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

Pssst D - this is the interwebz.

Remind JD of this approach when he starts his family (or manages a team of players or co-workers).

Im liking Welnix less and less by the day. That shitty mascot and the blow up castles on the concourse can fuck off. I dont want to have to turn up to that shit every game.

If we didn't have Welnix we wouldn't have a club.  I don't mind Nixie, he's pretty cute and the kids seem to like him.

I enjoyed the game...because we were better than against Sydney...we have made some progress. I enjoyed watching the young guns having a go! A couple of Boyds turns that skinned his marker were super  classy. I love Fentons "give it a go" approach...he carries the ball forward with pace and mostly takes the right option. His spin and cross in one movement was as good as anything you would see on any football ground on the planet. Totori did what an impact player should...he made a difference. He is better left to come on with 20 mins left. Sanchez is no Xavi or Iniesta but he does provide a good option in CM....he was in the action early but did not seem to get fed much ball after that.

So I take great heart that we have a future..if we nuture these guys  then things may turn out OK

I do agree with some of the negative posts....thumping crosses into short attackers marked by the two of the best CB in the A-League  is just pointless. We need to deliver and move the ball quicker into attacking situations...before defenders are set. Muscat is seriously out of form, Lia is not much better....their woeful passing really does set us back. Lochhead has seriously lost his speed...he moves like a carthorse.....he's still a smart footballer but man has he slowed!! 

IMO we are three players short of being a good side. We need a proper striker....everyone up front plays like wingers...which they are! We need an intelligent experianced DM with flair who can pass accurately and we need a pacey left back who can add punch to an attack.....

Football isn't massively different but Ricki was cut a lot of slack because of the offield stuff.  People rightly or wrongly expected to see a challenge for the top 2 spots this year.

Brown's runs in front of the ball and past the forward lines, plus him attacking crosses in the box, created more half chances.  He had his flaws but he was pretty effective.  Midfielders had to track his runs which also meant a bit more space for other attacking players.

Steyn has not matched greenie's hard running up front.  Was never pretty but it worked for us.

Ifill on form creating goals out of nothing.  Without him doing that we have no real plan B

Plus we had a couple of away games where we got the breaks for once and ended up with 3 points.  I think it was against Gold Coast brown scored a last minuter when they'd been all over us and also, I think against Newcastle as well we ended up with three points when they missed an open goal in the last minute.

All small things, but we're a team that gets it's advantage by scrapping and fighting and I'm not sure we've actually got enough scrappers and fighters this year!!

I have a fleeting very, very, very small wish that we would have lost today.  Just to see the level of bile, angst and outrage that could possibly be posted.

 Why so much angst? It was an improved performance against the top of the table team, in which we came away with a valueable point!

WTF ?

Your stats are a waste of time. What was the score ? 1-1

WSW looked to have had a worse game than us going by your numbers. What was their score ? 6-1

Shove your percentages.

Why is everyone bagging on being rubbish and getting lucky goals? That's Adelaide's entire strategy this season and it's going alright.

Well, their strategy seems to be working a bit better than ours, despite their 6-1 hammering.

Now I'm not always in agreement with Doloras but she is on the money here. Steve-O, your passion is obvious but you've got too personal and Doloras deserves an apology. Not too concerned about your attacks on others as you were provoked, but she only expressed a football opinion.

Steve-o needs a holiday from the forums.  The Nix will never do anything to satisfy him.

Doloras is a goal keeper.  So think she'd know a bit about football.  Leave her alone.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/8113009/Herbert-happy-with-draw-against-league-leaders/

Phoenix need more in midfield 

So it turns out drinking all day and then posting on here MIGHT be a bad idea.

I apologise for any personal insults and namecalling, that was drunken talk and not required!

The game was still rubbish though... Sack Ricki and merry christmas one and all!

muppet

 I've thought about the game overnight and although I'm happy with a point against the top team the fact remains we were very lucky. As a spectacle  the game was dire and nothing for the casual fan to get excited about.

Positives:

Boyd and Fenton do bring more pace and youthful enthusiasm. I thought Boyd had a good game and showed a few great touches

Sanchez provides us with a bit more in the AM position

Bertos is improving every game as a defender

We picked up a point.

Things to work on (I won't call them negatives as we need to positive):

The centre of midfield is a big problem, we have a big hole there and need to sort it out soon

Always going for the cross when we don't have the players to get on the end of them.

Our attacking build ups are for the most part slow and pedestrian allowing the opposition to retreat and organise.

We are predictable.

I think we can improve but Ricki has got to vary his tactics. Every other side knows exactly what we are going to do on attack and can counter it. Change it up a bit and see what happens I say.

Morning Steve-O...hows the head?

Mate, you should never post when you are pissed and pissed off! 

Actually I agreed with quite a lot of what you said.....except for the bit about women not knowing anything about football....ouch! what were you thinking. Most women I've met who are into the game are smart or smarter than the guys when it comes to football analysis.

Essentially you are right....our football is fairly dire, we have quite a few dire players, our tactics largely suck, things have not really changed over the years...we still ponderously move the ball from defense to attack by which time the opposition have 10 defenders in the box and then we just whack the ball into in the vain hope that someone will get on the end of it. We know all this already.

But over time some of us have decided to "always look on the bright side of life". There's no point continually going over our faults...it just does your head in. Do what we do, go along, sing in the sun, cheer the guys along, clap them when they come off. Theres no point wishing you were shagging Scarlett Johanssen when you are dating "miss ugly as f**k"

Look forward to a day when we have a team coached by a Postecoglu clone, where we have a bunch of red hot kiwi kids and cool talented south Americans and every week tear the opposition to shreds playing fast mobile football. In the meantime...chill out, try and celebrate what we have got.   Merry Christmas!!

Yeah, just like Tim Brown, once Ricki's gone we'll miss him.

That depends whether the right appointment is made.  If we play entertaining football and maybe win a few games, will we miss him?  I doubt it.

Totori now has 3 assists this season. Only other person with 3 assists is Smith. That's a good record considering lack of game time he's had.

Just saw this on Wikipedia (Phoenix pages are very well done on there). The times we are scoring goals is interesting:

Obviously scoring a lot in the last 10 minutes - recently that's come from us chasing games and scoring late. I see as well though, we've scored 3 just before half-time. Maybe we're doing better when there's a bit more urgency. Some other seasons have been similar in this regard too I think.

Maybe we need to trick the players into thinking it's the end of the half/match sometimes.