Darije Kalezić: We hardly knew ye.

I've seen multiple people suggest Ange as an option. He's already got a coaching gig much better than coaching the Nix. Not gonna happen. 

great post @djtim and a good point @np, if he's going to flush the majority of the 15 off contract down the loo he has shown enough to suggest he may well replace them with players from the handy. in such a scenario, it will be interesting to see which handy players he rates

like the owners always say, we’re in the entertainment industry. Doesn’t matter how long we give this couch, even if we start winning, it’s never gonna be entertaining.

winning and entertainment go hand in hand in the Kiwi mindset, if we want to fill the stadium with more fair-weather fans we need wins. Wins equal championships no matter how dull the winning is.

We looked to play exciting football in the first half dozen games

and still lost - I think we can all agree on the fact that we would take any kind of win right now.

Why does he need another season, why not judge him on the season he has just had? 

People who want to roll DK, is the standard the season sucked therefore we should roll him whether we can find someone better or not? Or is the answer "there is definitely someone better, and we trust WelNix to find them"?

I've liked what Ive seen in those ways. 

Wins breed confidence. When we got momentum we got hurt.  We miss Dario. 

My real irritation has been the attack post-Dario.  Krishna and Burns haven't been unleashed.  AK is better with his head,  but we want through balls and counters with the top two. Despite the hating on McG it was his work to set Krishna free for winner against Perth.

And hoping Ridenton or anyone will become a Daniel/Siggy/Tim Brown.  A name always on the team sheet and in the late winners and clearances. 

That's an assumption that I had as well. 

But, remember the first time we played City (with Rado involved) we played with a high press and play out from the back, the second time we played them (without Rado) we sat back and played on the counter. After the second city game Darije addressed this and said in the press conference that we saw in the first City game the way that he want's to play and in the second game the best chance to win with the team that we have. 

Darije does seem fairly honest so I have no reason to doubt him on this point.

Hmmm, he did say that

But if performance A (the first City game) was so much better than performance B (the second city game), why go with B? Performance A showed that we weren't far off getting things right, we were very unlucky in that game. IMO opinion it need to be worked on.

And I'm not really seeing this performance B in existence anyway. 

So, he's taken a good way to play, one that we were not far off nailing, decided that we can't do it, found a different way to play and got us playing it poorly

We looked good until teams figured out that's how we were playing and then it s clear we weren't good enough.

Either we back him fully and give him the cash to spend what he wants to spend, or we let him go and get some one else and continue to be stringent. Kinda seems like the only options

Apdot Richard Money Newcastle Jets coach back in the day.

my answer neither. i think we've gone significantly backwards from where we were under des and greenie, who were improving the team, but not a rate that was acceptable to the board and therefore they were removed and have been replaced by a coach that has taken us backwards and we seem to be getting worse.

simple, the players we had in game A were suited to playing that way, game B we had lost Rado who was clearly key to the style of play.

yip, bang on

When was the last time we actually played well? I think it was the second half of WSW at home with Burns and Ljuic coming on and that was weeks ago

We need a coach to show something. Have something to suggest, to hint, that we can be recognized in a favorable way now not some dreamy distant feeling we thought we might of had some season when the club bared no resemblance to its present form, and have an expecting public fulfilling what football is to them, as this a place were we love the game and want to show our footballing wares to whoever opposes us.

Would the team from last weekend beat the team usually taking the field in season one?

With all due respect, that is just a soundbite.  We need to beat other teams, not ourselves. And I personally think the level of A-League has moved on significantly from 2007, due to better coaches, better imports and higher expectations. 

Would the current Nix team beat any of the teams from Season One?  Probably.  But it can't beat any team from the current season regularly (dependably), save maybe Perth, but even that not in every game. We have not beaten CCM, WSW, Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne City in a good while.  

In regards to Central Coast, we beat them all 3 times last season. Not that long ago.

Found myself agreeing with niche cache. Let Darije try and finish the job he's started. But niche cache thinks Patterson was fast, which I'd thought from his time with the AWs, but mostly the forum thinks he's slow?

For the record:

 Glen Moss (GK)

New Zealand Tony Lochhead

Brazil Cleberson

Australia Karl Dodd

New Zealand Steven Old

New Zealand Jeremy Christie ↓64

Australia Ross Aloisi (C)

Australia Michael Ferrante

Brazil Daniel

New Zealand Vaughan Coveny ↓76

New Zealand Shane Smeltz

Substitutes:

New Zealand Jacob Spoonley (GK)

Australia Richard Johnson

Brazil Felipe ↑64

Australia Royce Brownlie ↑76

And check out the lineup of the team we drew with!!

Australia Michael Theo (GK)

Australia Kevin Muscat (C)

Australia Rodrigo Vargas

Australia Daniel Piorkowski

England Joseph Keenan

Scotland Grant Brebner

Costa Rica Carlos Hernandez ↓58

Australia Danny Allsopp

Australia Archie Thompson ↓78

Australia Ljubo Milicevic ↓32

Australia Leigh Broxham

Substitutes:

Australia Eugene Galekovic (GK)

Australia Matthew Kemp ↑32

Australia Adrian Caceres ↑78

Australia Kaz Patafta ↑58

Remember when Kaz Patafta was the next Harry Kewell. 

I get 6/14 who would get a contract at the Nix right now.

But that's not the point at all. We aren't playing against Season One Phoenix every week.

Thanks for pointing that out. Feels like that happened decades ago. 

When I think of CCM matches I only remember our last two games.

We went over for that Melb City game.  We played a great first half.  But I think two things happened in the second half which maybe negate your line of thinking there and maybe point to the problems for the rest of the season.

1.  City upped their game in the second half.  They stood off too much in the first and were generally a bit sluggish.  The second half they came out to win the game.  Our midfield did the usual and started to struggle under pressure.  We were still competitive, but were in an arm wrestle at best that City were edging and got the equaliser out of.  But we still had our chances.

2.  Rossi, who at that stage was playing well, went off injured early second half iirc, and Doyle came into CB and I forget who the FB sub was.  Our composure playing out from the back dissapeared and that affected our play through midfield.

It was a great game. But I think City at second half speed and with our defensive shake up would have won it over two halves, possibly going away.

So, while we nearly won that game, I think the second half was more like the rest of our better games this year - competitive and not bad football but ultimately unlocked by a slightly better team.  We went on to have a series of results of some good games that we lost but should have drawn, or games we drew that we should have won. 

And then it really turned to custard.  Goal keeping errors.  Morale went to pieces.  Paratski looked to loose all confidence.  More defensive injuries.  The combination wasnt quite the same with Kalu.  Eventually we were also missing Krishna for several games.  

So I think by the time we played City again the change in tactics were justified.

But I'm not sure about the coach.  Someone wrote a good list of the stuff he does well.  And I agree with that list.  But his man management seems to me a disaster.  When does a team play well when half of them have been publically written off by the coach and when subs are physically and embarrasingly manhandled on the sideline?  For all that Muscat is thought of as a tough customer, he looks like a loveable guy that players want to play for, compared to our coach.

I remember the commentators going on and on about him and trying to work out why they thought he was so special.

Name names.  Got nothing better to do