Hail ___ the Chief - Giancarlo Italiano

Not really true re the NRL. It’s salary capped.
And you rort the cap and get caught you get penalised. Just ask the Storm and Bulldogs

There have been 12 different GF winners since the Warriors entered in 1995 by my maths. Two (multiple) losing grand finalists in that time as well. NZ and Parramatta. Canberra losing once

Gold Coast and Redcliffe the only 2 current teams to not be in a GF over the 29 years of Warriors failure. 

I think the brutal collision nature of League does definitely make the constant Trans Tasman travel more a burden than basketball and football. And the NRL just has more teams making it just bloody tough to win, unless you are Penrith

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

The worst aspect of Chief is his ability to pick good foreign imports.

Massive fail this year. 

If he is kept on he needs serious help in this area.

AucklandPhoenix

The worst aspect of Chief is his ability to pick good foreign imports.

Massive fail this year. 

If he is kept on he needs serious help in this area.

Of all the things said about Chief, I think this is the most objectively untrue. Ishige and Chico (his injury aside) were good signings. Nagasawa jury is still out on but gets another year. Mixed feelings on Josh. 
Outside of this year, hasn't it been said that Chief was primarily responsible for scouting out our foreign talent?

AucklandPhoenix

The worst aspect of Chief is his ability to pick good foreign imports.

Massive fail this year. 

If he is kept on he needs serious help in this area.

Could be wrong but pretty sure Chief along with Gilly played a big part in identifying the successes we hava had in previous seasons. Think your way off on this one. They may not have performed to everyones expectations but wouldnt call this seasons ones massive failures.

I think the reason the imports are catching heat is they needed support the squad couldn’t provide. 

There are legitimate questions. Why sign Josh when he clearly can’t play out from the back? What due diligence was done? When he couldn’t do it why did we try? When did Chief realise?


Retre couldn’t do the running for Nagasawa or cover him so he could push forward. Conchie isn’t trusted and we lacked a Ryan Lowry to try for a couple of games. 

Nagasawa’s best work has been interceptions up high up, holding up the ball on the cusp of the box to find the best option and getting on the end of a couple for goals. I don’t know if we will see his best, as Ishige and Kosta as a front two seems our strongest front two. I’m also suspicious of the end of year games that have less riding on them. I’m waiting to see next year’s derby!

Ball, Al-Taay and Van Hattum turned out to be wasted spots. While I was harsh on Colacovski, that was from someone who was expecting a challenge for the league. A couple more Colacovski-type signings in different positions should have seen us in the top 6, imo. We needed pros with a bit of experience and the ability to do the running in defense, understand instructions and pass the ball in attack. 

I’ll be interested to see how we go replacing Wootton. I think he was fantastically reliable as a defender and leading a backline. However, I can see the argument that he couldn’t create play as well as might be liked from that position. Unfortunately a ball playing CB sounds pricey. 

Anyway I’m excited to see next year. I probably shouldn’t be. There’s the usual criticism of us as too nice or whatever. I don’t want us to be Clive Palmer, or Wanderers or have a record of fan violence. 
I think we’ve done bloody well overall. Look at the flip side. Every year we’re up against two Sydney sides and 3 Melbourne sides, plus 3 more NSW sides, Brisbane and Perth. They out spend us. Some of them rort the cap. 

We’re not a Costa, Mata or Sakai type club these days. But we did have Old and Surman. Ligue One and marking Giroud in a tight battle this week.

That said, our team balance still needs to make more sense next season than it did this season! I think it can. I’m a glutton for punishment and also I don’t think anything can be as bad as this season in the future. The bad was worse or at a minimum equal to Darje days.

Remember Chiefy started at the Nix as an analyst/2nd assistant.
I imagine some of his brief back then would have been player scouting.

Kosta in his post game interview in Adelaide touched on Italiano being a young coach. I'm sure that was his major marketing to Welnix. I'm still learning as head gaffer. We had great success last season. This campaign very dissappointing with mistakes made, which I'll turn into future 'learnings'.

A 1+1 type deal, would show that the owners expect better next season (incl beating AFC at least once plus making the top 6), and if it doesn't happen that's your time done. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/131816292/the-rise-of-giancarlo-italiano-wellington-phoenixs-accidental-coach

A legacy of Talay’s tenure has been the Phoenix’s impressive record of scouting foreign talent, unearthing gems like Ulises Davila and Oskar Zawada.

But the Phoenix were quick to point out during Italiano’s first press conference that the recruitment process has been a collaborative effort between Talay, Italiano and director of football Shaun Gill.

One of the players Italiano had a key role in signing was former fan favourite Cammy Devlin. Italiano first coached Devlin when he was 15 at Sutherland Sharks.

“The hard part is the time spent in recruitment and reviewing players and putting the effort in.

“We were reviewing players left, right and centre and we had a coding system and once we liked a player we put them into the next pile and we revisited the pile of players we liked and assessed how they fit into the system.

hepatitis

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

okay, name them. Unless you think it is viable to go outside the league then the pickings are seriously slim. Remember, to start with they have to have the required coaching tickets - the majority of these people are already head coaches in our league.

People have been naming names for months now and only two serious options come to mind - Greenacre & Stanton. I'm assuming you wouldn't want Rudan back?

If we're going outside the league I guess the possibilities are endless but you're more likely to unearth a rock than a diamond I reckon. That is unless you had some sister club like Bournemouth...

anaveragestem

hepatitis

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

okay, name them. Unless you think it is viable to go outside the league then the pickings are seriously slim. Remember, to start with they have to have the required coaching tickets - the majority of these people are already head coaches in our league.

People have been naming names for months now and only two serious options come to mind - Greenacre & Stanton. I'm assuming you wouldn't want Rudan back?

If we're going outside the league I guess the possibilities are endless but you're more likely to unearth a rock than a diamond I reckon. That is unless you had some sister club like Bournemouth...

if you are sure that the "pickings are slim", you must have a definitive list. so, can you please name them? 

i'm not attacking your post BTW, just genuinely interested to know the names that are on this list of suitable options, without doing my own research.

slim pickings doesnt necessarily mean there are obvious limited candidates, it's generally a term to suggest there aren't any obvious answers, I'd be more interested in the "plenty ready to come forward to replace him" list, even one or two of the many qualified coaches/managers that are gagging to be in charge of the Nix.

Whether you’re chiefy in or chiefy out, I find it wild that people are discounting that first season so much.

 

He took a team that lost Lewis, Ugarkovic, and Sail, and only really added in Al-Taay, and way outperformed the previous year with less money. Plenty of players looked way better than they had in the past including Wootton, Old, and Surman. Could even throw in Kosta, Payne and Paulsen in there.  

 

Don’t concede that injury time screamer to CCM and we win the league. Then get to play Sydney if the playoffs which I think we matched up better against. 

 

I don’t really have a strong view either way, but if they are going to make a change, there needs to be a replacement lined up. Just look at what happened to Victory around the Brebner time. When you discount non-local options and those without qualifications, the list gets pretty small pretty quickly, and you’re mostly looking at coaches who are stepping into the A-League. That obviously comes with its own risks. Des is one that stands out, but does he want it? Does he see his future in the UK? Who knows. Graham Arnold is around, but would be pricey.

At last 2ndbest someone says what others think, people claiming last season was all done on the back of Talay when that wasnt the case.
Dont see the problem with 1+1 deal but it requires the club to back him in with spending some money on players.
Yep he has made mistakes but you would have nto hope he has learnt and surely we cant have another season where injury and illness affects us so badly.
The plus next season is that next year hopefully with a season behind them some of the young guys are ready to perform at a better level.

As I've banged on about previously, any Nix coach will also lose 8 or more players to the upcoming U20 WC, for the important final 3-4 weeks (Sept-Oct) of pre season. 

If it's a new coach coming in, that's gets all very tricky to avoid starting the actual ALM season not behind the preparation 8 ball. Easier if it's the same coach from the previous season. 

I'd go as far to say, the heavily disrupted pre season makes Greenacre the only serious candidate (with Griffiths staying as assistant coach) to replace Cheify in 2025. Even though Greeny will himself be away as coach of the U20s.

Different in 2026 (no U20 WC), when apart from a few players away with the AWs in North America (June-July) the pre season won't be that disrupted.  

No need to name them. They will arrive (and someone else has already given a list.)

We got through the first season with Chief through a soild defense and counter attacking.
This season, he replaced those leaving with lower-level players (in my view) and didnt respond to the injury losses quickly enough. I think a change is needed

anaveragestem

hepatitis

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

okay, name them. Unless you think it is viable to go outside the league then the pickings are seriously slim. Remember, to start with they have to have the required coaching tickets - the majority of these people are already head coaches in our league.

People have been naming names for months now and only two serious options come to mind - Greenacre & Stanton. I'm assuming you wouldn't want Rudan back?

If we're going outside the league I guess the possibilities are endless but you're more likely to unearth a rock than a diamond I reckon. That is unless you had some sister club like Bournemouth...

I guess that’s the question with Chief. 

Is he allowed mistakes? Is he allowed mistakes like this season’s mistakes? 

I guess I’m leaning towards keeping him on the basis some players will be better next season and that no one suggested yet seems that exciting. 

I guess player analogy- is he a late bloomer and will develop more as a coach or has he done his dash? 

Ricki was quite an inspirational guy, I believe. Ernie played exciting, attacking football. Rudan and Uffie had their moments, football wise. 

I’m unconvinced by Walker and Brooke-Smith as of yet, but interested to see Loke, GSR and others. Ideally they all need to play more and develop more first. 

I don’t think Chief-ball is intended to be as negative as it became. I’m hoping to see more from Chico, Ishige, Kosta and unknown striker 1. Maybe Supyk or a new signing. 

Weirdly as our expectations have now been lowered I’m more hopeful. We were expected to back up from 2nd and had the pressure of 3 derbies against a heavyweight. 

As well, some of our goals were just things of beauty. Two great moments producing goals with Marco and Kosta combining. Ishige, Chico, Piper and Hughes knocked them in or set em up spectacularly. Payne played side two of his last season hit record ‘Don’t be jealous, Real Madrid’, with a late run for Ballon D’Or contention. 

Sutton and Wootton will be losses. Hope we’re on the blower to  Mauragis- do we rate him? 

In the end I feel Chief has unfinished business and after being comprehensively smacked in the chops by Auckland, deserves another season to reply. Better the devil you know essentially. 

martinb

I guess that’s the question with Chief. 

Is he allowed mistakes? Is he allowed mistakes like this season’s mistakes? 

I guess I’m leaning towards keeping him on the basis some players will be better next season and that no one suggested yet seems that exciting. 

I guess player analogy- is he a late bloomer and will develop more as a coach or has he done his dash? 

Ricki was quite an inspirational guy, I believe. Ernie played exciting, attacking football. Rudan and Uffie had their moments, football wise. 

I’m unconvinced by Walker and Brooke-Smith as of yet, but interested to see Loke, GSR and others. Ideally they all need to play more and develop more first. 

I don’t think Chief-ball is intended to be as negative as it became. I’m hoping to see more from Chico, Ishige, Kosta and unknown striker 1. Maybe Supyk or a new signing. 

Weirdly as our expectations have now been lowered I’m more hopeful. We were expected to back up from 2nd and had the pressure of 3 derbies against a heavyweight. 

As well, some of our goals were just things of beauty. Two great moments producing goals with Marco and Kosta combining. Ishige, Chico, Piper and Hughes knocked them in or set em up spectacularly. Payne played side two of his last season hit record ‘Don’t be jealous, Real Madrid’, with a late run for Ballon D’Or contention. 

Sutton and Wootton will be losses. Hope we’re on the blower to  Mauragis- do we rate him? 

In the end I feel Chief has unfinished business and after being comprehensively smacked in the chops by Auckland, deserves another season to reply. Better the devil you know essentially. 

you've covered a lot. and rather than just hitting the "this" button, i thought i'd reply and say this is a great post

edit: i think walker and LBS are future ballers. esp LBS

Chief had a great first season for sure, but there are a couple of caveats there. The reality is that his underlying numbers that season weren't great, the team collectively managed to overperform them. We conceded a lot of shots and didn't creat a lot of chances, just like this year. The difference was the quality of players, specifically Paulsen, Surman and Old. It wasn't Chiefys tactics that kept us in it, it was some massive seasons from some of our best young talent ever. If you done believe me regarding this, look it up.

I'd dare say that we got lucky with other teams being a bit average too, it certainly didn't hurt our performance. If money is all you need to win like some here sugest then last season must've been a massive stuff up from some of the bigger clubs.

I just don't feel that we will see any real improvement by hanging on to Chiefy. I can't see us making massive improvements from this season though there will be some to be sure and I definitely don't see a world where he gets us contesting AFC in the derbys. All this leads me to think that we are better off trying something new. 

I will say that I am biased though, I haven't been a fan of Chiefys entire philosophy of football from the get go, his thoughts on how he believes the game should be played are very different to mine, and that certainly effects how I view him. I still firmly believe that he is not the one to take us foward and that keeping him on would be a massive mistake.

Monto

Chief had a great first season for sure, but there are a couple of caveats there. The reality is that his underlying numbers that season weren't great, the team collectively managed to overperform them. We conceded a lot of shots and didn't creat a lot of chances, just like this year. The difference was the quality of players, specifically Paulsen, Surman and Old. It wasn't Chiefys tactics that kept us in it, it was some massive seasons from some of our best young talent ever. If you done believe me regarding this, look it up.

I'd dare say that we got lucky with other teams being a bit average too, it certainly didn't hurt our performance. If money is all you need to win like some here sugest then last season must've been a massive stuff up from some of the bigger clubs.

I just don't feel that we will see any real improvement by hanging on to Chiefy. I can't see us making massive improvements from this season though there will be some to be sure and I definitely don't see a world where he gets us contesting AFC in the derbys. All this leads me to think that we are better off trying something new. 

I will say that I am biased though, I haven't been a fan of Chiefys entire philosophy of football from the get go, his thoughts on how he believes the game should be played are very different to mine, and that certainly effects how I view him. I still firmly believe that he is not the one to take us foward and that keeping him on would be a massive mistake.

When you look at the players we had last season, it makes me think with a better coach we could have been a better team. Maybe not placed higher, but definitely played more entertaining football. Kraev was massive, old is a ligue 1 player, Paulsen has backed up last year's effort and people are saying surman could go to Europe soon. Add to that zawada, Wooten, Payne and Rufer and a bit of midfield depth al taay and Pennington.

My big issue with chief is that we got to a point this season where we had a couple of injuries and his chosen strategy was no longer viable..he didn't adjust how we played to suit the players we have and eek out some points. He just kept on trucking on and said in pressers he would never change is strategy. He kept trying to force his hand into a glove that was too small. The flexibility in his strategic thinking only came after it was too late. For that reason alone I would axe him.

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

Not uncommon in football these days though.

Ange at Spurs, Kompany at Burnley, and Martin at Southampton all good examples of managers refusing to employ a plan b.

Buffon II

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

Not uncommon in football these days though.

Ange at Spurs, Kompany at Burnley, and Martin at Southampton all good examples of managers refusing to employ a plan b.

Sure and two of those are in EPL and either being relegated or close to it. Burnley would say it has been successful as they are 2nd in the championship.
Chief doesnt ahve the credentials of any of the 3 managers of the baove teams either

theprof

Buffon II

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

Not uncommon in football these days though.

Ange at Spurs, Kompany at Burnley, and Martin at Southampton all good examples of managers refusing to employ a plan b.

Sure and two of those are in EPL and either being relegated or close to it. Burnley would say it has been successful as they are 2nd in the championship.

With Parker in charge…

A sample size of three managers out of 44 teams is not a very strong argument of commoness.

Buffon II

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

Not uncommon in football these days though.

Ange at Spurs, Kompany at Burnley, and Martin at Southampton all good examples of managers refusing to employ a plan b.

What job did Kompany get afterwards? 

theprof

A sample size of three managers out of 44 teams is not a very strong argument of commoness.

Bielsa, Southgate, Potter...

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

This seems a bit of hindsight is 20-20 thinking. 

Bullion

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

This seems a bit of hindsight is 20-20 thinking. 

sure but it was pretty clear early on in the season, in fact even pre-season he was very definitive in his thinking and direction.

Buffon II

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

Not uncommon in football these days though.

Ange at Spurs, Kompany at Burnley, and Martin at Southampton all good examples of managers refusing to employ a plan b.

 
Only worked out for Kompany so far and not at Burnley. A suggestion that a style like Ange’s works best with a resource advantage. 

Managers who’ve been most successful have principles, but some flexibility. 

Buffon II

theprof

A sample size of three managers out of 44 teams is not a very strong argument of commoness.

Bielsa, Southgate, Potter...

Those 3 are much more interesting. Be interesting to see if Potter can be better next season with West Ham. A tough group to please. 
Brighton has survived, with his base and culture surely getting part of the credit.

Bielsa….burn brightly but briefly? 

Southgate…try to keep everyone happy, by keeping no one happy? But Southgate has reasonable returns it can be argued. 

Ernie briefly had us first. Maybe this was the case with Uffie too? 

Chief had us first for weeks iirc? Yes, he did have the advantage of a good team. But he did what no Phoenix manager before him had done.

And he didn’t have Ifill, Brown, Smeltz, Singh, Siggie, Burns, Uli, Hemed or Krishna. Or Daniel.

We’ve definitely had good teams before and will again. 

Chief’s table position record remains unmatched at the Phoenix I believe. 

My approach to this season is to bin it off and see what can be salvaged. And there are a few things.

reg22

anaveragestem

hepatitis

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

okay, name them. Unless you think it is viable to go outside the league then the pickings are seriously slim. Remember, to start with they have to have the required coaching tickets - the majority of these people are already head coaches in our league.

People have been naming names for months now and only two serious options come to mind - Greenacre & Stanton. I'm assuming you wouldn't want Rudan back?

If we're going outside the league I guess the possibilities are endless but you're more likely to unearth a rock than a diamond I reckon. That is unless you had some sister club like Bournemouth...

if you are sure that the "pickings are slim", you must have a definitive list. so, can you please name them? 

i'm not attacking your post BTW, just genuinely interested to know the names that are on this list of suitable options, without doing my own research.

I would not say I have any inside knowledge whatsoever but reading every name I've seen mentioned here only two spring to mind. I also think without genuine inside knowledge this forum is the absolute best you're going to get. Plenty here have genuine inside knowledge and the majority here have really good intentions (as opposed to Facebook). 

Chris Greenacre and Rob Stanton are the only two obvious options. 

Some have said Des Buckingham but I just don't know why any coach would take a step down from Europe unless they were desperate. 

hepatitis

No need to name them. They will arrive (and someone else has already given a list.)

We got through the first season with Chief through a soild defense and counter attacking.
This season, he replaced those leaving with lower-level players (in my view) and didnt respond to the injury losses quickly enough. I think a change is needed

anaveragestem

hepatitis

Resigning Italiano will show a lack of ambition. There will be plenty ready to come forward to replace him, the lack of choice argument above doesn’t hold. 

The team will need some rebuilding in players and attitude, I don’t see him as the man for that. Good assistant in his time, found out in the main job. 

okay, name them. Unless you think it is viable to go outside the league then the pickings are seriously slim. Remember, to start with they have to have the required coaching tickets - the majority of these people are already head coaches in our league.

People have been naming names for months now and only two serious options come to mind - Greenacre & Stanton. I'm assuming you wouldn't want Rudan back?

If we're going outside the league I guess the possibilities are endless but you're more likely to unearth a rock than a diamond I reckon. That is unless you had some sister club like Bournemouth...

Ah the old I'm right but I won't tell you why. Classic. 

theprof

Bullion

theprof

Yeah the lack of a willingness to change his style has really hurt us this year. Either naivity or arrogance. Eitherway Cheif stuck to his guns believing his way was the best way - even when the evidence said it wasnt.

This seems a bit of hindsight is 20-20 thinking. 

sure but it was pretty clear early on in the season, in fact even pre-season he was very definitive in his thinking and direction.

early on he was complaining about a disrupted pre-season due to international commitments and some injuries - like Pep isn't going to go, "oh well, I think we would be most successful when we are able implement this system but I haven't had time to embed it properly with a significant portion of the squad so I'm not going to try" - even during the season when in our injury crisis I'm sure he's thinking we get Rojas back, Rufer back, bring in that visa player we can start to get a run of games to gel in the system - but that didn't happen, and guess what he has adjusted.

except he hasnt, nothing in his style of play has changed. he has continued to out square pegs in round holes, we looked better when Chico arrived cos he actually fit the Rojas mould and could do what Chief wanted.

As said, write this season off as a learning experience. The proof on Chiefy is that whomever he has in the squad next season, can he turn it around. It's quite possible he can but will the youngsters from this season step up another notch? Piper for me has stood up to be counted.

Piper is one who has stood up and proved he can fit into Chiefy's plan, Sutton has as well - although by al counts he is on his way to Perth.
I have massive concerns with Josh O. - he isnt the keeper we need to be playing out from the back - unless he learns to play with his feet confidently in the off season.
Wootton has played with less confidence this year which I suspect is down to playing with a new partner at CB - not Hughes fault but I dont think they really clicked,

As far as the plan - there has only been a couple of games where the plan has looked like it was working and even then it was for maybe 10 minutes at best, Chico's arrival was a big part of unlocking Nagasawa and Ishige further up the field. If we dont keep him, then we absolutely must find a like for like replacement PRONTO.

theprof

except he hasnt, nothing in his style of play has changed. he has continued to out square pegs in round holes, we looked better when Chico arrived cos he actually fit the Rojas mould and could do what Chief wanted.

We certainly don't play out from the back as much as we did at the start of the season. 

can’t 
as well
Both Josh and players in front. 

Albie can, but again players in front, improved presses and changing fashion.

theprof

except he hasnt, nothing in his style of play has changed. he has continued to out square pegs in round holes, we looked better when Chico arrived cos he actually fit the Rojas mould and could do what Chief wanted.

how often have we played short from goal kicks in the last month or two? How often do we play short with the keeper? We are not trying to create artificial transitions and 3rd man runs as much as I'm sure Chify would prefer and did last year.

Bullion

theprof

except he hasnt, nothing in his style of play has changed. he has continued to out square pegs in round holes, we looked better when Chico arrived cos he actually fit the Rojas mould and could do what Chief wanted.

how often have we played short from goal kicks in the last month or two? How often do we play short with the keeper? We are not trying to create artificial transitions and 3rd man runs as much as I'm sure Chify would prefer and did last year.

as mentioned above that changed through necessity rather than a change in tactics, when AKH was in goal playing from the back was pretty much the default with limited long kicks, now that Josh O. is back we are resorting to going longer (although Josh seems to still struggle to find a teammate - often finding the sideline more often than not)
Kicking long vs short isnt really a tactical change, the team is still attacking on the counter and playing the ball back to recycle and start again. Often resulting in us losing possession and being under pressure - been that way for the last two seasons.