Phoenix vs Sydney match thread

Chips

I think I agree still, and I don't really want another keeper change andhave to deal with more early communication problems

paston should have been to ground much better he should have been wary of the conditions

Moss has only had one shocker in 1 and a bit seasons. Paston has had a couple of shocking 'saves' in the handful of games he has played. I think that he perhaps is slightly better on corners and crosses (though he flapped at one still near the end) but his shot stopping is atrocious. One of the goals against Perth was saveable as well.
valeo2008-11-08 21:24:29

No one can doubt Mossy's shot-stopping but since Paston has stepped in we've conceded nearly six shots less per game, down from over 16 opposition shots with Glen to around 10.3  with Mark (stats from tis season so far). Also just looked back through the match summaries and found that Paston has saved about 59% of shots on target this year and Moss has stopped 63.3% in his 5 games. These stats don't mean a lot but they do show how much less Paston has to deal with then Mossy did. Who we have in goal from here on in kind of depends on wether we think Mosses poorer statistics were due to better Ricki tactics or Pasty organising.

Are you trying to rival LF1 trainspotting?

no just getting bored with election coverage, much more fun than the factorising homework I got given as well

Paston is extremely lucky and fails under pressure.

If he has to put his body on the line, he won't. For example, in the Sydney game he, he punched it into the attacks leg and luckily it went out. He really needed to risk his face and catch it.

He also completely missed the 2nd (?) goal against Perth.

Agreed.

great work on the stats Oska.

I wonder if anyone had any opinion on the relative distribution between the keepers?

Paston's great strength is his go-go gadget arms that just take the risk out of high balls in the box, and many crosses. I doubt anyone has done the stats on this (have you Ricki???), but how many times has the keeper caught or punched or fall to deal with these, and how many times have we regained posession and carried the ball out of our half?
martinb2008-11-09 03:38:07

Didn't you see him flap at a corner in the last 10 mins?

My head is still swimming . Fantastic turn out. The cove were no match for us either at the Fox & Lion, at the stadium or at the Captain Cook after

He flapped at one in the first half as well which could have cost us badly.

Like I guess most people know here, I've been a Moss man all along. Paston is a guy who likes to use his height and dominate the box, but to be honest this is not something he's very good at, considering the advantage he has with his height and long arms. He claims unchallenged balls easily (but any half-decent keeper doeas this), but when he's under pressure he flaps at crosses, and generally doesn't put his body on the line. This hasn't really cost us so far, but it's a pattern I've noticed over the last few weeks.
Moss is a guy who doesn't like to get a lot of high balls, but has worked hard to improve in that respect. He's more comfortable doing it now, but generally goes for the balls that are close to him, rather than racing out to collect anything high. I don't necessarily see this as a problem for a keeper, as long as the defenders know what to expect from him. Moss' positining and technique at shot saving is far superior to Paston's in my view, and I would have him starting without question.

As for the less shots Paston's had to deal with on average in comparison to Moss, that's the result of the improved work of our defensive unit rather than any great 'organisational' skills that Paston has. I though at least that much was evident in the game on Friday night (although Siggy has to shoulder a fair amount of blame for the misunderstanding, probably most of it in fact).

It was also Siggy that stopped the misunderstanding from turning into a goal

just listened to the podcast and loled-

'are we on the verge of getting a 5 or 6 goal hiding or can we salvage a point?'

We play so much better when Durante isn't on the park. was he dropped or injured?

Injured. I think that Durante does a good job in defence but his distribution lets the team down. Way too many long balls.

No one canl argue against Paston in that respect, lot's of people seemed to be a bit dissapointed with Mossies distribution both out of his hands and off the deck in the last few matches before he was injured.

Paston's distribution hasn't been all that flash either in the last few games.

What a fantastic performance. Hopefully the standard has now been set for the second half of the season.

However, the highlight for me was watching around 100 of the yellow fever's finest gie it laldie behind the goals! I am now well up for an away trip.

Still much better than Mossy's if you recall

Don't think this is worthy of a big debate, but from what I remember Mossy copped a bit of flak for poor distribution in the Perth game earlier this season, and can't remember it ever being an issue prior to that game.

But don't think it's really a crucial aspect of a keeper's game that deserves prolonged discussion.

Did McKain really bobsled Karl Dodd during the match???

In a performance where the outfield played well, Paston was poor. Not just the goal, there was a punch in the first half that could have led to a goal and another in the second half. In a game that we totally outplayed Sydney we could have came away with bugger all due to an awful performance by Paston.

The purpose of having competition in the squad is exactly for the purpose of keeping the incumbents play up to a high standard. Paston to get clear message that performance was not good enough, his previous form has been ok without being startling. Moss to start next game.

Amen

Okay it has to be said that Paston made a fair case for Moss to come back last week, backing up from where he should have made a better block on Ruka the week before. nb though, Ross had no problems with his keeping on the first Ruka goal.

But...How many clean sheets have we kept ever? Paston only let in one goal during the game. Is that unreasonable going on past performances? Or by the standards of other teams in the A-league?

We need to score more than one goal a game if we expect to win.

My case for Paston is his combined work with Siggie and Dodd at the end of the second half of our win at home against Sydney. Solid and safe in the air there.

You did see the goal, right?

I mean, you'd be pissed off to see a goal like that conceded in under-10s on a rain and wind-swept Karori park in middle of July...

My voice is back to about 80%.... I've never yelled so much.... Hard News next trip you better be there!

No wonder he was so f**ked off after his blunder.  Phoenix forces Popa into retirement. Stevo2008-11-11 14:03:25

damnit... thought the link was going to be one of your bollywood movies Stevo... maybe a followup to the Ricki tells Bertos to learn to shoot gem from the queensland match. Still... very interesting, a little sad to see a great player go out this way
Leeds_Chris2008-11-11 14:09:37

Indeed, why did he not even announce his retirement with one game in hand so he could get a proper sendoff?  As it stands its almost a Zidane final moment, his handball in the dying minutes costing his team the 3 points.

Then again its not likely he'll be remembered for his final touch of the football being with his hand.

Of course the ten year olds in question would be struggling to keep their heads above water........

Popovic hasn't played at all well this season. He's made a lot of stupid mistakes and has clearly been below par. Shame really that he had to finish like this but thank god he stuck around just long enough to give us that win....