R13 vs CCM | NYE | 9:00pm | SS3

I remember Brockie for his last two goals in his last match for us, everybody was so happy and cheerful.

I remember Brockie for screaming goals in lost causes. I think AK's goals come more from traditional striker play whereas Brockie would score from random places or in random ways (as far as I recall) - volleys from longer range, crosses which caught the wind and drifted in, etc. I think AK is more a pure finisher but maybe hasn't seemed as involved otherwise because we aren't really pressing from the front and he doesn't drop back into midfield at all. Both of those things might be because he's lazy or they might be tactical decisions from Kalezic. I think it's probably tactical personally.

As an aside I love AK's goal celebrations. He seems to get really fired up, they mean a lot to him

The question is really whether AK's job is just scoring goals or if it's pressing when we are defending and dropping back to get the ball and link up more when we're in possession. If it's more than just scoring you could argue he needs to pick up those aspects of his game (assuming Kalezic wants him to press/drop)

Young Vid

I wanna see Smith back, since he was dropped after 2 errors vs Perth, and now Italiano has had a shocker of attempting to save anything last week. Also keen to see if Paracki can find the form he promised early on anytime again soon.

This. We don't really have anything to lose. We want Smith to have game time so let him have it. Also let Singh have more game time.

Yeah, people say Smith cost us five points... At least we were in the position to lose five points.

There's only one Kaluđerović

And also there is only one Kaludjerović !

We’re never in a position to lose points. We’d be ahead of Brisbane with a game in hand + in playoffs contention with 5 more, not saying Italiano would have done any better though ;)

I mainly made that post because I wanted to show off how I'd worked out how to make my computer write the oddball Serbian-Croatian letters :D

Wow...that is really really harsh and super over critical. 

Kalud is a striker and he is currently second on the A-League goal scorers list.....that is a major achievement for a striker playing for a team in total disarray and rock bottom of the A-League table. He is doing his job, scoring goals......without him we would probably have no points.

If he was the complete player do you really think he would be at the Nix?? We have 1000 problems and Kalud is certainly not one of them

AK9 has done exactly what he ahs been asked to do, score goals consistently, and from headers which is something the nix have failed to do for seasons. He and young Vidosic we doing exactly as required in the goal scoring department. Krishna before being injured is another that has done his job well, he's looked dangerous on attack, created plenty of chances and worked hard on defence. I'm not sure anyone else has reached the required level - there have been plenty in the could do better category and I suspect these could well be leaving at the end of the season - given 13 come off contract end of this one.

I'd say we are extremely optimistic and positive fans considering we still watch this trash week in week out.

WELLINGTON PHOENIX

Ins: 17.Ali ABBAS (promoted), 21.Roy KRISHNA (returns from knee injury)

Outs: 11.Hamish WATSON (omitted)

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Lewis ITALIANO (gk), 2.Daniel MULLEN, 3.Scott GALLOWAY, 4.Goran PARACKI, 9.Andrija KALUDJEROVIC, 10.Michael MCGLINCHEY, 12.Adam PARKHOUSE, 13.Marco ROSSI, 14.Alex RUFER, 17.Ali ABBAS, 18.Sarpreet SINGH, 19.Tom DOYLE, 21.Roy KRISHNA, 22.Andrew DURANTE 23.Matthew RIDENTON, 24.Logan ROGERSON, 30.Keegan SMITH (gk)

**one to be omitted**

expect rogerson to be the one left at home

the next person to say ‘we don’t have anything to lose’ gets an upper cut 

I know that there will be a player leaving soon.

who and sauce?

Anyone live in Wellington who is travelling to this Nix game against CCM? I have a shirt I'm trying to get to one of their fans and would appreciate someone saving them postage by taking it over. 

Considering the omition, Watson is looking likely.

Aye, Im no great fan of his, but he doesn't appear to be going anywhere in his current situation, so you can imagine how difficult it must be for him.

That's fair. I agree, he hasn't done much for us, however he hasn't been given the time during a match to do anything. Hopefully this will mean he can get a large amount of game time early on in the New Year to prove us all wrong.

If it is Watson (and I would not be so sure, seeing how much moolah Welnix would have to shell out to pay him out from a two year contract) then that would only happen if Kalezic has seen enough of him in training and decided that he does not offer us enough while the young blokes like Singh or Rogerson can still be moulded to suit his vision, for example "not running into offside", for starters. Which means he would not be giving him any more game time, since we don't have time to take this kind of risks anymore, and because Kalezic wants us to start winning games.  Otherwise his record will be worse than that of Buckingham and Greenie, let alone that of Merrick.

That is of course a whole pyramid of suppositions, all balancing on top of four elephants standing on top of a turtle, if you know what I mean, but it is that kind of a post-Xmas funk.

I'd expect that mullen will be starting with Dura sitting on the bench, Rufer will be covering midifield along with Singh,Abbas to cover the left and right back spot.

Mullen was terrible vs Sydney. At fault for at least 2 goals. Dura seems past it though. How are Fox and Lowry going in the Handy? 

Fox is injured and lowry has been dropped. But I agree Mullen was at fault for 2 goals in Sydney and Dura is just too old and grumpy to be starting.

hasn't worked for us in the recent weeks when he has played, his age and lack of pace has seen him caught out of position way too often and the yelling at his own team doesn't seem to work anymore. Maybe because he is often the one at fault and is expecting Rossi to cover him too often?

I hope we deflate those stupid fudgeing Sauce Bottles!!!

(If anyone else here has even heard of this band, you are a friend of mine. RIP John Wetton.)

So just to confirm we have none of the following:

Never heard of them, but I‘m instant fan of the Keyboard / E-Violin (?!) maestro. Great stuff!

John Wetton played bass on Bryan Ferry's "Let's Stick Together"

He was front man for Asia who had a big hit with "Heat of the Moment". 

Yes. :) Before that he was in King Crimson. While hanging around with the Roxy Music types he met their keyboardist/e-violinist Eddie Jobson, and they formed the short lived supergroup UK, before John went on to bigger things with Asia.

ANYWAY BACK TO THE FOOTBALL MODS TAKE CONTROL

I was in a band with a guy who was an ex-roadie for Bruford - Wetton- Holdsworth. 

Not sure if that was UK or Asia. I'll ask him next time I see him.