2016/17 Phoenix Preseason

I know Liam well. He's a great kid. But I'd be very surprised if he was one of the best 3/4 u20 centre backs in the country.

Nor have Western Springs.

Honestly I suspect he isn't in our best 3 or 4 but I'm also not remotely convinced the Auckland Schoolboy network lads actually selected are either.

 

Although they did almost pick Jonty at right back...

Nix Feature in 4 of the 10 top goals ;-)

Fudge fudgeing work.

EOM

Ginger quota.

I thought they had removed the quota system which is why Clapham, Keat and Wilso are no longer considered for the full squad.

Merrick will start his strongest 11 on Saturday.... questions on who will be RB and DM. I think it will be Fenton at RB, but I think Fox could do the job. Will be interesting to see if ARod is a starter.

Moss
Fenton, Dura, Rossi, Doyle
ARod
Finkler Roly
Kosta, Krishna, McG

Fenton's injured atm.

Wondered why he was walking behind the goal in "Shooting from Anywhere" video on twitter

If anyone in Mana/Paremata area needs a lift for tomorrow, I have room for 1 & (could squeeze a kid in as well). DM if interested

I'm looking forward to seeing the lads in action again.  Been way too long.

And in unlikelyville: How bout roly in his specialist DM position this season, weemac beside fink, watto up front??

Due to a cancellation, I have 2 spots free in the car going up from town.

PM me real quick with your number; leaving in 20 minutes.

Leaving in 30 min. Last kid's spot taken, still room for 1 adult

Enjoy the game, I will be at work.

From Merrick's comments in the Liam Hyslop piece on Stuff sounds like Lia will be at the base of midfield.

Final score  Nix 3-0 Cap

Yep it was lia at DM. Fox at RB. Both solid but never really tested. Arod for mcg and watto for  Krishna just after half time.

I can see why Lia is starter, massive workrate and very verbal and present in the midfield. He had some good fights with Ifill. Rossi is very tall, looks like solid CB, but like to hear what others think.

He is a big unit, hard to judge how he will go in the A-League from that as he was never under any real pressure. Was mostly the deeper of the two CB's. Will be a handful from attacking corners though.

Ifill is still class.

Thought Rossi looked tidy, calm and decisive.  Played one nice forward ball in the time we were there (from just before the second goal), picking out Doyle, also a nice little cut out header back to Moss and otherwise mostly distributed accross the back to the less crowded side of the field.  Looks the 6'2" wikipedia says he is.  Didn't get any real idea of pace but the impression was he can cover the ground and knows when to.  Liked, but wasn't under much pressure.

I agree with someone elses comment on Lia - he does a decent amount of work.  But, again, they weren't under a lot of pressure and against WSW I thought we saw again he will get overrun by good sides.  I didn't feel too excited about the way the midfield was working overall - Ernie seems more bullish on that - but early days, and I missed the first goal and possibly one of the other early nice moves mentioned in the article.   

Interesting to see Fox at RB.  Looked OK, I thought, and they did run at him a bit, more than through the centre, but he played a defensive role with Roly in the space in front of Fox. 

Great day out there.  Nice to see some Nix footy again.  Relaxed atmosphere with lots of kids in Nix kit kicking balls around.  Good excuse for a sausage. 

It felt like that was the most comfortable the Nix have ever looked in a Weka Park pre-season fixture (I think I've seen 4 of them?)

Moss didn't have much to do!

Roly seemed a bit less involved than last season?

Some lovely skills from Kosta and Krishna.

Good signs for the season.

I think that this is the strongest attacking line up we've ever had - now, just need that right back!

It's concerning to me that A-Rod is still considered as 'trying to fight his way into the First XI'. He's an import, and an aging Lia is ahead of him still..

Have you / we been saying this for the last 2 years now?

How many watches and wallets got stolen from the sheds today then?

I have 4 theories on A-Rod:

1. He's being eased into match fitness way more slowly than the rest of the squad because he had hamstring problems last off season and Ernie doesn't want to overwork him too early and have him miss the start of the season proper. Or;

2. He was in Ernie's plans until Finkler became available, so Ernie thought Finkler was too good to pass up, which meant a change in midfield shape, which meant no starting spot for A-Rod.Or;

3. His contract had a Totori-style clause where he played a set number of games which automatically triggered an extension. Or;

4. Ernie re-signed him always planning to use him as a squad player this season.

I don't know if there's any other possible explanations. I hope it's theory 1 which is correct and not just because I personally really rate A-Rod.If it's any if the others it would seem that Ernie hasn't planned the balance of his squad well. How good would it be to have an import slot free for a RB right about now?

Ernie has shown that he's willing to use a foreign slot on a squad player, remember Krishna wasn't anywhere near a starting player in his first season with us. 

But there is this debate where your foreigners have to be your starters which is just stupid, your best players should be your starters, and your most expensive players should be your best players. But I hope that A-Rod is our starting DM next season as he is superior to Lia in most facets of the game.

What does Lia have over him other than a bit of mongrel?

Legitimate question, would like to know what others think.

Lia doesn't give up for the 90. yeah, he might be a bit slow but he always gives it 100%. He does not intentionally drift out of a game. Hence some of his tackles are a second away from being a card.

Arod came on for McG in the second half, and I thought he was the better player. Should have had two goals. He seems more natural in that linking, almost box to box role than as a DM. His goal was a late run into the box from a Kosta cut-back. All the crosses before he had come on were somewhat aimless with no late run-option being available. He has the ability to move the ball across the park at pace, with short passing and good movement, I'd personally keep Lia and have Arod the midfield partner to Finkler.

It's more likely an experience/presence thing than 'he puts in a big shift'. Ernie trusts him

Just like Siggy said in his book, the Nix will need that attitude on the pitch with Manny and he gone. Lia provides that.

I don't think it's always a bad thing to have a foreign player in a squad role if that means you can get a better first 11 on the pitch at once - for instance if you have expensive local players taking up the marquee spots and a lot of the cap. I do think though that the foreign spots should be used for the type of player who is hard to find on the local market. If A-Rod is only going to get 25 minutes off the bench then I don't think that we've maximised our use of the foreign spots. I would rather have an import RB and Ridenton in the backup CM role than Fenton at RB and A-Rod as a backup CM. A-Rod is better than Ridenton but not necessarily better for the balance of the squad if he's not starting.

We are inside our salary cap...

get the best players you can within that, whether starters or not. Depth is important look at last year as evidence of that.

It was a great day in the sun yesterday. I bet the Kapiti football community are stoked. It was also great to see around 300 kids most of whom were playing pick up footy with other kids they had just met.

Didn't see much of Rossi. Although I did hear him calling out Thomas Doyle's name. So they know each other on the left. Doyle always looks like he is a bit tired. Must be the way he carries himself.

Funny moment of the first half. of his seat talking to the bench about how wee Mac scored with a header. Ernie clearly couldn't believe it.

I see why Lia is there now. Very physical. As is Doyle. Screened the back four well. But as others have noted may struggle for pace. Certainly a work horse.

Barbarouses looked great. A-Rod got a goal. Ben Harris was throwing himself on the ground and not getting any love from the ref. Ifill was cruising around looking for the ball and passing well although a yard slower and the select team has two giants. I don't know who 14 was for the select team but he was as wide plus 6 inches taller than Watson and playing striker. The weenix came on late and did well - only 16 most of them wow! 

I reckon we will spend the remaining cap money on a right back. With some transfer Windows closed. It would be great to get a returning Aussie player.

what kiwi or Aussie fullbacks are likely to be available though? There's not a lot of quality ones in the first place, let alone guys who are out of contract and might want to come here

First half I thought Roly looked well off the pace or interest levels.  Rossi looked composed.  Kosta very quick and skilful..better than Roy who just ran at people and then lost possession.

Still quite a structured passing game rather than quick breakouts.  Rossi was looking at times for someone to make a run so I think he has vision..

Not there for second half.

Dura vs Abba was fun. Dura definitely came out the winner.

Lia has had a late blooming for us in his game the last two or three years, but surely doesn't have enough pace and fitness to anchor an A-league midfield. See: us before Riera

We need someone better there surely. If it's not A-Rod we need to get someone better. Not sure if that is T-WH or someone else...but I will really unhappy if Lia is our holding/screening midfield player this season. No disrespect to Vinnie. He's been great for us, but we need someone better.

Don't mind A-Rod playing a bit further forward. I remember he showed a lot of promise attacking before we picked up Roly. Is Ridenton or Rufer up to the job at DM?  Understand we want Lia's experience, but he doesn't have 90 minutes at Al-league pace in him. Look at the improving and pacy attacks. He's got to be able to shut them down for us to win games. The equivalent of shutting down Ifill ten years ago, not now!