Adelaide vs Phoenix Sunday December 16 7pm

Not happy that we lost, but feel better than last week against SFC.

Way too much space given to Adelaide in midfield and was worried they were going to put 5 or 6 past us.

Happy with the players off the bench and good on Boyd for stepping up to take the pen.Shame he didn't score but what a save

Good shift from Dani, happy to see him back.

Oddly, looking forward to the game against CCM. hope we can tighten up but keep going with the positive play.

defence way too open, however I place a lot of fault on the goals on Paston, if on the first he had come out to collect the ball he takes the defender and attacker out of play (no goal), on the second the gap he left between him and the near post was huge, if he'd been in correct position (no goal). He should have stopped the third too. We actually played ok on attack and had the officials been competent we would have had a good chance to take a point from that game. I'm not at the wrist slitting stage yet and I think we can move up the league if we keep Sanchez in the 11, if Moss was fit he'd be starting! For me Manny looks like he is doing alkl the work in midfield - hence he's getting left isolated - whilst Lia played well on attack his defensive work has been lacking.

yeah agree lia hasnt been great on defense. think he needs to be given a little less forward freedom, because realistically his best traits are passing and clobbering/tackling. And he hasnt been doing enough of the latter for me

I think Paston can count himself very lucky that Moss is injured at the moment.

Well I guess the point still stands, PWF didn't see it.

I think that is very harsh.  Pretty difficult to say that Paston would have had time to reach that freekick given the pass/height of it. Gotta blame Lia in part for being about 3m away from his players. You look at Durante reaction to that goal and he has a go at Lia, not Paston.

Second, yeah it was near post but the shot was from almost straight out in front so whether it was near post or not doesn't matter as much. Again, we had 4 players around the ball, and no one could put a tackle or block on.

Third, took a deflection that put it under him.  Pretty tough to say that was his fault. Why no blame for Lochhead for letting his player get in behind?

If Paston was a bit more on to it... if Galekovic hadn't made those impressive saves... if the officials would stop denying the Phoenix legitimate goals...

... the result would have been very different. It's comforting to at least have these excuses because there certainly wasn't that luxury last week.

Paston thinking " lalala oh, Christmas next week..... Lalaladeda " 

Have to say, Boyd was VERY unlucky not to score. I think Galekovic made one of the finest PK saves I've seen in a while.

Boyd hit the ball well and with power, and Galekovic's hand managed to keep it out. On the reboud I think Boyd should have gone with his left foot. You live you learn I guess

First shot was too low, but you do see those go in. Second save was special

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/aleague/Galekovic-at-the-double/7135/1 

Was probably 3/4 height (head height)

Generally a keeper dives to block the bottom corner, so managing to get his arm up, and have enough strength to hold it out is impressive. The ball was moving crazy fast and had he dived the other way, it would have looked like tyler buried it top corner and everyone would be raving about his penalty abilities

Ricki we overboard with the all out attacking tactics and we don't have the pace in the middle of the park to track back and stop their counter acts. He probably should dial it back a little, so we don't lose our shape at the back. Biggest disappointment for me was that we never really tested their keeper enough.

Just seen the penalty. I think its a poorly taken kick.

I really like some of what I saw from the Nix, especially in the second half. OK it was it wasn't total football...LOL, but in terms of attacking play it was streets better than we have seen this season. Impressed with Sanchez....considering this was his first match he looked OK. He really gives the team more options on attack. 

Boyd and Fenton give the side much more pace and urgency. The last few games its been the same. They both need to relax a bit more in shooting situations but that will come with experiance....Fenton in particular tends to snatch at the ball when he tries to shoot....maybe he's going for too much power.  What was really nice was watching them(and Totori) running into spaces to provide a passing option. They had some very clever movement...diagonal runs which pulled the Reds defenders out of position. Normally the Nix are quiet static and are easy to defend against.

More importantly they kept the ball on the deck and tried to play balls to team mates rather than just wack in crosses and hope someone gets on the end of it. IMO these youngsters and that style is the future for the Nix.

A big call for Rickie this week. Does he back these young guys and that style? TBH Huysegems, Smith and Locky look really slow. I was a fan of Steiny but in this game he looked like a cart horse....his only option seemed to be a back pass. For all his goal scoring abilities Brockie drifts out of games too much for my liking. Boyd, Fenton and Sanchez to start next week. Brockie and Ifill to fight it out for the other slot.

 Two weeks ago i was wrong to call out Paston being crap, now fast forward in time and my opinion is being echoed now by pretty much everyone. I said at the time - how bad does it have to get before we realise its time for a keeper rotation? Obviously this bad. And it could get worse - Im so not looking forward to this weekends game :(

I really really hope they find the culprit or culprits of the racial slur.There is NO room for that crap in our game.That Adelaide fan should be named and shamed.

 Never a dull moment when we come to town is there Steve?

maybe, but my angst towards Paston has been growing over the last 4-5 weeks, several of our goals have been conceeded while he has been standing leaden footed in the box, he doesn't come to the ball aggressively enough for mine and his goal line saves are looking shakey. I think he has passed his best, and needs to be moved on, it is a shame that Moss is injured, but at thei point I'd have Griffen Mac in goal and Paston on the bench for the enxt game.

McMaster tweeted that the guy did a runner once he realised that the police had been asked to look for him. Doesn't sound like he wants the notority that most dim-witted sports fans love when they get arrested and dragged out of the stadium.

I'd rather Boyd took our penalties than Eugene Dadi  - any.fucken.day

 I think its time we all become a bit honest about this side.

Paston - is he really the best we can get? dont think the side has much confidence in him. Has been a good servant but time to move on.

Lochead - is finished. Infact he has been finished for some time now yet Herbert seems to High Five him after every poor game and thats become on weekly basis. So poor its funny to watch sometimes! Not sure what relationship Herbert has with him but it must be a fairly close on.

Lia - works hard at times but offers little else.

Muscat - again another hard worker and can play in various positions but really is their nothing better on the market?

Husenguymes (not sure on spelling) - looks lost and like Fenton seems to be a one game wonder. He doesnt know how to play the game outside the box.

Important Brockie stays fit, cant see us scoring many if hes not out there and he could determine how much success this side has. Think Totori just needs to start. I think defenders fear him much more than anyone else in our side. Id go for Totori over Ifill because Ifill seems to be on holiday this year.

Anyways my thoughts.

Lochhead is someone everyone loves to hate, but I'll be the first person to say that despite his woeful game last night he has actually been reasonable this season. We just need someone putting pressure on him but there isn't anyone.

luke rowe also hasnt looked as good as he did last season.. although still believe he isnt dramatically worse. 

exactly, Locky maybe struggling this season, along with m,anny and ifill, but there is no point in replacing them with someone of the same ability - you need to improve with someone younger and better. It's not an either or kind of decision.

but on the other hand, if we were to sign a left back who is guaranteed to be better than lochhead - for example - say cassio, would there then be use keeping lochhead on the books where he clearly isnt going to start over cassio? 

But then if we released lochhead, who would be there to put pressure on cassio if he had a really terrible patch of form?

here the way it works, sign a better LB now, let Locky sit on the bench for a little bit until contract expires, then when it does we let him go and hire a younger talent.

At which point we'd have the same apparent 'problem' again. 

So.  We're going to magically find a better left back free agent in Australia than Lochhead?

Remember that West Sydney have to use Adam D'Apuzzo, Brisbane Steffanuto, and Perth Heffernan.  People seriously think we can find an option in Aus behind those three better than Lochhead?