EOY Player Ratings

Moss 8 - His best season to date for the Nix. He seemed to be more controlling and demanding in the air this season and I liked the fact he tried to roll the ball out more this year to launch counters as oppose to hoofing it forward. Nice and brave as per usual.

Siggy 6.5 - Always tries hard, but can be caught out of position and has a limited passing range. Strong in the air and a good reader of the game.

Durante 6.5 - Seemed a tad slower this year. Positionally strong, he seemed unable to stick to his man as well, which lead for more gaps in behind him when players turned.

Boxall 7 - our back of the year - started as a squad player, but by the end became an important cog. Good strength, with some ice touches he also had the pace and desire to get forward.

Fenton 7 - for a makeshift player, he grew in to the FB role and before his late change further forward was beginning to make more effective attacking runs and position himself better. Gets a higher mark in part due to him learning the trade.

Manny 5 - seems to be heading down hill quickly. Passing was poor, missed too many attempted interceptions and as usual gave away too many sill fouls.

Doyle 5 - great pre season and not much else. Needs to get up to speed quicker in a game and remove the tendency to have a brain fade.

Riera 7 - does a mountain of work and is good in possession. however, he is noticeably slower this year and was getting caught out by quicker players coming through. Needs to work on his acceleration in the off season.

Lia 6 - his best season in the stripey. Showed plenty of heart and a decent passing range. Still prone to silly errors, but a good squad player.

Rod 5.5. - hoped for more. Has some nice touches, good engine and a decent pass, but seemed a little slow with his option taking at times and got caught out.

McGlinchey 6 - trailed off badly towards the end of the season. Needs more pace and did he ever have a ping from distance. A little predictable by the end of the season.

Burns 8 - great one on one when running at players, nice pace and a real attacking threat. I would have liked to see him keep scoring, but he was marked out of games. Poor at one on one with the keeper.

Roly 7.5 - goes down too easy... my only real gripe. Good engine and a nice attacking cog in the center of the park. Has a nice pass and makes well timed runs in to the box.

Krishna 6.5 - did better than most expected using his pace to good effect. However, he needs to add another dimension to his game to be a real threat.

No one else got enough minutes to mention

A very good assessment on all of them. 

both McGlinchey and Muscat had new additions to the family shortly before the tail off you talk about. 

If you have been there you know 2 is not easier than one. 

Boxall still has his lazy patches but huge improvement on first year back from USA. 

Doyle never came back from ankle/knee injury, was he rushed in too soon?

#Carlsberg doing more for kiwi football than #Steineken 

A Rod is so underrated around here. He's a great passer of the ball, he might not player the killer pass or the spectacular assist but he's always available and finds his man more than anyone else in our midfield. Plus he makes tackles when he needs to.

This season he averaged 86% passing accuracy and made 54 passes per 90 minutes played. By comparison, Lia was 76% and 49 per 90; Roly was 81% and 43 per 90; and Riera was 84% and 49 per 90. A Rod also won 48 tackles this season; Lia 18; Roly 44; and Riera 63. Long pass accuracy for A Rod was 73%; Lia 43%; Roly 56%; and Riera 65%. Obviously they were all employed in slightly different roles, but still his numbers are the best of those 4 players in passing accuracy, passes per 90 minutes, and long pass accuracy, and 2nd best in tackles made.

And this is the first season A Rod has even played senior football!

What more do you want from a young CM?

Edit: Oh yeah, and he created 21 chances - Lia created 11; Roly 32; and Riera 13. So 2nd most tackles, 2nd most chances created. 

All stats taken from the Nix website

The disappointing thing with A-Rod was that he couldn't find a role in the team. We thought we had signed a box to box midfielder and I just don't think he is that sort of player.

Not to quibble too much with the ratings at top but I definitely don't think Boxall had a better season overall than Siggy and Durante. Boxall did the job he was asked too but frankly he was only a fill in and was a very average fullback. In the long run we paid the price for not having reliable specialist fullbacks. Manny can do a job at LB but stuck there full time he struggles with all the problems a natural right footer experiences.

Overall I thought both Dura and Siggy were very good. Their slowness is a factor now days but when you look back over the season very few goals stemmed from outright howlers from them. It was more the familiar old problem of them being hopelessly exposed as teams overwhelmed us on the counterattack. That and a hair-tearingly stupid array of pinball type comedy goals that we made an art form out conceding of in the last six weeks.

I completely agree with you but unfortunately he, along with the rest of the team to be fair, fell off badly in the last month and a bit. Ernie obviously lost trust in him too. Him pulling out of a challenge in the game last night when we're 2-0 down, then trying to make up for it and committing a foul sums up his naivety for me.

Rest of the ratings are spot on for mine.

I'm not saying he's flawless but he does a lot more than people seem to give him credit for.

My only misgiving about A Rod is that as an import he's doing a fair chunk of development with us, only for some other club to reap the full benefit in a few years time!

I'd be well happy if he had the work rate of a god!

durante deserved at least a half point more . if not 1 full point

I thought, just on a gut feeling that Siggie and Dura had done very well this season. Gotta remember them before the last few games. We had a really good defensive record there. I just remember Dura covering everything and everyone, making last ditch tackles. 

A-Rod= the new Tim Brown. Except fewer goals, and perhaps less invisibility. It's obvious he's not quite doing something that Ernie wants, or it's temperament (think bust up with Lia), or he's just not quite there physically. 

I think he has been neglected somewhat as a player in our lineup after the arrival of Bonevacia. I wonder what it would be like with Roly further back and A-Rod further foward. When Riera was out, I would have liked to have seen Roly in the DM or as the holding player.

Couple of negatives... but overall a far improved season.. heaps of promise but untimely failed to deliver when it counted.

Positive

Goals

Wins against top teams

Sexy football at times

Negatives

Rolly can have a poor touch but is able to get away with it using his speed and strength

Muscat is costing goals.. 

Corners are poos and not worth taking

Disappointed that we have not been able to change/improve the backline in three seasons.

Griffins Biscuits injury

A poo is always worth taking. OK sometimes it's better to hold out for a nice toilet but at the end of the day it's always worthwhile.

Player ratings, I'd also bump Sig and Dura up half a point.  A-Rod I would like to see become a beast next year, hopefully we'll see him in the gym a lot during the off-season.

Welnix 8.5.  Thanks guys.  Some real milestone improvements.  Including shutting Gareth up (although I like the guy).

Ernie 8.  Did a heck of a lot of good.  Couldn't stop the end of season rot.  Hopefully the next season recruits give him more options. 

1 poo in 153 visits to the toilet is a serious cased of constipation..

Lest we forget too, there has been a lot of changes off the field too. Ernie has brought in a much more professional attitude and responsibility with the players having to step up. I believe these improvements are excellent and have setup the background nicely for an even better season next time.