Brockie can play wide as well.
Brockie can play wide as well.
Adding another wide player on an injury replacement I think would be a better call, than another central player. It has to be an Aussie/Kiwi and there doesn't seem to be many good options, so really not sure if we will replace Pantelis.
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I'm going to put it out there that we should swap Brockie and Ifill.
Brockie's best form has been when playing wider for me while Ifill would sit nicely with Huysegems looking for a bit of play closer to the other front man,
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Brockie and Waffles both prefer to play wide and imo don`t have the natural instincts of a poacher
What`s surprised me is I thought Waffles would have more pace
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I'm going to put it out there that we should swap Brockie and Ifill.
Brockie's best form has been when playing wider for me while Ifill would sit nicely with Huysegems looking for a bit of play closer to the other front man,
I've brought this up as well.
Brockie has a better work rate, plus will give us goals from midfield (Hopefully). Has the fitness to get up and down the park.
Ifill is his most potent 1 on 1, but he doesnt have the ability to get up and down the park like he used to.. It would mean Huysegems would have to almost sit off as the second striker as Brocks has done when we have played against 3 cms, but thats how I would do it too.
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What about Jason Haynes? He's currently playing state league for Green Gully I gather but a few seasons ago was a great attacking wide player for ACFC. Can't have lost his pace yet and his crosses were excellent. He's a Kiwi to boot. His goals in the Fifa Club World Cup in 2009 were fantastic. Just a thought.
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I'm going to put it out there that we should swap Brockie and Ifill.
Brockie's best form has been when playing wider for me while Ifill would sit nicely with Huysegems looking for a bit of play closer to the other front man,
Completely agree. I assumed that this is how we would line up when he was signed.
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Definitely could be considered. Brockie is likely to have more pace than Ifill, and Ifill has better close control and ability to beat a player and make a shot I think. Though both are good players.
edit: or Louis could play up front
our best attacking team for attempting total football whatever that is
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What about Jason Haynes? He's currently playing state league for Green Gully I gather but a few seasons ago was a great attacking wide player for ACFC. Can't have lost his pace yet and his crosses were excellent. He's a Kiwi to boot. His goals in the Fifa Club World Cup in 2009 were fantastic. Just a thought.
comments bought a shudder down my spine......YHM at Best
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[quote=playwithFire]
Would prefer it if we knew our chance of O-League sooner than later.
FIFA should have a pathway for every pro/semi-pro club in the world to play in the club world cup... surely we can be eligible in the O-League
If the fully professional Phoenix competed with the ASB Premiership winner for the O League NZ spot it would be unfair for the largely amateur ASBP side. Doubly so because NZF has poured money into the Phoenix over the years and spent nothing on the ASBP which has to be self-funding.
It would also be unfair to expect the largely amateur Pacific Island teams to have to compete with a professional A League side for the O League title.
Also, without the O League prizemoney (some $800,000) which NZ ASBP sides have won every year bar one, the national league would collapse because NZF doesn't invest in its own national league. That O League prizemoney is a lifeline to all the clubs involved in the ASBP and is needed to augment what sponsorship funding can be raised. Just ask Team Wellington what would happen if their share of the O League prizemoney won by ACFC last season was cut.
The Phoenix is an Australian registered side and should be allowed to compete in the Asian Champions League. You don't need the O League funds, the ASBP does.
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Ignoring the concept of an 'amateur' ASBP winner and the fabrication about NZF putting money into the Phoenix you are right Trueblue.
The funding reasoning is spurious but the simple fact is the Phoenix are an Asian club side and should play in Asia. They should not compete in the O-League.
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And as a continuation of that,even if we were to compete in Asia we'd hardly be able to field a team,because we'd have far too many foreigners.
So really,I'm not too fussed about either the ACL or the OCL.
Allegedly
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Im not fussed too much, however it bothers me as we should demand to be eligible for one or the other.
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Ignoring the concept of an 'amateur' ASBP winner and the fabrication about NZF putting money into the Phoenix you are right Trueblue.
The funding reasoning is spurious but the simple fact is the Phoenix are an Asian club side and should play in Asia. They should not compete in the O-League.
Just a minute Hard News, are you saying NZF has not put money into the Phoenix at any time? I understand Frank Van Hattum has admitted money was put into the club during liquidity problems in the Sereposis era but has declined to say how much. One claim I heard put it at in excess of $1 million over three seasons. If you know the facts please tell me. NZF is not elaborating.
Are you also saying that Team Wellington or Canterbury United or Youngheart Manawatu are not largely amateur clubs depending on sponsors? If you're going to point the finger solely at ACFC which is probably the best funded and supported then much of its income comes from winning the O League prizemoney. I hardly think the funding reasoning is spurious.
The reality is if the ASB Premiership lost the O League prizemoney is could not possibly be self-funding in its present form.
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Any of those three won't win the league. They can't compete with the money behind the Auckland sides. It's a league of two halves.
Where has Frank admitted that other than to say they pay part of Ricki's salary?
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I personally think we are crying out for a central midfielder.
I'd have to agree with this, however it does seem a lot of the time that the midfielders have instructions not to come to far forward of the halfway line and this may be what our problem is. They may not be under any orders of course but Smith was brought in as an attacking Midfielder but seems reluctant to do this............
Centre Mids: Smith, Muscat, Lia, Sanchez, Lindsay.
Wide Mids: Ifill, Fenton, Totori, Downey
Looking at our midfield options, we have decent depth in the middle of the park. It is out wide that worries me. With Bertos moving to Right Back, we have lost a bit of depth there.
Muscat - great, potentially our best player IMO
Smith - still not convinced. Decent, but a bit of a journeyman and really no better than average
Lia - not influential enough IMO
Sanchez - not sure he'd be dominant in an out and out central midfield role...more of an attacking mid (not to mention, injured)
Lindsay - hasn't played a single game for us yet
I don't think we have enough quality in depth. I'm also not sure that Muscat isn't wasted in that deeper role, I'd possibly prefer him up alongside Smith in the middle, but I concede he also does a good job breaking up the play too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe_B5CzbTJo - Caceres winning penalty v Perth - footage from the Fever Zone
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Any of those three won't win the league. They can't compete with the money behind the Auckland sides. It's a league of two halves.
Where has Frank admitted that other than to say they pay part of Ricki's salary?
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I seem to have got in the road of the transfer speculation thread here, sorry about that. I still think you should have picked up Ian Hogg, he would have been good in the A League.
I don't know the figures for NZF investment in the Phoenix, only wish I did Hard News. Anyway it's a moot point because the Phoenix will never be allowed to compete in the O League. I think after next season only the minor premiership winning team will be in the O League cutting the NZ participation in half.
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Whilst all of the above is good stuff, shuffling the deck chairs..to mix metaphors..aint going to score us a more goals and we still need another striker..if Fenton/Clark and Brockie/Totori are wide mid in a four four two then give Boyd a go running off Heysegems..or sign another striker and be done with it.
A small town in Europe........looking to bounce straight back up....well that aint going to happen
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I'm going to put it out there that we should swap Brockie and Ifill.
Brockie's best form has been when playing wider for me while Ifill would sit nicely with Huysegems looking for a bit of play closer to the other front man,
Completely agree. I assumed that this is how we would line up when he was signed.
Yeah I'm not sure why this hasn't been tried as a substitution at least. Bring Totori on for Stein and shift Ifill to striker and Brockie to the wing. I'm not sure we can expect Ifill to perform a full 90 on wing, 60 there and 30 minute playing up front in less of a demanding position (where he can get away with strutting around like he used too) could help us get the best out of him every game.
Would also like to see if Stein and Ifill could combine well up front. Ricki needs to make subs with some damn formation changes not just straight swaps. Experiment man!!
"Yellow Fever are fantastic – I have to say that"
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Would also like to see if Stein and Ifill could combine well up front. Ricki needs to make subs with some damn formation changes not just straight swaps. Experiment man!!
Sounds a bit transitional there.
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA
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why do we need to experiement when things are working at the moment? If it aint broke don't fix it.
Queenslander 3x a year.
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why do we need to experiement when things are working at the moment? If it aint broke don't fix it.
One word. Optimisation.
And as a side note if it ain't perfect it's fixable.
"Yellow Fever are fantastic – I have to say that"
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optimism??? really, I call it moaning for the hell of moaning. Seriously we are unbeaten from 3 games. our youth guys are performing well what more could we possibly want at this stage of the season?
Queenslander 3x a year.
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I think we still lack the truly quality attacking player to take us to the top of the league. And I think as Steve-O pointed out, while we have a bit of depth in central midfield it's still middle of the road A-League quality only. I think we're getting closer but it's that one attacking player of real quality who can light a game up, but also control the tempo of a match that we're missing. Plus it would add some variety if we attacked teams both out wide and centrally.
Now they don't come cheap so I'm not surprised we haven't found that player, but I think that's the difference between us and the top 2 over the past 3 seasons
Normo's coming home
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optimism??? really, I call it moaning for the hell of moaning. Seriously we are unbeaten from 3 games. our youth guys are performing well what more could we possibly want at this stage of the season?
He said "optimisation" not "optimism".
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I think we still lack the truly quality attacking player to take us to the top of the league. And I think as Steve-O pointed out, while we have a bit of depth in central midfield it's still middle of the road A-League quality only. I think we're getting closer but it's that one attacking player of real quality who can light a game up, but also control the tempo of a match that we're missing. Plus it would add some variety if we attacked teams both out wide and centrally.
Now they don't come cheap so I'm not surprised we haven't found that player, but I think that's the difference between us and the top 2 over the past 3 seasons
i think our other problem in the last two years was a lack of pace up front (unless you count the likes of downey and pav, who had reasonable pace but lacked any consistent ability to put it to use, and bertos who got slower and less confident at attacking players over those two years).
So we've improved in that area and look quicker overall, but yeh, still missing that truely high class midfielder.
But I have liked Stienies touch, finish and combination with other players, and hopefully he improves as he gets match fit, Fenton can hopefully push on rather than plateau or overdo it, touch wood Brockie drifts more into games than out and that Totori develops and becomes more and more a threatening option. If enough of those possibilities play in our favour and we get the rust out of Ifill and keep him in nick and on the park then we may well have enough to be top two and challenging for the title.
Not asking for much lols
Edit - and in short, I don't know that we need that hotshot midfielder, much as we'd like to have him
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Optimisation - the act of rendering optimal, to take the full advantage of
Optimise - make optimal; get the most out of; use best; "optimise your resources"
"Yellow Fever are fantastic – I have to say that"
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I understand the words just not how stev-o was applying them to the nix.
Queenslander 3x a year.
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I understand the words just not how stev-o was applying them to the nix.
It wasn't Steve-O, it was asmodeus_82.
Are you drunk prof? ;)
I think he just means that even if it ain't broke you can still make it better - optimisation baby.
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I think we still lack the truly quality attacking player to take us to the top of the league. And I think as Steve-O pointed out, while we have a bit of depth in central midfield it's still middle of the road A-League quality only. I think we're getting closer but it's that one attacking player of real quality who can light a game up, but also control the tempo of a match that we're missing. Plus it would add some variety if we attacked teams both out wide and centrally.
Now they don't come cheap so I'm not surprised we haven't found that player, but I think that's the difference between us and the top 2 over the past 3 seasons
i think our other problem in the last two years was a lack of pace up front (unless you count the likes of downey and pav, who had reasonable pace but lacked any consistent ability to put it to use, and bertos who got slower and less confident at attacking players over those two years).
So we've improved in that area and look quicker overall, but yeh, still missing that truely high class midfielder.
But I have liked Stienies touch, finish and combination with other players, and hopefully he improves as he gets match fit, Fenton can hopefully push on rather than plateau or overdo it, touch wood Brockie drifts more into games than out and that Totori develops and becomes more and more a threatening option. If enough of those possibilities play in our favour and we get the rust out of Ifill and keep him in nick and on the park then we may well have enough to be top two and challenging for the title.
Not asking for much lols
Edit - and in short, I don't know that we need that hotshot midfielder, much as we'd like to have him
Sanchez was great in that AM position for about 5 games last year until he got shoved out on the wing.
I would like to see Sanchez given a chance to slide a few passes through to someone with the timing and close control of Huysegems. Could be a winning combo.
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I think we still lack the truly quality attacking player to take us to the top of the league. And I think as Steve-O pointed out, while we have a bit of depth in central midfield it's still middle of the road A-League quality only. I think we're getting closer but it's that one attacking player of real quality who can light a game up, but also control the tempo of a match that we're missing. Plus it would add some variety if we attacked teams both out wide and centrally.
Now they don't come cheap so I'm not surprised we haven't found that player, but I think that's the difference between us and the top 2 over the past 3 seasons
i think our other problem in the last two years was a lack of pace up front (unless you count the likes of downey and pav, who had reasonable pace but lacked any consistent ability to put it to use, and bertos who got slower and less confident at attacking players over those two years).
So we've improved in that area and look quicker overall, but yeh, still missing that truely high class midfielder.
But I have liked Stienies touch, finish and combination with other players, and hopefully he improves as he gets match fit, Fenton can hopefully push on rather than plateau or overdo it, touch wood Brockie drifts more into games than out and that Totori develops and becomes more and more a threatening option. If enough of those possibilities play in our favour and we get the rust out of Ifill and keep him in nick and on the park then we may well have enough to be top two and challenging for the title.
Not asking for much lols
Edit - and in short, I don't know that we need that hotshot midfielder, much as we'd like to have him
Sanchez was great in that AM position for about 5 games last year until he got shoved out on the wing.
I would like to see Sanchez given a chance to slide a few passes through to someone with the timing and close control of Huysegems. Could be a winning combo.
yeah, i realised i hadn't metioned him after i wrote that, and he may well add much more than smith, as you say.
quite a lot of potential, touch wood enough of these guys do deliver. still plenty of time for this squad to gel and really show us what they can do
that first thirty or so last week was pretty useful
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I understand the words just not how stev-o[asmodeus] was applying them to the nix.
Well all of our forwards can also play on the wing which provides us with an interesting proposition in determining who plays where.
I advocate a little experimentation by taking advantage of our substitutions to vary our play, try bringing Ifill forward later in the game, play around a little to see who performs best where, who forms better combinations with the wingbacks and striking combinations and so on.
Would be interesting to see how Brockie plays on the wing, likewise Huysegems seeing as I recall reading something about him playing wide.
Switching things up could help us unlock defenses also, confusing the opposition a little and possibly giving us a brief advantage while they adjust tactically.
We are unbeaten from three but that says more about our solid defensive base than the effectiveness of our attacking quartet so I don't think such experimentation could be called unwarranted. We don't know whether we are getting the best out of our players until we experiment.
"Yellow Fever are fantastic – I have to say that"
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I understand the words just not how stev-o[asmodeus] was applying them to the nix.
Well all of our forwards can also play on the wing which provides us with an interesting proposition in determining who plays where.
I advocate a little experimentation by taking advantage of our substitutions to vary our play, try bringing Ifill forward later in the game, play around a little to see who performs best where, who forms better combinations with the wingbacks and striking combinations and so on.
Would be interesting to see how Brockie plays on the wing, likewise Huysegems seeing as I recall reading something about him playing wide.
Switching things up could help us unlock defenses also, confusing the opposition a little and possibly giving us a brief advantage while they adjust tactically.
We are unbeaten from three but that says more about our solid defensive base than the effectiveness of our attacking quartet so I don't think such experimentation could be called unwarranted. We don't know whether we are getting the best out of our players until we experiment.
Should be experimenting at training.
If you are old and wise you were probably young and stupid
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I understand the words just not how stev-o[asmodeus] was applying them to the nix.
Well all of our forwards can also play on the wing which provides us with an interesting proposition in determining who plays where.
I advocate a little experimentation by taking advantage of our substitutions to vary our play, try bringing Ifill forward later in the game, play around a little to see who performs best where, who forms better combinations with the wingbacks and striking combinations and so on.
Would be interesting to see how Brockie plays on the wing, likewise Huysegems seeing as I recall reading something about him playing wide.
Switching things up could help us unlock defenses also, confusing the opposition a little and possibly giving us a brief advantage while they adjust tactically.
We are unbeaten from three but that says more about our solid defensive base than the effectiveness of our attacking quartet so I don't think such experimentation could be called unwarranted. We don't know whether we are getting the best out of our players until we experiment.
Should be experimenting at training.
If you are old and wise you were probably young and stupid
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Optimisation - the act of rendering optimal, to take the full advantage of
Optimise - make optimal; get the most out of; use best; "optimise your resources"
So, in order for the team to optimise its transitional optimism, it should experiment optimisation such as Ifill versing Stein and Smith versing Sanchez.
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA
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Can we swap Brockie for Van Dyke who's available on a Free? Stein with VanDyke = speed, height and scoring ability. I am still to be convinced Brockie was worth signing.
Proud to have attended the first 175 Consecutive "Home" Wellington Phoenix "A League" Games !!
The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!
The Ruf, The Ruf, The Ruf is on Fire!!
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