Darije Kalezić: We hardly knew ye.

Also, I don't buy the building to next season approach. We had half a team of new players, new coach and new assistant and we've sacked the assistant, cut one new player loose (and another soon if Abbas goes) switched from playing fluid possession football to defensive counter attacks/long balls and still only won one game this season and we're halfway through. Vidosic, Abbas, Galloway and Mullen are all experienced A League players and on paper seem like safer bets than a lot of Ernie signings but we're worse than we have been for ages. Yeah I think the club management are to blame for some of our dysfunction but Kalezic has done 3/8ths of fudge all in 6 months with decent resources. And apparently he was keeping an eye on the Nix for a while so it's not like he's come in completely ignorant of the players he was inheriting.

I don't think we have time to see if he sorts it out next season. I give him 2 or 3 games from now to show some serious improvement and if not he should go. The only reason I'm not screaming for his head now is a little bit of benefit of the doubt over the Rado situation and these new signings. But even then Rado seemed to be the one behind us playing decent football. And he's got great A League experience.

You've been accusing Welnix of winding down the team every year since the save the nix campaign though Daloras, and every year we've seen them double down and up their investment, they're not going to sign a player like Burns (who is presumably marquee) for two years if they're thinking of folding the club. This January looks to be the busiest in the clubs history, you don't do that if you're thinking of giving up.

As far as building the team goes Darje was signed late and was new to the league, he obviously would have relied on Rado and the Phoenix footballing department to do the signings, and I remember reading somewhere before that he prefers to be a coach and let others do the signing. It's clear though that the alignment in vision between all those doing the signings wasn't there. 

The Phoenix have been talking about attacking football since WelNix took over and Rado was an attack minded assistant. It seems that Darje, despite the fact that the club has apparently been tracking him for years, does not have the same vision that the club professes as he's talked about defence since day one. He even said in a press conference a few games ago that scoring as many goals as we were while conceding was not in his DNA. That's why I say if he's our coach and the team is backing him then he needs more time because he found himself in a situation where the players that were being signed were not a good fit for his game plan, and that's okay, that's what transfer windows are for.

What I worry about is this much maligned footballing committee, they've obviously hired a coach who's instinct is the opposite of what they've been professing, and paired him with an assistant (who he apparently asked to be paired with it must be said) who has very strong views on how to play and those views were in direct opposition to his head coach.

As I said, Darje does seem like a good coach, and despite results he seems technically better than most of the league. We've also been screaming out for someone to clean out the rot and that's apparently what he's doing. If he's the coach for the team then they need to support him and let him do his job. If he's playing a style of football which goes against the teams DNA then we should get rid of him ASAP and should have actually kept Rado (although, then we wouldn't have Burns back).

I want to actually see some progress before giving Darije the chance to continue next season. All well and good blowing the thing up but you've got to be able to put it back together! We are absolutely dire at the moment with better players than last season

Faark I was happy in that first half! City couldn't find a way into our box. Like Ricki's teams were built on the reputation of Fortress Westpac, if you've got that base then you can build from there. And Krishna has got to be one of best equipped footballers to counter attack in the league. 

It was that we couldn't hold on, or introduce a player or tactical switch to get it over the line. I hate to say it, but as soon as City brought the new kid on, if it had been a Ricki team McKain or Lia would've given him a kicking or at least a welcome to the game. We didn't adapt to him. 

I think the tactics were valid. And City were s***ting themselves at half time.

A good team needs a solid defensive base. I think we've seen that this season. First at the start where we seemed to be able to pass through anyone and from the back. Second iteration has been the last two games, but we haven't had the concentration to make it to the 90 minutes. 

I think Darje was hired as a disciplinarian after the alleged prima-donna stuff and lack of squad discipline and also to re-establish the respect for the 'Nix defence.

I think it is players too. Harsh on Doyle, but I'd say there would be good odds Siggie or Tim Brown would have put away that last minute equaliser chance. I thought we were going to get this kind of beating heart from Paracki. Good run late in the game, but he's been a bit off the boil. Darje needs some more leaders out on the park and unfortunately Dario might have been one of those in better circumstances. 

Kosta, Bonevacia and Tratt? And 5-6 goals from the maligned Finkler?

I'd say we've got a more balanced squad, but not necessarily better players. 

We've got more defensive cover. But part of that is Abbas!

There's a difference between a solid defensive base, and 5 defenders and 2 (3 at times?) DMs.

Said to me today : Andy Bevan to the Nix ? 

Can’t be worse? 

Agree with the more balanced but not necessarily better.  But we've got a team that can score 3 against Brisbane and two against Sydney.  Hopefully Burns and the new mid coming in, for Dario's loss, doesn't change that. 

But we still only drew and lost those games because we've got a back five/four made up of a now disinterested Rossi, an over the hill Durante, a journeyman and not the quickest Mullen, and two FBs that aren't a heck of a lot better at their defensive jobs than most of the  FBs we've had over the years.  And a heck of a lot of instability amongst that lot with injuries and internationals.  

I'm prepared to believe Darije's 5-3-2 tactic is a temporary attempt to fix a diabolical defense.  If he can shore that up with one or two changes and if that brings a bit of confidence, then we could turn the season around.  One of them may be Fox if he's fit.  And Rossi may pick up his game if he sees the rest of the defence getting sorted. He's gone from a strength of the side to a guy that looks sick of the whole thing.  And there were a couple of signs he's not happy with Dura.  That could turn around. But otherwise if Darije has other defenders lined up then an early release for a couple of players is fine with me. 

touche.

Kosta was absolute pox last year, as was Roly so in that respect I'd say yes - we do have better players this year.  Well, we did at the start of the season.  I'd have Tratty back in a heartbeat though.

I've wanted him to go for a few weeks now and if we drop points again that has to be the end of the road. Also we have dropped 10 points already this season at half time.

I hope the club have started thinking about who could replace him because if we do finish last I do not see why we would give him another season (based on how we have looked so far)

Anyone know anything about the new assitant coach, Dario Pot?

apparently worked with DK in 2010-11 in the Netherlands

On present standards, his twin brother Pol might be more succesful with The Nix.

John McKenzie just had a couple of tweets from an interview with Darje, one of them was:

As well as also confirming it’s all pretty much about next season now... not this one ?

— John Mckenzie (@Johnmck419) January 9, 2018

I remember when he first started Darje said something like it's going to take a while for the team to jell and it would be mid season by the time the team was working (which is ironic considering it was working better at the start) but at the end of the season he was going to fight like heck to win the finals series. This tweet is pretty demoralising TBH.

Followed by 

They’ll keep trying, but he’s essentially building a club for next year

— John Mckenzie (@Johnmck419) January 9, 2018

But it does scream that they are giving up now

I'd wait for the audio for the context before jumping on one tweet. Responses can often be blunt when you're speaking in a second language. 

I mean it's not like they won't be trying to win games. 

So wanted to collect some information about our new Assistant Coach. This I believe is where he was before coming to us http://www.pwsi.org/Default.aspx?tabid=596687

Dario Pot brings a diverse background to his new role as PWSI’s Development Academy head coach. A former pro player with a range of European club experience as both a player and coach, Pot has studied his trade in the Netherlands, Germany, Bosnia & Herzegovina and beyond, and has the advanced certifications to prove it. Before joining PWSI last year, he served as the director of the Development Academy program at California Odyssey Earthquakes.

Is he with us now? Or coming in soon?

Worked with Darje at De Graafschap?

So if it's all about next season we'll see some more of Singh?  Right....? Right?

Not surprising but if they can't show some form right now then why give him the keys for next season!

Our team is so shark right now, we no longer play attacking football but park the bus and counter hoof ball. 

Darje needs to go, bring in Mike Mulvey and win the league.

I really do wonder what he was doing in pre-season.  Remember when he was available mid-season and for some reason we gave Chris and Des a weird half season trial and then David DOme said that there was no point bringing him in mid-season because he couldn't do anything?  Yeah, that worked out well David...some of this stuff is just pure rank incompetence

Mike Mulvey expects his teams to be able to play out from the back so he would probably find it hard to do that with the relatively poor skills of our team in this department. 

Just Transfer The complete Manchester City Team -Its January - One earth Quake and we will win the spoon

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/10...

Pretty interesting, the main talking points:

1. He wants to sign and develop kiwis in the long term, but he's doing short term fixes now.

2. He want's to play attractive and posession based football but can't with the current squad so he's being pragmatic.

3. He aims to strengthen the squad by 20% in the January transfer window.

4. It's going to take two or three windows to get the team how he want's them.

This is now his second window effectively.

They'll train harder with a gun in their backs for a bowl of rice a day.

 News of the assistant coach coming out before a proper announcement from the nIx.

Is David Dome still on summer holiday?

100% agree with this, and said it at the time.  Coming in half way through the season that was already almost a write off could have potentially got the teething troubles out the way early, and left the off season for him to start recruiting the players he wanted.  Absolutely baffling decision from the board/management.

The funny thing was in his first press conference he said he want's to be the first Phoenix coach without excuses. Failing so far.

But he's direct and speaks his mind, there's no bullshark even if there are excuses. 

An interesting thing is he's probably never had this luxury in his career before, he's always been in much more cutthroat leagues where you achieve or you leave. Popa for instance didn't even get one transfer window, three? Unheard of.

Pretty similar shark to what we have been told before by others. Does become repetitive after you have heard similar  shark. Would be nice for a change if the fans wernt treated like idiots,something clearly isnt working at the club and hasnt done for some time. All we get is the same excuses time after time a shame they seem unable to show the same passion for the club the fans showed during the save the nix campaign.

Just we might have revised expectations from when we were playing through Sydney and Melb. City and out from the back a la the first few games.