The Foreign Lads – Part 2

A continuation of the look at the Foreign Players for the coming season

Melbourne Victory
Victory have headed back to Costa Rica to find a partner for Hernandez and shape up very well on paper.

Carlos Hernandez
In outstanding form during the preseason, Victory fans expect a lot from him this season and it appears he may deliver. His form towards the latter part of last season showed what a danger he can be when fit and on song.

José (Pupy) López
A regular international for Costa Rica, López appears to have the credentials to shine in the A-League. The question will be how quickly he can adapt to the faster pace game here. The pairing of Hernandez and López may prove a handful for most opposition midfields.

Ney Fabiano
Melbourne picked Fabiano up after he scored in both legs against them for Chonburi. He looks a handful and provides a true backup to Thompson and Allsopp (He may even challenge for a starting position). Judging by his performance in last nights PSC Final his fitness may be a concern.

Grant Brebner
Currently injured Brebner may find himself sitting on the pine when he finally gets back to fitness. He does however provide an excellent backup for López who will spend some time on international duty.


Victory have perhaps the deepest squad. They may finally have a third striker to add to their dynamic duo, Allsopp and Thompson. Hernandez has looked in very good form in the preseason. If López can adjust to the Australian game style they could go all the way.
League Position Tip : 1st



Wellington Phoenix
Should easily be the biggest improvers this year, they have made some very solid signings over the break to shore up a poor defence. The signing of Kwasnik will give some much needed support for Smeltz

Daniel
He certainly has the skills to be a top performer in the A-league. He however needs to improve his consistency. Wellington will be looking for a substantial improvement on last year when he ran hot and cold.


Leilei Gao
The Chinese midfielder who first appeared at the NZ Knights is back. He has a knack of finding space and although I am not convinced that he is going to dominate defences like Hernandez and Song could he will prove tricky and will punish teams if they take him too lightly.



They need to hold onto Lochhead, without him they once again lack depth in their defence and rely too much on McKain but I would expect to see an improvement and they may even slip into the Top 4.
League Position Tip : 4th




Perth Glory
It would be fair to sign that Perth have been the basketcase of the Australian teams over the last three years. Their original foreign squad players were awful (awful is probably too nice a term) and this year Mitchell is practically building from scratch.


Eugene Dadi
35 year old striker from the Ivory Coast. It is a risk and as we have seen from previous attempts to bring older players to the A-league one that can come back and bite you. If he stays fit, he may bring some needed bite to the Glory Strike team.


Adrian Trinidad
Glory are in desparte need of some attacking flair and they are hoping the Argentinian will provide that. So far he has been far from impressive in the preseason but you do need to allow time for the team to jell. Jury is still out here but if he flops the Glory are in deep trouble as they just don’t have the depth to cover him


James Robinson
Is he a striker or a midfielder. Robinson is will need to step up this year and demonstrate why Mitchell has so much faith in him. He doesn’t score enough goals to justify his position of striker and I don’t think he has the creative skills to hold onto a midfield position


Amaral
Another 35 year old player. This one though has the class to perform at this level. If he is fit and can stay healthy he should add some quality to the Perth midfield. But he brings to mind Juninho and his ability to stay healthy. It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you can’t make it on the park you add no value.


On paper the Glory still have the poorest squad in the league, they will need more than one of their foreign signings to star to lift them I am afraid.
League Position Tip : 8th

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