Player ratings v Roar

What a difference a Dura makes, well I would like to think so...

Pasty 8 Three top saves to keep us in the game, two from close range, and the other a one on one that was wrongly called off side. We prob should have lost, but for Pasty

Leo 5.5 Still learning his positioning, one fantastic run  and cross that should have been converted by Brockie

Siggy 6 Yes he was caught out for the goal, but where was Boxall anyway?? Both of them were sucked too far into the midfield at times.

Boxall 5 Ordinary, looks slow, made one crucial block though

Lochie 5 Taken to the cleaners early on, improved

Ifill 6 Provided some nice touches and did chase back several times

Manny 7 Work horse, valued the ball when he had it

Smith 5.5 Worked hard but not much impact

Fenton 5 Was hardly in the game

Steiny 6.5 I thought it was a good contribution, needs to be stronger still

Brockie 5 Invisible in the first half, did some good holding up after Stein subbed off

Totori 4 Tried hard

Boyd 4.5 Ran hard

Lia Not much time

Ref 7 One of the better ref performances

Since we drew against the champions, should these ratings be more generous? What do you think?

If we had scored the players on 1st 20/25 mins a lot of them would rate 1 or 2 points higher, thought our midfield and attackers started excellently.

Over the ninety, might nudge all except Paxton and Brockie and the subs up .5

Not sure why Stein was taken off 

Paston 8 - some good saves 

Bertos 7 - not too shabby overall

Lochhead 5 - all I remember is a horrible cross first half when he got in a great position

Sigmund 6 - not bad

Boxall 6 - see above

Muscat 7 - most consistent player in the squad

Smith 4 - does not exert any influence on games and cannot distribute ball quickly enough

Ifill 4 - started with intent, but just did not really get going in the end, pretty poor and not up to usual standards

Brockie 4 - not involved enough by a long way.  Too casual

Fenton 5 - also, not involved too much

Huysegems 6 - well taken goal, was doing ok, bizarrely taken off

How do you judge "not too shaby overall" as a 7 while also giving a 7 to the most consistent player in the squad.

Bertos a 6, 7 is too high for not being amazing.

Ifill was much better than a 4. First half was looking more like himself again, after what I thought was a poor performance by him last week (granted that was due to fitness etc).

Think most players did their job well, fell off a little bit at the end and let Brissy have a bit more space, but overall agree with ratings

 Ifill started well, but after a the few times he went down holding his leg, his impact dropped right off. I would say he is still only 95% fit.

 Lochy 5

 Boxall 5

 Siggy 6

 Leo 6

 Manny 7

 Smith 5

 Fenton 5

 Ifill 5

 Brockie 5

 Stein 7

 Totori 4

 Boyd 4

 Lia not enough to rate

 I hope they use Clarke soon, I think he will provide more impact.

Paston an 8? rushing out to conceed the goal surely takes him down to a 7 at best. 3 good saves yes, but was at fault for the goal

Paston did nothing wrong for their goal, Siggy's mistake and a good finish from Berisha.

Not sure, think Siggy was definitely at fault, Boxall probably should have got out to cover Berisha when siggy pressed forward. 

But think Pasty have come out a wee bit too early - Boxall was trying to shut Berisha down, and would have got to Berisha early and forced him to do something different.

Paston coming out so quick and early meant berisha had a lot of time to weigh up his options, and also meant Boxall pulled away from Berisha

Agree re: goal. If Paston hadn't rushed out it would have been much harder for Berisha to score there.

He wasn't the primary fault for the goal, the defence was. Also, to be fair to Paston, the reason he rushed out was that Berisha was completely open when the ball was passed to him, so I guess he felt he had to come out to try shut him down early. As it turned out Boxall, did manage to get across and would have put some pressure on him if Paston was back on his line, but Paston wasn't to know that at the time he rushed out.

Brockie - 2 for showing up.

I couldn't figure out why Ricki took Stein and Fenton off and left Brockie and Smith on at that stage. Brockie doesn't look like scoring, had several chances including a sitter from 6 yards and stick couldn't convert.

As a 17 year old he promised so much for the NZ U teams. yet he hasn't really kicked on and delivered on the talent he has/had. I wanted him to do well but over the years it hasn't happened, yet for example, Chris Killen did. I thought Brockie may have done as well.

Would probably drop paston down 1. Yes he made some good saves, but he kept kicking the ball back to brisbane. His distribution was not good

Paston 7.5 - solid 

Bertos 7 - B+

Lochhead 4 -average

Sigmund 5.5 - not bad but terribly out of position for their goal

Boxall 6 - Pass but The Captain will be welcomed back

Muscat 8 - Excellent again

Smith 4 - below average

Ifill 5 - needs more mid week shuttles and I don't mean the bus !

Brockie 4 - Still cream crackered after two week globe trotting 

Fenton 4 - Strangely not there most of the time 

Huysegems 6.5 - another goal ,still not fit enough yet though faded and  was subbed !

leo 7

ifill 6

are only changes for me

mabye they should do fitness training with the all blacks haha .If they were fitter then instead of dominating the first 15 they could have been dominating for the first 30 that would be nice

Think Boxall definately deserces a little higher, certainly higher than Sigmund.

Wasn't at fault for the goal, and kept a pretty good team fairly quiet (part of team effort). For me, he also looks more confident on the ball than Sigmund, has better distribution and seemed to be better at marking tightly.

Siggy makes a lot of great last ditch tackles which we all love, but they question never seems to get asked, why are they last ditch. Often its because he gets caught out and has to recover (which to be fair he does do well).

It seems some players we'll forgive anything and look to blame elsewhere (Siggy's fault for the goal completely is a good example) whilst others we'll pick to pieces.

Moving forward, Boxall and Durante in my eyes will offer more to the NIX, but despite this i can not see Siggy getting dropped.

I'm gonna give Ricki (and Greenie) a 5. Agreed with his initial tactics and 11+4 (I might have had Clarke on the bench instead of Boyd, but obviously I don't see them at training etc, so what the hell would I know?). 
Don't think he adjusted well though, seemed to have a set plan and didn't change it when some mid game tweaking might have got us the 3. But I guess consistency wins leagues and I'd rather be CCM winning the league than Victory desperately trying (and failing) to win every game and falling outside top 6.
Maybe I do agree with his tactics... anyway, hopefully they realise Huysegems has nothing in the air (what was he, 0 for 15 on the high ball?), and change their tactics accordingly.  

But if Paston doesn't come off his line, Berisha has a clear run into the box as Boxall is still quite a distance away. It is Paston's coming off the line that slows down Berisha and reduces his options - if he stays on the line Berisha gets into the box without any problems, has a lot more of the goal to shoot at, and Paston on a belated move when he's most vulnerable. With Paston on the line, Boxall has no chance of getting anywhere near Berisha to prevent a goal scoring opportunity. The reality is both Paston and Boxall were left in a difficult situation because of Siggy's mistake, and Berisha finished very well in a situation which many other A-league forwards would have completely fluffed.

Just watched it again, and it seems to me that if Paston had stayed on his line, Boxall would have been close to making a challenge maybe just inside the edge of the box. In my opinion, Boxall looks closer to getting to Berisha than what you reckon...

But like I said, it appears like that because Berisha slows down with Paston rushing out at him. It appears because of this that Boxall would have had a chance to catch him, but if Paston doesn't come out Berisha can race into the box and Boxall would have had to take a different line to get to him and would have been further away than in this situation.

Paston went to ground too early when the goal was conceded imo. Yes, Siggy was the major one at fault but Paston didn't shine either.He was falling before Berisha shot and made it easy for him.

Didn't you see the previous discussion about causality! This is well beyound the realm of speculation. 

Watch his block of Nicholls at 36min mark. Saved by his outstretched legs because he went to ground early. You can't have it both ways.

In the end it was clearly Siggy's mistake for that goal, he's even admitted it himself.

I'm sure it was Ifill's fault for gifting the ball to Heart the previous week.

I think Boxall  should have come across a lot quicker. However, Siggy was out of position.

so this, all the speculation about boxall needing to come across earlier is just wrong, he is marking the space he has to, if he leaves to pick up Berisha who is clearly siggy's man he opens up space for another attacker to come in unmarked. Pasty came out cos he had to agina because siggy was already well advanced. Had siggy been where he was supposed to be then Pasty could have stayed on his line, boxall would be fine and the goal might not have been scored - it would have been a damn sight more difficult than it actually was.

perhaps, but the simple fact remains, siggy was out of position which lead to the rest of the players been left short which in turn resulted in berisha being unmarked and getting the easy 1-1 with Paston.