Ernie Merrick - former Phoenix manager

This press conference today is going to be interesting, the fact that Ernie is going to be there with the club and Durante is pretty unusual and hopefully it means an ongoing role.

Maybe Dura will fall on his sword also

At the very least I hope we see a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 with Watson in the striker role and Kosta and Krishna out wide.

Your midfield three? Apart from Krishna's pace, I don't think he is great winger with WeeMac possibly better match for a striker like Watson.

Why exactly do we need a new captain? Isn't that ultimately for the new coach to decide?

Plus how is changing the captaincy going to change anything, just get the players in the right positions on the puitch

I don't think Krishna is a natural winger but he has pace and the ability to beat a man, and I these too good to bench, and I think Watson needs to start becaause of his physicality. I don't think we should play a front 2 of Watson Krishna because our fullbacks aren't good enough for the midfield diamond that Ernie prefers, and I think a 2 man central midfield in a 4-4-2 would get overrun because our central mids aren't particularly mobile players. And I wouldn't play a back 3 because I don't think we have the pace at the back for it, or the right type of players to put in wingback roles. 

I agree none of these options are ideal, but that was the point I was making about the unbalanced squad though.

How would it look if the captain actively did not follow the game plan laid out by the coach? 

Dura's love and motivation to play the game was waning last season - I wonder how it's doing right now? I could see him hanging up his boots.

my motivation to watch is waning

I feel like this has rejuvenated mine, we have some great players so should improve

So over it at the moment . I feel sorry for all the people that have stood by the team since the beginning ( foundation Members ) i feel like they have been let down the most this year so many promises i just dont know who to blame maybe we should go back to hoofball

Dura's been a bit shouty on the pitch recently and could have done with shutting up at times.

Yeah, I hate this honestly - just get on with it. Has been the biggest whinger in the league over the last couple of seasons, which is no mean feat.

So was the press conference at midday? What was said?

It was clearly not going after plan then the ref destroys the game for them, sure Durante is getting more verbal. Not sure why some people question him.

After we losing the first games all the player refrained the same thing in interviews, along the line 'we have the quality we just have to believe and keep going success is coming'. A placed message in team meetings, always a bad sign if the same message is coming from all the channels. Maybe they should have panicked, maybe they should have benched more 'stars' from time to time, like he did with Roly. If they where a top four team they would not have lost half of their games they lost. Kosta had more goals, Finkler score on the free kick to bring them back, Krishna would have scored the penalty. Would be a different thing, maybe a few more draws. I always remember the first Ernie interviews talking about winning mentality, the team does not have it at the moment. I guess you have to blame him for this.

I looking forward to see the reaction from the players at the weekend, my guess is we will see the real Kosta running and puzzling defenders, create more chances in the box. The team have to prove now it is not them. I hope it won't be a one hit wonder and I hope this will turn the season into more fun.

Perhaps its still going

I don't think it was effective leadership. His ranting just seemed to unsettle the team more.

Agreed. The ref decision isn't going to change. Why whinge? Focus on getting back into the game.

The reffing has been poor; but it's been poor for all teams. You also couldn't say that the reason we lost was because of the ref; we got a soft penalty after all.

I don't think we have been as bad this year as last year. We have had one really bad result against Victory and that was with us a man down and due to having momentum in the game at the time still chased a result and got caught on the counter a few times in the last 20min. 2nd half performances against City in both games and Sydney show we are competitive. A couple incorrect offsides and pen that probably should not have be awarded and we could have been 4 points higher. So much doom and gloom, a bit much of an over reaction from some. The only real concern is our conversion rate, 8% which is by far the lowest in the league, we are creating chances, and you would hope that would increase over the season. Our defence has improved as well, we are not the worse in the league even accounting for a heavy loss. Even Finkler's work rate has improved from the start of the season.

I have been critical with signings and tactics before but we are not that far off, possibly a few slight changes, some decisions going our way and our players having a bit more confidence and results could easily turn around.

I completely agree that we haven't been as bad as last year -but it's all about results, ain't it? We're bottom. Again. 

For all the poor results we had, Ernie had us playing some of the most exciting football I've ever witnessed live and he gave us a genuine chance at winning the title. Really hope whoever comes in can bring the best out of the quality players in the squad and give that sort of hope again

I don't like to comment on body language etc but Dura has looked so out of sorts, he's been close to losing it on a number of occasions

Anyone who wants to know about the press conf, there's highlights on the 'Nix official Twitter.

I remember Durante did convince a ref to change his decision once.

If I was Dura, I'd be annoyed that almost every player in front of me doesn't know how to tackle or run.

Sure we had some stinkers, but remember we use to be a team that would sit back and defend and just launch crossed into the box. That was literally all we did. And away games we almost always looked getting smashed.

We definitely played better football under Merrick. Though I'm lost for why our home record dropped so much under his watch. 

Is there anyone here that can describe how Ramon's Auckland City play? Would be interesting to see how his preferred style of play compares to that of Ricki's and Ernie's. 

Possession based stuff, mostly goes down the wings but solid in the midfield - a fair amount of cutting in from both sides.

We have had three seasons of pretty football, of which two and a half seasons the results have been mixed at best. We just don't seem to have the depth of personnel to be able to pull it off and yes there are reasons why with international windows but unfortunately they are a fact of life for us although oddly enough they have been worse in previous years.

I admire and respect Ernie for what he has achieved not just for the first team but with the club as a whole, but ultimately only one thing matters.