Nix V Mariners Sat 22nd 5pm ft 12 Pubs of Lochhead

Christ, over 17k at Hunter stadium right now, and we couldnt even manage 6

Christ, to those moaning about our difficulty breaking down CCM, I've seen Barcelona struggle to break down a side that sets up it's stall like CCM did.  They are pretty good at holding the fort.
Nix stuck at it, created several half chances, had several one-twos broken up by a foot in, bombed in cross after cross.
Sure a bit of quality on the crosses would have helped and taller central attackers.  But the lads were working it.  And tired.  They did a lot of work.  Much more movement off the ball, much less long ball and sit.

My measure (apart from my own opinions) are the perception of my less footy mad mates.  They tend to be fairly straightforward measures of whether Nix are playing well and whether the game was enjoyable.  They:
a) enjoyed the game
b) thought we were playing attactive football and were working hard to press a well organised CCM back eight, and
c) they thought Nix deserved the result

d) but felt we could develop more options to play through the middle

+ I am almost certain the CCM goal should have been offside
offside position on the shot and deflection off the goalkeeper before the tap in = off side

Good result, against a good side and could have been better.  Totori deserves a start.  Sanchez has and continues to make a difference.  Fenton doing well enough, could improve and be a real handful.  Back four looked better organised with one pressing forward - when three, they were much tighter than last week.

Loved Brockies casual I'm-way-offside-back-to-goal-flick for a (non-)goal and Boyds attempted flick onto goal.

Not Barcelona, but shaping up well.

Just got home from the game and an excellent afternoon at the stadium. Nice weather, vocal crowd and an entertaining game. It was good to see the level of commitment displayed by all of the players. Sanchez is making a difference and Fenton and Boyd should keep improving. Roll on next week.

??

Where?  

You are not wrong.

On every "attack' do we have to play the ball backwards until they have 11 men behind the ball?

Bearing in mind we were clueless from half time onwards, what was a tactical change delayed until 20 mins to go, and was it attacking enough even then?

Why , when they are playing on such a superb surface, cant more passes and particularly crosses be hit first time without taking one more bloody touch

Does Totori cut inside every single time? (at least he put in one decent cross, which is pretty much more than anyone else managed during the game)

Good post - agree with it all, especially b) and d) - in the form of Sanchez.

If there's one thing I am sick of it's the number of times we have had to attack the Fever Zone in the first half this season. It just ain't right. In fact, it is some seriously bad mother fucking juju. I blame it for at least 60-65% of all our current problems. Like wtf man??

Also, Patrick Zwaanswijk is the best central defender in the A-League bar none.

Jeez, he's good.

The whole Mariners team are so good at pushing, nudging or leaning in on their opponents just enough to get an advantage without giving away a foul but Zwaanswijk is an absolute master at it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/8112776/Late-goal-snares-Phoenix-a-draw-in-capital/ 

Did anyone see "Captain Phoenix" sitting in the front of Aisle 24?

www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/phoenix-snatch-a-late-point/56386

Let's face it, the team are still boring.  How many SHOTS did we have on goal?  Totori's one that some clowns thought was in, but that was it?  Our creativity is utterly abysmal.  Get it wide, cross it in, don't worry if anyone is even in the box - this is our one tactic?

AGAIN, Totori comes on, goes at the defence, sets up a goal, and yet he's not good enough to start?

Ricki is utterly inept and should consider his position soon I think.  Our performances at home in particular are DULL, DULL, DULL.

CCM goal was def onside

Also agree with stevo, ricki has some thinking to do

No search function, what did the banner say today? With shadow could only read the word 'home' at the bottom.

WGTN is our home I think

Another frustrating game with too much receiving ball in own half back to goal and playing way you are facing and then it goes across the park etc.  Not enough look up quick vision...

Thought Manny played okay..was getting a bit frustrated with others ahead I think..Leo looking better each game.  Totori is a good impact player.  My wife laughed that I was 13 secs out on Ricki's sub time.

Ifill actually tweeted he didn't think it was a great spectacle to watch. 

Are their any Ange P or Graham Arnold type coaches kicking about here.  I'm personally finding the Nix a hard watch this season.  I still love them, but they are testing my patience.  This was supposed to be the month, with the majority of our games being at home, that we climb the table.  13 points from 12 games isn't good enough.

I'm going over to see them in January v the Victory and am thinking i'm going to have to drink a copius amount of alcohol to enjoy the experience. 

It wasn't.  That doesn't mean that the football was bad.

This was a much better team performance than the game against Sydney.  We had only one "weak link" and one other player I felt was rather ineffectual.

But we scrapped our way back into the game and the subs were all good and justified.

Standing still is going backwards

So we're boring now in comparison to the rest of the league? Just clearing it up in my head.

We've always been boring, but winning is less boring.  Doloras, I don't know why you're defending the indefensible?  13 points from a possible 36?  Really it speaks for itself.  Not to mention crowds of 5900.

Combination of players out of form, players getting older, and we've always played hoofball

Well, someone has to be the Stoke City of the A-League (but without a  long throw-in).

We're not Barcelona and we won't be for a few years.

So much instant gratification expected these days.

Football is a funny old game. One season we're the dog's bollocks, the next season we're bollocks.  Get used to it boys and girls. As long as our team puts in a dedicated effort I'm willing to take the ups and downs (and downs and downs). 

 Well, I don't know how 13 points from 12 games stacks up against previous seasons - t_x can tell me that - but quite frankly I think negativity shrivels the soul, particularly when it's about something we can do nothing about. I prefer to look on the positive because it makes me feel better to do so. JD once said that people who were too positive are hurting the team because only negativity from fans will spur the team to do anything, but I think that's nonsense. And I've explained elsewhere that perhaps the negativity in the media about the Nix (boring team, Gareth vs Ricki) might have something to do with the crowds.

Ricki always said "this was a transitional season". Tools like Danny Hay were all like "NOOO we have the players to win the league and if we don't then it's an outrage!" Does anyone really think we have the players to win the league now? Ricki was right. I am looking forward to seeing next season, with Fenton and Boyd more experienced and maybe a new coach.