Any one remember right back at the beginning of the season Ricki said this was going to be a transition year, without clarifying what he meant....and everyone went, "WTF is he talking about".
Maybe he meant that this was the transitioning of our play to a more attacking passing style. If this was the case then if he had mentioned that at the time it would have saved all this hassle.
Why the style transition was not generally mentioned(to the players as well) we can only speculate. Maybe it was to be a real gradual change or maybe they did not want to make a big deal out of it to avoid "Nix to play like Barcelona" headlines which would have just added more pressure.
By the way...with some notable exceptions many media people are scumbags!
Ricky's pre-season statement, and it was in the week leading up to our first home game, started this whole thing. Took the fire out of every football/potential spectator around my circles. Andrew Durante went public with a "disappointed if we didn't challenge for the title" story straight away. But for many, the damage was done. The DomPost and TV, quite rightly picked up on it. Crowd turned up for the first game (2-nil v Sydney) which was great. Next home game Herbert backs off the Roar, who were clearly way off their former self under KP. We attacked for 25 mins, no goals, and then were happy to to back and let them have their turn to attack. They scored, we managed an equaliser, and again were so conservative. happy to take a point. It was bizarre. For the 5 to 10 thousand who are not coming right now, they just see same old/same old. Wellington just want us to seriously challenge for this thing, and you can't do that sitting back defending at home.
However I really hope this fiasco works out for RH and the players, and they just get back to being themselves on the pitch.
Like that Oz independent fan said in a comment on 442. There's nothing more entertaining and exciting as winning. Doesn't matter how you do it. Germany have been playing direct stuff for years, still do, and virtually beat everyone on the planet more often than not.
The media are just doing their jobs. The debate is healthy, and was much needed. Lot more people talking about the Phoenix in town now. Six weeks ago, no-one was talking about them. Thousands of people have been made redundant in this town in last year. Thousands more to come. No-one in Wn could relate to a coach who seemed to have a job for life, and simply didn't seem accountable for anything. Now I think, that may have changed