2014/15 Pre-Season - v Canterbury United | 2:30pm | Sun 28 Sept | RoF

Joel Stevens

Canty definitely brought the agricultural. Wasn't pretty.

So an A and P show not a home and garden show..

Who went down injured at half time?  Was it Lia?

Halftime Lia off, Rufer on.

Yeah that was the only change I could see.  Any news on how bad it was?

For a defensive midfielder he was involved in almost all our attacking moves, much more prominent that Alex... they will be a tough midfield trio to break down, agree with the lack of creativity however. Burns and Weemac will cause most teams absolute nightmares playing as wide strikers but it seemed they really needed to work hard to get the ball. I would have expected more fluidity in using our talented wide players, but they seemed to just end up congested in the middle too often. Burns was making very good runs in acres of space but was too often ignored, with the ball passed into a more heavily defended channel.

We ended up with Ridenton playing CB when they rolled out the B-Team

Certainly with Reira back they will be strong.  .Need to work on the transition more then. It will be interesting to see how we go against Perth.  The wide pass to Burns didn't eventuate ..sacrificed for short passing and close in work.  I liked the creativity at corners tho.

How did Rufer look?

Interested to hear after the big raps he got in the pre season game. Moving ahead of Ridenton in pecking order?

Happy with the 6. Good to hear we're finally scoring some goals regardless of how rubbish Canterbury are. And all different scorers as well.

A pretty positive write up from Sam Worthington here... 

It starts with....

A small but vociferous Westpac Stadium crowd caught a glimpse of a true Ernie Merrick side today.

As they should, the Wellington Phoenix thumped national league outfit Canterbury United 6-2 in their final hit-out before the October 12 season-opener against Perth Glory.

But it was the quality of the new signings, and the style of play, that the Yellow Fever hardcore were there to see.

And, while the level of opposition will be considerably higher in a fortnight, the signs were promising as Merrick's reshaped squad broke the shackles in front of goal...

Rufer played more in a deep lying midfielder role just in front of the back four. There wasn't much pressure on him. He got stuck into a couple of challenges though - nice to see he's added that bite.

I wouldn't say he's moved ahead of Ridenton - nearly all the subs were just chucked on at about the 60th minute so a few were playing in odd positions. The starting eleven looked like our first team (except for Riera and Mossy).

Ridenton one in an odd position, playing Centre Back.

im not too concerned about our centre mids not being as creative as people might think. I think, from what ive seen, perhaps A-rod was a little off his game, but when you compare that mid field trio to maybe a manny muscat, vince lia, and tim brown trio, which is what we had in some cases a few seasons ago, I think we'll find that this current crop are much more creative and can pass the ball around with alot of fluidity while also doing their defensive duties.

As someone pointed out Roly was right amongst the play in all our attacking moves and as far as I was aware he has always been a defensive minded player.

What also caught my eye was, "'It surprised me, with [football operations manager] Shaun Gill's major help, to get the quality of Burns, McGlinchey, Bonevacia, Rodriguez. That's a major boost and down the track there'll be a couple more [signings]. But we're well ahead of where we want to be and we're going to be very competitive.''

Striker perhaps? Unless he means not any time soon and he isn't rushing to get anyone just for the sake of it.

we don't have any squad positions left apart from reserve players and these three extra youth players.

Can someone in the squad (e.g. Rufer or Ridenton) be re-classified as a youth player to open up another spot?

Possibly.

There is also, at least technically, the possibility of a marquis player... like Messi, for example.

I'm assuming he's talking about next season. I think he realises we're a bit short in the goal scoring department, even though he wont admit it (for obvious reasons)

Ronaldo would be more likely to enter the transfer market than Messi

There's not even technically the possibility of signing a foreign marquee, we've used up all of both our import spots and squad spots.

Isn't Messi Ngati Porou?

For what it's worth, what I remember from the game yesterday.

Italiano - Didn't have to do a heck of a lot, and couldn't do much with the goals.

Muscat/Doyle - They really weren't under a lot of pressure defensively so could bomb forward quite a lot, and to quite good effect. Doyle is shaping into a very handy LB. Will have lot more to worry about in the real games though.

Siggy/Dura - Very solid. Rarely challenged at all.

Lia - Looked OK defensively, but a bit mixed in his distribution (some great balls, and some shockers). Handy back up to Riera.

Roly/Rodriguez - Both quite tidy on the ball, and a couple of lovely switches from Rodriguez. Rodriguez seemed to tire towards the end of the half though which was a bit surprising. For a natural DM Roly looked pretty creative in the front 3rd.

FreeMac - player of the game for me. Buzzing around everywhere, and created plenty. Already connecting with our attackers really well.

Burns - looked quite quick, and happy to take on players and try to get around them. Created plenty of options. Connected well with Roly in particular.

Brockie - Really happy to see him score as he missed one from in front about 5 minutes earlier which made me quite nervous. At times he pulled the trigger with a shot when there were better options around him.

2nd half

Fenton/Shermy - Fenton was pretty solid (other than the pen) without being spectacular. Shermy wasn't as effective when he went forward as some of the other options.

Boxall/Ridenton - Boxall looked pretty solid, and Ridenton wasn't too bad considering he's not a CB. Wouldn't be advocating for him to stay there though. Think he dropped the player who scored their 2nd?

Rufer - Was very surprised to see him at DM, but I liked him there. Seemed very calm on the ball, and created quite a bit.

Kenny - Very busy, keen for the ball, and did some very nice things - seems to be very motivated to get a starting place back. Sometimes I wonder whether he's a bit too eager though, and gets out of position putting others under pressure.

Hicks - can't remember a lot to be honest. I was struggling for a while between a few of our fringe players who looked quite similar.

Boyd - One of the better players (with Rufer and maybe Kenny) in the 2nd half. Some lovely runs, and a nice FK to lead to Kenny's goal. Will be very useful off the bench for us.

Krishna - looks promising but still some work to do. Not sure he's ready for a start yet, but may get some minutes off the bench.

Stevens - Yet another midfield development project, but not a striker.

with added goals...

Italiano - not a striker.

Muscat/Doyle - not strikers..................1

Siggy/Dura - not strikers...............3

Lia - not a striker.............................0

Roly/Rodriguez - not strikers................4

FreeMac - not a striker...................4

Burns - not a striker..........................3

Brockie - not a striker? maybe? nah.....................8

2nd half

Fenton/Shermy - not strikers.

Boxall/Ridenton - not strikers

Rufer - not a striker.

Kenny - not a striker.......................3.

Hicks - not a striker.

Boyd - not a striker...........................1

Krishna - looks promising but still some work to do. Not a striker.................2

Stevens - Yet another midfield development project, but not a striker.

29.....or is that another pre kickoff thread topic...

Those being...?

Seriously, this "not a striker" meme is getting old. It really seems to be people latching onto the negative for its own sake.

Fixed.

As a matter of interest and thought provocation, Ridenton at CB is interesting. Considering our midfield glut, is this something that Ernie is considering - converting Ridenton into a CB? He is not the quickest of cats, seems to be tallish (?) has ball skill. Maybe Ernie sees something in him that makes him a better CB and possible future CB considering Sigmund and Durantes age?