Football Season Guide

Despite embarrassingly finishing outside of the play-offs last season, boss Aloisi was allowed to remain in charge. May have to endure a slow start because of the number of changes made pre-season but should settle into a winning formula sooner rather than later. John Aloisi is not an especially good manager but he is very consistent with his anti-football approach, and they seem to have taken to it well over time. Lost some huge names pre-season in Lacroix, Young, Kilkenny, Pain, Prijovic, and Troisi but have managed - somewhat remarkably - to replace all of them. Heward-Belle is an excellent GK, Thurgate is more effective getting forward from midfield than Kilkenny was, Rukavytsya is a great replacement for Prijovic (don’t forget how good youngster Botic was last season too), Penha is far more effective than Troisi ever was, Donachie is a solid CB replacement for Lacroix, and Danzaki is just as good a dribbler as Pain but with more precision in the final third. They’ve lost some depth pre-season which may hurt them if they’re not careful. With Najjarine, Ruhs, and Pasquali set to play more this season though, an argument could be made for their depth actually being better than it was, at least in terms of quality. No obvious weaknesses remain in their squad. All players are experienced in the A-League, and all fit the anti-football approach of Aloisi. Now able to bring through some youngsters to help the process, which hasn’t happened much since their inception. A little slow in defence so will try to sit back a lot. In situations where that’s not possible, they will struggle to deal with pace. Other than that, this is a team that should be gunning for the title; they’ve got everything required to do so. Finishing outside the top three with this squad would be a travesty. Really should end up slugging the title out with local rivals Melbourne City and Western Sydney Wanderers.