Nix vs CCM, 11th Nov 4:30pm (+ T'Dubs vs. Canterbury curtain raiser)

this is shit

Do it!  He bemoans how poor we are in Melbourne until he changed it (far too late as we know) and then starts with the exact same team and formation other than Sigmund that performed so badly just 5 days ago.

DC: paraphrasing...subs made us worse...no shape...no plan...dispiriting...everyone has to look at themselves on and off the field.

Felt it was a poor game all round.  We didnt play any worse than CCM they just managed to get the ball in the net,  could have gone either way.  Game probably deserved to be 0-0.  That is the difference between a team that is challenging at the top and us who are challenging to make the top 6.  Although disappointed with the result, at least we were not outplayed like the first 70 minutes last week.  Results will come

Thought that CCM were the only ones creating chances; deserved to lose that game. Really poor, and we've got a lot to worry about if we're playing like that at home now.

Strange subs too..

We are 9th in the table, struggling for goals, crowds are going down already - it doesn't take a football genius to work out that things are not working!

Fans will always give their views on games so stop with needing 'qualifications' etc. I have been watching football for 25 years so I am hardly approaching this as a beginner! 

We are crap and a change is required. I only hope those who are paid to actually do this come up with something soon or all the promise of the pre season and first game will be lost.

With what we have in the squad, I'd probably go back to the 4-2-1-2-1 type formation of yesteryear. It's not ideal but at least we might have more control in the middle of the park.

Lia and Muscat protecting the defence, Smith / Sanchez further forward to try and create. Huysegems up front and a choice of Fenton / Brockie / Ifill / Totori on the wings.

There you go Jeff, that's what I would do.

Ifill is the best defender in the league

So you can say how crap we were on this same thread but when I say it, it is "spouting crap"?

Perhaps if we didn't start poorly EVERY season I wouldn't have to spout anything? Why do we leave it too late both in games themselves and in terms of seasons before we start performing? Is the manager preparing the team properly in the pre season? You do realise all these dropped points early in the season still count the same? We will never win the title if we don't perform for half the season.

Disappointing, but I didn't think we were that bad. Nobody was awful, nobody was great. I'm keeping it in perspective because I think chicken-little panic squad changes at this point would be counterproductive.

I just don't know why we persist with brockie centrally and ifill wide. Rickis first port of call should be to reverse that order. Is this the worst start to the season we have ever had?

 We should be  a bit worried cause we keep giving the ball away in our own third of the pitch.

Should have taken off Brockie.  It is a problem with BS as he just can't seem to help himself pulling at players shirts. One would have thought that he learnt his lesson a couple of weeks ago. For me Lockhead should have come across to McBreen instead of running parallel  with him towards the goal.TL's passing was woeful but dragging him was a very poor decision as it made it necessary to swap Leo and achieved nothing.

I don't think we played badly. To be honest I thought it was not a bad game of football with very few chances. We never gave Matt Ryan anything to really think about and the problems at our end, we caused ourselves (the cross field bomb from Zwaanswijk, Paston messing around in front of goal etc) I don't think McBreen would have scored had Sigmund done his job.

That being said, this football wont win many games. For all the strike power we tout, we did not provide too much in the attacking 3rd. I think its commonly agreed that Ifill is not the same player as we have seen previously and I think a quick 2 weeks off and conditioning to perhaps drop 5kgs may help him immensely. We are stuck with options we can't use (Pav, Pantellis, Sanchez) options we chose not to use (Lindsay) and options we should not use (Totori). I'm not convinced that Smith alone in that 'do it all' midfield role is the answer however the creativity has to come from somewhere. Do we inject Lia into there, push a Smith little further forward and drop one of the Ifill/Fenton/Brockie combo or perhaps drop Smith and ask Ifill to play that attacking role in a 4-5-1 combination? Oddly enough, I think the answer is actually Tim Brown whom is no longer with us however... In the absence of better options, this is going to be it for a little bit until Sanchez can give Ricki something else to think about.

We were terrible all round. No positives for me.

I think Bertos played well. Our midfield was non-existent. Smith, Brockie, Ifill did nothing for the game. Manny was missing too.

Stein played well, and was probably one of the best on the ball. Why did Ricki take him off? No idea..

Crap attack, no inspiration. Crap tactics, crap subs, crap weather.

Good pidgeon.

Also how Paston keeps his spot is beyond me. He makes saves I'd expect any keeper in the league to make, but rarely makes saves that make me excited

 Apparently Paston is a better defensive organiser.... If thats the case, I'd hate to see Moss in goal.

Firat time i have ever seriously said this, but ricki's position needs to be questioned. Im not necessarily saying sack him, but he needs to feel some heat after this.

We shouldn't have to put up with these poor tactical choices where we clearly have a squad good enough to compete in this league

Was happy with Stein's performance - was his best game on the ball he's had for us. Shame about the chance he missed. Was surprised he got taken off so early.

The inevitable will happen. No-one's good enough to coach both the Nix and the AW's (now in the final charge to Brazil year) and Herbert certainly isn't. He will be relieved of the Nix role at some stage not too far away from here. We will get buried in the next 2 games. Herbert was only re-appointed because a smooth stable transition was needed with the new owners. He has no plan B tactically. The players looked confused about Plan A again today. And this is our best squad ever.       

180 mins of dire football has drained me of hope...

Well thats 4 hours of my life I wont get back..not sure whether to go straight to angst or stay here! :>)

Bereft of ideas..most passes werre back.  Ifill looking sluggish and one dimensional..Fenton tried hard but didnt get go foward passes.

Again why did Stein get subbed off at 70min?

Brockie..pffft.

They played more like a team of individuals than team today...doing their bit and hoping someone else would fire.

Thought Smith had one of his better games.

If we are going to talk about sacking Ricki, there needs to be someone better who can step in and take charge. I'm not sure there is anyone in NZ that would be able to do a better job than Ricki at the moment.

why limit it to NZ then?

Sad to see so much angst on the forum. It's amazing how quickly the mood has changed and the crowd too (half of the opening home game). Everything seemed so positive a month ago. Things can turn around.

However I agree it was a below standard performance, where was Brockie and has injuries sapped the life out of Ifill?? I think RH's tactics need a reboot and I agree he can't coach both the Nix and the AW. One has to give.

Stein got subbed because of his ankle injury

There is a general lack of confidence going forward currently..so different from game 1 and I dont care that it was "just Sydney..".  Interesting to see an earlier Belgian post that Heysegems was a winger..try him there and bring in another striker...or 2(I know we cant) seeing as how I dont see Brockie as a striker either!?