Central Coast Mariners vs Brisbane Roar
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Today’s free tip is in the Australian A-League encounter between Central Coast Mariners and Brisbane Roar.
I quite like what Green has done with Roar, you know. He’s made them that bit bolder, and they look more dangerous in the final third for it. They’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and now that Kruse is predictably injured again, they’re still struggling to be ruthless in the final third. Scepovic’s team will come, I’m sure, but for now they lack a killer. Although the Mariners have been a bit shaky at the back lately for various reasons, they don’t tend to waste their chances at the other end so I can’t really see one goal being enough for Roar, which is a problem.
Roar are stubborn, and they are hard to score against – I’ll give them that. The problem they’ve got now is that they’re running out of matches though, and that means going for wins because they’re still outside of the play-offs. Roar are the kind of team that rely heavily on their defensive structure so playing that way is loaded with risk, as I am sure you can imagine. Their defence is strong, but also quite slow so if they push out, especially against a fast, quick-thinking Mariners attack, I expect them to get burned.
Another issue for the visitors is the absence of Lofthouse, and that’s not something I ever envisioned being able to say. I’ve found him to be massively overrated over time but he’s such a different player under Green. He’s become a regular for them, and I have to believe that they’ll now miss him because he’s been that good. I also believe that the benching of Armiento (despite him being one of their best players this season) will have damaged his confidence, just as it has for Mileusnic. They’re still going to threaten from set pieces, and they’ll still be fiercely competitive too. However, Roar scoring as many as the Mariners? I just don’t see it.
The Mariners have their weaknesses at present but they should lessen, particularly in defence now that Kaltak is back from suspension and Triantis is back from international duty. Montgomery tried some weird shit last match for reasons beyond my comprehension and his team were disastrous. I don’t expect a repeat of that here; they need to go for wins. That means their best eleven starting, and with Nkololo back, he should be on the flank. They just cannot afford to be dragged into the pack behind them because their away form is too poor to see them retain their play-off place.
I’m not even bothered if Farrell doesn’t play here; McGarry has been excellent since joining. They’ve got the offensive threats to hurt Roar, and they’ll need them – Roar won’t readily leave their own half. I suspect it’ll be Silvera, Tulio, or Nkololo that unlocks their defence, but luckily the Mariners have all three available. The last time the two teams met, Tulio had to exaggerate a foul on him to win them a penalty to set them on their way. They shouldn’t need to do that in Gosford.
I don’t anticipate a classic, and I would be surprised if the Mariners made light work of Roar. However, they’ve got far more firepower, and given that a draw isn’t something that the visitors can readily accept right now, a home win at 9/10 appeals to me.
Verdict: Central Coast Mariners to win at 9/10.
Saturday’s Thoughts
As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Australian A-League:
Wellington Phoenix vs Melbourne Victory
Central Coast Mariners vs Brisbane Roar
Sydney FC vs Western United
Perth Glory vs Macarthur FC
Austrian Bundesliga:
Wolfsberger AC vs SV Ried
SCR Altach vs WSG Tirol
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Cercle Brugge vs Kortrijk
RFC Seraing vs AA Gent
Westerlo vs Sporting Charleroi
KV Oostende vs Standard de Liege
Croatian Prva Liga:
Gorica vs Dinamo Zagreb
Sibenik vs Hajduk Split
Czechia Liga 1:
Zlin vs Ceske Budejovice
Banik Ostrava vs Slovan Liberec
Mlada Boleslav vs Viktoria Plzen
Slavia Prague vs Sigma Olomouc
English Premier League:
Manchester City vs Liverpool
Bournemouth vs Fulham
Arsenal vs Leeds United
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Brentford
Crystal Palace vs Leicester City
Nottingham Forest vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Chelsea vs Aston Villa
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Flora Tallinn vs Tammeka
Flora Paide vs Laagri
Nomme Kalju vs Trans Narva
Faroese Betrideildin:
Vikingur Gota vs TB
Finnish Liiga Cup:
HJK vs AC Oulu
French Ligue 1:
AJ Auxerre vs Troyes
Stade Rennais vs Racing Club Lens
German Bundesliga:
RB Leipzig vs Mainz 05
Union Berlin vs VfB Stuttgart
SC Freiburg vs Hertha Berlin
VfL Wolfsburg vs Augsburg
Schalke 04 vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Bayern Munich vs Bv09 Borussia Dortmund
German Bundesliga 2:
St. Pauli vs Jahn Regensburg
Hannover 96 vs SV Sandhausen
Karlsruher SC vs Eintracht Braunschweig
Kaiserslautern vs Heidenheim
Hungarian Liga 1:
Varda SE vs Puskas FC
Ujpest vs Zalaegerszegi TE
Budapest Honved vs Paksi SE
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Hapoel Jerusalem vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv
MS Ashdod vs Maccabi Netanya
Maccabi Haifa vs Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Hapoel Tel-Aviv vs Sektzia Nes Tziona
Italian Serie A:
Cremonese vs Atalanta Bergamo
Internazionale vs ACF Fiorentina
Juventus vs Hellas Verona
Italian Serie B:
Ascoli vs Brescia
Cagliari vs Sudtirol
Cosenza vs Pisa
Parma vs Palermo
SPAL vs Ternana
Venezia vs Como
Bari vs Benevento
Perugia vs Frosinone
Lithuanian A Lyga:
FK Panevezys vs FA Siauliai
Dziugas Telsiai vs Riteriai
Zalgiris Vilnius vs Suduva Marijampole
Dutch Eredivisie:
AZ vs SC Heerenveen
Excelsior Rotterdam vs FC Twente Enschede
NEC vs PSV Eindhoven
Cambuur Leeuwarden vs FC Emmen
RKC Waalwijk vs Vitesse Arnhem
Portuguese Liga 1:
Vizela vs Casa Pia
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Pacos de Ferreira
Sporting Clube de Portugal vs Santa Clara
Spanish Primera Liga:
Girona vs RCD Espanyol
Athletic Club vs Getafe
Cadiz vs Sevilla CF
Elche vs Barcelona CF
Swedish Allsvenskan:
Malmo FF vs Kalmar FF
Djurgarden vs Brommapojkarna
Swiss Super League:
Servette vs Young Boys Bern
FC Basel vs FC Winterthur
Turkish Super Lig:
Istanbul Basaksehir vs Ankaragucu
Trabzonspor vs Kayserispor
Galatasaray vs Adana Demirspor
Enjoy your free betting tips!