tclogo


HotelsCombined.com

Recent Comments

Hugo on Eurosport beams Nations Cup matches: Really hoping Nigeria do well in this tournament b ...
Delivery Hero on England, France paired in Euro 2012: Can't wait for Euro 2012! ...
Wes on 2011/12 English Premiership Preview: Thanks Sybil, I think Man City cannot easily be di ...
Wes on 2011/12 English Premiership Preview: Thanks Bambo for the comment. I think its going to ...
Phil on 2011/12 English Premiership Preview: Good post, this looks like a very unpredictable se ...

Bigger squads for A-League


Sydney FC has got only 13 players available for Saturday night's match against Newcastle Jets with the rest of the players not being available either through injury or suspension.

This to me raises the question of whether the 20 man squad limit is not enough in a demanding A-League season spanning a minimum 21 normal season games without including the pre-season tournament and finals.

Technically I think an A-League club can have up two 22 players with the other two being a four week guest player(remember Kazu) and the other a marquee player.

Given that a team like Sydney FC is having to go to a match with just 13 players and with the number 2 goal-keeper Justin Pasfield being touted as a possible outfield player if need be I think the salary cap must be raised and the number of squad players increased to at least 23. This will also enable teams to have three goalkeepers compared to the current two.

Recently Perth Glory lost their first choice goalkeeper Jason Petkovic to injury and they had to scramble around to find a replacement. The situation would have been better if they had had three goalkeepers in their squad to start with.

Injuries and suspension especially given the pace of the A-League will continue to mount and I hope we won't have a case where a team will go to a match with just eleven players.

I am hoping that the salary cap will reviewed upwards at the end of the season to allow for bigger squads going into next season especially given that two of our teams will also be involved in the Asian Champions League

Doug
Wes, you raise some interesting points in this post but I think nobody thought of the Sydney FC situation ever arising when the A-League was formed last year. The situation is unique and unfortunate on the part of Sydney FC.

I still think though that there is a need to increase the squads. For the World Cup you take 23 players for a maximum seven matches and yet you have 20 players for more than 20 matches in the A-League.

I think with time the number will be increased because at the moment some of the clubs may not even afford the allocated 20.
reply

malcolm
What I would like to see myself is the number of matches to be increased to 28 and maybe then they squad size can be increased to whatever number.

Playing every team twice at home in the regulation season is more important to me.
reply

Post a comment:

(required)

(required, but not published)

(optional)





Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail