Hi Doris, I think Waikato miss Jason Hicks and Tyler Boyd, but they have moved on to Auckland City & Phoenix respectively, so you can hardly blame them - or Edge for that matter.
You could argue they also miss Michael Mayne, but I saw on Saturday he was assistant coach. But I am not sure it is fair to say the best players have left. There best players are Ryan Thomas, Adam Thomas, Eder franchini, Hone Fowler, Sam Jasper, Jesse Edge. In fact you could argue that overall the Waikato squad is a lot stronger than last year.
But they do do seem to struggle with 10 men and the absence of Adam Thomas and Tyler Lissette through injury has been major.
Unfortunately it is hard to think of anyone who would take over from Edge who would do the job for the same (lack of) money and pull together a better squad. New coach would still have injured players, and probably less players to work with if you can only transfer in transfer window.
I think fundamentally the real problem lies in the NZ footballers 1st touch. I don't think we put enough emphasis on that. Kids should be playing with a tennis ball like English kids in the school yards do (granted it hasn't done much for the top team). At least that way with a smaller ball, the first touch is everything. In respect of that, possession based football will never work if the 1st touch is average because the time you need to recover, you've either been shut down or the options have been closed up because the defense can shuffle, so you give it to a safe option or someone else under pressure and thats pretty much how Waikato play. Take that in contrast with ACFC who do play similar, because they have a superior 1st touch, it allows them to play that way and find the holes. If the Waikato kids had a very good 1st touch, I think they would be a much better side.
I would encourage anyone that thinks I am talking rubbish to watch ACFC in Japan and the 1st touch. You'll find it will be rather average and drop them in it time and time again.