http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/road-to-the-finals--are-phoenix-too-defensive-/46387Wellington Phoenix are enjoying their most successful season yet
in the Hyundai A-League, partly based on their obdurate performances
away from home � but are these the tactics that will take them to a
grand final?
There�s no doubt Phoenix have ability in attack,
especially when Paul
Ifill�s firing, but some commentators have criticised the Kiwi side
for being too defensive away from home. Is this right? Have your say
below...
Yes, Phoenix can go all the way
Attackers
win games, defenders win titles, or so the clich� goes. I would argue
Wellington Phoenix and coach Ricki Herbert would agree.
Few would
have predicted Herbert could take the All Whites through a World Cup
finals campaign undefeated, but he did and managed to turn the Phoenix
from a club in crisis into a genuine championship threat.
How has
he done it? By parking a big jet at every opportunity he gets.
Forget
parking the bus, Wellington travel so often you may as well call it
�parking the jet� and they do it with skill and aplomb, especially away
from Westpac Stadium.
It may be �winning ugly�, but it works and
has done wonders for the Phoenix.
Phoenix have scored the least
goals of any team in the top eight, so should they get ahead in a game,
parking the jet becomes a necessity.
They also have a solid enough
defence to be able to have confidence in their ability to sit back and
knock the ball away.
Andrew
Durante, Ben
SigmUnd, Manny
Muscat and Tony
Lochhead have experience and skill and with the dominating presence
of Mark
Paston in goal you get a solid unit that has had seven clean sheets
throughout the season.
Phoenix have often parked that jet in the
middle of the pitch; this year, they have beaten Gold Coast, Newcastle,
Adelaide and Sydney by a solitary goal.
Odds are, if they play
away in the finals they will park the jet - and it will work yet again.
No,
Phoenix can�t win it
Garbage. Phoenix might be conservative
away from home, and rightly so, but they are no more defensive than the
next A-League team.
Wellington are currently enjoying their best
season in the competition, partly based on their success on the road �
something they haven�t been able to manage in the past.
There may
be occasion for Herbert�s team to be defensive but claiming they park
the bus is short-sighted at best.
Four wins, three draws and six
losses � that�s pretty average as A-League away form goes; it�s only
unusual because Wellington haven�t been able to do it before.
True,
nine goals scored suggests they don�t get forward very often � but if
they�ve conceded 16 goals in 13 games away from home, I reckon they�ve
left the bus in the wrong car park.
Compare that to the 24 goals
they�ve scored at Westpac, second only to Brisbane Roar � Herbert�s men
look set to make the most of their home final.
But then it would
most likely be a trip to Perth, the longest single trip in world
football and a ground where Phoenix haven�t won since November 2010.
I
don�t know about you, but I wouldn�t be betting on them to be very
happy about making that trip.
"Phoenix till they lose"
COYN 
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