Hail ___ the Chief - Giancarlo Italiano

1664 replies · 125,318 views

11 months ago

martinb

observer

Chiefy and Greenacre don't talk either so the list of people he has fallen out with is growing... How can you not talk to your Reserve Team Coach?

Expect another average to poor season next season with another super low xG. I for one will not be attending any games until that number increases dramatically - at least AFC create a lot of chances and play exciting football!

Ahh- AFC mentioned out of nowhere in a Nix discussion by a poster with the credibility of one post. I knew this M.O. was familiar.

Is it that simp troglodyte Josh or whatever that loser was called?

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11 months ago

Clearly, XG was invented by a comedian, in order to spark conversations like this.

360footballnews.com

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11 months ago

For me, having watched all the Nix's games, all AFC games, the major difference between the two has been not so much the skill ability of the players or the coordination between the players but in the difference between AFC's agressive determination v Nix's determined passivity in match after match. Very weird it took a Corban Piper to change the mindset.

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Endorsed by AucklandPhoenix, hepatitis, LT01, reg22 and 2 others

11 months ago · edited 11 months ago · History

Ninja

I just don't get this re-signing to be honest.

At a time when we are at an all-time-low, why are we re-hiring our coach?

We needed a fresh start, fresh ideas, fresh inspiration. Something to look forward to. We are getting none of that.

It also sends a bad message - that we are willing to re-sign a coach when the team has performed terribly, and been humiliated by our local rivals which only just entered the competition.

People are not showing up to matches anymore. There's no excitement around the club.

I will obviously still be supporting this club, I'm not a 'bandwagoner'. But this is probably the most deflated I've been about the Nix since the end of the Ricki Herbert era.

I hope I'm wrong, and things improve from here. Like others have said, we can be negative/frustrated at times, but it's because we care about this club, we invest a lot of our time into it, and we want to see it succeed. For people at the club to say that there's 'a lot of crap posted online', might be true to an extent, but at the same time I think a lot of the criticism is warranted. And again, we speak our thoughts because we care about the club.

The last thing the club needs is to alienate it's core fans (let alone the fringe fans that have been turned off this season by the really poor quality of football).

yeah, it's been an incredibly defensive renewal. sort of the opposite of fanfare.

editing the 'out' banner to 'in' for the announcement on socials (clever though)

'people have short memories', fans being told off by gruff gilly

'crap' online

360footballnews.com

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Endorsed by martinb, Ninja, number8

11 months ago

Jessie Merino

yes, auckland play like a collective of piper's with technique layered over the effort.

watching their games is like watching a different competition

360footballnews.com

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11 months ago

Ninja

An all-time low? Worst season ever?

Did the Darije Kalezić season ever happen? Sometimes I feel like it must have been wiped from the record books.

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Endorsed by Bevan, brookem, Bullion, Doloras and 5 others

11 months ago

coochiee

Ninja

An all-time low? Worst season ever?

Did the Darije Kalezić season ever happen? Sometimes I feel like it must have been wiped from the record books.

Darje Kalezic wasn't re-signed. He didn't last long.

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Endorsed by number8, WanderingSheep

11 months ago

reg22

Jessie Merino

yes, auckland play like a collective of piper's with technique layered over the effort.

watching their games is like watching a different competition

And that's the sad fact of it.

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11 months ago

Players that Chief gave a contract too like Piper, LBS, Walker etc would support him. Rufer, Kosta both had their best performances under him last season. Bad results can bring about mutiny no doubt. Not helped by the number of contracts mutually terminated - is four a record for us?

I'm willing to give him another chance, and will continue to support the team through these choppy waters.

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Endorsed by brookem, WanderingSheep

11 months ago

observer

Latest theory this ⬆️ is Chief trying to troll so badly people will support him.

Waiting for the ‘Thanks for sticking by us while we served up dross this season. It wasn’t what we were trying to do. We’re definitely guna get stuck in next season and aim to do much better. We had a lot of draws and single goal losses. Some of these were due to mistakes from communication and training errors, so we are going to get started there, trying to keep our team as settled as possible.’

I think others are right- if there’s ‘crap on the internet’ you’re lucky because someone who still cares is writing about the team. People know if they go to a home game and leave feeling sad and bored. It’s an entertainment product. They’ll stay at home, get a pizza and watch two episodes of Reacher, have spent less and feel better.

Think the re-up handling hasn’t been much better than the rest of the season.

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Endorsed by Ninja, number8

11 months ago

Completely agree on the difference between the Nix and AFC in combativity. AFC are aggressive, they strongly contest every ball and give the opposition little time. The Nix in contrast are meek. They are often passive in defense.
AFC have more quality players but you can often be effective with lesser quality players by playing an aggressive combative style of football. I would have thought it would be quite straightforward to get enthusiastic youngsters to run around like mad dogs.

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Endorsed by LT01, Monto, Ninja, Nixieboys222 and 1 other

11 months ago

austin111

You need to remember a lot of our young guys are a lot younger than previously and i doubt they have had the exposure to senior football some of the others have had.Think its a bit much to expect 16/17/and 18 year olds to"run around like mad dogs" when just recently promoted and against some hard headed pros. Yep you get the odd one or two who might be able to handle it but think its to much to expect.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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Endorsed by mjp2

11 months ago · edited 11 months ago · History

and again I'll point out the obserdity of using a stat to justify a thing, stats only create part of the story. If we loloked at this stat and the xG stat together then why arent Sydney at the top of the table? Why are we not bottom?
stats in isolation are meaningless. they only paint part of the picture - and they do not support the story you're trying to tell. The only table that matters is the league table, and on that we sit 11th - not great sure but not the worst.

As an exaomple I could take that you've been a member of the forum for 23 hours, made four posts and all have been anti nix crap - therefore you're not really a fan and havent been ever - am I correct, or am I taking numbers in isolation to make what I think true?

Queenslander 3x a year.

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Endorsed by anaveragestem, Nelfoos

11 months ago · edited 11 months ago · History

Stats can be used to support an argument..

The only argument you have is 'hey, at least we're not bottom'?

I'll go with the stats guy.

I think it's fair to say that we have struggled to get into attacking positions, and when we do, we rely on Kosta to slot it 9/10 times.

To be fair, this is basically what we did in the season we went well in too - but the difference is that we had the best keeper in the league to save us down the other end.

It's not sustainable football unless you've got the best keeper and best striker in the league.

a.haak

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Endorsed by Footballtragic, LT01, Marto, Monto

11 months ago

Last season our number of shots per game would have been low too, we finished 2nd? No idea or care for the xG numbers but I'd imagine that wassnt great last season either.

Queenslander 3x a year.

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11 months ago

theprof

Last season our number of shots per game would have been low too, we finished 2nd? No idea or care for the xG numbers but I'd imagine that wassnt great last season either.

xG is just a stat like any other stat where by itself, it's meaningless, but with context it can help come to a conclusion.

The conclusion you can take about Chiefy's tactics is that it's incredibly dependent on generating high quality shots, and finishing them at a higher rate than pretty much any other team in the league. It is also extremely dependent on a goalkeeper performing above average.

a.haak

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Endorsed by KiwiMancunian, LT01, Monto, Southernix and 2 others

11 months ago

valeo

theprof

Last season our number of shots per game would have been low too, we finished 2nd? No idea or care for the xG numbers but I'd imagine that wassnt great last season either.

Yep you can see from the table we have the highest goals per shots on target (0.39) for any team in the league. This speaks to what Chiefy is trying to achieve, and how we had success last season.

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Endorsed by martinb, mjp2

11 months ago

The stats prove nothing.

You need to have an argument and then not have it punctured by the complete lack of correlation with places on the table.

Stats are evidence for a thesis.

The thesis you have is that the Nix have been playing poorly. That’s not exactly a revolutionary argument this season.

If you’re trying to say the coach is no good you need to do much, much better.

And both of you say, well you’re relying on the very good, experienced striker you signed to score goals. Well, duh, again. That’s his pedigree and job, and he fits particularly well with how Chief plays.

It’s a bit like saying without a goalkeeper the opposition would score more. Yes….

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Endorsed by Nelfoos, Southernix, theprof, WanderingSheep

11 months ago

coochiee

Ninja

An all-time low? Worst season ever?

Did the Darije Kalezić season ever happen? Sometimes I feel like it must have been wiped from the record books.

Yes, Coochie, from my perspective this is an all-time-low.

I remember Darije Kalezic vividly. But he didn't last long, and wasn't re-signed, so we didn't have to put up with his rubbish football for long.

I didn't say this is the worst season ever, but since you've brought it up - I think it is the worse season I've witnessed as a lifetime Nix fan.

Thanks for pointing this out to me.

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Endorsed by jaggedlittlenix, KiwiMancunian, LT01, Monto and 5 others

11 months ago

Bloke should sit his Profs in the off season, won’t be another job in football for him if he keeps this up

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Endorsed by LT01, Monto, reg22

11 months ago

Although I truly hope he turns it around, the way the club has handled the re-signing has been really poor, firstly editing the 'Chiefy Out' banner and then Shaun Gill saying "It seems a lot of people in the sporting world have short memories" like we haven't watched some of the worst football I've ever seen this season. I'd like to know based on this season why he's been re-signed or is it really just the 'credit' from last season.

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Endorsed by kwlap, LT01, martinb, Monto and 8 others

11 months ago

At the members’ Q&A today Gill said the Chiefy decision boiled down to “you learn more from your mistakes than your successes”, so they must be expecting some changes in approach.

He also mentioned there was “some back-and-forth” within the football committee about the decision, which makes me wonder how close it was.

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Endorsed by KiwiMancunian, LT01, mjp2, Monto and 5 others

11 months ago

For years the Nix faithful have put up with the ups and downs of supporting a football club. Mainly downs TBH. But people have stuck with it. Now it feels different. The arrival and quick success of another NZ team has put the spotlight on how our club has been managed over the years.
I personally feel insulted by the reaction of the clubs management. They have completely failed to appreciate the depth of feeling from the fans. Its been a crap season. They have re-signed an unpopular coach. Then they have come out in a defence manner saying we have short memories and there is a lot of crap on social media.
We are not the problem. The club needs to look at how it interacts with its fan base. We wont just continually turn up because we always have.
Running a football club is more than just spreadsheets.

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Endorsed by AucklandPhoenix, LT01, Marto, mjp2 and 8 others

11 months ago

Simon B

If you learn more from you mistakes than successes the Nix must be veritable gurus of the game

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Endorsed by AucklandPhoenix, Banzai!...AIEEE!!!, kwlap, LT01 and 7 others

11 months ago

lol. Good one.

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11 months ago

Simon B

Learn from your mistakes? Horseshark statement! Everyone should do that ALL the time after every game, everyday you learn and improve in all jobs, it’s a continues progress. The problem to see the issues and solve them, football club are small lean low hirachies teams which should easy to implement new ideas. Yes we had injuries but trying the same thing over and over again shows me that don’t see the real issue hence no fix.

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Endorsed by LT01, Monto, Nixieboys222

11 months ago

austin111

I dont think he is an unpopular as you and a few others like to constantly bang on about. There are a lot of people who read and never put up what they are thinking.
Talking to a pretty varied cross section of people seems the Chief issue is like a lot of stuff out there these days where the vocal minorities opinion is heard but rarely the other side.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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Endorsed by anaveragestem, brookem, Bullion, coochiee and 2 others

11 months ago · edited 11 months ago · History

Last home game of the season at the Cake Tin next week, there must be something we can do next week as fans to show we're not going to keep putting up with this shark.

Man I've said some stupid things on this forum.

Tell us Gill, did we have short memories when COVID fudged up the great season we were having in 19/20 and forced our lads away from home and their families while we watched on for basically two full seasons? Did we have short memories when the FFA wanted to get rid of us? Did we have short memories during the fudgeing Kalezic spell?

Hell, did we have short memories when we were missing Rufer for that away game to the Mariners, lost 3-0 at home to the Jets, or conceded that controversial late goal against the Roar?

Chiefy's going to need to have a Kosta-esque redemption at this rate.

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Endorsed by kwlap, LT01, Marto, mjp2 and 4 others

11 months ago

Kosta-esque is quite tough, but also not impossible on pure performance.

Kosta in his second spell had a 12 goal contribution season with 6 and 6. Still very handy.

Last season 18- 13 and 5
This season 11- (so far) 10 and 1

And your quote from the other thread is a good start. Sorry guna repost. From Chief’s presser:

"There'll be changes, I think significant changes, you know looking to reinforce the squad, there'll be a different sort of playing style and ideas, but that's going to eventuate over the next couple of months."

Proof of the pudding and all that. But it’s a good start.

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Endorsed by mjp2

11 months ago

Well two of the defence have already bailed from the club and after tonight I think Kosta will go, so yep there will be changes

Auckland will rise once more

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11 months ago

My beef is not particularly with Chiefy. I feel sorry for the guy and I think he's been poorly supportered by club management. Dome and Gill have only recently made public statements and what they said has hardly soothed matters. The rest of the season they have let a young talented coach take all the public heat. Its not been all Chiefys fault.
My beef is the "hope to make top six" attitude that we have had forever and the lack of management competence. Nothing much changes. Just about every other A League club has had some success. Never us, yet the same people are still in charge.

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Endorsed by AucklandPhoenix, InsulinMachine, mjp2, Nixieboys222 and 1 other

11 months ago · edited 11 months ago · History

anaveragestem

coochiee

martinb

Piper I’m kind of okay with. He does 4-5 things and we want him in position to do those…

Hughes…we’ll probably need him at the back, but definitely has the skills to play higher up.

If the rumours about Griff above are true, why is Chief falling out with so many people? Can this be sorted out because if we’re taking Chief because of previous success, that was equally the success of a brilliantly parsimonious side. Which surely means good defensive coaching.

Sort your sharke out Chief, behind closed doors if possible, buy some new shirts and win us something.

Slow down. Can Pierre even name the Nix 'defensive coach'?
Looks a bit of baseless post to me by someone who clearly is not a fan of Italiano.

Yeah where TF is Pierre getting this from lol. Chief specifically said he reads plenty of crap online, this'll be some of that crap. If Chief had fallen out with as many of the people I've seen mentioned here there is no way he'd be signed on again. One falling out can be a misunderstanding but several happening and you won't be hired again

If YoungHeartHM said this id listen. Who TF is Pierre 🤣

Sorry I didnt introduce myself An Average Stem.

Of course I wont reveal my sources.

But I can tell you players and staff have had a falling out with him. 'Lost the dressing room'
Most of the coaching staff have resigned or wont be renewing their contracts.
Wotton going to perth, as is Sutts. Barbarouses going to Macarthur.

He absolutely cooked the Rojas situation and went against the medical staff recommendation even though he knew he was injury prone. Planning to build a team around a fella who has hardly kicked a football in years.

praying for the best next season, but really - expecting the worse.

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Endorsed by InsulinMachine, KiwiMancunian, Marshy, martinb and 5 others

11 months ago

If the above is true and I worry that it is, how could management not know.

Barbs would be the biggest loss.

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Endorsed by coochiee, dunnix, KiwiMancunian, mjp2 and 8 others

11 months ago

There must be some truth. The facts are Ball, OvH, Al-Taay left. Wottoon and Sutton are leaving.
Rojas ask for release and said did not understood his role, ouch.
Look at the reminding playing squad, lackluster performance after performance. We playing for pride, mathematically the top 6 is possible, we try to win again the two teams below use, no reaction. This is not a happy team.
The rebuild will be interesting to see.

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Endorsed by JasperNix, KiwiMancunian, Ninja, Nixieboys222 and 3 others

11 months ago

Reading all the above and if true why did they resign him. Could they just not be bothered looking for anyone new?

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11 months ago

Well good news everyone! Auckland have won silverware! Something we haven't been able to do in our entire existence! And we're sticking with someone who got outcoached by Zadkovich!

Fudgeing joke of a club at this point.

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Endorsed by KiwiMancunian, Marto, Nixieboys222, valeo and 1 other

11 months ago

The excuses will continue next season. "Slow start was expected with a whole new squad blah blah blah..." "Team needs time to gel..." Then Chief gets replaced January, "New coach will need some time to implement his style blah blah blah..."
Rinse and repeat

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Endorsed by brookem, Monto, Ninja, Nixieboys222 and 2 others

11 months ago

First time an Auckland pro club has won since the introduction of the Football Kingz in 1999. If it makes anyone feel better Auckland's wait has been longer than ours.

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Endorsed by kwlap, martinb, Ninja, Nixieboys222 and 4 others

11 months ago

Barbarouses to Macarthur? I think this guy might be a troll

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Endorsed by theprof

11 months ago

Is his wife from Sydney? Makes sense I suppose, probably rates Mile more than Chief. i will wait for the official announcement.

Was Pierres old account photo of a yellow and black painted house?

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