I watched this game with my Dad and he opened my eyes to so many things that I was missing.
For me, this was a poor Phoenix performance against an awful Heart performance. Rather than trash it, I'm going to put my thoughts in the form of questions so anyone watching the replay can see it for themselves
How poor was the crossing from Boyd, Lochhead, Sanchez and Bertos. How often did it go too long, too high too short or at the keeper?
How many corners from Sanchez failed to make it into the box.
How many times could the players have taken a shot but wanted to walk it into the goal. (fundamentally, take more shots, even if from distance)
The box was stacked with players. How many of them were static or lined up on the edge of the with no movement.
How often did our players arrive too early in the box on a cutback or a cross and were unable to put any power into what shots we did have.
How often did we give away dumb freekicks in stupid places?
When is a defense going to learn that Tyler Boyd will never go left and his left foot is just for standing on?
How often did our players received the ball but with a lack of awareness for the next pass (read this as opening the body up 90º for receiving the pass to make the next pass seamless, less touches, or see the next pass) In reference to this, how often did our players then have to turn and play back because they did not open their body.
How often does Fenton take the 'other option' than the obvious one that he should do.
I don't want to judge you, your dad, nufc, bbs or any of the other pessimists on this forum, but what sort of football should we play that will actually make you happy?? We're not a top european side, we don't have unlimited resources, we have a quota of local players we have to play and I can't think of anyone better than the team we currently field.
it doesnt take a special effort to make a list of negatives about anything to be honest. try harder next time. how about of list of positive aspects:
How many times did we succesfully pass out from the back rather than resort to the long ball of games past?
how often did we pass it out from the back through to options in the midfield without 10 or so passes needed between the back 4?
leo, fenton and boyd were successful in beating their marker with almost every run
when those three looked to cross (quality of the cross aside) they looked to get past the first man rather than kick it straight into them as normal
were there significantly more passes attempted than any previous nix game?
60% possession!
passes along the ground!
good covering defense when heart were on the counter, david williams isn't slow and he was ineffectual to the point of being subbed
how many players were running forward when lia picked up the ball off the defense - this positivity continued all night
the nix were 2 - 0 down, and continued to play with their heads up and always looked good too pull a goal or two back (the win being a bonus)