I think that the two of you (or is it one of you with two logins, I suspect it may be) who are all anti-Ricki and angsty are f*cking hilarious.
We didn't really sit back in the second half, or it certainly didn't look like the message had gone out not to go forward. Of course you're going to get NQ pushing for an equaliser as the end of the game they're losing gets closer, so you're going to have to weather a period of pressure mid to late in the second half. Don't forget in that period we created chances, including a gilt-edged one for Ferrante (or should that be guilt-edged given the end result?).
As for two strikers versus one what you're really saying is you'd like Ifill to play closer to Greenacre, but then you'd lose all the work that Ifill does outside of the central channels, and I don't think we'd want that. He's creating goals and freeing midfielders, and that is essential second-striker work. Think what we'd lose if we had him stay more central and higher. The alternative is to sacrifice a midfielder to play Chen alongside Greenacre but that's probably not the best use of Chen anyway, and who from the midfield would you axe - Bertos? Brown? Daniel? - to allow for that extra man to stand high up the pitch.
I don't really think you've thought this through.
We are attacking with a fluidity and consistency that we have never done before. We're creating chances throughout the 90 minutes. I wouldn't change much if I was Ricki, and as fans if we're calling for Ricki's head, or major on-field changes, when this is the best Phoenix we've ever seen then I think we might be a little retarded.
Yes and No
We are play with a fluidity, but not with a consistency, first half vs second half on Sunday demonstrates that easily enough, even taking into account the Fury stepping it up a gear from halftime we looked out of sorts at the start of that second half and lost all attacking cohesion when Ifill departed the field.
It is fine enough creating chances but we aren't taking them which is why we didn't take the 3 points again yesterday.
I can see a few ways to solve/improve this:
1) We need to dominate games and play our fluid passing football for more than one half of a game, if we create enough chances then we should (hopefully) score, though at current rate we are taking one out of what, 7 or 8 chances?
2) We need the midfield to weigh in with more goals...so we need Brown to get onto the end of more chances and add attacking support to the forwards.
3) We need to add to the firepower we have upfront, now that doesn't mean a chance of formation, but maybe we need to play Chen or Rojas whoever up nearer to Greenacre than any of Daniel or Bertos did yesterday, when Ifill went off (who was playing a lot of the game as an auxiliary striker) we had nobody getting right up beside Greenacre who ended up playing on his own.
4) Having another striking option on the bench, especially at home, is needed to give Ricki the option to add to or change things up front if we need goals!
We are getting there, but we need to be more clinical in front of goal, and if it's not happening we need our coach to have the option to change things during a match.
