12 months ago I thought Rufer should be starting over Bell, on club form.
This window has been the most accurate I've seen Bell's passing and the best he's been at winning possession back, not to mention a reversal of club form. There's worse backups than Rufer.
As I post he stands up the striker and does him deep in his own half. Beautiful.
12 months ago I thought Rufer should be starting over Bell, on club form.
This window has been the most accurate I've seen Bell's passing and the best he's been at winning possession back, not to mention a reversal of club form. There's worse backups than Rufer.
As I post he stands up the striker and does him deep in his own half. Beautiful.
Definite potential also in Rufer & Bell doing the double 6 thing. Some good signs
Not to be picky, but why was the last sub change at 80 min? De Vries needs a bit more time on the field (unlike Wood).
It was on the paper telling him what to do before the game.
Waine and Singh shouldn’t be our front line when they’re both out of nick and pumping long balls to Waine is stupid. Waine needs to run in behind or a bit of space and Singh needs to be facing forward with options in front when he gets the ball.
If Wood plays, de Vries plays surely. His crosses twice were the only thing that rattled than Ukrainian defense.
Feel like Joe Bell has won over a few of his critics? Definitely had a good game again today.
De Vries at LW was a surprise... but two great crosses shows his value from an attacking point of view. I wonder if they kept Cacace back because of his extra pace... worried about the counter as we push a little higher?
Bell had a great game again.
I thought we were industrious without too much to offer on attack. But we are a lot closer than where we were 12 months ago.
Wood in the starting 11 and Thomas would make a big difference to this team, as would Payne at RB.
Well you would be hard pressed to deny that Ukraine deserved that win.
But overall a very good window for NZ. A victory and also some very good performances from the defenders and Joe Bell.
Next window really want to get Thomas into that side for Singh.
Hopefully in the next few weeks we will get some info and decisions on where a number of our kiwi players will be playing next year club wise and hope they choose well and also have a bit of luck with their decisions
Matt Garbett needs to find a new club as soon as possible. Not sure what Singh is up to with his club in Portugal either. Could best describe them both this window as flat.
But both players are key for us, there's no doubt about that. They do need to find an environment where they're playing week in, week out though.
Matt Garbett needs to find a new club as soon as possible. Not sure what Singh is up to with his club in Portugal either. Could best describe them both this window as flat.
But both players are key for us, there's no doubt about that. They do need to find an environment where they're playing week in, week out though.
And Waine did 2/5 of f all too. The Ukranian defense was very good, but who would be the player worrying you in that first half if you were a Ukrainian defender? None of the All Whites…maybe Cacace or Bell unleashing a quick break, but nobody was getting at defenders or challenging them for strength…we were very blunt in our first half attack.
While Bindon is not an RB, I think he’s our best bet there for the time being. I think Payne is best as a super sub. I want our best 4 defenders on in North America next year and, well, Payne is not one of them.
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Matt Garbett needs to find a new club as soon as possible. Not sure what Singh is up to with his club in Portugal either. Could best describe them both this window as flat.
But both players are key for us, there's no doubt about that. They do need to find an environment where they're playing week in, week out though.
Agreed, I was just about to say singh and garbs have probably been my biggest disappointment across these two games.
Disappointing we couldn't get the result we all hoped for today but as far as losses go that one way enjoyable??? That Boxall headed assist for the goal was a thing of beauty. And you could tell especially in the final 10 minutes the boys were backing themselves to get that equalizer, they had a plan in place to do so and were going about achieving that to the best of their ability. I think we made a good account for ourselves, to the point that as the game grew there was a good portion there where the vibe from Ukraine was alogn the lines of "Hang on a minute, this wasn't part of the script?" This wasn't a complete pants down ass spanking loss like the previous friendlies against Sweden or Greece.
Really awesome to come away from the window feeling like we are on an upward trajectory. A nice change from the "oh we had some moments but still couldn't nail down a win."
I will say though, not to throw the baby out with the bath water but going forward I'd be up for a policy of no more "Unattached FC." No club, no call up. Ben Waine was about as useful as a chocolate fire gaurd. Utterly redundant having him on the field today. I'm usually Garbett's biggest champion but he was well off the mark too and well lacking match fitness.
Same with Sarpeet in regards to match fitness. Touch too heavy, and he looked completely gassed 20 minutes into the game.
I possibly wouldn’t mind Stamenic in the ten as we played it today (which I’m far from convinced was our best use of resources) because he wouldn’t get pushed off the ball easily and would be a monster in a high press.
Can’t see the point of Libby, Old and de Vries all being impact subs.
I think Old and Singh maybe need to sit deeper. Why? Well we saw it with Cacace- when you beat players and go round them with pace early in a move you create chances. Old beats a player on the outside down the line with 5 set in the box there’s less chance of something exciting happening imo.
Singh needs to sit deeper to take some of Joe Bell’s role- lots of ball movement, lots of short passes moving the opposition around and then possibly creating an overload or beating someone one v one to gain an advantage. Singh is not a forward imo and is only a winger in the sense of early crosses. To be a playmaker he needs players in front of him making runs.
All our other players have the technique to move the ball quickly now. Singh in the ten was slowing down the play.