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R12 v Western Sydney Wanderers | Tues 8th Jan | 9:50pm | ANZ Stadium

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Posted January 09, 2019 03:48 · last edited January 09, 2019 06:52

Last night’s game was undoubtedly a major step forward psychologically for the rising Phoenix 2018/19 edition.

However Mark Ruden has a number of major challenges ahead in the coming weeks.The first is in selection of the replacement players for Mandi and Rufer this week, then dealing with those that reach the 5 yellow cards in the coming weeks. El grapadura and JC mentioned this last night. We are yet to settle on a replacement pair who we can rely on and it’s been said many times before this is the least “deep” part of our current squad. To my mind these players must come from the existing squad and it would be a miracle and foolish if we asked an inexperienced player who had been training with the squad to step up, even for a few minutes.

Ruden has one chance this Saturday against CCM, to put these replacements to the test. I still have my doubts whether Kopa will cope-he needs to be able to play 90-110 minutes to prove to me he can still function id in those tough last 20 plus minutes. .

So maybe Willow is an option in one of these slots for the short term?? He’s got the legs and the ticker to make it happen. I don’t know about the other one for this week but he would work well with Rufer for the Victory game and beyond.

The other issue for Mr Ruden is to maintain the dogged determination to succeed, which he has successfully done so far, but he needs to ensure the players don’t become so ruthless they will try to win at any cost and are branded a dirty side. Not saying it will happening but……Being a hard team is one thing- being a dirty team is another. We all know the dishing out of yellow or red cards byf A-league officials is a lottery, so much care is required.

The third issue is that we have been blessed so far with only a few minor injury worries, a huge portion of which is a mix good luck and good management. (I can hear someone saying its good management of course.) This wont happen for the rest of the season so  lets be prepared.

Pheonix supporters should be ready for a rough exciting few weeks with Victory, Sydney, Melbourne City, Perth in the coming 5 weeks or so . . Let supporters manage our own expectations as well.

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Unknown editor edited January 09, 2019 06:52

Last night’s game was undoubtedly a major step forward psychologically for the rising Phoenix 2018/19 edition.

However Mark Ruden has a number of major challenges ahead in the coming weeks.The first is in selection of the replacement players for Mandi and Rufer this week, then dealing with those that reach the 5 yellow cards in the coming weeks. El grapadura mentioned this last night. We are yet to settle on a replacement pair who we can rely on and it’s been said many times before this is the least “deep” part of our current squad. To my mind these players must come from the existing squad and it would be a miracle and foolish if we asked an inexperienced player who had been training with the squad to step up, even for a few minutes.

Ruden has one chance this Saturday against CCM, to put these replacements to the test. I still have my doubts whether Kopa will cope-he needs to be able to play 90-110 minutes to prove to me he can still function id in those tough last 20 plus minutes. .

So maybe Willow is an option in one of these slots for the short term?? He’s got the legs and the ticker to make it happen. I don’t know about the other one for this week but he would work well with Rufer for the Victory game and beyond.

The other issue for Mr Ruden is to maintain the dogged determination to succeed, which he has successfully done so far, but he needs to ensure the players don’t become so ruthless they will try to win at any cost and are branded a dirty side. Not saying it will happening but……Being a hard team is one thing- being a dirty team is another. We all know the dishing out of yellow or red cards byf A-league officials is a lottery, so much care is required.

The third issue is that we have been blessed so far with only a few minor injury worries, a huge portion of which is a mix good luck and good management. (I can hear someone saying its good management of course.) This wont happen for the rest of the season so  lets be prepared.

Pheonix supporters should be ready for a rough exciting few weeks with Victory, Sydney, Melbourne City, Perth in the coming 5 weeks or so . . Let supporters manage our own expectations as well.