Long Season Beckons

Two strikers short for a start; play offs doubtful already. Burns looks decent ?

I'm actually more worried about defence. At least we have options in attack. Cunningham, Boyd, Fenton and Krishna can all be brought into that side if we want to. What can we do with the defence apart from bringing in Boxall?

I'm fairly certain that the season will be the same length as the last three seasons.

Amazing how everyone has a different take on the game. Guess that's why it appeals to a wide base - you can take out what you want from it.

Goals aside I thought our defence did well after the opening few minutes. Midfield was getting monstered and double-teamed by Perth for a while but then started to find players with quick passing. We came unstuck when people dwelled on the ball for too long.

Thought our attacking options were not very clever. McGlinchey's goal was due pretty much to Roly. Other than that we only vaguely threatened from set pieces.

I'm hoping it will be longer, by about 4 weeks.

Not. A. Striker.

Might get that on my shirt.

The problem with the defence is that our issues are not structural. Structural issues can be solved. I do not think you can do anything when you defenders give away so many soft goals. The 2nd goal we conceded today was conceded plenty of times last season as well. Defensive lapses are just too common.

Burns finishes one of those chances and you have got 2 goals. 2 goals should always be enough at home.

The most worrying thing for me about today's game, was the re-occurrence of the lack of formation which resulted in all Nix players being  compressed in one half of the pitch, like kids following the ball. i.e. the half of the pitch defined by drawing a line from the middle of one goal to the other. Thought that was a failing of Herbert's coaching, but it looks like it's more a problem with the players' understanding of football

Burns looked bloody good except for the one on one but then lets give Vudukovic some credit. He is a very good goalkeeper and a great shot stopper. He kept them in the game a few times too.

In the space of one single game, everyone jumped off the bandwagon. Incredible.

If this had been 10 games, fair enough but to declare all this after 1 game? Wow...

I guess my take on it is disappointing...but not the end of the world. I think that the Perth side were probably a bit better than I expected and played a good passing game particularly in the first half. Nix appeared to be at sixes and seven when the game kicked off and Im not sure what i expected but at times players seemed to be in odd positions IMO. at one point when perth were attacking it appeared that brockie was standing high up in the left wing position and there was nobody across the middle of the park for any credible pass to go to. I always thought that McGlincheys best operating position was a right side of midfield?

That said and in half glass full mode can see the Nix getting better and more organised as the season progresses and Im sure that Ernie will have some words to say to the players before the mariners game

BS. I have not jumped off. I am on, yelling and screaming - even though my voice is bloody ragged this morning. EVERYONE has NOT jumped off.

Incredible Stamina. No Shame. Yellow Fever.

I was never on it. I think we will do better this season but I predicted us to come 7th.

Early days. I was pretty disappointed in our performance yesterday but the only team, in my opinion, who looked good in the whole 1st round of matches were the Tards. (I just threw up a bit in my mouth after typing that)

I thought Burns looked the goods yesterday and I think he'll be a real asset for us this season if he carries on like that. Player I was most disappointed in was Roly. To me he looked lazy and spent a lot of his time arguing with officials and giving dumb free-kicks away. His attitude seemed, to me anyway, almost Carlos-esque at times. Which I don't think is a good thing. Hopefully, he'll up his game after yesterday's performance.

I never expected us to win the thing this year, I had hopes of a top 6 finish and, despite yesterday, I still think we can achieve that;.

This. I'm far more worried about our backline than our attack at the moment - if we aren't going to score a lot of goals, we need to be solid back there. I am a big fan of Siggy and Dura but I wonder if the backline needed a shake up this season?

Not sure I understand the Roly criticisms. At least he got involved. He was over-enthusiastic at times, especially when on a yellow, but he made the pass that led to our goal and was one of the only players who looked like they were trying to create. He also got up and down the pitch all game.

He was poor in the first 15 minutes and got caught out positionally a bit in the first half, but that understanding with the rest of the midfield will only come with more games. I think he has huge promise, personally, and I love seeing a bit of personality on the pitch.

A-Rod didn't show much but I think it's because Roly took charge and he was relegated to just knocking around short passes.

It's not about a bandwagon. Most of the critiscisms are valid.

Yeah a lot of different opinions, which I think is good. Football is a game like that. That's what makes it interesting. Most people predicted we would come 6th or 7th didn't they(?), so I don't know what Jeff is on about. I thought 7th before the game, and still do. People laugh at the other teams being so shit, but I don't see how they are worse than us. Victory, City and even laughing stock Sydney in particular look miles better than us.

I agree with Junior - I was more worried about the the lack of passing and ideas in the midfield rather than the defence. I thought Burns was OK, I actually thought Doyle was OK, but wasn't impressed by Roly, or surprisingly, WeeMac, but I'm sure he'll get much better as the season progresses.

I was never on it either.  I'm the really out of condition, unhealthy middle-aged geezer struggling to catch up to it about 100 yards down the road...

Criticise yes, absolutely, but its still only 1 game and that's not exactly the yard stick to define our season (yet) Lets get a couple of more games played before we start talking apocalypse and raining cats and dogs.

I know.

BUT, you said EVERYONE jumped off... so, unless I am not part of everyone, it read like you were referencing me, and everyone else...

Yes but you can't force people to think like this, unfortunately. You feel what you feel.

I think yesterday was just what we needed. Now the new guys know what is expected. I would like to think Doyle has learned a lesson on closing a player down at this level and Siggy, well, he showed it straught afterwards. Burns looks bloody good and wee mac as well as the other newbies didn't do as bad as some have made out. Sure the one on one should have been put away but lets give Perth some credit. They played well, they attacked plenty and they have one of the best keepers in the A League.

I am not going to bag the team for this. Sure I would have loved a win but there were some lessons to be learned, let's just see how quickly the players have learned them. Come on Phoenix!

Nah you just don't get modern football JV. Every game is bigger and more important than the last. Every win is the dawn of a new era. Every defeat is a crisis. There is no room for sensibility and reason. 

well it's sensible and reasonable to predict less people at the next home game, that's for sure.

If win against CCM I think the crowd vs Newcastle Jets could be higher.

fixed. (with apologies)

could be, but I think it will be about 6000

Do I have to post my pretty graph again?

I can't understand it buddy. I'm pretty dim. It is pretty though (non-sexually).

I will explain it.

It shows that until the last third of the season, results have very little impact on the crowd numbers at the following game.

It's only the result of the previous home game v next home crowd, isn't it?

A string of good results home and away might show a different story.

10k v MH was on the back of a decent run of good games iirc.  Then we crushed all that crowd momentum with 0-5.

Also a promo - wasn't there a 1k cash payout to some lucky punter if crowd hit 10k?

Sort of but not really.

It's the AVERAGE of the attendance for the rounds/weeks of the competition for that month over each of the years the Phoenix has been in existence, broken down by whether the previous home game was a win, loss or draw.

So given that it's the average of multiple years some of the on the back of a run or results effect is mitigated, but yes it does still have an impact.

the more years you add to it the less of an effect it has, and the more accurate the graph. Admittedly 7 is a little on the small side, but the graph still shows quite a significant closeness of attendance followed by a big spike in winning attendance at the end of the season. Even with margins of error, it still tells a bit of a story. 

whether you have had a preceeding good run or not is randomised out over the eight seven seasons then

so what you have really is crowds vs previous home result. 

I'd not expect to see any great correlation to the previous home game and you've shown that

I'd love to see a chart that showed home crowd versus points average from the preceeding five or six games.  My guess is that would show some correlation. 

Where'd you get the home crowd numbers from and are they available for every home game back to the first one?  I could have a crack at it.

my next one was going to be with league position. Might do that tomorrow. For simplicity I'll do playoff positions vs outside playoff positions. 

I also disagree, home wins are more likely to mean higher league position overall in the long run. 

Ohhh yeah, I was trying to work out why that attendance was so strangely high. 

We pumped Victory by 5.....

and we won!