Adelaide United in the Asian Champions League

[Chelsea4thewin]

so who won

[Des]

Ticketek won... (or whoever was selling the tickets)

[BigPete33]

Your mum's sunglasses won Steve



This is interesting....

The FFA are looking at maybe relaxing the strictness of the current 23 player squad and/or salary cap for A-League teams competing in the ACL from next season (which will be Newcastle and Central Coast).


I think the salary cap already increases each year as it is but that clearly won't be enough to accomodate another couple of players in a squad, even if they are only on the list as prospects for the future.

The coaches have been saying from the start of the A-League that the current limit on squad numbers is already fairly severe. It would be good to see that relaxed somewhat - maybe to go from 23 to 28?

Every coach seems to want 2 players for every position to cover for things like injury and suspension and also to promote healthy competition for places within the team. There always seems to be 3 goalies in a squad too. So that gives us 11 x 2 = 22 plus the 3rd goalie = 23 players which is what there already is.

However, that doesn't really leave room in the squad for developing young players (unless they are the 3rd goalie like Birighitti).

As far as the ACL is concerned, there are further restrictions on players that must be obeyed for that competition.

The players in the squad that are going to take part in the ACL have to be nominated in advance and only 3 members of the nominated squad can be imports (although they are allowing a 4th from next season as long as it's a player from the Asia region).

In addition to that, there is what seems to be a severly low number of yellow cards allowed for a player before they are automatically suspended (from the ACL only) and must miss a game. That allowance is for the entirety of the ACL (not just in a single match) and unlike in Europe the yellow card count is not reset after the group stage.

So what clubs A-League clubs are left with is....

1) A relatively small squad that often needs to play 2 games a week.
2) Members of the squad automatically not available for a match just because of where they come from.
3) Having to cope with suspensions from what most observers would say is a regular amount of yellow cards (certainly not indicating continuous dirty play).


I'd say the FFA would be crazy to not increase the size of the squad and also make the necessary salary cap increase.

I'm not convinced it should only be for the two teams competing in the ACL though. I think the squad size should be raised to at least 26 (which allows for an extra young striker,midfielder and defender for example) and rather than just adjusting the salary cap to suit that squad size, increase it by a bit more on top of that.

[maccatak11]

Pete, although adelaide were caught out with player shortages in the later stages of the ACL, due to suspensions to galekovic and costanzo, as well as injuries to agostino, diego, reid and barbiero, as well as daniel mullen being on young socceroos duty, i don't think increasing squad sizes is needed.

Each team already has numerous developing young strikers, midfielders etc in their youth league teams. Players in the regular squad who are placed on the long term injury list must be replaced by youth team players (which is the only time the young delevloping striker in list spot 26 would play anyway). So increasing squad sizes would be irrelevant. Yes we have been caught out with injuries, but an extra few spots on the main list would mean they are replaced with the young developing striker in the end of the list, or the young developing striker from the youth league.

its the same thing isn't it?

[bennymacca]

maybe players in the youth teams should be allowed to play for the major team for reasons other than long term injury - i.e suspensions, or just giving the stars a rest?

so this is in effect extending the playing roster, but all of those players need to be young players.

[BigPete33]

That's the reason I mentioned that coaches haven't liked the squad size restriction since day 1.

The youth league certainly helps, and is a welcome addition for sure, but that's just not the same thing as being with the main squad. I don't completely object to your idea as far as just the A-League is concerned but the ACL is another issue.

For A-League teams (not just Adelaide), if you look at the ACL and it's requirements, 23 players is quite a small squad regardless. Accepting that the ACL won't remove it's current quota system for imports (of which I'm not a fan at all but I can see why they have it) then about the only other realistic way of an A-League team being able to field what it's coach would say is a strong side for every match is to increase the squad size.

It's important to remember that obstacle isn't shared equally throughout the ACL.

I'm not sure I'd like to see that increase in squad size implemented only for A-League teams competing in the ACL which is partly why I think it's viable for the whole league.


**edit** just read benny the cunt's comment

That's an option too, I think. If the end result is a larger squad size AND young players are getting a go then that's great. Having said that, there shouldn't be artifical restrictions on a club fielding their best side in any competition.

[bennymacca]

i think the reason that the squads and salary cap are so small is because the league is still in its infancy - they have gone to great lengths to make sure that the league doesn't fall flat on its face in 3 years, and also that the quality of the league is as high as it can be - more players = a bigger player pool, and a drop in overall quality.

but it seems to be growing pretty well, so i guess in time the squads will get bigger

[BigPete33]

Oh absolutely.

I fully understand and support why they started the league with a restriction on squad size and with a salary cap... doesn't mean I agree with the numbers 100% but I certainly won't fault their reasons.

Imagine how embarassing for all concerned if clubs were being run poorly and going under not long after starting up?

Being part of the Asian zone has changed a lot of things though, almost certainly for the better. This of course means there's new challenges which the existing system may not suit and I think we're seeing a little of that now.

[bennymacca]

yay pete, we are agreeing on something.

so about that EPL....

[BigPete33]

The EPL is fantastic.