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

when Riera went down we fell to pieces. We have now fixed that problem with roly. I don't see that as a waste at all, who else would you sign as backup for him? 

Following from that, you're not going to change your entire shape and play 2 DMs just because of some notion that your foreign players need to start every game. 

When I named my lineup that is what I want for round 1. Roly will get time off the bench initially and when form or injury plays it's part, he'll get starts. 

There are going to be more than 11 starters this season...

Imagine the possibility of the coach having the option of rotating the line-up for tactical advantages against different teams...dreamland...

I think the squad we have this season is possibly the strongest we have had EVER. Competition for places, particularly in the midfield is going to be red hot.

Hmmm. I'd be a bit cautious. Isn't this said EVERY year? e.g. I seem to recall Leggy saying before season's start last year the Nix would most certainly not be involved in a battle for the wooden spoon what with having Merrick, Hernandez, Waffles, Cunningham, etc onboard. Not that he was prepared to bet on it.

Then why sign a foreign player? 

When you assume that every team in the HAL competes for the same AU player as the other, then the difference in the league is the quality of imports you sign (along with the quality of locals too I guess but that's a separate issue to this one) because they should be better than any other player in your team. You are not restricted in signing the best locals, you can sign the best of what you can get for your budgetary constraints (ADP). Sign 5 numpties and where do you finish? Look back at the history of the league and teams that win, have signed good imports. Alex Smith I am sure was a lovely lad and his Dad defended him well but was a rubbish import and it showed on the table. Sanchez too. We also had Totori. Where did we finish?

We actually have 4 decent imports in Riera, Roly, Cunningham and Rogriguez. Why sit any of them on the bench and hand the opposition a competitive advantage when the likelihood is that those 4 will probably be better than at least 6-7 opposition players on the pitch. In the case of Riera, he is likely to be the best player on the park. That's what you want from imports - to be the difference maker to your team and give you that advantage. Its recognised that Riera is probably the best DM in the league and I think any other team would have him in a heartbeat because he is up there in terms of quality of imports in the league. What if Roly is a better player? Do we then sit Riera on the bench and tell him is the back up because we don't play two DMs? If Riera does not fall over this year, then having Roly as a back up is just a waste. The truth to it is, while he is a good player, it was a poor recruitment (as was Krishna but my bias against him and being a flop is well documented) because we need an out and out striker. You sign good imports because they make the difference for your team and you play them because they give you that advantage over your opponents. We went and signed a player that is good and has pedigree to be a fail safe...... 

Think back to when you were at school and you had to pick kids to be in your team. You always picked the best players because you wanted to beat the other team. The crap kids got picked last. We seem to want to pick a decent player and then keep him for a rainy day which may not come. The McGlichey signing is a brilliant signing for us because he was good enough to be considered as an import for the other sides - for us he is a local so that gives us a competitive boost in that looking at it from a CCM perspective, he is a 6th import for us.

If you are going to sign an import, sign a starter, not a back up bench player because the locals can and will fill the role judging by the mix you need to have across your squad. I respect your argument that you don't change your starting shape and I largely agree with you, but then don't sign players you don't intend to use to any degree. Roly, good player but why the hell did we sign him? The need to potentially cover an injury to Riera (and I am sure Rodriguez could have done it at a guess) that may not happen vs our need to sign a goal scoring the striker, the likes we have not had since Smeltz, well I shake my head at that. Its just handed a competitive advantage to the opponents.

To answer your question, I think Tim Payne could have done a job if needed to fill in for Riera if he got injured and sat on the bench as a back up. Not the same quality but then Riera is not exactly a typical import recruit in that we lucked in to him big time. Before you get up in arms about that answer, if Riera never gets injured, Payne never plays which is ideal and then we have that spot Roly occupies to sign a gun striker.

I was trying to be optimistic otherwise one or two on here would have jumped on me for being negative. Looks like I can't win either way. lol

Stop trying to hedge your bets! FFS! Take a stand on what you believe. I can't abide indecisiveness.

;o)

Jeff this is exactly why I advocate starting Roly in defence. For me your imports should be the players who plug the gaps so to speak. Merrick quite explicitly said when he signed Roly that he wanted to sign someone who could cover Riera and play defence. Last season when Riera went down our options were Muscat and Lia. Isn't Payne more of an attacking midfielder? There is no way he is even better then the options we already had. There is also no way Payne can provide any sort of defensive cover. The only New Zealand player who can play defence and defensive midfield to any sort of standard is Michael Eager. I don't think he is much better than Muscat/Lia or even Hicks.

In fact here is the quote from Merrick: 

"I had two major problem areas to cover and I knew I had to have more depth in midfield and defence than last season," said Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick.

"When Albert Riera was injured it left a gap in the midfield, and when the All Whites went on international duty there was little cover in defence.I had been on the lookout for someone who can play both in midfield and at centre back or fullback. Roly fits the bill and will be pushing for a first team spot from the outset."

So if you sign a striker instead of Roly you then have to also sign another defensive midfielder and another defender as well. This was at the time when Merrick thought he only had a 23 man squad. Before Bonevacia was signed we already had 20 players on the books. One spot was being kept open for McGlinchey so effectively 21. Therefore if you sign a visa striker and Tim Payne you are at 23 players and you haven't made any additional defensive signings.

Do you really NEED to quote the WHOLE thread? Can't you edit it to just the part you are responding to?

Sorry I edited my post now but I was really replying to the whole thing. I guess another point is that the Roar won the A-League last season with Henrique and Solorzano on the bench. Obviously both played a huge part in that season though. When Central Coast won it they only had 2 imports on the field.

Well it seems we are certainly on similar wavelengths. 

Has the love run out for Sigmund? I thought last year was one of his better ones considering he was not running about hoofing everyone. 

Early days given 3 pre season games still to coem but I like this earlier propsoed team:

..........................Moss

  Muscat     Dura        Roly    Doyle

                  Riera       A-Rod

    Kenny           Burns         WeeMac

                         Krishna

Also related to earlier posts if we relate our possible starting team to our contracted players we get to see that 2015/16 might be a better year as well...ie another year in transition.

EXPIRES END OF 2014/15:

.

Michael BOXALL

Tyler BOYD (u21)

Josh BRINDELL-SOUTH

Jeremy BROCKIE

Reece CAIRA

Kenny CUNNINGHAM (f)..................starting

Jason HICKS

Lewis ITALIANO

Glen MOSS...........................starting

Albert RIERA (f).........................starting

Ben SIGMUND

.

EXPIRES END OF 2015/16 or beyond....just cut and pasted not updated.

.

Roly BONEVACIA (f).................starting

Nathan BURNS......................starting

Tom DOYLE.........................starting

Andrew DURANTE................starting

Roy KRISHNA (f)...................starting

Vince LIA

Manny MUSCAT..................starting

Matthew RIDENTON (u21)

Alex RODRIGUEZ GORRIN (f) (+1)..............starting

Alex RUFER (u21)

Louis FENTON (u21)

Michael McGlinchey...............starting

Still think we are a good striker short...but I like Burns and Krishna in combo

Well when you look at that, I think its clear that Cunningham is not back next year....

Kenny needs a big year, not very often will teams remain static with their imports and even then it might be all moot if Krishna doesn't get classified as a Kiwi next season.

re-sign reira

Thats kinda how I look at it. Roly and Rodriguez are in, Krishna has another year *facepalm* and you sign either Riera or Cunningham. On the face of it, we have a bit more duplicity with Cunningham in his role and Riera fronts up on match day more often to make the signing of Riera over Cunningham a no brainer.

No one is talking specifics about Krishnas naturalisation so you would assume its off the table until the Phoenix raise it.

i always figured that the reason for Krishnas 2 year contract was because of his naturalisation next year, until I'm shown otherwise I will continue to think its not the end of the world. 

I'm looking forward to seeing him play this year too. 

I think we've got it about right, and am looking forward to the season. 

semi-wood

all good esp re not playing 2DMs, because I think we should be tight enough at the back 

when griffiths and flores and neumann and steele are cutting us up and we look around and say do we have the same quality pinching wins for us with ten players?

or up against  janko, abbas, ibini, brosque, schmeltz; or damien duff, david villa, paartalu, mooy, koren; or berisha, thomson, barbarouses, finkler, nabout

any three of kenny, burns, krishna, brockie, boyd, with McG and Gorrin?

I think we are competitive, but that front five is going to have to go well

just thinkin aloud

COYN

People that pronounce or write Smeltz as 'Schmeltz' infuriate me.

According to Mrs Smetlz, 'Schmeltz' is the correct way to say it.

Grrr... also she is hot.

I think if the best team balance is him not starting, at least at first he doesn't start. That depends on form and combinations and what is running through Merrick's head. I couldn't believe he persisted with Brockie and Huysegems together as much as he did when they fairly much never gelled as a strike partnership.

damn you all for being so positive!

I'm off to the Victory forums to get my serving of pre-season doom and gloom with large amounts of stoopid on the side!

No go MelCity forum down 2 nil to reds.  

On paper maybe.

There's still a lack of top level experience plus it still feels like we haven't improved the defence enough.

Roly has only played less than 20 senior pro games.  Rodriguez has played none and was cut from UK football.  Tom Doyle our starting left back has played none - inexperienced fullbacks have been a problem for us. Burns has been flaky the past few seasons.  Krishna has played less than 10 senior pro games.  We've seen Brockie before.  We saw Cunningham last year.  We lost our two best attacking players from last season.

It's not a slam dunk.

I think Siggie is a better defender than Durante currently.  Durante has lost his mojo, for club and country he's been conceding goals like they're going out of fashion!

Siggy for captain

Plus Durante has looked dodgy recently. Muscat isn't the player he was a couple of seasons ago. Sigmund is a year older. Brindell-South and Caira are probably not up to it. Boxall has yet to convince. Moss is a bit short for a keeper and is prone to the odd moment. Fenton has gone backwards, not sure if he's a RB or an attacking midfielder. Italiano is un-tested. Riera has been great but is coming back from injury and has also only played a small number of pro matches. Lia is a limited player. Ridenton has had chances but is yet to push on. Boyd doesn't score enough. Hicks is too lightweight. Rufer is young and un-tested.

Season pretty much up the creek then.

;)

First 3 games - Perth, CCM, Jets will reveal pretty much all IMO. Then the cruncher v Victory away to either confirm or turn everything on its head.

The Sigmund/Durante debate is interesting. In my hypothetical lineup I picked Dura over Siggy because he's club captain, and because he seems more comfortable on the ball. In terms of defensive effectiveness I think they're neck and neck. I also think it's a bit rough to blame Dura for goals leaked at international level when we've not had an effective screening DM in front of him. Much like the situation with the Nix last year after Riera got injured - if the middle of defence is left isolated by its midfield with runners coming through then you will concede eventually, regardless of how good your centrebacks are.

Durante is not as foul and card prone. To be fair to Sigmund, its tough to dump your captain unless he has played his way out of the starting line up and at the moment, he has not done that.

Interesting that these two are captain and vice captain. You would think some point soon that Ernie would want to look at the next captain and start grooming. It wont be Sigmund because of age and the life cycle of a player. McGlinchey and then perhaps Ridenton (looking purely at what is on our books now and thinking succession) If you do it wrong, just ask Steve Price and Simon Mannering how that goes.

I think its interesting that for NZ under Emblem Boxall started ahead of Siggy at CB.

Durante imo is better than Siggy hands down. Siggy is prone to rash challenges, can't hold position and constantly leaves the line to intercept... which looks great when it works, but leaves gaping holes when he misses or is late.

Also, I'm happy to have an import as a squad player.

If he's better than what we have locally, isn't too expensive and is happy trying to fight for a spot instead of expecting to simply show up and start, I see no real issue.

I want as strong as team as possible.

How much money is Riera on?

It would be interesting to see what his initial one year contract was worth, and what its worth now? (I am right in thinking he signed a one year extension?)

He would of doubled his worth, surely.

Ernie said Riera was signed as squad back up, lets hope Roly turns out a similar way

In Ernie we trust

I just want it to start already!!!

Do you mean your 'Mechanical Dinosaur that roars'... or the football?