Phoenix Transfer Speculation 2012/13

Thats also my concern. We have Smith and Sanchez who are both good on the ball and dont often give it away cheaply.

If they arent both starters and neither is Totri then I am really questioning our import choices (even more)

It`s all about trade off when you work under a salary cap ?

Retain the services of Muscat = He plays mid-field

Existing on contract players have to step up....... RB = Lia or Downey (Although I fancy Lindsay as an option)

leaves money for a Striker = Earnshaw  or Mid Field = Noy

Wouldn`t be surprised If Griffiths doesn`t get a last minute offer, unless Unicorns nab him first

U21 = 2 academy boys....fancy Rowe and Fenton

Playing Dani in central midfield does exactly this.

Yeah it does, although its not like he wasnt here last year. Not really an upgrade as he did play in the midfield last season at times.

technically rowe is just a part of the academy. he hasn't been given one of the other two avai spots!

its a shame hogg isnt more versatile like tim myers

this whole noy thing is a fucking joke. playing for the 2nd team in a uruguayan side. ugh. this whole picking crap foreigners or aussies over kiwi players is mental

Except he is a youth player on trial. Maybe start your rant if we do sign him, which sounds unlikely

Yeah but he was playing on the wing 90% of the time. I think a mid-field trio of Muscat, Smith and Sanchez will deliver plenty of creativity, especially with some more pace upfront. So sure these are all players who were here last season but playing them together in different ways will yeild different results, new combinations ands so on.

See the Moneyball thread where the discussion has almost turned to "philosophy of football"

Muscat wants to move to the midfield to have more influence on the game not less and I personally cannot wait to watch him expertly shut down the leagues best playmakers for 90 minutes as he has in the past. While Lia isn't ideal to move to RB with a preseason to prepare for the role this time hopefully he can rise to fill the role adequately. Perhaps our fullbacks won't look as good as last season but if Manny can boss the midfield with Smiths help then I'd call that am adequate trade off. Also this will likely mean more game time for Lindsay as Lia won't stand between him and a spot in midfield which I might be a positive, I certainly like to see our youth players getting a look in.

Upgraded midfield creativity: Our CAM is actually free to play there, Muscat/Lia trade-off for what Manny brings there. 0.5-1

Obtaining a rightback: We failed to recruit one, they are in high demand and difficult for us to recruit. But we are working to convert one which may yet work out well for us given time. 0-0.5

Obtaining a solid striker:We haven't failed to do this yet and there are positive noises. N/A

Hmm this is being quite overly exaggerated. He did play centrally up untill just after christmas I believe. Which may actually be over 50% of his games for us.

He did look good in December, but not good enough to cement a spot in midfield. Fact.

So the fact he is now going to play in midfield says to us one of three things:

1. Sanchez is now a better player than end of last season and can force his way into that midfield
2. Brown was so good that he was keeping Sanchez out
3. The midfield is now weaker than last year so Snachez can fit in

I guess its a combination of 2 & 3 - but either way, it still means our midfield creativity has upgraded since last year

Is Noy a DM or an AM?

Seems like a pointless exercise IMO. Trialing another import midfielder. So if he is great and we sign him and he is an AM then he pushes an import(Sanchez) to the bench. If he is a DM then he could push another import(Smith) to the bench. 

IMO they should use the last import slot on a RB. Muscat will play DM....its been confirmed. The side looks unbalance now and I don't believe that Lia or Downey are viable RB options. 

Could a prospective loan striker or a RB(non kiwi/OZ) come over as a injury replacement for Pants and not occupy an import slot?

Have a listen to what Ricki says in the Podcast when it's up (may not be until tomorrow) about Noy and where he's come from and why he's here. 

We won't sign a new Right Back.  That's 95% certain.

Two more U21s, Centre back cover and potentially an import Striker would be my bet to finish the squad.

When they announced the re-signing Ricki sdaid we didn't see the best of him being forced to play wide.  With Brownie no longer there he's been re-signed with a chance to show us what he can do in his natural spot.  So partly yes.

Ah, there's a solid hit of offseason negativity.  Thats the stuff.  I've been missing out.  Mods... Jesus wept... sort it out... etc...

I agree with chuckywolf on this. With Brown not in the squad it will change the way we play a bit, more players offering themselves to receive a pass, being able to play out from the back. Though we will lack presence in opposition boxes. I think us having less possession last season was a lot down to really having two midfielders, one which tried to link play between defence and attack, left and right, and one that tried to get into the box. If we have two midfielders trying to link play it will make it harder for opposition teams to close down our options.

On one hand, we are saying 'Oh we never saw the best of Sanchez because he was playing wide in a position that is not his natural one'  yet every one is saying 'Its going to be so good to have Smith in the midfield' yet attacking midfield/striker are his preferred positions, AM is Sanchez' preferred position. He only sat in the deeper midfield spot (and I do not think he was effectual) because he wanted game time. Now I see a suggestion about making him a RB? Why don't we convert Moss to be a striker while we are at it.....

Why don't we stop trying this experiment of Cullen in the centres, Wilson at fullback, McCullum without the gloves, Lewis Brown in the centres and actually play footballers in their natural position...... Funnily enough how it generally works out better with hindsight and a bit of 'we shouldn't have done that'

Mainly because the only "natural" Right Back we have is Downey, and even then, thats debatable

Fair point but then that come right back to rubbish recruiting. I've even seen 'lets try Cameron Lindsay at RB' yet he is a left footed player.

It hard to be jolly about no CB coverage, no RB, no striker, a headcase that impersonates a reserve striker, a lazy islander, and an aging winger to go with the crocked one. Its not being negative when we have had ample opportunity to recruit properly and haven't.

We now have 4 wide men for 2 positions and 2 AMs for 1 position and no strikers and goalscoring has been our weakness!

Yes the recruitment has been the worrying part. But because we have no RB, someone is going to have to play outside of their "natural" position.

I actually think Smith could do a better job than Lia there. I also heard Lindsay played a bit of RB for Blackburn too?

Also

sauce says he is naturally right footed

hes not saying his race is the reason for his lazyness. 

Unless the term islander is offensive, like some people think Asian is offensive...

Or he's just putting 2 random adjectives together to describe the guy.

"stupid woman" - is that sexist and saying that all women are stupid? No,it's saying she is stupid,and she is a woman. 

Ok, I'm probably just being over-sensitive but laziness is a negative stereotype often associated with people from the Pacific Islands in New Zealand so I think it just implies that correlation - it would be more like saying "bad Asian driver" or "money-grabbing Jew" or even "bad female driver" than "stupid woman". Not that I think Jeff meant that but it just read it and it made me cringe. To much time hanging out with pompous left-wing intellectuals, sorry!

+1 perjorative cliche/stereotype. Don't be sorry man. You don't have to be. 

it's like saying a useless NZ football team...

back on track:

Can Rowe push for a starting A-league berth? At the moment he can't, cos he isn't signed. 

Yeah i actually asked him that and he said he would, although not his preferred position.

I recall Smith saying he would even play right back last year in some article about the prospect of his contract being extended. He is very versitile and can do a job anywhere on the pitch by his own admission.

edit: Oh in fact here is the quote: "I've always prided myself on being able to play multiple different positions. I can play anywhere in front of the back four and I've even had to play at right back as well. It's a bit more running than up front but I'm confident in my ability and hopefully Ricki is as well."

Sauce:http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/6002194/Attack-best-form-of-defence-for-Phoenix

Doesnt that make you the racist one (even unintentionlly) for attaching a stereotype to an innocent statement?

If hed said something like "a typical lazy islander" thenthat'd be correct. Butyou're the one asuming the stereotype in this instance. 

Deep.

At least by being consciously aware of it you can start to address it and try to stop it creeping into day-to-day conversation and slowly stamp it out of the culture as a whole. Like the way football fans in New Zealand are slowly changing people from calling it "soccer" by being aware of it! I had to consciously stop myself calling it soccer for a while after calling it that right throughout my childhood but now football is just the natural way it comes out. My GF used to call it soccer but I've trained her to say "football" now too and she even corrects people at her work and so on

That's a simple example, but it shows how you can change things you naturally just say by being aware of them. Being aware of how words can be interpreted and their underlying meanings is one way to change subconscious behaviour, such as social/cultural racism.

This is all getting pretty heavy now. We would have avoided this debate if Ricki had just signed another hard-working English striker like Greenie

This. We got yo' back BZ

Er.... right. You have far too much time on your hands to psycho-analyse a forum.

As an FYI, Ifill is from Barbados and that his nationality. Could I have been referring to him possibly? Had I said lazy Englishman, would you have viewed that as rascist too? If I have used the slang term Yank for Smith, would you have written a 2 pager on that as well? The fact of the matter is that we have only one Islander on our roster and its pretty obvious whom that Islander is. What would you like me to refer to him as? Polynesian? Considering he is a Pacific Islander and its a normal term to call someone an Islander, I could have chosen a lot more offensive terms if I was trying to be rascist, considering I am sitting behind a nom de plume. Either way, I suspect you would still have gotten your knickers in a twist. But please, enlighten me as to how I should identify him... This should be good.

Twat (and I don't mean that as offensive to twats by calling you one)

Golly the offseason is fun. Those who only come on here during the season,don't know how much they're missing out!

Who was that directed at? Nobody has their knickers in a twist, and if you'd actually read the posts above you might realise that they're not even directed at you. Nobody is calling you a racist, the conversation had clearly moved on to a seperate discussion about whether or not using certain cliches or stereotypes can be construed as racist. Don't take it so personally.

My point is that it doesn't matter whether what you said was accurate, the term 'lazy islander' can still be racist. The logic of your argument would be to say that "useless asian driver" can never racist if the person is asian and happens to be a bad driver. Likewise money-grabbing jew etc., maybe it's an accurate description of a particular person, but the term itself still has racist connotations, so can still be construed as racist.

Yeah but you've still got to take it into context of the particular instance. Sometimes it will be,others it won't. 

Jeff it`s you who always refers to him as a left sided player.

Wasn`t Ricki going to play him at RB when Manny`s baby was due  

Does someone want to draw up a shortlist for the 'foreign striker' possibilities?

Just updated on "Robert Earnshaw`s" Wiki page

On July 2nd 2012 Earnshaw has not agreed terms with League 2 club Port Vale after lenghty talks with manager Micky Adams and his close friend Robert Page

Confirms that Cardiff are allowing him to move although he still has 1 year left on his contract

Nix are circling