Phoenix Transfer - speculation

In a 4-3-3 you have to have a decent amount of mettle in the midfield, and while not stellar attacking forces Lia, McKain, and Brown can get the ball to the strikers, usually.

Not really - that's too many grunt players in the middle third. Lia or Brown would have to go for Diego if we were to do something like that. el grapadura2009-05-22 14:56:08

...and Ferrante's ability to drop a pass on someones toes from a distance.

Ferrante Diego Brown/McKain... but more behind each other than flat.

agreed, I think it will need to be a bit more than a simple 4-3-3.

If we want crowds we can't start the season playing with 7 of 11 as defensive players.

f**k it!

Yep, that's more like it. Holding midfielder in front of the back 4 with 2 more attacking midfielders, 1 central forward and wingers (who would need to be prepared to drop deeper and defend a bit more).

The alternative is to play 2 holding mids and push the fullbacks forward frequently to create the attacking numbers.

Only ten more weeks to pontificate 

Yeah i was thinking about that. The 6ft defender sounds like he could be a good pick up, but id rather see Aaron Scott from the NZ side in a nix shirt to be honest.

Bertos as a forward =

Andre Gumprecht please!!!

Any of them strikers?

Never did it last year.

I like the idea of Daniel and Diego working in combo but is 4132 getting to fancy with martinb2009-05-22 19:09:57

yes he did

We really need reliable person who can constantly cross the ball accurately from whatever distance and able to mix it up so it is harder to defend. That was more than half of our attack last season that went astray from the long crosses that went nowhere.

With no real threat from any long crosses, it was easier for the other team to consolidate their defences for the medium and short crosses early on which was our stronger cross types. It was very defendable.

But we should not have relied on the long crosses more than half the time. It was better for us to get to the goal line and cut it back for the midfield more than the other crosses because there would be more target options and harder for the other teams to defend against.

We were lucky to get some ball to Smeltz on the medium crosses, it needed good position play from Smeltz. And this year he don't have him.

So I really don't think that the targetman is necessary our one number attacking problems, but rather our variety of wing attacks. If we don't have anyone who can cross long at this level to be a threat, then don't bother use that option more than 20% of the time.

Our medium crosses and central passes run ons were what Smeltz were able to latch on, but the long crosses (which we used more than half the time) were crap and the short passes (which we used less than 10% of the time) were lacking severely.

We got guys who can dribble and are fast, once they are in the box, they should be able to dominate (because of the penalty factor) and get to the goal line for multiple cut back options for short passes.

Out of the crossing types, we should be using medium crosses as the primary crossing and long crosses and short crosses equal terms. Not using long crosses as the overwheming as the primary crossing and Medium crossing second and short cross as a weak third option. The crossing decisions made by the players were terrible.

btw when I mean long, medium and short crosses.

Long crosses = crosses deep before the 18 yards from the goal line
Medium crosses = crosses after the 18 yards from the goal line but not in the penalty box.
Short crosses = crosses from within the penalty box.

So really our ideal decision crossing options breakdowns should be divided as following:

Medium crosses:35-40%
Short crosses:30-35%
Long crosses:30-35%

What we were doing last year was something like this in each game:

Long crosses:45-75%
Medium crosses:15-40%
Short crosses:5-20%

We improved a bit towards the end of the season but the start and the middle of the season was painful.

tbh the long crosses are the last option out of the three, with the short crosses being near the first preferable option that provides stronger finishing. However you start from a medium crossing position to keep the defence guessing, hence having the medium crossing as the normal main stay crossing.

Only a couple of times if he got off the bench and onto the pitch, but mainly he was as hopeless as the rest of the team. Our best ball passer was probably Durrante follow by McKain, Smeltz and Daniels (when he got on). Sadly the worst was Lei lei Gao, even our goalkeepers were better than the ballhog.

in a 433 I would expect him to provide pace and skill up front, we would struggle to find three strong forwards who can all dribble, shoot, head etc etc.

And does anyone have an idea of Diego's defensive ability?

 

Dunno - I'd imagine they'd be limited and very central. Probably wouldn't track back too much - although this might depend where on the field he's played maybe?

I'd have him tracking back to link on to the balls that pop out of the box when we clear to push the ball forward

Good question though?

Too small. He'd be much more effective as a midfielder (again)

 

Whatever we don't know about Diego's defensive qualities we do know about his attacking qualities. He was highly rated for his playmaking abilities at Adelaide. But he ain't a goal scorer. 6 goals from 42 appearances in the States and 1 goal from 28 games in the A-League.

Towards the end of last season our first 11 was roughly

I would have Greenacre out wide for Daniel and have target man in the middle

We havent gained much from last year yet..just some swaps really.  Not happy..need that other goal scorer. 

Simon Black... but smaller and not half as good... Dover Cousins maybe

2 European strikers coming out to trial at the end of June apparently

I am talking about coming from the wings into the box and making short crosses back especially when the player is hugging the goal line but if there is no defenders and he is the only one, of course he should go for it.

If he gets close to the goal the keeper has to protect the near post, but of course a second attacker has a big wide gap on the far post, however the odd shot at the angle is just rewarding. Just need more of it. But that is all setting up and how the team had to work it out. The option taking last season when players were coming near the box from the wing was not as strong or varied as it should have been.

Some of the greater examples are the Brazilian teams, they aim to get to the goal line no matter where that goal line is and hold on the ball and accurately pass it back to their supporting players like it was some practice pass back for shooting practice. They even dribble through the centre and then away from the goal to the goal line to purposely move the keeper to the near post. Remember the 1982 World Cup Brazil Team that NZ played against, it was mindblowing.

However I am not asking the Nix to do that all the time and certainly not coming from the centre like that Marvelous Brazilian team but at least do what other teams like in the EPL or English Championships team habitually do and take it to the goal line and short cross it back to the next player, it opens up more options, it is really very very hard to defend against and can be executed well with less the training time. It forces the defenders to be weary and drop their defensive depth by a couple of feet and allows other attacks from other areas of the field.
AllWhitebelievr2009-05-24 19:01:16

Ferrante shouldn't be starting. Definately not in the middle, either. If anything he should be playing right mid.

Any idea on the names Feverish??

Ferrante has never shown himself to be anything more than an average player imo