Perth Glory vs Western Sydney Wanderers
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Although Australia’s A-League is generally known for being an entertaining and high-scoring division, I don’t see the game between Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers following suit.
In previous years – sure, “Perth Glory” and “goals” were synonymous. They were dreadful at the back but strong in attack. That was in the Lowe years, though. Now they’ve got former Western Sydney Wanderers manager Popovic in charge, and his Graham Arnold-esque anti-football is very efficient. That’s what won the Western Sydney Wanderers the Asian Champions League whilst he was in charge. They defended well and took their chances. His style isn’t going to change. I do think that Perth Glory’s results will improve under Popovic but their football will be far less entertaining.
Still, I have to say that Perth Glory’s recruitment pre-season was quite excellent. Despite losing striker Taggart, attacking midfielder Nichols, controller Xavi Torres, and several others, Perth Glory have managed to assemble a strong squad of players. They’ve added veterans like Franjic and Santalab to help them out on the composure front, Ferreira to give them speed in wide positions (other than Harold), Velaphi to provide competition for Reddy, and a quality all-round midfielder in Ikonomidis. Let’s not overlook Spiranovic’s arrival, either – he’s the best centre-back they’ve had in years! Along with Djulbic and Davidson, not to mention utility man Kilkenny, Perth Glory now have some real hard cases in their squad. They will not lose many physical battles in the air, and I suspect they’ll finish at the top of the disciplinary points chart.
Perth Glory are going to be very organised, though. They’ve got the creativity in attack to score goals without committing a lot of men forward – that’s how Popovic likes to play. Castro and Italiano are their most natural creators and they’ve got width and good finishers so in theory, it should work. Today, though? I doubt it. They’re missing too many players and there are too many new faces. Castro is still their main creator, and he’s injured. His understudy, wonderkid Italiano, is also injured. Battering ram Santalab is injured. Winger Harold is injured. Their defence is perfectly intact but their attack is not and unless someone produces something from nothing, I doubt they’ll score today.
I suppose Western Sydney Wanderers could give them goals but it wouldn’t be very characteristic of boss Babbel, a former German international centre-back – and a bloody good one too. Still, his team are going to have to be seriously good tactically if they’re to get anything from games like these this season because their transfer window has been a bit poor. They’ve signed some good players like winger Kamau and powerful centre-back Tongyik but they’re not going to be the stars that their fans demand. It just looks a bit lightweight, this Western Sydney Wanderers squad, particularly in terms of creativity, which will most likely make Riera a very lonely figure indeed up front.
I do think that they’ve got plenty of battlers, Western Sydney Wanderers, and that’ll help them. Losing Kearyn Baccus (arguably their best player last season), defensive wonderkid Aspropotamitis, and Spanish creator Cejudo were big losses though, and Western Sydney Wanderers didn’t have a great squad to begin with. I just think that the visitors look very ordinary, and I doubt they have enough creativity to get through this Perth Glory wall.
Ultimately, I can’t help but feel that we’ll see a rusty, low-scoring game today so my tip is to back under 2.5 goals.
Verdict: Under 2.5 goals at 11/10.
Sunday’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.
Argentinian Superliga:
Estudiantes de la Plata vs Atletico Tucuman
Argentinos Juniors vs Union de Santa Fe
Independiente vs Atletico Huracan
San Martin Tucuman vs Racing Club Avellaneda
Australian A-League:
Wellington Phoenix vs Newcastle Jets
Brisbane Roar vs Central Coast Mariners
Perth Glory vs Western Sydney Wanderers
Austrian Bundesliga:
Admira Wacker vs Wolfsberger AC
SV Mattersburg vs St. Polten
Austria Vienna vs Sturm Graz
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
RSC Anderlecht vs Cercle Brugge
KV Oostende vs AA Gent
Sporting Charleroi vs Zulte-Waregem
Brazilian Serie A:
Vitoria vs Corinthians
Fluminense vs Atletico Mineiro
Palmeiras vs Ceara
Cruzeiro vs Chapecoense
Parana vs Flamengo
Bulgarian A PFG:
Dunav 2010 vs Lokomotiv Plovdiv
CSKA Sofia vs Etar
Croatian Prva Liga:
Slaven Koprivnica vs Gorica
Lokomotiva Zagreb vs Hajduk Split
Czech Republic HET Liga:
Dukla Prague vs Opava
Slovan Liberec vs Slavia Prague
Danish Superligaen:
Vendsyssel vs AC Horsens
Randers vs SonderjyskE
Vejle vs FC Copenhagen
AGF Aarhus vs Aalborg BK
English Premier League:
Everton vs Crystal Palace
Estonian Meistriliiga:
FCI Levadia Tallinn vs Tulevik
Nomme Kalju vs Tammeka
Faroese Meistaradeildin:
B36 Torshavn vs HB Torshavn
07 Vestur Sorvagur vs EB/Streymur
Vikingur Gotu vs NSI Runavik
AB Argir vs Skala
KI Klaksvik vs TB/FCS/Royn
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
VPS Vaasa vs RoPS Rovaniemi
PS Kemi Kings vs IFK Mariehamn
KuPS Kuopio vs TPS Turku
HJK Helsinki vs SJK
Ilves vs FC Lahti
Inter Turku vs FC Honka Espoo
French Ligue 1:
Montpellier HSC vs Girondins de Bordeaux
AS Saint-Etienne vs Stade Rennais
OGC Nice vs Olympique de Marseille
German Bundesliga:
Hertha Berlin vs SC Freiburg
Borussia Moenchengladbach vs Mainz 05
German Bundesliga 2:
Hamburger SV vs VfL Bochum
Jahn Regensburg vs Darmstadt 98
Paderborn 07 vs Union Berlin
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Maccabi Petah Tikva vs Bnei Sakhnin
MS Ashdod vs Beitar Jerusalem
Italian Serie A:
Frosinone vs Empoli
Bologna vs Torino
Chievo Verona vs Atalanta Bergamo
Parma vs SS Lazio
ACF Fiorentina vs Cagliari
Internazionale vs AC Milan
Italian Serie B:
Salernitana vs Perugia
Venezia vs Hellas Verona
Lecce vs Palermo
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Jonava vs Suduva Marijampole
Zalgiris Vilnius vs Trakai
Dutch Eredivisie:
NAC Breda vs Willem II
Heracles Almelo vs Groningen
Feyenoord Rotterdam vs PEC Zwolle
VVV Venlo vs ADO Den Haag
Fortuna Sittard vs De Graafschap
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Haugesund vs Odd
Ranheim vs Bodo/Glimt
Lillestrom vs Rosenborg BK
Valerenga Oslo vs Kristiansund
Tromso vs Start Kristiansand
Stabaek vs Brann Bergen
Russian Premier League:
Dinamo Moscow vs Zenit St. Petersburg
Spartak Moscow vs Arsenal Tula
FK Krasnodar vs Akhmat Grozny
Spanish Primera Liga:
Rayo Vallecano de Madrid vs Getafe
Eibar vs Athletic Club
Huesca vs RCD Espanyol
Real Betis Balompie vs Real Valladolid
Swedish Allsvenskan:
BK Hacken Goteborg vs Ostersunds FK
Djurgarden vs AIK Solna
Elfsborg Boras vs GIF Sundsvall
Kalmar FF vs IFK Norrkoping
Trelleborg FF vs Sirius
Swiss Super League:
FC Basel vs Neuchatel Xamax
Lugano vs St. Gallen
Sion vs Grasshopper Zurich
Swiss Challenge League:
FC Wil vs Chiasso
Turkish Super Lig:
Rizespor vs Konyaspor
Ankaragucu vs Yeni Malatyaspor
Alanyaspor vs Antalyaspor
Goztepe vs Besiktas JK
Enjoy your free betting tips!