.368)
Well, he came in for a bit of stick at the start of the season. Yeah. Yeah.

Erik (01:11:06.219)
Yeah, no.

Erik (01:11:12.854)
Yeah.

Erik (01:11:16.501)
Yeah, should have been.

Erik (01:11:21.303)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:11:24.8)
Yeah, he did.

Erik (01:11:25.503)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (01:11:30.581)
but he's got injured. If they could sort out a defensive way as Western Sydney, they could give it a real shake because going forward they have real good talent.

Erik (01:11:41.181)
I like the Macca. love watching them play the front three for me, Milanovic and Borello and Zapsford, the way that they can play and move. That's probably why you're getting that big question why Mata can't fit in that 10 roll because yeah, he can play a pass forward, but can he go there and engage and keep up with those boys? Because they play the ball forward quickly and they're great finishes. Keeping those three at the club, Western Sydney Wanderers, if they want to have anything to do the next couple of years, they've to hold on to those three. They are...

really dynamic on their day. Their combination play is some of the best I've seen in the competition.

Ronaldingo (01:12:17.28)
Yeah, I love the attitude. mean, they've got they've they've got great attitude where all three of them are prepared to run just all day. mean, Borello. Yeah, Borello is just an all action fucking superhero. The way the way he's running around anyway. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Arthur Dillis, Macca. I'll ask Eric this because you've you've more or less touched on it. But Melbourne Victory.

Erik (01:12:18.956)
Mm.

Erik (01:12:24.597)
Yeah, sprint.

Erik (01:12:32.589)
Good ages too, there are good ages all through them.

Daniel McBreen (01:12:35.007)
Yeah.

Daniel McBreen (01:12:38.784)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:12:45.836)
For what Macca's been saying, it's not necessarily something new. It's not necessarily something we've seen in the last four games, but Melbourne Victory are dominating and not winning. And he's gone four games now without a win since taking over from Paddy Gisnorbo, the coach. We know that Melbourne Victory are a big club. We know that the fans will not settle or be happy with any sort of perceived...

Erik (01:12:51.916)
Hmm.

Erik (01:13:00.588)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:13:12.704)
this isn't good enough for this club type talk. Is Arthur Dillis the man for the club? I mean, they had Mashash sent off in the big blue that they lost 3-0. The other three games finished in draws where perhaps, you know, they could have more or less easily got a three point result out of it. But again, it's not happening.

Erik (01:13:38.017)
Yeah, and you look at the games, Mill or Auckland, two all there, and really the two goals they conceded, although Western Sydney were good at finishing, they gave them those goals, didn't they? They playing out from the back, was a bit, Lacktzer Daisy Cool, as you said. Would that have happened under Kis Norbo? And after the first mistake that Miranda makes, does,

Ronaldingo (01:13:49.75)
Yeah.

Erik (01:14:00.749)
the past of Brennan Hamill, does that even happen? Is there a mistake that second time? I think what Patty had was just that demeanor that if you make a mistake, I'm gonna come for you. I don't know Arthur Dillis personally. I think it was just a scratch to get him in to keep it going because maybe someone wasn't ready to step in. He knew the product, the players, but look what they've got coming up. Western United and then they played Adelaide and then the big blue. Those three games, you're looking at that going, I don't see you winning three games there.

then they've got Perth and Newcastle, maybe it gets a bit easier, but you would think for a big club like Melbourne Victory, you would go and now look at having a top coach. Very difficult to get it when Paddy walked out and said, see you later, I'm off skis. You take your hat off to Dillis and I'm sure he knows what's going in and around the place, but I've had that experience too at Brisbane where, know, big coach walks away, assistant takes over.

you drop the tools are down by 10%. And it's because the demeanor changes, the training changes, there might be a collective buy in where people, the coaches say, well, what do you guys wanna do? Rather than say, this is how it's happening. If you don't do it, I'll get the kids in. And I think Patty had that mentality. I don't know what his coaching credentials are like, but I think people would be a little bit fearful. I was on the pitch in the Australia Cup and I think I was at Christie Park watching.

Spirit play against victory and Bruno for Norale was on the pitch and I got five seconds with him before Patty came over and shook my hand but as soon as Patty came towards me Bruno had pissed off because he was intimidated and I can't speak to anyone Eric's in the media now and I think they're intimidated by Patrick Kis Norban but maybe now it's a different scenario for them where they started thinking a bit more about themselves but big club they need a big coach always

Ronaldingo (01:15:51.66)
Well, Makar, before I get your two cents, we've just seen Mark Milligan head off to join the Malaysian national team as assistant coach to Peter Klumovsky. Now he's leaving the first assistant job at Adelaide. Millsy was keen on that victory job. He was one of the first names that people thought about.

Erik (01:16:01.333)
I get another one, Jesus.

Daniel McBreen (01:16:03.668)
Yeah.

Ronaldingo (01:16:18.764)
to bring in and Melbourne Victory from what I understand said we're not bringing anyone in we're sticking with Arthur and this is the way it's going to be. Maka are you surprised just as a quick aside on Millsie to see him leaving Adelaide but then your two cents on this coaching question.

Daniel McBreen (01:16:37.833)
Yeah, look, so yes, with Milzi leaving Adelaide to go to Malaysia, I think maybe he's looking to go work with Pete, who's get some different experience. He's worked with Carl now for a while, and maybe he's thinking, I want something new to go and change. I want to go and work in the...

international environment. have no doubt that one day in the long term future that Millsia would want to be their Socceroos coach. I'm sure he has that ambition. Was he right for the Melbourne victory job now? I think Millsia is going to be a great coach but Eric touched on it before about Ruben coaching in the A-League when he only had like two years experience before that.

I think Mills he's got to be smart. I think he's a good coach. I think he's great with the players. I think he needs to go and learn his trade and be an assistant to a few people. Maybe even take a role that's not the big role straight away and make sure he's cut his teeth so he's had every experience before he takes that Melbourne victory job because you don't want him to, I think we can all say one day we all think he's going to be there. But you don't want him to go there when he's not cut his teeth, when he's a little experienced, make silly errors.

and you're like, fuck, it's too early. And then...

Ronaldingo (01:17:56.15)
Yeah, and it can bite you on the arse.

Daniel McBreen (01:17:56.533)
Correct, and then he can go, it knocks him back, he'd probably come back from it, but you're like, I want it to be right when he goes there with the experience. Melbourne victory with their financial stuff at the time, I think it was the easy option to say, we'll keep Arthur Dillis at the moment, do I see him as a long-term viable option? No, for what Eric said is that it's one of the biggest clubs, if not the biggest club in Australia, you want a name. And I looked, so I sat there watching the Western Sydney game,

going all right so next season they're going to be looking to bring players in yeah whether Virgos goes or Bruno's still there retired they're going to want to go and get a big number nine from overseas or an Australian international whoever it is to bring come in when that player sits there and goes Arthur Dillis who's this guy yeah and we see it in other clubs as well like yeah but if they've got a yeah

Popovich or who's been there before in the past, a musket. You see those names and you go, I want to go play for him. I know what he's about, I know what he's got, he's got experience, I know I can talk to players and they go, this guy is ruthless and that's what I want, I want to be pushed, I want to be this, I want to be at the biggest club with a coach who's going to fucking get the best out of me. And whether Arthur Dillis can do that or not, a perception from another player from outside could be, is he going to get the best out of me?

But I think it's fine for the moment while they're sorting out this financial stuff that's apparently going on in the background. But I don't see it as a long-term plan. I think, as Eric said, they need to get a name who is going to come in and go, this is who I am, you all know who I am, this is how I'm going to take you to here. And that's what I think is going to have to happen.

Ronaldingo (01:19:48.616)
All right, let's have a look at the league table very quickly. And then because we've gone long, we are going to talk very, very briefly about the upcoming games this week just to tide you all over. And because we're nice and we didn't do a Christmas pod, we'll give you an extra Happy New Year's extra five minutes. Auckland lead the way. They had the bye this weekend. There's still four points clear of Melbourne victory and they have a game in hand.

in the top six as well. So they have certainly bounced back from that little spell of the draw with City and then the loss. They are back. They are back. Melbourne Victory are second for all the doom and gloom. On 19 points, that draw lifted them above. Four teams on 18 points. MacArthur, Melbourne City, Adelaide and Western United all on 18 points. Then there's three points.

Erik (01:20:26.637)
You

Ronaldingo (01:20:40.01)
back to Western Sydney Wanderers in seventh. So the first, well there's a little gap between first and second, then those five teams, little gap to Western Sydney, Sydney FC and the Mariners.

incredible thinking that Sydney FC, they do have a game in hand on both Western Sydney and the Central Coast Mariners, but the narrative around these sides has been so different. They're covered within a point just outside the six Western Sydney, Sydney FC and the Central Coast Mariners. Wellington Phoenix are just a further point behind there as well. And then it drops off the six points down to the Newcastle Jets who have two wins, Perth Glory on five points with one win. And of course,

Brisbane Raw in 13th place. We've never had a 13th place before. So for the moment that looks like it's going to be Brisbane's. All right. Exactly. How unlucky. It was always going to be unlucky for someone. All right. Matches coming up very quickly. Now, Eric, because Maka and I are intrinsically lazy, we're just going to go very, very quick. So Monday night, MacArthur.

Daniel McBreen (01:21:27.595)
I'm lucky.

Erik (01:21:35.489)
Mmm.

Erik (01:21:44.589)
Hmm.

Okay, mate.

Ronaldingo (01:21:49.714)
At home against Adelaide, your first, Eric. Who's going to win and why in one sentence? Or draw?

Erik (01:21:54.346)
Ugh.

MacArthur's gonna win. They haven't lost in what five or six games.

Daniel McBreen (01:22:03.019)
Who the fuck knows? Who the fuck knows? Look, MacArthur... Yeah. Look, I think this is going to be an entertaining score draw.

Ronaldingo (01:22:04.172)
Perfect. At home. Monday nights. Okay, well, what do you okay, okay, so we don't need to pick the result. That's a fair call. Now that's a fair call. What do you think is going to happen? What is the storyline out of this?

Erik (01:22:08.333)
That's not one's vengeance

Daniel McBreen (01:22:22.473)
Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well.

Erik (01:22:22.571)
It's got 2-2 written all over it, but yeah, MacArthur's a win.

Ronaldingo (01:22:23.113)
Alright.

Ronaldingo (01:22:27.564)
It does, but is that Adelaide leading 2-0 or MacArthur leading 2-0? Because you've got to have a comeback, because every game is a fucking comeback. And they are both two sides that score early as well. All right, I'm going to go MacArthur at home. But just because Millsie's left Adelaide, they're in all sorts of trouble. OK. It takes a little bit more than that to unsettle Adelaide.

Erik (01:22:30.285)
Hmm

Daniel McBreen (01:22:45.119)
They're in all sorts, yeah.

Erik (01:22:48.023)
Ha ha

Daniel McBreen (01:22:50.129)
know, walking out.

Ronaldingo (01:22:55.764)
Adelaide have had coaches leaving, players leaving for the last two years and they're still there. Although they had a little bit of a drop off last year, didn't they? They missed out on the finals just. Anyway, Tuesday. Brisbane Raw versus Newcastle Jets. Massive, massive Maka. Is this the moment for Brisbane?

Daniel McBreen (01:23:17.472)
I'm gonna go with Brisbane and I don't know why. Just the...

Ronaldingo (01:23:25.568)
Eric.

Erik (01:23:27.117)
Yeah, I feel the same way. just feel like football is cruel sometimes and eventually it's got to turn at some point and having a couple of home games, Brisbane, this is the time.

Ronaldingo (01:23:38.302)
It has been fucking cruel to those sets of supporters. And I can only see cruelty continuing to tell you the truth. I think both teams could lose this one at Suncorp. All right. Wednesday, Sydney FC against Perth Glory. And I'll go first on this one. There has to be a fair bit of pressure on that Sydney FC camp at the moment. I think this is either

Erik (01:23:46.242)
Wah.

Daniel McBreen (01:23:47.551)
Hahaha!

Erik (01:23:48.807)
hahahaha

Ronaldingo (01:24:07.114)
This is a potential banana skin that is starting to grow into take big proportions. I reckon they have to win this and win well. Otherwise, if they drop points against Perth at home, I think it could be the beginning of the end for this Sydney side, at least for this season.

Daniel McBreen (01:24:26.667)
Sydney Owen.

Erik (01:24:30.167)
Sydney win.

Ronaldingo (01:24:32.938)
All right. Very good. Will that do? Are we done? We only told Eric he'd only be on for half an hour. we shout out some stats. We've got to who the fuck am I? We've had a laugh. And exactly Jesus, I'm getting knackered. All right, I will. Well played. 

All right, and we will be back. I'm on I'm on. So Eric, when are you we're working next week, I think Eric, together. Saturday. Yeah. And Macca I'm with you on Friday. The A-League off air reunion. Fucking hell. It's gonna be big. All right. Thank you everyone for joining us. Thanks for listening. Don't forget, don't subscribe. Don't listen. Don't tell anyone. Don't do anything.

Erik (01:25:09.207)
tomorrow. We are working on Saturday. I think we are. Early-ish game.

Daniel McBreen (01:25:15.403)
Yeah, I think I've got Friday, Sunday. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while. Yeah. Righto. Thanks.

Erik (01:25:23.853)
See you, lads.

Have a great day.

Ronaldingo (01:25:32.182)
We're anti-social media. Just listen. That's all you gotta do. Just listen. All right. Thanks everyone. We'll see you next week.

Daniel McBreen (01:25:38.079)
Don't hang up Eric.

Erik (01:25:38.722)
Bye bye.