Pre-season 2013/2014 - vs Phoenix B - Ring of Fire - Sunday

I know you must be hurting JV, but clutching at straws here. The kid has been here for about nine years I hear and is a NZ citizen. That means he has played most of his football here, which makes him a young Kiwi talent in my eyes.

No. respnse #2

I keep getting the feeling, both overt and implied, that many of you feel the reason the Nix lost to ACFC was because essentially a relatively weak Phoenix team was up against the best City could offer. If this is so does this mean the likes of Moss, Sigmund, Bertos, Brockie, Boxall, Bertsch, Stein, Lia, Durante and Muscat are not really up for it and youngsters like Boyd, Adams, Rufer and Gully are still too underdeveloped.

If this is so then the whole coming A League season depends on the increasingly injury prone and ageing legs of Paul Iffill, the on and off again talent of Hernandez (wasn't he released by Melbourne) and Kenny Cunningham. This doesn't bode very well if you ask me.

I'm just popping out to the supermarket to get some razor blades.

I may be a while...

Stand down everyone. They only stocked safety blades.

But I did get a packet of chit chats.

Nice write up Niall.

There was one moment when your man Irving made a stuff up though, mid 2nd half, attempted a switch at the back from the grandstand side to the embankment side and was cut out, posibly by Tade, but City scrambled and managed to clear. I guess its a good thing though when there's only one give away of possession that can be recalled as poor play from him.
I pretty much agree with your thoughts on the guy too, he looked quality.

As far as Nix go, they looked good defensively, but lacked creativity going forward. Was gutted not to see Hernandez and Cunningham in action, was looking forward to seeing those two.

Tamati's save from Siggy was high quality but I dont think he had to make a save other than that. Spoonley was amazing in his half game, really played well. I was standing beside Nix goal when Burfoots shot went in and I tweeted at the time that Moss will be disappointed with himself. Tough to try make a good save when you havent really had to do much in the game, but he should have done better IMO.

Oh well, that makes Rotorua's 3500 seem a bit better then

Personally i think some of us Nix supporters are making up too many excuses for Saturday.

Auckland made us look shockingly poor in the first half, and whilst the second was more even we didn't create anything.

Saying things like we were missing players and trying things is nonsense at the end of the day. 

We are a professional outfit which lost to an amatuer side... and in truth we should have lost by 3 - 4 goals.

I have like what Merrick has done so far, in terms of recruiting and what he has been saying. However he is severely hampered by Ricki's signings which are still on the books.

The fact Lia is a professional footballer should inspire any Sunday league hack to make a go for it.... he really is that bad.

If Roar pressure us on the ball like ACFC did we will be in trouble come the 13th.

Also in my summary I forgot to say just how bad Joel Stevens was that day. Poor touch, poor decisions and poor positioning. Considering some of the previous comments on his potential I am hoping this was simply just and off day, or a lot of forum posters have lost their credibility when rating players. Woeful.

And Watson might have the hardest shot I have seen. Simply smashes the ball!

I know nobody has actually said this, directly, but I cannot see any way in which these sorts of games are not massively positive.

ASBP is good football, and has always been the shop window for the Nix (step up Siggy, Marco, Spoonley, Tyler, etc etc etc). I am gutted I couldn't make it and very jealous of 2ndB and EG.

I am in the delicate negotiating phase to bring in a former ASBP player as pod expert on the ASBP. Fingers crossed he'll start this week.

Iwa Shaker!!!!

A couple of months ago I was feeling really positive about the coming season with Carlos onboard and Ernie talking about youth and a new style of football but now I feel the angst returning. To be honest I haven't seen any of the preseason games but it sounds like the glaringly obvious issues in the centre of the park that plagued us last year are still there. Ernie said he wanted an experienced spine but passed on Thompson and now it's ominously quiet on the transfer front. Unless one of our youngsters is a complete revelation in DM we are going to struggle to transition the ball out of defense and we have completely the wrong sort of attackers to bypass the mids with long balls.
I really hope Ernie has a solution otherwise I just see this year being a repeat of last and I hate to think of the damage consecutive wooden spoons would do to the club...

The hardy band of ACFC singers were hoping for a bit of humorous rivalry.

Someone says this season is more about the future and the Phoenix have some promising young talent in Fenton, Boyd, Gully and Rufer. But isn't it equally important to put out a very competitive team now, especially after a wooden spoon season. The average NZ football fan is not very forgiving and you need to win to keep their interest, as you well know.

Has Ernie been stuck with too many mediocre Herbert appointments like Manny, Stein and Lia who have long contracts? Why was there not a wholesale cleanout of deadwood? Are the likes of Bertos and Brockie too comfortable because they just seemed to lack any spark. Perhaps Brockie was still in Toronto. It can't be down to preseason match fitness because you've had nine games already. I think you should give more seasoned ASBP players a chance because they'd love to get professional contracts and would play their heart out. I've always maintained the best of the ASBP players would love a crack at playing for the Phoenix and would be better options than bringing in Australians/imports who didn't get picked up over there. The argument has always been the ASBP isn't up to standard but I think the gap is not so big.

I can't understand why Luis Correles wasn't picked up now he's back in Wellington. Frankly he'd run rings around Lia. Likewise Clapham.

And it's more of a one way rivalry - so it's not really a rivalry at all

I thought Merrick spoke very magnanimously about ACFC at the end of this article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/9224199/Merrick-upbeat-despite-defeat

"Merrick was extremely impressed with Auckland and their Spanish coach Ramon Tribulietx.

Transition season #2.

Agree that it might take a while to clear the deadwood but I think that's a red herring when discussing our central midfield situation. It's the obvious issue with the squad so it should have been addressed already. Arguing that we're stuck with players doesn't fly because there was clearly enough cash available to sign Cunningham, when we already had multiple attacking options. If people are now saying we don't have space in the cap to sign a quality DM (I dunno if we do or we don't) then we have to ask why we uused up our cash before addressing our biggest issue.

Not really concerned over the result, pre-season is about getting the processes in place for the season. What is a worry is how dependent we appear to be on Carlos and the reports illustrate the concerns El Grap has been talking about on the podcast.

We need that quality DM signing that we have budgeted for but it seems yet again we will not sign what we need.

Stein is a good player, You don't get 150 games in the Eredivise without that. Jeez we loose like 2 preseason games from 9 and its high drama. I agree Lia isn't up to it, but a year or so ago there was the very real threat of loosing manny to Victory / heart. On another note ASBP is fine, Ernie said he's on the lookout for a bolter, so theres that too. Ricki was the only  one who seemed not to rate it.

so this, the fact that our midfield relies on Lia is a missive concern - reading the comments on the game it seems he is steadily getting worse, first touch terrible, passing game woeful, and no doubt he hasn't removed the rash tackle from his game. If we can't get the ball from the back 4 up to Hernandez, Kenny and Ifill we are going to struggle to see Stein and Brockie scoring. That all comes down to Lia and Manny controlling the ball and distributing it well - something neither have really been great at,

I reckon we should do this preseason thing with Auckland every year. It'll give Auckland the pleasure of seeing the Nix, perhaps even beating them should we field another under strength side, and then we can use that as the Auckland game for the season and have one more round at the stadium where the team belongs.

Some points.

You said "[s]omeone says this season is more about the future". Who has said that? I don't think anyone has. Sure it's Ernie's first season, but I think we're all expecting to make the 6 at least.

"Why was there not a wholesale cleanout of deadwood?" Because, as you should know, there is a salary cap and rules about such things. Ernie has certainly cleared things out relatively speaking. Totori for example.

"I think you should give more seasoned ASBP players a chance because they'd love to get professional contracts and would play their heart out." I agree, to an extent. Don't forget a lot of players have already come out of the ASBP into the Phoenix. On the flip side, don't assume that ASBP would love a pro contract and play their hearts out. Ivan turned the Phoenix down remember, and Kirshna had two bites at the cherry and didn't impress.

"The argument has always been the ASBP isn't up to standard but I think the gap is not so big." I agree, and have always agreed, and was instrumental in setting up a scholarship programme that gave such players a chance. Viz Marco. I don't actually think many people on here think the ASBP is a poor standard. They think it is lop-sided, and that Auckland City have a ridiculous advantage because of the amount of money they get from gaming machines. They think that Auckland City's myopic fans are incapable of talking sense, but they don't think it's a bad league. Quite the contrary. I think most of us (me anyway) would like to see a better, larger, fairer, and more widely appreciated ASBP.

"I can't understand why Luis Correles wasn't picked up now he's back in Wellington. Frankly he'd run rings around Lia. Likewise Clapham."

Luis is a striker, Clapham and Lia are (different types of) midfielders. So that's a crazy comparison. Would Luis run rings around Brockie and Huysegems? That's the question? And is he Kiwi or still an import? I think you'll find that, with his injury record for Upper Hutt this year, he's probably missed the A-League boat. But in his prime I agree he'd have been worth a look.

Yes the salary cap/contract issue means we have to put up with the likes of Lia for another season. Perhaps Lia will pull an Aaron Ramsey though? Ha