Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

came on forums to check score. Saw Steve-o had posted in a couple of threads. Knew the result without needing to check any further. 

6 defeats in a row. Getting a bit hard to roll out the line that I only post when we lose? 

I would have liked for us to bring back Trani as an assistant after he parted ways with city, the jets are dung well under him.

The Nix did better with his training than when Ricki was left on his own.

Clearly we need more Trani's in the club.

and shemales!

cringe

is Ernie under the cosh? 6 in a row is not a good look and in other leagues questions about his disposal would be starting to bubble...

If Flavio Briatore was in charge, Ernie would have been gone after the 2nd defeat and the Nix would have been on their 3rd manager within 6 games!

Or Massimo Cellino, currently having fun at my club Leeds.

Lucky we don't have criminals in charge then.

Not anymore, anyway!

Looking at our schedule, we only have 3 games in the afternoon all season. Should we be looking at moving our teams training schedule to much later in the day, allow players to sleep in, to get their bodies better acclimatised to when they are playing.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2012/08/...

We are always travelling east and playing games when our bodies are not at their peak, surely simulating game times for training and changing our players circadian rhythms a bit could help.

This is what we eventually discovered about Ricki, isn't it?

Ricki's gone.

Ricki come back! Any kind of fool could see, we were wrong, and we just can't win without you.....

I mean...Vuc fans could've told us this 4 years ago.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/85573486/wellington-phoenixs-home-form-cause-for-concern

"During the first (almost) six seasons of the club's existence under Ricki Herbert the Phoenix won 50 per cent of their home games.

In the three seasons since current manager Ernie Merrick took the reins that record has fallen to 33 per cent, while the proportion of home games lost has almost doubled 43 per cent."

Tried to just delete my post, but could only edit. Anyway, seven defeats in a row. Zero goals in 270 minutes (or more?). Something has to give.

Noose tightening?

I think Ernie's done a good job cultivating a good culture around the club - though that good culture was mostly there when Ricki was around too.

I think he's done a very poor job recruiting this season. A-Rod should've been paid out if he wasn't going to be a starter, and Finkler shouldn't have been signed at all in my opinion.

Signing Tratt and Parkhouse so late made no sense whatsoever also. The A-League has the longest pre-season in existence and it's not like we had to wait for these players to finish contracts at other clubs. Just really poor.

I think Ernie is a bigger con than Hudson I wonder why the Victory and the crowd in Hong Kong got rid of him he may be a good coach but can't recruit and pick a team and his jokes a one liners are getting on my tits.

Ernie doesn't talk a big game, he's quiet and unassuming and always talks up his team and never himself from what I can see. He's also the most successful coach in A-League history. You might say he's past it but definitely not that he's a con - he's the opposite of a con, he hardly ever makes excuses and always lets his team do the talking.

I have no idea what you're on about.

I'm assuming he was after other players but they fell through. Also he said that the recruitment strategy changed after the FFA refused to reschedule the Phoenix games in the international windows, so it could be we were waiting to see if we were recruiting for depth, or recruiting to replace international players.

A-Rod was offered a one year extension at the end of last year, if they wanted to get rid of him they didn't need to sign the +1.

I am a big A-Rod fan but the fact that he's been kept taking up an import spot but is barely a squad player makes me wish we had let him go. It's nonsensical strategy to invest a very limited resource (an import spot) on a non-essential function (squad filler)

there are better imports than A-Rod in the SSprem

I think that regardless of how easy or hard it is to attract players to come here the fact remains that A-Rod is taking up an import slot and if he's not playing its a waste. Im just a bit dismayed that we dont seem to have anyone who can score goals. You can look at Costa, Finkler and co but none of them really score the goals that a relatively decent striker can

I questioned the Finkler signing at the time and said that perhaps there was a logic in this that we were not aware of. At the moment, I still do not see the rationale in the Finkler signing purely because of duplicity amongst imports/midfielders that we already have.

duplicity = deceitfulness, deception, double-dealing, skullduggery, treachery, sharp practice, etc etc.

sorry Jeff :)

Great job on the 'Yellow Army' chant on the weekend

I think this really sums it up: "we acquire decent players who performed well elsewhere and who slowly and inevitably turn into ineffective underperforming laggards once they put a black and yellow stripey on".

Of course it is not true. I was taking the proverbial.

I would add Manny Muscat and Michael Boxall to that list.

yeah, sadly this seems to be the case

i think the finkler signing makes sense simply because once he settles he should be better than any of the other attacking midfielders. i think mcglinchey further back is good and ditto roly

in terms of personnel i'd say we're weak at full back and defensive midfield

but our real problem is our tactics. narrow and predictable. we must be so easy to defend against. keep the back four close and deep and plonk a holding midfielder in front to stifle finkler and we're toast

opposition full backs can stay narrow because we do not cross the ball