Thursday, February 7, 2019

Will Zebras toy with Clarence tonight, or destroy them?


Photo:  Zebras coach David Smith gesticulates to his players.  Will he order them to go for goals tonight, or to concentrate on possession play? [PlessPix]
 
Hobart Zebras take on Clarence United at 7.30pm at KGV Park today in an all-NPL Tasmania pre-season friendly.

Zebras will be without fullback Dwayne Walsh, who has an ankle injury, and Mathew Sanders, who will not fly over from Victoria for this game.

Japanese utility player Ryu Yonezawa will play for Zebras.

He has been playing on the Gold Coast for three or four years and tried out with Zebras late last year in some practice games.

He has secured a place at university in Tasmania and will sign for Zebras for the coming season.

Clarence United will be missing Paul Palmer and Jeremy Price and will have no back-up goalkeepers.  Former Zebras keeper Jake French will be in goal.

“We’ll have 15 or 16 players in our squad and we’ll be working on the type of formation we’re trying to play,” said Zebras coach, David Smith.

“We’ve got this game tonight and then we’ve got another one on Monday night against Kingborough and that’ll give us a bit of an opportunity to try and gel and get things together with three weeks to go before the season starts.

“We had Thomas Little training with us, but he’s gone to Kingborough because they offered him a starting-eleven spot, which I couldn’t.

“He would have been good value to us as he’s a good young kid, but these things happen.

“Realistically, we’ve just had two weeks training and we haven’t played for two weeks so we’ll just line up pretty much the same as we did against Olympia, with the smaller boys up front and with a bit of pace and just see what happens.”

Photo:  Matthew Pace (left) is quick by name and nature.  He has the speed to destroy the Clarence defence tonight. [PlessPix]

Clarence coach Warren Burt said he would again experiment with players in different positions and he would field a young team.

“We’ll be trying players in different positions and trying to get the structure right,” Burt said.

“There’s still a big task ahead of us.

“We’re still looking to recruit some senior players and we’ve got some players coming either just before the season starts or just after.

“I think if we can get everyone on the field we’ll be more competitive.

“We’ll be out to play normal attacking football tonight and playing in the patterns we’re trying to develop.”

Photo:  Let's hope Clarence coach Warren Burt is pointing to someone on the field and not to that unlucky number [PlessPix]

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least New clarence coach trying to get the best out of what he’s got.best to do it in practice matches

Pep Guardiola said...

Surely all kingsbourgh players would want starting positions guaranteed.But wouldn’t that depend on form through out season

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't be surprised if Warren stops communication with this site given the constant negativity and the current text of "destroy". Given the difference in resources, one team should be winning based on the amount spent on players. Maybe this writer should go and coach a team with little resources for a year.

Walter said...

This writer has done that, mate. Check my bio.

Anonymous said...

Ohh poor us. Woe is me....

CUFC get off your behinds and do something about it instead of feeling sorry for yourselves. Walter quite rightly is calling it as it is. If you dont like it change so that it can not be written this way.

Anonymous said...

Did you win many trophies Walter?

Anonymous said...

Yeah probably a bit nasty Walter ! But I doubt any of the players read this anyway

Walter said...

Anonymous: Yes. Two.
Anonymous (2) [The Gutless Wonder who won't put his/her name) I don't consider it nasty but it's calling a spade a spade. And, if you think the players don't read it, you're on another planet.

Anonymous said...

?. As I remember Clarence were on top of zebras until some weak lacklustre defence leaked a few goals in there last encounter late in the game

Anonymous said...

Two with similar resources or as anon 2 said fewer? I think you said it to get a reaction so might want to cut the gutless crack.

Always be trueful said...

So we're the headlines correct tonight

Anonymous said...

So how did that go for you this evening? Mr look how we did last year......