R1 vs Western United | Sun 13th Oct | 6:00pm | RoF

Pic?

So we couldn't score a goal. What a shock.

Really like McCowatt, need him to be in a more goalscoring position

One of the main problems is we were clueless what to do with the ball and just revert to crossing it when we've got no tall attackers so pretty much pointless we sign the jap. I'd like to see us try 3 at the back with cacace and fenton on the wings think we'd be a lot better on attack.

The tactics were odd. 

We got the ball. Worked it around until we were high, often with centre backs passing the ball around 5 meters inside the opposition half. Then we would play it vertically to a target, who would play it a significant distance back, from where we would launch a sort of counter attack, except it wasn't a counter attack because we already had the ball.

At that point the delivery would be gobbled up by the three central defenders who were happily sitting deep.

Our long delivery from advanced positions left us no space to play into, so we were only ever going to score from a knock down or a mistake

I think a team that plays well on the break will hurt Western United, but they will have to draw them out first

This was shark boring football. Not seeing Davila as the problem I thought he and Ball brought some of the little excitement into game. Fenton and Cacace super slow and defensive on the wings. Midfield solid but not enough urgency going forward.

Bitumen looked like a dirty team but what you expect from a team with lying snake coach?

Looking at the next few games, this is gonna be some hard weeks ahead.

Um which stand was this?

My thoughts for what they’re worth. 

Boring first half. Failure to close down their players. Like put a bit of pressure on them yeah? We started to in the second half. 
Really lacked any width, would love to have see someone come wide when Libby was coming up with the ball. Started to happen but a bit too late in the game. 
Slow in releasing the ball from the wing. 
Not every team needs to play out from the back ya know. 
We did come to life in the second but just lacked something. 
Not impressed with Davila, diving? Cmon mate this ain’t South America, stay on your feet. 
Ref a bit inconsistent? Is what it is.

On a positive I think we really got in Kurtos head. His behaviour towards the end could be justified but still poor. 

For those that stuck around you would’ve seen WU delayed walking through the tunnel. Bit scared hmm. 
My hands hurt from pounding the seats. Can we get a 90min drummer?

Onto the next one  

Not too worried after a tight 1:0 loss, but still very bitter to lose to the new boys on the block at home...

We lost 3 out of the first 4 games last season and then started firing, so no panic yet.

However I did struggle to see what exactly the game plan was supposed to be. It all seemed rather predictable and static.

There will need to be a lot more energy, movement and intent from next game on. I think Ball was good and came off too early. But yes we will need to sign another decent striker asap

Just looked a bit two-dimensional. Can definitely see the need for a target man as Ball toiled hard but was often beaten to the ball in by bigger/stronger defenders. I’ll save judgment on Davila til we have a chance to see him in the 10 role - showed a bit with ball at feet centrally but lacked the defensive work rate required for a wide midfielder. Not a hugely encouraging start, but the key word is start.

pretty uninspiring. Can’t remember many times when we got behind their defence either with a man or with a decent cross. Not enough 50/50’s won. Badly missing Krishna and Singh at this point; however 5 games in will be a better time to judge the team and individual players. 

My Thoughts on the Match:

1. Western United are my new hate team. After they scored they Genuinely just stopped playing, they put all but one player behind the ball, completely parking the bus. That one player who Wasn’t defending, was Diamanti. Which leads me on to me next point. 

2. Diamanti May well be the most overrated player of all time - at least that’s what I thought from one game of watching hit long shot after long shot from >35 meters out. Never have I seen a player from whom I expected big things from offer nothing (except a dive here and there). After only seeing one game from him I probably shouldn’t be making those assumptions. 

3. We didn’t take enough risks. Cacace and Fenton didn’t bomb on enough. Our passing in the final third was too slow and conservative. Callum was threatening but quietened down for the last 20 minutes or so. Our midfield was solid, but the connect between midfield any forward was basically non existent and so our strikers didn’t get enough ammunition.  

4. The ref should’ve been much stricter with yellow cards, to prevent the amount of diving and time wasting. 

5. I had no clue what that in-direct free kick was for.... if I only I knew what the ref was thinking throughout that game.

6. Kurto was the biggest @$%#$

This one?

I thought the booing and hissing of an ex-Nix Manager and players was really effective...in making the Fever End sound like a bunch of miserable fans! Really...hissing? FFS! 

(Before anyone has a chip at me about an anti-Rudan song in a previous post, that was forum rant and not sang tonight)

I think the strategy was right for the most part.  Kurto is an excellent shot stopper so we had to get it across his nose and get it behind him. 

We had one great strike at goal and he stopped it, I thought we made a lot of good chances and just didn't finish them, but making chances is a good sign. 

Reminds me of early last year when Krishna and Williams kept making shots just missing the goal until they hit their streaks of form.

Its only 1 game but it feels like we will just miss or just make the 6 and same for WU, it really felt like 2 average teams with Berisha being the difference. 

I think what was most concerning for me what the total lack of imagination and the fact that despite dominating possession for long stretches of the game we relied on two main tactics:
1. Cross from the flanks where we had 4 very short players in the box (slightly better when Waine came on)
2. Ball to AMs who were always with their backs to goal and either had to try a glory ball or had to go back.

Also didn't like Libby playing as a LB in a back 4. His defensive contribution was good but he wasn't able to attack nearly as much as normal.

Very happy with Rufer (yes missed  shocker but played really well overall), Steinmann and DeVere. Ball much improved from the Brisbane game and tried his best. McCowan also put in a great shift and I liked Piscopo when he came on.

Now let's see who we are able to sign...

He also lost the ball literally every time he touched it, and his set pieces were awful

We need m check better quality in the final third if that's the plan, by the end we were just slinging crosses in. We never got behind them. Not a great start but a long season to come

I love Fenton but he had a complete mare

Looked decent on the tele too. But the tactics we are using really limit two of our best attacking threats in our wingbacks,

I thought Libby was particularly shackled by our tactics tbh.

Terrible game live. Only one shot on target for each side they defended and dived and we couldn't break them down. 

I've never been a fan of Fenton and I did think he was poor tonight. To be fair to him though,  Davila wasn't dropping back at all to help him and he was getting dragged out of position. Our back 4 were completely disjointed tonight. 

Yep, I came into the season a bit worried by the 4-2-2-2 and i'm yet to be convinced.

Across all of the games, the playing standard has been quite average all weekend. Most teams appear to be in pre season mode. The conditioning of many of the players is alarmingly poor.

There's plenty of scope for us to do well in this league

I was happy to see the team on the park after six months of the off-season.

They only player that looked above average was Steinmann. 

Devere will cause us issues. He looked shaky and slow.

Will be a long season I think.

God yea. Mediocre game aside, it was great to be back watching the Nix. 

Bust out the #AvoidTheSpoon hashtag

THe USA vs Tonga match was x10 more exciting than the Phoenix versing the Tattooed guys.

Burn. Not one highlight featuring us. Total highlight package 53 seconds 

I bet the next Pod cast justifies Davilla in the squad.

He literally did not.

He didn't lose it every time, but he lost it every time that mattered - I thought his general crossing (from corners and free kicks too) was extremely poor.

I don't think we have the players for it - Talay, as a new coach, will struggle to change that I reckon.

Did anyone feel a genuine sense of rivalry? Apart from booing the old players/coach, it just felt like a typical Phoenix match to me.

You can only get a real genuine long term rivalry, when you have travelling fans. For the Nix that can only be an Auckland side.

With time Rudan, Dura, Kurto will move on from WU, and any 'feeling' will just fade away.