Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

"Louis Fenton has nailed that right back role.."  Seeme Ernie is pleased with his call to move Fenton

A video interview with Ernie:

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/videos/all/A-League-TV-|-Managers-|-Wellington-Phoenix/8719/2

10 wins in 34 games, average points per game of 1.09 isn't great, strange subs and the midfield just doesn't look right to me at all, I know it's early days but anyone else starting to get a little bit worried?

You're always a little worried. 

I think we've had our best start to the season ever, and it's only 6 games in. Plus he has made some good recruits. He is worth more time than 4 more games that you've suggested. 

7 games

Agree, we shouldn't make any judgements until after at least 10 games.  I'm just not getting the feeling that our" best ever squad" is quite assembled right and performing right.  

I was particularly unimpressed with Ernie saying after the weekend that we needed a striker who could bang in the goals.  If the entire fan base can spot that in pre-season why didn't they *(a) recruit someone or (b) leave a gap in the squad to recruit someone?

All the best ever/worst ever isn't that meaningful really, it's what happens over the season that counts

well as it stands the "best ever squad" has made our "best ever start to the season"

I think we are where I would expect us to be, so am not too worried. Hoping to sneak into the playoffs then build on that next season. Way too premature to be worried and thinking about replacing Merrick with Mulvey. 

It's the Rodriguez signing I have a problem with.  Never looked right to me on paper, I was dubious at the time that he would be ready for first team football.

It's only an either/or between Roly and a "foreign striker" because we signed other foreign players

But if he did think our attack needed strengthening, then yes, I'm not sure the Roly signing was actually a great one

I would also add that we've only earned 12 points from losing positions over those 34 matches.  Basically go behind and we get beat

Tend to agree with some points. Best ever start to a season may well mean we have played some shit house teams to start.  Of all Ernies signings it is still Krishna that baffles the most.

Your point re going behind means loosing probably  applies to just about every other team in the league to be fair.

I've always questioned the signing of imports that are not going to be starters or stars. The Krishna signing I have never gotten save for the fact he will be a local next year. Sign him next year then and use his spot for an import.

I think when you look at the Roly signing as being the last one, we all went 'why not a striker'. Now with hindsight, do we say 'why did we sign A-Rod when we could have signed a striker?' so I take JDs point for what its worth. The benefit of hindsight.

No.

Pretty hard to go from last to first. nature of the league is you need to build over a number of years once a coach has taken over, especially if you are hamstrung by not having money to spend on marquees.  Fact is, unless they well and truly butcher it, Sydney and Victory should be the top two every year. Marquees matter. Not just in terms of the players themselves, but the space it frees up to use on the other 21 players. Assist depth.

5/6 should be an achieve target this year. Still some dead wood to get rid of in the off season.

Dead wood is probably a bit harsh. Think Cunningham will go. Brockie might get re-signed on less wage to help find a foreign #9. Or an Asian team might try sign him.

Hick is a hard one. Certainly down the pecking order.

Then there are the centrebacks. At some point we need to replace them,

I'm pretty sure most teams don't earn that many points from losing positions over the course of a season..

I'm normally skewing more towards a pessimistic view and even I think that our start hasn't been so bad. We've played Victory, Perth and Adelaide away from home; before the season I'd note those games down as all write-offs anyway.

Roly is the biggest plus so far this season. The biggest worry for me is that we still haven't found the right balance in midfield.

Didn't we have this issue at the start of last season? Not know what our best formation is? Once we worked it out, we went on a really good run before injuries destroyed us.

as at end of 2013/14 @aleague, teams came from behind to win in 11% of games. so far this season teams came from behind to win 40% of games

— andrew howe (@AndyHowe_statto) October 31, 2014

Although Roly came in very late to stuff everything up.

And I assume that will level out over the course of the season - hardly a big sample size so far.

That's my worries really, all looks a bit too much like last season with a few improvements in personnel. Not a really developed playing style, and still the same strenghts and weaknesses. Hoping there's more to come, not in full panic mode, its just that if you have less to spend on wages you need clever recruitment or great coaching to make up the gap and haven't been blown away by either

This was only 17 days (2 games) ago...

I knew it was too good to be true.

This post was probably made by "JD's Office" and not JD himself.

one must never give the staff access to ones password

I think A-Rod is a good signing and will turn out to be really good. 

I'm worried that Ernie isn't getting the best out of his squad. But having said that- the away trips mixed with AW duty are tricky and always will be. 

Annoyed that Boyd hasn't been more involved. Seems he's done everything asked of him. If it really is contract reasons that is completely BS for the fans. 

Happy that Krishna has been able to add something. He's already exceeded my expectations. Burns started with a hiss and a roar, but you wonder if he's got the guts if we're against the wall. I guess we'll find out, and he did nearly pinch something in Perth. A make or break season for him too, you'd think.

The 3 formation changes are a worry. The biggest frustration last season was Ernie's persistence with a combination that wasn't working in Brockie and Huysegems. Hasn't done anything that boneheaded yet.

I want to see more of Boyd involved, and perhaps a more fluid role for McGlinchey. And a lot more goals. The first formation was getting us goals. We haven't looked that dominant since then. I wonder if we are able to open up with formation 1 and then switch latter to formation 2? or some other such...

thought we agreed that last years playing style (esp the 10 game streak) was hot diggity and joggo bonito and all that?

tiki taka yolo swag

Wait, is the argument now that Ernie would have got a "not a Not A Striker", but Roly became available at the last minute and was too good a bargain to pass up? So is it really the case that we just can't find someone who can score goals, who wants to live and work in Wellington, and is not called Krishna?

My reading of Ernie's recent statements is that he really doesn't know how to stop the "Phoenix Disease" of woeful home form, soft goals and players who just plain slump and don't recover. And it is a Nix disease - other teams don't have the same problem year after year (well, not ones who stay in the comp anyway).

He's not an out and out striker so why didn't he look up before hitting that last shot wide v Perf, when he would have seen TWO team-mates left pretty much wide and free in the box to his left?

For mine, I'm happy to let him see out the season and then evaluate whether he's done well enough in these two season's to warrant a contract extension. This year we really should be finishing ahead of teams like CCM, Jets, City and WSW, and we are at the moment. It's not going to be until about 20 games into the season that we know whether it's been a success or not, and since he'll only have 2 months  left on his contract by that stage there's no point sacking him then and having to pay severance.

Should look to transfer Smetlz off of Sydney considering he isn't doing much for them.

What would you do to your signature if we signed Mulvey?

Plus he would need to ask his missus

End of career Smeltz has more goals in him than Brockie, and is definitely not a not a striker like the rest of the team. But yes his missus would be an issue, probably a bigger one than negotaiting with Sydney about releasing him.

We should just sign him and then claim that his contract with Sydney is invalid...

I hope you're kidding. 

Unless of course we're looking for a coach who can take us to the dizzying heights of the mid-table at best, because that is what Mulvey would have achieved with the Roar this season (and that is a championship - winning team).

I'd have to edit it to him celebrating a Nix win, then grabbing his head when we lose the next week. 

I think that in the short term we will have some success and some failures, but long term as in the next 5 seasons if we still exist, then we are going to have a good experienced team - if we can keep the under 25 guys here.

Perhaps the club need to start scouting for the replacements of Durante, Sigmund, Moss (Although Italiano isn't too bad as it is), Muscat, Lia, even Riera. Not because of their abilities but because of their age. Sorry lads, but you dont get any faster after 30 and we have to be realistic, all good things come to an end one day.

Are the guys in the reserves good enough to step up a level? I actually think JBS is an under-rated full back that cops un-necessary stick. It is not like he has been given a run of games to show any improvement and he does give everything to the cause. If we can keep Roly and A-Rod then we will have a great base to build from and a team to build around.

Needs financial plus on-field footballing comitment imo. The Okkers are leaving us behind.

Of course I'm kidding - funnily enough the Mariners fans are clamouring for Mulvey. I think Merick is a good fit for the Nix - he just needs to get everything to click into place so we go on another mid season run (without all the wheels falling off at the end).