Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

Roly has stated that he wants to head back to Europe after his two years are done. Hopefully A-Rod hangs around for a bit though, long enough to qualify for the all whites would be a plus, wouldn't be for the 2018 world cup though.

Actually, that's my biggest problem.  Never really seen a proper balance between attack and other than in 5 or 6 isolated games.  We started last year trying to retain possession and press high.  But that ended and actually we had less possession in most of our matches.  This year we're defending deeper and also trying to, well I'm not actually sure.  Some games we seem to try and build up but our midfield isn't that creative so we look a bit toothless.  Or we've sat deep and tried to defend and counter attack.  Looks ok-ish...

So going back to my original point, I'm not panicking - just a bit worried about the direction of travel.  I haven't seen anything which suggests we can kick on to the next level, but anyway, interesting to hear others views

I think it's possible we'll play a higher line at home and be more attacking. Or try it at first with McG back and all...

Ours is stickier.

#ooherr

#stickymoments

Because it's obviously harder to play in an environment that is unfamiliar when the entire crowd is against you?

Are you seriously saying there is no tangible advantage to playing at home and not having to travel?

Yep - Spurs finds this when playing at WHL.

Utd did not have a problem last week-end. :)

You mean the Utd who got dominated and somehow was 1-0 up with 0 shots on target? Yeah, probably not a tactic we could replicate.

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I am not talking about the crowds here at all. I am saying to you pick your tactics on the teams you play against, not where you play the game. If where you play the game materially affects your performance that much that you have to alter the way you play your game, then you are not that good a team. Good teams believe in their own game plan and go out and execute it and if they play on Mars, the Moon, America or NZ, its the same shaped pitch regardless.

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I have never ever ever coached a team to play differently because its home or away. That's just ludicrous.

I suppose you need to talk to old Jose Mourinho then, as his teams have always set up differently away from home against opponents similar in skill level. 

In a salary capped league where every team is so equal - and when we, out of all teams (and Perth) have to travel the longest distances - it's sensible to try and find a balance away from home. To say that doesn't affect  us is silly. 

If playing away from home didn't affect sports teams, then why do all the stats - for most sports, really - say differently? Saying that 'the pitch is the same' is pretty reductive and doesn't take into account various other factors. (the greater pressure from home fans to play attacking football, the distance travelled, flights, being away from family/normal routine etc etc.)

I mean, if you are far and away the better side - like Brisbane Roar were for a while there - then sure, go away and be confident that you can continue to play the same way and get a result. But we aren't that good. Not yet. We have to be a bit more realistic.

the stats in the A league in particular back valeo up. 

In YF tipping it was shown that choosing the home team to win by 1 was a successful strategy. RR had to change the scoring to give more points to picking an away win.

Am sure someone can dig up actual stats. RR may have actually already posted them in the tipping thread?

Ok.

You are a coach of a side. Are you telling me you are going to drop a striker for a midfielder cause some guy in the crowd uses some strong language towards your team? Really?

It's not necessarily about the crowd.  For whatever the reason maybe, most teams play more positively at home.  Therefore adjusting your tactics as the away side makes sense.

I also saw some (speculative) research about this very topic.  They said that for some players they feel more confident, but are also able to execute certain skills like shooting into the bottom corner etc, by using "markers" for want of a better word around the ground, so you catch out of the corner of your eye a sign behind a certain part of the goal and you know how to shape your shot from that spot because you've done it before.  I haven't explained that very well but it's another possible reason why people perform better at home

I used to love it when we played 1 srdiker at ho e with a defencive formarion, that really inspired the team to attack. Harry Redknapp uses the same tactics and it works....we lose/lost.

I can remember reading something from Henry along those lines when discussing the move to the Emirates from Highbury. At Highbury he knew where he was on the pitch by certain things in the stand, the way the shadows fell etc.

I think the difference between playing home and away also depends on the style you play. If your game plan is based around possession then where you are playing has less of an impact. Mourinho sets his teams up to hit on the break away from home whereas Guardiola probably doesn't take it into account so much.

Ok. I am happy to respect your guys opinions but still disagree. I think its bullshit and am happy to sit in my own shit in the minority.

you could make the argument that the stats are self fulfilling. Teams back off and play differently away from home because they historically struggle, they therefore don't do as well. 

While I think that contributes a little, travel is also a clear issue, the team being away from their home environment, living out of a hotel. A number of factors that contribute to the stats. 

Emanuel Adebayor of Spurs recently came out as saying the reason Spurs are playing better away than at home is because there's less pressure on the players to get a result. Go figure.

Again, you're being reductive and ignoring other factors in order to justify your argument. The stats for every league in the world disprove you..

I agree with that, but it does not produce the same outcome for all teams. 

My own three cents' worth is - this is all in the mind, as in: being mentally soft. That is not a sin, and it can be worked on.

Except for those times when we were in absolute top flight (like when we got Riera), the Nix are often somewhat low on confidence, and this results in a poorer form away (except some notable exceptions). The opposite crowd affects them. It does not matter so much when we are playing a poor team away (like CCM this season) but it is the key difference when playing against a good team away (like, say, Perth are right now because the fact we lost at home to them must have been in the back of our players' minds). 

I may be out on a limb here, and unfairly so, but the above theory would be tenable if such confidence issue was unwittingly maintained, transmitted and somehow reinforced by senior players with low confidence who then pass it on to others. That is the only reason this problem would carry on from season to season.  Maybe Manny and Siggy are OK, but others? Is Lia high on confidence? Is Brockie?

Is any player high on confidence all of the time, though? I think what is more important is having players   be confident of the structure Ernie has put in place and confident in their role on the pitch. We're still getting there, and I feel like we're still a little unsure of how we want to play.

Gretsky, Bird, Johnson, Marino... Some US sports stars where their attitude is 'fuck you. I own you'. They play their way regardless and laugh at you. They don;t give a shit where you play. They play the same way regardless.

The Phoenix - someone said it in a post a couple of days ago but it was something like 'look at this team and tell me how many leaders do you see on the field? None.' When the ABs were down, who stood up, McCaw.  Home or away, you play how you play and you expect leaders to step up. How many leaders do the Phoenix have.......? Please. I want someone to tell me. 

For years Sigmund lead on emotion and 'heart of sleeve'. He has calmed himself and made himself into a decent footballer. Now, whom leads the team, implores them, gees them up? On the road and you are down, who stands up? You play the same way regardless  but you need a leader to step up and say 'this way' The Phoenix has a captain but it does not have a leader. Not since Ross Aloisi.

Home or away is not about tactics for the ground you play at. Its for the teams you play against. The major difference is mindset and how you tackle that. CJ Bruton, Breakers...... He bought about a completely different mentality to a team that could not play and made them the most successful transtasman team outside of rugby in the history of cross country leagues. I read a Herald on Sunday thingee on Richard Clark where he said something like 'CJ got into all aspects of the club and guided us how to be. He told us that we play the same on the road and just own our own belief' 

That right there is what its about.

so travelling to Perth for 12 hours, staying out of a hotel and out of your home environment doesnt affect the players at all? Huge call with a weight of statistics going against you. 

I'm saying it comes from a range of factors, with mentality being one of them. You seem to be saying mentality is the only factor. 

That's straying for the topic at hand though. The topic was 'changing your tactics cause you are playing away' not 'factors that affect your performance when you play away.'

But Perth have come over here and owned us several times (from memory).

Thank you Junior82 for stating the bleeding obvious. 

Incidentally, I saw Perth beat us the previous season in Christchurch 0:1 and I thought, "WTF? They should be jetlagged".

Tegal, I do not think JV and you are necessarily at odds here. Yes these factors do matter, but they do not really seem to make a difference for our play against teams that beat us at home as well as away. Perth is a case in point.

As I said earlier, the issue here is "why does Phoenix have historically poor record on the road".  And the answer for the Phoenix is simply the mental factor, after all other issues and problems (tactics, team changes, injuries, AW selection) are taken into account. 

Good teams win regularly on the road and at home against teams below them in the pecking order. Perversely, If we regularly lose both the away games to Victory, Adelaide, Sydney and (some seasons) WSW and Brisbane and also at home, I'll stop complaining. That simply means they're good, and we're not. But at the moment, we can beat some of them (well, not Adelaide or Victory or Perth it seems, this season) at home, but not away.  As others pointed out, it is a league with a salary cap, so it should not be that regular (or TAB would cut the odds).

As a result, I am sometimes getting sick and tired of our discussions here picking apart the minute details of positioning, individual performances, and who we should recruit. This is just so much of a wank-fest if the team regularly produces a Jekyll and Hyde like performance against the same opposition team here and away.  This is not the case necessarily confirmed yet this season, as we have only played Perth both home and away. We lost both games - so maybe they're the much-improved-team this season after all. They never won away against CCM either before.

If we keep winning most of the games at home but keep losing most games away, my point would be confirmed. I hope I am proven wrong: we already won on the road against CCM, we should also win against the Jets away.  We may win against Melbourne City both here and away, on their current form.  If WSW and Brisbane start improving we may not be so lucky against them away but on the present form they could be still beatable even away (ie in Australia). If however I am proven right (if we win at home but lose away) then it is just about the mental edge I mentioned. The mental edge must be there as a necessary condition to win away from home against a team playing equally well, or maybe just a little below our performance. It is about not conceding in the first minute. It is about not conceding in the last minute, either.  Without that mental edge we can win away games only against teams that really turn in a shocker performance as a one-off, or are having a bad season like Brisbane seems to be right now.

At the end of the day the mental edge is about the role of a team leader to model it and bring it out in younger players. Maybe we need more than one team leader, as some teams seem to do and benefit from it (and older tougher guy, and a younger inspirational star). 

This is not something Ernie can easily fix himsel, but it is fixable with modern sports psychology and with careful team management.

can agree with that. I think other factors contributed, but there certainly has been periods where media would talk about their away record, and even the players would constantly go on about it. There is/was a definite mental block with away games. 

I tend to think the players are getting over that somewhat, but I guess it'll take time. 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/63618055/phoenix-coach-ernie-merrick-told-to-please-explain-referee-rant

Love you Ernie!

Probably easier going this way than that way. I.e. play a game at 5pm here would be like playing a game at lunch time there, whereas playing a game at 5pm there would be like playing a game at 10pm here.

Is there a tribe of Fever statisticians who can get on the case to back up his comment?

I could not find the article, but as far as I remember, statistics proofs Ernies points. The article said something along the line: Home teams get better calls. 'Star' players get away and get easier non foul calls.

In our case, Brindell-South clashes one of the more famous players at a home game, the referee is very likely to make a wrong call. It's not even his fault, it human nature. It one thing we have to accept.

I still do not understand that they look at games afterwards and openly look at every decision, it would be transparent and not undermine any referee decision. Maybe we would see that a high % of the calls would be right.

I personally thing there is to much complaining on the field, each pass to a striker, someone lifts the arm and calls for offside. Look at the Kevin Muscat muppet on the sideline he is constantly complaining about every little shit. It's not good for the game, just fudgeing accept that you did not get the throw-in at the center of the pitch.

Muscat behaves as a coach the same way he behaved as a player, including the binary range of facial expressions ("blank" or "murder" only, with no intermediate settings)