Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

Having good quality fullbacks would have given us that wide option.

That's exactly where for example Perth and even Victory seem to do well.

yes, absolutely. they know when to be direct. sometimes an early cross in behind, even if only on occasion can really upset the rhythm of a defence.

we did play a few nice early passes from central positions though. we sometimes played some really nice football, but most of it from the same central areas

The most successful coach in A League history tag does mean less and less as the years pass. I want to see him make a positive change to our system, it's just the same formula. 

7 games, conceded 15, scored 2 for zero wins

wow, i had no idea it was that bad. i was wondering why i was so downcast about the team after only three games, but now my mood makes sense to me

i heard andrew durante saying he lost his appetite for the game last season. i wonder how he feels now?

Every goal is a struggle so it's no wonder we can't get results 

It doesn't matter, that comment was in response to someone calling him a con artist, not in relation to his performance now.

The way I see it is he seems to be an excellent man manager, and by pretty much all accounts an amazing coach, but he can't seem to get the tactics right for this team.

I don't think he's tactically bad as well. When we had that great run a couple of years ago and were top of the table we didn't play this rigid system, we played a really fluid and constantly changing formation, so I wonder what's changed in his strategy. So what's changed since then? Surely Gould wasn't the tactical master mind of the operation.

I mentioned in another thread that the Phoenix should get  a second assistant who is one of those tactically minded coaches, like a Rado, or Trani, or even approach Ramon, but the idea was kind of laughed off.

Isn't the difference we had Nathan Burns who went on an absolute tear? 

Assistant Managers are only going to add advice if the manager wants it. I say leave it up to him to assemble his own coaching team. 

But the formation itself was much more fluid. If you go back and read the articles from the Australian Scout website back then it was by far the most dynamic formation in the league, but it was also very defined with big changes in the transition from attack to defense and also depending on the phase of attack. Maybe we just don't have the players to work like that and so Ernie thinks something simpler is all our team can handle. 

Technical assistance definitely add to a coaching team though, but only if the coach is open to it.

Under what basis is Merrick the most successful A-League coach? As far as I can see, both him and Ange have two titles. Merrick has also coached for longer than anyone else so should have won a few titles.

He's won two championships and two premierships, Ange has won two championships and one premiership.

As far as I'm concerned only the last game vs Sydney gives us a true indication of what this side is actually capable of. The 1st game we had AWs away, the next we had them just coming back after 2 international games and a flight half way around the world. From what I saw against Sydney, I am confident of a good showing during the year but also mindful of the fact we will have disruptions with AWs being away in an important period for NZ football.

I think that game perfectly demonstrated our strengths and weaknesses. Good possession doesn't necessarily lead to creating chances. We struggle to keep clean sheets. We lack attacking bench options so we can tail off in games, we noticeably fell of after 65 minutes in that game.

I tend to agree with the above.

However, I will repeat what I said earlier - I have a feeling that there has not been enough time together for this largely talented team to develop sufficient understanding and intuitive teamplay on the park.  If we had good fullbacks we might be OK but as it is  it looks like a bit of a disjointed effort at best.  Personally I expect the Rossi - Bonevacia - Finkler core to deliver a more skilful team performance later this season. I would have preferred for this to have all gelled in the offseason but clearly it hasn't.

When was the last time he actually had success and won the title? 2009? 2010? 

What's changed, is that everyone has improved, but we're still trying to play like we did then - every team has clocked on how to nullify these tactics but Ernie can't, or won't, change. I doubt he ever will. We'll line up the exact same way v Victory, probably start off ok, not score, lose a stupid goal, and end up losing 3-0.

While I would prefer us to win, i would not be sore if we lose 3:2. Now 3:0 is a different story.

Ernie's successes with Victory came in the era of Archie, Hernandez and Allsopp at their peak, and who can forget their demolition of Adelaide that made John Kosmina lose appetite for coaching.  The A-League has moved on from that time and has good quality imports year in, year out that help to even out the difference between teams. For example, while Broich or Henrique might have peaked, Keogh is now finally at his best and guys like Ninkovich or Holosko are not bad either.   It is fascinating to see if Ernie can adapt and learn to deliver for us as this A-League is not the one he left behind when he went off to Honkers.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/oct/30/jurgen-klopp-liverpool-crystal-palace-premier-league

Reading this, it felt like a description of how Ernie wants us to play.  The big flaw is players moving in field are not having space created for them by other players making reverse runs from inside to outside.  The other issue is that while Kosta and Roy are both attacking from wide out and ending up central, there are still too many gaps in the central striking position, we don't get significant numbers into the box really attacking the ball meaning the final ball needs to be absolutely pin point (often to find a single attacker up against 4 defenders).

3 wins in 22 games. Please go Ernie. Now.

3 clean sheets in 31 games.  It is actually worse than I thought.  I can't see how he turns this around, I really can't

I cant see how things get better at this rate. We have had an awfully long off season and bought a few players in. Kosta I can undertand not too sure about Finkler, he has his moments but possibly outweighed by his Non-moments currently,In my opinion I also dont see him and Roly in the same team, dont seem to compliment each other and certainly dont blend in for a cohesive midfield.

The current approach to trying everyone at right and left back is also a puzzle. Its been a known problem area and has just been left out of the equation. I might be inclined to let Parhouse play the position he is used to as he certainly isnt a defender. We have a number of wide quicker players...lets use them rather than playing throught the middle. As I said just an opinion

I haven't been calling for Merricks head and realise there have been factors like Save The Nix, All Whites players out and the injuries meaning a constantly changing backline but do feel our next two games against Jets and CCM if we don't get at least 4 points (preferably 6) then the questions has to be asked.

Under Merrick he has had 59 games. Of which 21 wins; 8 draws and 30 losses. (36%; 14%; 51%)

Goals For 78; Goals Against 103. Taking out 2014/15 season where we made finals thanks to Burns on fire, the goals have been Goals For 33 and Goals Against 66.

Our longest win streak was four games (done twice during 2014/15 season), Unbeaten is 7 during the same season. Since then it has only been 2 games at the start of 2015/16. Longest losing streak is 4 done twice in 2015/16 or 8 if you go from end of last season to the four games this season.

We have had 10 clean sheets in those 59 games, however 7 of them were from 2014/15 season. Only 3 since and none in last 17 games

Failure to treat fullback as a specialist position, especially in a formation that asks a lot of the fullbacks, is pretty crazy even given the lack of available players in the position in the league

So appears I missed his whole first season, so re-doing the numbers now

Ok, so updated information including the 2013/14 season.

Under Merrick he has had 86 games. Of which 28 wins; 15 draws and 43 losses. (33%; 17%; 50%)

Goals For 116; Goals Against 152. 

Our longest win streak was four games (done twice during 2014/15 season), Unbeaten is 7 during the same season. Since then it has only been 2 games at the start of 2015/16. Longest losing streak is 4 done twice in 2015/16 or 8 if you go from end of last season to the four games this season.

We have had 15 clean sheets in those 86 games, however 7 of them were from 2014/15 season. 5 in the first season and only 3 season we made the finals and none in last 17 games

Some things I get from this...

Winning just one third of games are stats for a team that also ran in the competition, not one that's ever going to win it

Just as bad is the very low draw percentage. Not a team of stayers, more like imploders.

I heard during last nights game that the Nix have never come back from 2 nil down to get a result.

If true it would appear the Phoenix is anything but a team that can rise from the ashes.

More like an average team that crashes and burns more often than not.

While off field leadership maybe an issue, on field seems to be lacking also.

The Pheonix has no wings

We have come back to draw but not to win.

One thing I found interesting and sure there will be factors too it like injuries, but we don't finish the end of seasons well. 2013/14 season in the last six games we had 4 losses and 2 draws. 2014/15 season last six games were 4 losses, 1 win and 1 draw (last loss was the first final series game). Last season  it was 5 losses and 1 win.

I Just don't understand the whole gui as a false nine. Hes to slow to keep up with Kosta and Roy, both of which decide to play out wide. Theres never anyone in the middle of the box or let alone the middle of the pitch. Roly playing too deep, Vinnie is clearly too slow to maintain the middle of midfield. Im not even understanding the whole lets play wingers as defenders shark. After 4 games where it clearly is not working you'd think he'd change the formula, but probably wont happen. 

I think this is the best comment so far that just nails it - it started with the Fenton experiment and we never properly recovered from that time.  Surprisingly I think that young Tratt has some promise (more than Fenton did as a fullback) but he is still raw. Loss of Manny did not help.

A question for those who attend Phoenix trainings how big apart does Greenacre play and are set pieces and the attck his area.

I might be naive, but I wonder if the quality of backroom staff / assistant coaching isn't exactly the reason we are where we are now.   What worked two-three years ago simply does not work now, and is a reflection of the relative progress of the league every year.

I choose to ignore uneducated comments in popular media (Stuff etc) on how bad the A-League is. Compared to what?  To foreign leagues we watch on TV? I like to support my local team in the prime competition that HAL is for us.  Some games are sublime, if only the quality of refereeing was as good as the play on offer. 

In short, I do not think it is enough to say "of, we lost 6-1, so what, that league is crap compared with the EPL". We are lucky to play in the best local competition and must be good enough to compete at that level.  The local (domestic) comp will not get us any further than Oceania playoffs if we avoid the Honiara style disasters.  In the meantime, HAL is the best we've got. Our local players will not get better preparation, and that included Storm Roux, Marco Rojas, et al.

Indeed, I was waiting for him to say "in Melbourne / Australia" but it never came. The CCM game immediately sprung to mind.