Coaching Angst - ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 It does not talk about draws or loses, just wins. Hard to measure that subjectively.

The best stat to have would be a points per game to rank the managers. That would be far more accurate.

Eddie only wins just over 9% more of his games than Ricki does. Thats an extra 2-3 wins a season. Mind you right now, that 9 points....

Would a proven Australian coach, like eddie for example, help pull over a better calibre of player to NZ from Australia?

Tough to know

 Can we not call him Eddie?  Makes me think Krnicevic not Merrick.

Ew.

 that's treading on dangerous groung JV - even with the :o)

 No.  Fair point. If you were at North Harbour for a Kingz game in 1999 it can reasonable be said you've been around too long.

Wasn't there a tie up with Eddie K and the Knights in the 2nd season or something? (foggy memory)

LOL, John Adshead.

 Kingz, not Knights.  Wynton.

Oi HN

 Maybe this guy will be around in a few years   (Smiley emoticon)

From Gareths blog) "Hi Garet. I just like to coment about what you said " I don't think there's anybody in N.Z football that's got as much Knowledge and skill as that man. How do u know that? if you never give the chance. I'm a former player from Chile I been here for almost 12 years I'got my diplomas(FiFa sytem) and International England course. I give my C.V in person at Newtown and I never recived some aswer when Phoenix appointed for assiten coach. I sent my C.V to 2 club in Australia and they give an aswer. I'm come from the futbool culture,I have a lot of experience, but nobody give the chance to listen and see u C.V. I believe the about the success of the ppl comes from within,not from without. And football is part of my blood. If u answer. great if not great too.
Regards
Jose Quijada."

Giggles.

Wow! Bitter much?

 I'm also come from the futbool culture.

Is Jose at United these days ?  I've lost track.

 so now we have the senior players (Ifill and Bertos) talking to the prss ans saaying we need to go back to winning ugly, ie the attemtp to play total football has been tried and failed and winning is the only wa to bring the corwds back....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/8192535/Phoenix-want-to-return-to-winning-ugly

wtf? we have the owners changing tactics via the prsss, the coach telling the team after they've read about it and now the senior players are openly saying we don't agree with the change right now, it needs ot happen later. We've quickly become the Hurricanes where all; the dirty laundry is aired in the Doom Post - oh wait, our owners own the 'canes too...maybe they brought the old septic culture as well.

At least this isn't as big a clusterf*ck as NZC is at the moment.

Actually, Paul Ifill doesn't say that at all. He just points out that whatever style you play you need to get the basics right first.

Just another nice twist of words by Sam Worthington and the sub-editors at the Dom Post.

Completely agree with you TX. It's getting ridiculous. Despite the downsides to doing it, I think the Phoenix as a club should not give any interviews to the Dom Post for a week or so. The extent that the Dom Post are twisting what is said to them in interviews is getting out of hand.

They didn't say that exactly but...

"We've tried to do that, but it hasn't been working as we would've liked. We haven't been winning, or playing what people might call better football," Bertos said.

"It was a conscious effort by the club to find out why the crowds had gone away. Our crowds have halved at home - even though we started the season well the crowds were still low after that.

"We tried to change a few things, but now we're at the stage where we need to win games if we want to get to the finals - no matter how we do it."

and...

"It's not been great, the last few weeks," Ifill said after yesterday's training session at Newtown Park.

"I don't think we've played particularly badly, but the results have been going against us. In saying that, the second half last week was probably the worst I've seen."

Not because the team doesn't have the ability to play well, he said. More that everyone lacks a bit of confidence at the moment.

"There's a lot of talk about the new style, but some of the things we've seen - getting away from the style - it's just fundamentals. Our defending's been poor, and I'm not just blaming the back four.

"It starts at the front and we've just got to work harder all over the pitch, and go back to basics and get that right first. Then you can start playing pretty football.

"You've got to earn the right to play this so-called total football, you can't just go in there and be Barcelona from the first minute. It's impossible."

To me it sounds like a bit of common sense. The writer (or probably editor) could have said "Return to a more pragmatic approach" rather than win ugly and it would have been fine. I was pleased to hear this, the 3 weeks have been dire and directionless. You can look to expand the game, transition the ball forward in different ways, not panic in possession and be more aggressive in defense without totally changing the game plan they have been playing.

Soon there'll be print and TV reporters prowling around the toilets at Newtown Park.  Mark my words.

Of course if we do make the play-offs then DP will probably run with the line "We were with the Nix from the start".

ah remember the days when we had the midfield trio of Muscat, Lia, Brown  - they weren't pretty but they did the job. Piney puts it so well.

A Lia-Brown-Muscat triumvirate doesn’t conjure images of eye-catching skills, mazy dribbling and defence-splitting passes. What it does bring to mind – and what it consistently delivered – was a trio of players who knew exactly what was required of them to allow their team to achieve success. If the midfield is the engine room of a football side it needs players who will remain mobile, competitive and industrious for ninety minutes. As a team within a team, these three allowed Paul Ifill to wreak havoc in the attacking third, safe in the knowledge that if he lost the ball, there was a three-man wall behind him ready to stifle any would-be counter-attacks, regain possession of the football and give it back to him.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix/news-display/Vince-Lia-Plays-100/58492

What nonsense! Tim Brown was invisible and never did anything apart from score 9 goals and make us all miss him when he left!

I remember that story a couple of years ago when that little creep reporter was hanging around the toilets going "where's Terry?".

Fast forward to now and Gareth is standing right there in plain sight and Sam Worthington can't even be bothered walking across the pitch to ask what's going on.

That said, this can't carry on. At some point soon someone from the Nix is going to have to sit down with the Dom Post and smoke a peace pipe.

hey you can knock Tim all you want but you have to admit the team was playing a damn site better and winning more when he was around!