Is 2014/15 really our best ever squad?

I think our midfield looks defensively extremely strong, it's creativity that might be the worry

09/10 29 goals conceded (27 games)

10/11 41 (30)

11/12 32 (27)

12/13 49 (27)

13/14 51 (27)

It's a difficult case to make that our defence is on par. You can argue that if we pick Roly and Reira our defensive unit is a lot better. However, if you pick both of those guys then you only have 4 attacking players and wing backs who aren't a huge threat going forward. I think we need to hope that Roly is capable of offering something in attack as well.

Yes those pesky stats do get in the way and you just can't blame it all on the midfield.  

We've conceded every type of goal over the past 2 years under 2 different managers, with our starting guys in there, with new guys in there but Siggy, Durante and Moss have pretty much been ever present.  I still think that's a big weakness although we don't like to target those guys who are all stalwarts and crowd favourites

Defence, including Riera, best ever. 

After that - for creating ball in net - I'd rate Brown, Daniel (+ Lochead overlapping), Ifill, Greenacre, Bertos, at their best, and largely because of Ifill, ahead of Rodriguez, Roly, McG, Burns, Brockie; but I think the game has got quicker, this years bunch has more pace and youth, so room to be proven wrong.  I just haven't seem them produce enough yet together against A League quality opposition 

People keep saying this year's team has a lot of pace - I don't see that.  I think this year's team is technically much better, and I think we could be more successful playing a much more technical game.  But I don't see a lot of pace there?

That wasn't really the thrust of my post - which was that I feel the front five I listed would score more than our current front five.  But yes, interesting point,  How fast are Rodriguez, Burns, Brockie, McG together? 

Throw in Krishna, Kenny and Boyd and you've got the pace.  But less of the technical.  It'll be interesting how Ernie uses them all.

Luciano Trani

Was technical analyst/coach when we were at our peak.  I have a feeling we own Trani more then we realise.  Greenacre as yet not a patch on him.

Lucci was indeed the brains behind the brawn. He has to be one of the most tactically aware guys within the A League. I'd have loved him to stay and if it was Merrick getting the job, it would have been great to have had Lucci back. I don't think the club realise/d what a gem they had.

We're going to wooden-spoon again this year, because every team members is Not A Striker and we'll score no goals. Have I got the joke right yet?

Chill Doloras

Burns Boyd Krishna and Cunningham are all quick.

The only one who lacks pace is Brockie, and he's not that slow.

How are we meant to rate players when we really havent seen them play yet? Seriously.

Who have we not seen?

Probably the only one I can think of is roly? Or did he play in the football united games?

Nope. Neither did McGlinchey or Lia... rest of the squad has played most of the pre-season.

It might shock you to hear that (a) it is actually possible to have an opinion of a player despite not having seen them play in the exact scenario you're passing opinion on, and (b) us football tragics are quite capable of forming outrageous, largely baseless, unapologetic opinions regardless of the merits of doing so.

As an example of (a), I'll bet you $5 that Luis Suarez will be quite good at Barcelona. As an example of (b), I'll bet you $5 that Luis Suarez will be quite good at Barcelona regardless of whatever facts, figures, logic or reason you throw at me to convince me otherwise, and I will continue to bet you $5 on such grounds for so long as I run out of money or Luis Suarez bites some sense in to me.

So there.

6-2 against Canterbury United...

Was it 4-0 at half time before they started mega subs?

3-0

Any reason for this, based on the results we've achieved thus far?

Ricki never had a good plan B, but I think his plan A was better than anything Ernie has done so far.

Anything? I call BULLSHIT.

Last season how about this run: WWWDWLWWLW - We were the best team in the league in January.

And Ricki had a similar run when we went deep in the finals..

I think Ernie has more potential to make us a better team - Ricki brought us as far as he could - but as yet, I don't think Ernie has completely proved himself yet results-wise. Obviously he was unlucky with injuries last season, though.

Its not apples for apples.. Ernie and Ricki have a different style they wish the Phoenix to play. 

Ernie is definitly had more success in the A League but you cant take it away from Ricki the fact he has been to two World Cups!!! 

How about two titles with the tards?

Based on our results. The league was different back then.

Did DotCom play?

If the league was different back then, how can you compare Merrick's results at the 'nix to Ricki's?

It is impossible to compare.

So James Norman's reasoning is actually a fair bit of support for the fact that Ricki was fairly good at what he did. When his style worked, it bloody worked and was fun to watch. 

No point being a stylist without points. It worked for a while last season, so this season is the chance to put some proof in the pudding. It looks promising, but Adelaide, Brisbane, and Melbourne Victory are all claiming to be playing some good looking stuff...and the other Melbourne has got Villa. 

So looking pretty has to be pretty damn effective too. Fingers crossed.

I'm no Herbert fan, but it's very odd to remember only our victories and ignore our losses.  We had plenty of games with our full side out and lost.  There's no doubt that Ernie had a much more progressive game plan, but hew as also unable to put together a new game plan once we lost a few players, and stuck with the exact same template - I found that a bit worrying personally.

I wasn't remembering only our wins and ignoring our losses. 

I agree I did purposely only quote that particular run of good form, but that was to make the point to rebut the claim that Ricki's plan A was better than ANYTHING Ernie had ever achieved. 

Another way of saying that is that Ernie has never achieved anything with his approach/plan. I was pointing out that one thing Ernie has achieved was that incredibly good run... 

...but I was not ignoring the other results.

Atleast the title of this thread is best Nix team ever and not "Worst" team ever!!

We lost a lot of quality this off season, which could have been catastrophic for the club and the fan base... but fingers cross, the exciting and talented players we have signed show up from game one and make some waves.

I think that's one thing that most coaches will never do though. A plan B for extreme situations.

You go into a season with:

• an idea of who your best XI is or close to it and a game plan around that talent or
• a game plan and then the players will be recruited to fit around that plan

I doubt there is any coach that goes 'Whats my game plan with this group of players over here'. You have this style and the squad plays and prepares towards that so they are refined and it works. You allow for some injuries but not the state we got to last year where our starting XI towards the end of the season, is this years bench XI and really, that starting XI towards the end of last year was a XI that NO ONE predicted or would account for at the start of the season. Ernie has taken steps to ensure that Riera is no longer the weak point in the team and has some back up. That's a good step forward from not having any kind of recognised DM at the start of the year. Its a bloody hard ask to say to a coach 'well you no longer have a starting XI so you need to have a plan B' especially with no preparation time and the rate of which players fell over. Cut him a little bit of slack there JD.

Not trying to put the dampers on but even if this year's squad is the best ever, logically this doesn't necessarily mean making the play-offs  - or even avoiding the spoon - if the other nine teams have raised their game by a similar or greater degree. And some of their new signings look bloody good. What it does mean however, is the football should be that much better, win, draw or lose. And thank you Ernie & Wellnix for that!

I'm just looking forward to having a proper midfield for once. We may even transition from defence to attack like a proper football team. Sorry, Vinnie.

Bump this....

Thoughts now that our signings are/ have settled in?

With our 2 top forwards out we still won 2 games and scored 6 goals in them. Best squad ever.