Western United vs Brisbane Roar
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Today’s free tip is in the Australian A-League encounter between Western United and Brisbane Roar.
As ever, Aloisi managed to show up against one of his former clubs last weekend. It beggars belief that his ‘hit and run’ approach still works against his old clubs, but it does. They beat a far superior Melbourne City 1-0 away from home, and now they’re hosting Brisbane Roar, his other former club. If either team is to win it, it will probably be Aloisi’s men, who clearly still has an axe to grind with his old teams.
I wouldn’t read too much into the win against City. Sure, it was a disciplined defensive display, but nothing they’ve not done in every game this season courtesy of Lacroix, who has been one of the signings of the season thus far. Nothing gets past the big Swiss defender. I also wouldn’t pay any mind to their midweek FFA Cup defeat against Wellington Phoenix either; they changed most of their eleven for that game, and clearly had no interest in progressing.
As far as absentees go, it’s the same old story for Western United; Pasquali is recovering from long-term injury, Krhin cannot debutise because of personal problems, and Prijovic is out with a hamstring injury but hasn’t played well anyway. In other words, Western United are at full-strength, and their game-plan here should mirror all of their others i.e. defend first, attack later. They may end up winning it but they’re going to have to stumble into the lead at some stage, and that’s a particularly challenging task against a defensive Brisbane Roar side.
There will be some familiar faces on show. Wenzel-Halls is one, of course. He knows the Roar players inside out from his time there, and his pressing style will be annoying to deal with. Diamanti is a class act, and the speed of Wales and Pain in wide positions is dangerous. Western United are very predictable in attack though. A solid defence like Roar’s really shouldn’t struggle to contain them, for the most part. It’s a bit of a coin toss as to which team will win this game, if indeed either of them do, although I do tend to favour Aloisi when managing against his old teams because that’s usually what goes down.
Brisbane Roar have performed well this season. They’re without a win in three games, having lost twice, but for my money they’ve performed better than Western United. They’ve not been as effective, it’s true, but they’ve generally faced better teams and given a good account of themselves. Doing so whilst defenders have been out is particularly challenging, especially someone as important as Aldred, but they’ve done it anyway. Today they’ll have to cope without Hingert, who is also injured, but I like the Roar shape. They’re good at annoying teams. I also think it should be recognised that Milnaric has really started to come into his own; he played really well against Adelaide United.
Defensively, I have no concerns over Roar in a game like this. Sure, against a better team they’d be caught out but Western United? There’s no reason to believe such. Attack – that’s a problem for Roar. I do think that they’ve found the perfect replacement for Wenzel-Halls in Ivanovic; he’s been astounding in all of his appearances this season, and is a better finisher than the afore-mentioned too. I’m a big fan of what he’s shown, even when generally left alone by those around him, which happened to him too often against Adelaide United.
The rest, though? It leaves me cold. Olsen can’t get into the eleven; he’s not doing enough. Mileusnic is having one of his ‘cold’ periods (he always blows hot and cold, injuries dependent), Lofthouse is nothing more than a wildcard, and weirdly Parsons isn’t getting enough game time despite his breakout campaign last time around. Target man Lescano has looked handy enough but hasn’t been fit enough to start. Dehmie has looked really good in spells but isn’t a natural finisher. O’Shea has been a bit below par by his standards. Essentially, it’s just been Akbari and Ivanovic, and that’s not really enough. Against a defensive Western United with Lacroix organising things, I can’t see Roar having much fun.
I expect these two teams to annoy the hell out of one another, and should either of them take the lead, they’ll sit on it. For me, it’s a big under 2.5 goals game, even in what is typically a high-scoring division.
Verdict: Under 2.5 goals at evens.
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:
Western United vs Brisbane Roar
Adelaide United vs Melbourne Victory
Western Sydney Wanderers vs Macarthur FC
Austrian Bundesliga:
Salzburg vs WSG Tirol
SV Ried vs SCR Altach
Hartberg vs Wolfsberger AC
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Kortrijk vs OH Leuven
Sint-Truiden vs Cercle Brugge
AS Eupen vs Germinal Beerschot
RFC Seraing vs RSC Anderlecht
Bulgarian A PFG:
Lokomotiv Sofia 1929 vs Arda
CSKA 1948 Sofia vs Slavia Sofia
Botev Plovdiv vs Tsarsko selo
Croatian Prva Liga:
Lokomotiva Zagreb vs Hajduk Split
Rijeka vs Gorica
Czechia Liga 1:
Pardubice vs Banik Ostrava
Hradec Kralove vs Slovacko
Zlin vs Karvina
Viktoria Plzen vs Slovan Liberec
Danish DBU Pokalen:
Kolding vs Vejle
English Premier League:
Manchester City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arsenal vs Southampton
Chelsea vs Leeds United
Liverpool vs Aston Villa
Norwich City vs Manchester United
French Ligue 1:
Stade Brestois vs Montpellier HSC
Stade de Reims vs AS Saint-Etienne
German Bundesliga:
Bayern Munich vs Mainz 05
RB Leipzig vs Borussia Moenchengladbach
SC Freiburg vs TSG Hoffenheim
Hertha Berlin vs Arminia Bielefeld
VfL Bochum vs Bv09 Borussia Dortmund
VfL Wolfsburg vs VfB Stuttgart
German Bundesliga 2:
Holstein Kiel vs SV Sandhausen
Paderborn 07 vs Darmstadt 98
Ingolstadt vs Hannover 96
Fortuna Dusseldorf vs St. Pauli
Hungarian Liga 1:
Puskas FC vs Gyirmot
Budapest Honved vs Zalaegerszegi TE
MTK Budapest vs Fehervar
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Bnei Sakhnin vs Maccabi Petah Tikva
Hapoel Jerusalem vs Hapoel Haifa
MS Ashdod vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona
Maccabi Netanya vs Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Italian Serie A:
ACF Fiorentina vs Salernitana
Venezia vs Juventus
Udinese vs AC Milan
Italian Serie B:
Cittadella vs Ascoli
Monza vs Frosinone
SPAL vs Brescia
Pordenone vs Cosenza
Pisa vs Lecce
Dutch Eredivisie:
FC Utrecht vs Go Ahead Eagles
SC Heerenveen vs Sparta Rotterdam
PEC Zwolle vs Fortuna Sittard
Portuguese Liga 1:
Maritimo Funchal vs Santa Clara
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Tondela
Sporting Clube de Portugal vs Boavista
Portuguese Liga 2:
Feirense vs Penafiel
Rio Ave vs Mafra
Leixoes Matosinhos vs Sporting Covilha
Romanian Liga 1:
UTA Arad vs Botosani
Voluntari vs Universitatea Craiova
Gaz Metan Medias vs FCSB
Russian Premier League:
Krylya Sovetov Samara vs Rubin Kazan
CSKA Moscow vs Arsenal Tula
FK Rostov vs Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast
Spanish Primera Liga:
RCD Espanyol vs Levante
Deportivo Alaves vs Getafe
Valencia vs Elche
Athletic Club vs Sevill
Swedish Allsvenskan Promotion/Relegation Play-Off:
Helsingborg vs Halmstad
Swiss Super League:
Lausanne Sport vs FC Zurich
St. Gallen vs Lugano
Swiss Challenge League:
FC Schaffhausen vs Stade Lausanne-Ouchy
Wil vs Winterthur
Turkish Super Lig:
Fatih Karagumruk vs Konyaspor
Istanbul Basaksehir vs Kasimpasa
Rizespor vs Goztepe
Antalyaspor vs Trabzonspor
Enjoy your free betting tips!