R1 vs Perth Glory | Sunday 12th Oct | 5pm | RoF

I don't really think we can aim higher than an ex-winner of the A-League. Look around the league: Mulvey, Arnold, Popovic are the only standout managers. Maybe you can throw Gombau into that mix. I find it difficult to think that Lowe, Stubbins and Muscat are better managers than Merrick.

Disappointing football weekend for me as I watched both my teams lose on the weekend, with Canterbury United going down in flames at home to Auckland City 4-1 in a friendly on Saturday.

My reaction is similar to both losses - Canterbury had a lot of new players and didn't gel (a whole new midfield and strike force with Clapham injured, Kamo  and Kelly gone and several new youngsters signed from the North Island), also a new coach (I heard veteran Dan Terris questioning the tactics to the coach during the game - amicably enough - he was just unsure).

I'm not reading too much into either loss - it could take Canterbury several games into the season to improve, let alone gel instantly in pre-season. And Auckland have a very good, settled side (with extra Tim Payne).

Yet some spectators said things like "I'm not coming back to watch that shit" as they left the ground at game's end. Way too harsh!

Similarly with the Phoenix - you can never read too much into early rounds of a season.

I'm not writing off Man United either just because they've stuttered early in the season under van Gaal - recently there's been signs of real improvement as the new players settle in and the side gels.

The new Phoenix boys showed some real promise (McGlinchey, Burns, Roly, Doyle) even if the performance overall wasn't up to it.

It may prove to be one of Perth's best away performances of the season and luck went their way with their two goals and Vukovic being outstanding in stopping the Nix scoring more. Earlier in the game I thought Burns looked like a hopeless finisher but he proved to be a real goal-scoring threat as the game wore on.

I think a back line of Dura, Siggy, Manny and Doyle should prove adequate but we'll be in trouble if the fullbacks get injured with few decent replacement options. Boxall's a good back-up centre-back.

Striking options don't inspire confidence - Brockie's history is erratic and he's not good centrally (I'd have him as a bench player). Let's hope Bums can find the net and Roy Krishna comes along.

I know the club are not interested in marquees but now would be a good time to sign as a marquee a proven foreign goal-scorer. 

Ah, I thought the Twist and Shout was more tailored to the football.

Speaking of Muscat, I just hope that soon someone invents instant face recognition and face replacement technologie for TV's, he had to much screen time on Friday.

Quite often on the left/right of a midfield diamond in GA days at CCM.

It was.  We use a streamlined version of those lyrics and a do do do section.

As Marco and Kosta could probably both tell you, there's a bit of a difference in resources between MVFC and WPFC. No point having a champagne coach on a beer budget. Perhaps he simply couldn't afford to get the strikers, midfield and backs he wanted and chose to put all his chips on one, for example.

They probably will now you've said that.

Who said he was?

He's always said he has the budget that he needs.

I thought similar, to be honest - I think the league has passed him by a little bit. With the right mix of players, I think he can still be successful though; it's just discouraging that he hasn't got that right mix after a season. 

Desperately needed IMO. Plus a dominating defender. This now a big boys league. Much at stake not only for the Nix but NZ future.

Mid part of last year the nix were the tactically most interesting team.

Too nice.

Ernie is awesome.  Has everyone forgotten what he produced last season with Herbert's leftovers? One game in and its "sign this", "sign that", "Ernie's finished" etc etc. What a large amount of crapola. 

How does the moss chant go??

It's complicated...

You guys are too forgiving imo. This is pro footie. And we're at the bottom looking up. Wadda ya reckon Hudson would do if he was managing the Nix and his future reputation was on the line?

I'm a big Ernie fan but I was surprised by our set up and tactics in our Perth game. We played a very narrow game.....which is fine if its executed well. However it was often difficult to see what the tactics were when we were in the final third. Where was weemacs outlets when he went wide?. He was obviously told not to cross it and keep it on the deck. Weemac was outstanding at CCM wide in a diamond midfield....but he outlets in smart players like Flores as an outlet

I am surprised that Ernie does not see that in his 433 set up Brockie is the wrong sort of player for that system to work. He is a sort of "sit on the shoulder of the last defender and see what comes my way" sort of attacker. Brockie is too slow and drifts out of games too much....it hampers our attack. If your front guy in a 433 does not constantly moving and making runs and pulling defenders out of position and rotating the ball then the whole system grinds to a halt. Riera and Weemac put through some lovely through balls centrally but if your central guy is too static then its easy to defend against.

Burns showed what damage you can do if you really put yourself about. I thought his movement and tactical awareness was fantastic. 

As I said I think Ernie is great but at some point but he seems to have blind spots...one of them is Brockie.....after working on him for a season and a half he still seems to think he can convert him to his style of play.

Ernies other blind spot is our defense......anyone can see they are past their use by date. Too old and too slow.....they will be our achilles heel again this season. Too high an error rate, often too slow to react, often too slow to move.

I don't think this team is too far away from being a very good team....all they need is a couple of recruits. An aggressive younger mobile CB beast and a quick agile goal scoring striker.....thats not too much to ask for is it??????

Oh! also our Euro mids need to hit the gym and start pumping iron.....because this is the A-League. We don't do this fancy  tic tac European passing stuff. If you don't toughen up you will get monstered every weekend.....just like you were against Perth

Not sure if you're being serious or this is just a thing you're doing. It's ONE game. There are 26 to go. You shouldn't even look at the table to about Round 6 or 7.

Yeah, I'm stirring. I said before that the first 3 games will show we're we are v a v the rest. But I'm unnerved by what I saw v Perth. We looked behind the 8 ball v a team not favoured.

Quite right. Lets all calm down. After getting over the initial disappointment of the loss a few things sprung to mind.

The starting 11 contained 5 new players, 3 of whom had never played in the A-League before. It has often taken a while for European players to get used to the physicality of the A-League and Perth are about as physical as they come.

There were 5 new players in the line up, certainly they have had a long pre-season to gel but this was the first competitive match they've played together.

I also think we were at a tactical disadvantage, Perth had the extra man in midfield and used it to monster us two on one to prevent us playing out. Perhaps we should have changed tactics, maybe Ernie wanted the boys to overcome it. I think if this happened again I would rather switch to a diamond by bringing weemac in deeper and central to provide another passing option.

It is only the first game of the season, give it three to five games and we are still playing like we did against Perth then we can start throwing Ernie under the bandwagon.

I am definitely going to be looking at round 6 and 7... I'm booked tyo go to both Adelaide and Perth. I can't wait!

Full game wasn't on TV in the UK, only highlights.  But my impression was:

- while Roly and Gorrin have good "pedigree", they are both very inexperienced.  I'm not sure both should be starting (I'm not sure both should have been signed but that's a different story)

- let's wait before anointing Doyle the answer for club and country.  He's going to make mistakes and be inconsistent because he's just getting started.  He needed to get much tighter to the player crossing the ball.  We'll need to be patient

- Muscat and Doyle aren't going to give us a real wide attacking threat so I think we need to add a wide attacker (Cunningham or Fenton)

- why are other clubs signing foreign 30 cap international strikers (Keogh) while we're signing guys who have barely played at senior level?

- we really struggle to build pressure with patient possession in the opposition half.  Sometimes I think we look for the forward option too quickly, it means if you defend behind the ball and stay patient we can make mistakes and turn it over

- Roly should play centrally

- the McGlinchey to Burns move in the first half that created the chance was better than anything we saw from Carlos last year.  Promising (Other than the finish)

- I don't see how we can claim we have great depth when Lia is still involved in the match day squad.  Also, terrible dye job there Vince!

If I wasn't so lazy and if I knew how to work this interwebs thing, I'd search for my posts from Feb/March 2013 when I was saying that Dura and Siggy were done and we'd made a bad mistake by re-signing them both.

The other issue is that all their deficiencies aside, Carlos and Stein combined for 18 goals last season - and that was only good enough to get us 9th. Looking at all the forwards/attacking players we have now, can they score 20+ this season? I'm not convinced.

The reality for a side like the Phoenix in this league is that probably 70-80% of the games are really tight (there are occasional hidings from the top sides, and occasional big wins we get when everything clicks, but these are generally exceptions) - are our forwards good enough to make most of limited chances you get in such games, and do we have an attacking player who can win a game with one piece of magic?

And conversely, can we rely on our backline not to make dumb mistakes that cost us games that we shouldn't really lose - and did we get the answer to that question last night?

Mossy you’re a goalkeeper(To One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful)

Mossy, you light up my world like nobody else,
The way you dive for the ball, gets me overwhelmed,
And when you punch at the ball,
it ain’t hard to tell,
We all know-oh-oh,
Mossy you're our goalkeeper

Exactly, we've both been on this for a while and it's so obvious I can't see how nothing has been done about it.  There were posts from people in pre-season seriously arguing Siggie today is better than he was in 2010.  Both these guys are getting on and you lose that edge which means things like yesterday happening very quickly.  I really question Durante, I cannot remember the last time he had a good game for club or country.  He just looks out of form and I wonder about whether his legs have gone

I remember you saying that re Durante and Sigmund EG

McG was in shackles, Rolly got here after FU and Ernie spent a fair while taking looks at Kenny, Boyd, Krishna and the options in midfield.

I think the front 5 actually got fairly little time together pre-season and very little against any sort of challenging opposition.  For all that Ernie has been saying he's been happy with the preparation, I think we are still a bit underdone.

That's an excuse and a poor one at that.  We don't play a super technical style or formation, and the team has had a month together unbroken - that's plenty of time

It's not an excuse.  It's a fact.  And it does not change or excuse that we got beat by Perth.  But I think they will get better.  You have two pretty young players, one playing in a role that is new to him, and new combinations right across the front six.  An 'ornery old prick like yourself could adapt in a flash, we all know that, but I think you are simply not right in dismissing the lack of combinations and understanding.  They'll get better.

I think many kiwi football/Nix fans and the NZ media brought into the Nix's slightly missleading media spin of these two players. The Australian media have seen right through it.  

Neither was a regular starter in the Prem, Championship, Serie A or B, Eridevise, Ligua BBVA or Budesliga 1 or 2.  One of them had never played a senior professional game (that I am aware of).

They were talked up as if they had been starting consistently in said leagues for a couple of years but yesterday we saw them properly in the flesh, very much getting used to the A-League.  

I think A Rod shined out against West Ham as they were more worried about fitness and not picking up injuries and it didn't mean anything, as it was a friendly after all.  We have to remember he's still young and very inexperienced.

Perth's midfield owned us yesterday as it was men playing our "boys".

Very good points well made although I believe Roly has played about 20 games in the Eredivisie

Roly has played over 50 times in the Eredivise. I remember Cunningham last year was very poor and barely featured in his first 5 games. It was the 2-1 heart breaking loss to Sydney which was the moment which convinced me that he was a good player. I really hope both Bonevacia and A-Rod are given another chance. Bonevacia showed some glimpses despite a poor first touch. A-Rod was anonymous but deserves another chance. We have to back our players and realise that if you were good enough last week then you should still be good enough this week. The only player we can potentially drop is in defence or Brockie. Those guys were picked all last season and still aren't playing well.

Hit the nail on the head. Everyone on here seems to bag me whenever i suggest Boyd for Brockie, but what Boyd brings is more than just goals. He's Always moving, pulling defenders out of position, and trying to get involved.

Brockie is so bluddy static. Its unbelievable how often he marks himself by standing on the defender. Doesn't have the strength to hold them off, and lacks the mobility or tactical awareness to spin off them.

Defensive record speaks for itself. In the previous 2 seasons, 100 goals conceded. ONE HUNDRED. If that doesn't send serious alarm bells ringing i don't know what will. Our defensive shape hasn't looked solid in years. Defense will win games. Not two errors in your own half. Doyle should have cleared it at the first attempt, didn't, and one good cross later we're 1-0 down.

Fenton for Doyle was a good sub. However leaving Brockie on all game clearly failed. I can't remember one proper attempt on goal. For the one striker in a 433 at home, not good enough. He has no creative element so if he's not scoring, he's hurting the team. Bringing on Krishna on in the 90th minute was just tactically wrong. We'd lost control of the game, the lead and the midfield was shattered. How is he meant to make an impact?

I've said for years Lia is horrendous. He come on, and not even 10 minutes later, costs us the game. Poor pass backward toward Sigmund who miscontrolls and boom. Goal. He offers the Phoenix nothing going forward, or going back. Should never have made the pass in the first place. You've all said he's good, just not good enough to do Riera's job. Except, last season he did nothing even when Riera was in the team, except Riera was covering his ass.

Our team should have a combination of Boyd, Burns, McGlinchy, Roly (Provided that his poor first touches were down to nerves), RIERA, Rodriguez and Boxall. Brockie, Lia, and one of the centre backs need to go. 

Needs more Cunningham!

It's not a fact.

It's an opinion.

Sorry for quoting the whole thing but my post covers points you have both made.

The question I would ask of Ernie is when you are chasing the game, what do you achieve bringing a striker on when the game is up? I think you have to make all your subs between 60th and 75th (or earlier but the point is there) You can't reasonably expect a substitute to have an impact playing less than 15mins and some would rightfully argue that is not enough time. I'm not a Krishna fan but you can't expect him to produce if he does have the ability to do so, in just 2-3 mins.

If I were Durante and Sigmund, I would be worried about my places. The point of 100 goals in 2 seasons with the same combination is quite clear. Yes there have been injuries that may have contributed to that but would those injuries reduced that by half? Unlikely. Brockie too is a hot and cold man but I ask myself if he is playing to a specific set of instructions because pretty much every fan can see his deficiencies. You would think Ernie can too unless he does have a blind spot for him. If he is playing to instruction then ok, but then whats the point of playing that way? If he bangs in 15 goals, he will be the darling of the forum but based on last year and what we have seen with the AWs and game 1, is that looking likely. Again hot and cold Brockie and hopefully we get hot Brockie (er.....)

Burns really put himself about. I too wonder about Cunningham on the left, McGlinchey on the right and Burns up top and thats what I advocated to most of the winter. I think at this point in time, based on last season, Cunningham bring more than Brockie.

I don't rag on Roly or A-Rod as others do because it was the first game that A-Rod has been invisible and I like what Roly bought once he settled.