Phoenix Team of the First Decade

Locky was a fullback, so on the balance of the back four he needs to be there.

Surprised Boxall did better than McKain given they made about the same number of appearances but McKain was far more impressive in his time with us.

Not surprised; McKain came off as a bit of a mercerenery; Boxall is still pretty liked around these parts.

Boxall was a CB played as an RB, McCain was a CB being used a lot as a DM.

No Manny in midfield?

My teams not complete without him.

Vince Lia doesn't make my team. He was always a good squad player but I have to be honest that I never felt confident when he has been in our team. I'm thankful for his service but I think other players have given more.

Ok,

Brown, Riera and Daniel

Feel I can justify those choices. It's not the midfield I'd select I guess, but that's not my criteria I guess...

Just a reminder that voting for midfielders closes this Sunday night (Link)

Today is the final day for voting for the midfielders

All we need is a team of midfielders

A team of Vinnie La's??

And the voting is now closed for the Midfielders section of the Team of the First Decade. There were 103 votes cast in this category.

You have selected ...

Tim Brown (89 votes)
Albert Riera (58 votes)
Roly Bonevacia (38 votes)

And taking the spot on the bench ...

Vinnie Lia (37 votes)

Other results:

Daniel (34 votes)
Leo Bertos (23 votes)
Michael McGlinchey (9 votes)
Jonathan McKain (8 votes)
Alex Rodriquez (7 votes)
Carlos Hernandez (2 votes)
Dani Sanchez (2 votes)
Michael Ferrante (1 vote)
Nick Ward (1 vote)

Voting for Forwards is now open, voting closes midnight on the 26th of March. (Direct link)

Very disappointed I did not see jonny chen's name but I will survive.

out of the team picked so far i have the shirts in my collection of 6 players out of the 8 starters and the 3 subs, the only 2 missing are moss and riera. looking forward to the selection of the front 3.

Funny if you went back and read all the forum history for those four midfielders, three of the four of them probably have vastly more negative comments that positive (including the recent feelings for Roly).

Forwards for me have been the hardest choice by far.

Unfortunately for me 3 names screamed out as the best, so feeling sorry about ommiting a lot of good players

Smeltz and Ifill have to be no brainers for everyone, so i'm guessing it will be the third spot that has a bit of debate.

Mr N. Burns is not in that category for you?

It's weird to think that by the end of this season Krishna could well be our all-time top goal scorer... His goal tally took me by surprise! 

Was surprised the number of games that Boyd played

What no Dadi?

70 games and 27 goals, actually not as good as you would think. He played a lot of games early on with no result. Hence I chose Burns instead because he scored from the word go. Smeltz and Ifill have to be shoe-ins. 

You can argue that Burns was even greater than Ifill and Smeltz looking at how his play transformed our team from one that couldn't win away, to one that topped the table briefly. Our best run of results was with him leading our attack. 

Ifill and Smeltz are both big game players though. Nothing like seeing an Ifill limp start and just knowing he was about to do something amazing...

harsh on Marco, Kosta and Krishna as they fall between stools to a degree, but not in the top 3 forwards we have had at the club in my opinion.

Brockie for me misses out as he had some barren periods, missed sitters and often seemed at his best when we were down, not when we were on the front foot. Also because I couldn't drink so much during that period! Scored fantastic goals and had a brilliant season, but for whatever reason couldn't mesh in a team on the way up. 

Whether or not to pick Burns is one of the harder decisions to make imo, is half a season of utter brillance better than one or two seasons of high level performances by someone else?

I had to pick Krishna over Burns. Roy's shown just as much brilliance as Burns, but over a longer period of time. Also Roy actually looks like he lives for the Nix shirt and it shows every time he plays. Burn's always felt like a mercenary, playing well but only biding his time until something better came along.

Burns fundamentally transformed our club from a team that looked to sneak into 6th to a team that demanded to win and always thought we would win even when we were down. 

God forbid we should get exceptional players at our club, because if they play exceptionally they will get picked up by much, much better clubs. 

Spreading your brilliance thin equals not being brilliant every week and accepting 5th and below...

George Palidino lived for the 'Nix shirt- see his celebration when he thought he'd scored- but that wasn't worth much.

No disrespect to Roy, but Burns contributed so much more to our club during his time here and we haven't had someone do the same at any other time.  

Burns had the right attitude. I want to be number 1, not number 6. A topic of attitude I have banged on about before. Burns went off the boil with that Asian Cup crap that saw us go from winners to 6th place hopefuls and then he moved on.

I think that attitude was the confidence that came from having pace and the skills to be able to beat any player and score...

I'm sure the Phoenix were happy to take the transfer fee they negotiated as a release clause

'Money does not score goals'

- Otto Rehakel

Brockie and Ifill have to be shoe-in's, the real question is who is that central striker.  I went for Huysegems because he was a GC, but Smeltz or Krishna were just as likely.  Hard choice's up front.  Much harder than the other arreas

Good, I'd hate to be easily understood