R14 v Perth Glory | Thurs 5th Jan | 11pm | SS3

Just fudge off. Fudge.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but in our past 6 fixtures we've drawn and lost against Adelaide, lost against Perth, beat CCM, and drew against WSW and the Jets. These are the teams we need to finish above to get into the top 6, but we've taken 6 points from 18. There were positives in the first half but the Phoenix Syndrome looked to have kicked in after the equaliser. We have a frustratingly promising squad, but we're creeping towards a write-off season. Alas, there's still plenty of time to turn it around, but we've had a great opportunity about four games in a row to do so, but have failed. 

If that was the one in the first half I'm pretty sure it was Tratt that missed it.

I'm disappointed.  As I have been the entire season apart from 3 games.

surely Roys card will be rescinded?

Probably not, not mistaken identity, not error in law.  Just like Keogh's headbutt won't be reviewed because it was dealt with by onfield officials.  Load of rubbish.

Better effort there. Enjoyed the pressing in that first half, but still didn't get any points from it, though.

Shaun Evans hopefully retires ASAP.

Cool. Onwards to next week... We better not lose.

Except they have done it before, think O'Donovan. He got a yellow for the head butt during the game but was later reviewed and suspended. Saying that, O'Donovans one was much worst than Keoghs.

Luckily I had fast forward..poor reffing as we are used to.  Not much is going to change even with Smeltz.

Roys Red

Would be nice if Fox put the headbutt videdo into the public arena.  But suspect as it was premeditated they won't.

On waking up this morning...
Feel sorry for the team, they didn't deserve to lose that. The football in the first half was very good. Slack closing down by both Roly and Parkhouse gave them the space for the equaliser. In saying that I thought Roly had a pretty good game. Smeltzy made a big difference with his play.
Disgusting refereeing again cost us.
Rossi was excellent, Roy very good though he should have done better with his one on one, A Rod won a lot of ball but passed it to Perth too many times, Watson made a good impact.

Don't lose heart boys, we are due to smack someone!

Maybe we need to stop being "sporting" ? Lowry went down like he had his leg amputated. Bounces up when Red shown.

These antics sicken me as much as diving, but it seems we are the only team not actively engaging in it and it clearly fools these substandard referees

Role gave the ball away more than A-rod

Roy deserved the red card he went over the top and was late hes been guilty of these sort of fouls in the past and got away with it.Gents the Phoenix lost because the defending is poor across the park.Dura and Doyle were poor how slow are those two and to think Doyle just got a two year deal and whats up with Kosta not the same player

I only watched the highlights and read a match report but I'm interested in how people thought our formation change and CM pairing of A-Rod and Roly went? Sounds like we were playing some decent football there for a while, so what happens when Lia, Gui, and WeeMac are back?

We should have won the game in the first half. Some nice football was let down by sloppy passing by A-Rod & Roly. Smeltz looked eager to play & was vocal in organising players around him.

Unbelievable refereeing for the Keogh headbutt, should have been straight off.

Biggest concern for me is the way Dura lost his man, for Perths first goal. Far too many times this season has seen the skipper being guilty of being off the pace when, either a ball is whipped across or he is side on & the attacker has totally wrong footed him. 

Studs up normally means you are sliding and your studs are raised, in this situation when I think he is trying to get a block on the clearance there will always be studs showing as he is standing up.   I think a red is harsh considering what we have seen key go this season, let alone in this game

Also really concerned about the tactical side of this game.  As a coach it's relatively easy to study a team during the week and work on a shape and tactics to combat them or maximise weaknesses and I think we have seen that since Des and Greenie took over.  However as a coach it's much harder to watch a live game and at halftime or during the game makes changes or adjust to something the opposition did. 

Granted it's hard to tell on TV but for me it looked like the Perth coach identified some weaknesses during the first half and tweaked some things during the break and we got exploited (even before the red card) and I'm worried the new coaches didn't know or were not confident to fix the things that Perth were exploiting in the 2nd half.

Yep agree and it should have been a foul and a yellow.  I would class it as reckless rather than dangerous.  Had contact been higher then yes dangerous and a red

It's a matter of consistency. If you are going to give straight reds for tackles like that then you can automatically triple the number of reds you will see in any given season. You regularly see much more brutal, potentially injurious tackles given a yellow card, or just a free kick, or even nothing at all!

I can't help thinking that in part the send off stemmed from a high boot from Krishna in the first half when the ref gave him a long stern talking to, which at the time I thought was ridiculous as the Perth player had come from behind Krishna and ducked his head into his boot. Perhaps the ref had that incident in his mind, hence his, in my opinion, total overreaction later on.

And get the whole stadium cheering and applauding? 

You are correct, it was Tratt.  Heading that ball down would have been a sure goal.

Roy has been lucky not to get pinged for that type of challenge a lot more often. But in fairness, he has been on the receiving end of a hell of a lot of those.

The first 45 mins was the most coherent team performance the Nix had managed this season, partly due to the 4-4-2 formation. The midfield, which has been straggled all over the places, looked compact and able to put passes together and control the game. 

In previous games the narrowness of playing Vinny and Roly one in front of the other, with Finkler, Roy, Watto and Kosta floating around in front of them, meant our opponents could rattle down the wings at will - Glory couldn't do that as easily as so many other opponents have done this season.

Smeltz and Roy looked like a fruitful partnership, and their interplay showed that class-wise they're better than any other combinations. When Smeltz went off, you could see the dip in class between him and Watto - maybe Smeltz can mentor him into being a bit more aware.

Having Parkhouse and Kosta playing as wingers gave Roly and A-Rod targets to hit. Where previously the free roaming Gui would be in an awkward position to reach, Our centre mids loved sliding the ball in between the centre back and full back for each of them to chase onto - he must have done it four or five times - including Kosta's chance that led to Parky's corner. Parkhouse sticks to his line, Kosta likes coming inside which nearly worked on a couple of occasions.

Thought switching Parkhouse and Kosta midway through the first half was odd, as Parky obviously only uses his right foot for standing on - cracking corner though lad.

The defence looked a little more exposed, but that was because without Lia they were a man light - but with Lia our midfield is a man light. In a way that explains how we've had a decent defensive effort this season but struggled to score - the midfield's helping out the defence, rather than supporting the attack. 

Can't have it both ways, but I preferred how our midfield looked and linked with our attack yesterday than I have done in almost every other game we've played this season. Rossi, Dura, Tratt and Doyle may have to do without their midfield shield, other teams manage it.

Rossi didn't dive and Keogh got a yellow. Lowry went full Jacques Cousteau and Roy got a red. Good on Rossi. 

Be interesting to see if we continue with the 4-4-2. It worked pretty well for a first crack.

This

For me this is the big question when you appoint coaches with very little experiance. I have seen on quite a few occasions now with G&B that tactically they have failed to respond to events happening on the field. This has included making tactical changes and strategic substitutions. We were out coached in this game.  Perth made a tactical switch at half time and we failed to repond. It seems that despite being in charge for five matches now they  have either failed to recognize or are unable to fix, some of the glaring weakness's we have. Its all very well to put the work in doing the week and chose a tactical approach i.e switching to a 442. But coaching is also about what happens once the play has started.

For me we have a real problems in the way we are set up to defend. We get away with it from time to time.....mainly through the last gasp brilliance of Rossi and Moss. Its all very well blaming an aging Dura for being caught out defensively but the questions should be asked about the way the other players are not doing their jobs. Do G&B not see the problem? or are they unable to fix it? don't they see whats obvious...especially down our right hand side?

So Welnix have made their choice. We have G&B coaching now...the two most inexperianced coaches in the A-League.  They have had five matches in charge and we have played five teams who are mid to bottom of the table............ and we have one win. Plus we are seeing the same mistakes match after match. I really hope they can turn things around but does anyone really think that we can now go and pick up enough points against the better sides to get top six? I have a feeling that the positive blip we had after Ernie left was more about the players responding with more effort.....but more effort will only get you so far. Should have appointed a proper coach IMO.

Sorry to get stuck into one sentence, but I can't resist an argument..... 

..... what exactly are you calling a "positive blip"?  

That we beat 3:0 the CCM team that fielded an inexperienced squad?  Drew at home nil-all against Adelaide? 

Or that we drew away with the Jets after scoring first?

Yeah I really haven't seen many positives since Ernie left. It's felt like much of the same.

People seem to forget we beat CCM handily under Ernie earlier in the season, along with the Jets.

Wasn't that Tratt?

Yes it was Tratt. I posted a correction a few posts ago.

still think Moss should have done better with the Griffiths goal

In addition to what's already been posted, in attack 442 allowed us more width and central creative space, but we didn't defend well in that formation.

Playing 442 also presents man-management issues. By this I'm thinking particularly that a lot players have to share game time of the 2 central midfielders (our natural 6,8,10 positional players): Lia, Ridenton, Weemac, aRod, Fink, Roly, and say Rufer. In a 442, we would probably only start 2 of those 7. Welcome to coaching BuckFizz.

Every time we lose there is a lot of flack which is perfectly understandable. I always like to see the game again which I have not done yet.

Our two fullbacks seemed to gets skinned  at will.

Shane was knackered after 20 mins

Kosta's form will come back at some stage.

We have no leader on the pitch.

We need someone with the ability to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

If Dura was as good at defending as arguing with ref he would be a world beater.

I can't blame Moss for the first goal-- brilliant strike, but Dura was at fault for their second.

We  have some good players but they are not on the same page.

In the 2nd half we had some chances when we broke with 4 on 3 on 5 on 4 and instead of playing the ball forward we slowed it down and played it back.

CCM next game. This will be interesting. Think we need Wee M back in the team

Not surprised at the result, Perth is a tough place to go. No matter what we do it seems we are just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

Would like to see Dura dropped for a couple of games or at least on the bench, Fox needs game time to improve (I know he had a shocker against victory). Midfield seems to be going through the motions, in and out of the game, can't seem to stay focused for long periods, not sure if they know what the game plan is.

Not happy with how season has gone and can't really see how it is going to get better, might get a few more wins but think we will miss top six

My thoughts anyhow, now for a granddad nap after the late night..

I know Moss is the obvious choice if Dura sits out a game, but.....

... how about making Rossi a captain with specific role for him to marshall the defence?

He has the right skills, and is obviously deferential to Dura on park, but I can see his decision making in defence is somewhat better.