R15 vs Newcastle Jets | Sun 17 Jan | 7:00pm | SS4

He tried the back 3 against Adelaide.

In almost hoping players take advantage of the fact that we don't have a license and leave. Clear the decks and rebuild ala wanderers. Although it would only be the good players to go and we'd be such with the dead wood, although I can only think of a couple is players we'd keep after that game.

He tried the back 3 against Adelaide.

In almost hoping players take advantage of the fact that we don't have a license and leave. Clear the decks and rebuild ala wanderers. Although it would only be the good players to go and we'd be such with the dead wood, although I can only think of a couple is players we'd keep after that game.

Pumped by the Jets smh

Looking at Gallop in the stands, I finally understood that we've just satisfied one of our metrics.

We made both CCM  and the Jets look like decent football teams. Their crowds will surge and FFA coffers will bulge with the cash.

Long after the game, I finally managed to stop beating my head against the wall out of sheer frustration and sat down with a cold one to decide what went wrong.  The obvious thing is the lack of decent strikers, Powell is OK but not in Krishna's league let alone Burns's.

My other thought was that Roly was playing way too far forward to get any decent distribution. I thought Fox had a good game and that Doyle almost ended up playing as Unintentional Striker. Gulley was OK but Danaskos got swamped by the Jets. Riera was good as usual. On the other hand I am not sure if Rodriguez made any difference today,  especially with the incessant horizontal passing in front of a parked Jets bus.

Yes there were couple of sitters that we missed. But so did the Jets, so even steven. But our lack of urgency, especially in the first half, lack of zip and guts, really bothered me.

A few player notes:

Fox drawn into fouls against experienced players esp early, culminating in the penalty, but learned from it
Doyle Actually wanted to make a difference, better than Gulley or Danaskos
A Rod Dances around with his fancy touches but rarely actual makes something happen
Riera Some poor passes today
Roly Spends his energy doing the wrong things, i.e trying to beat three people to get some space in midfield. Do that by passing first time. Falls over an cries too often.
Mikey Poor cf last week. What a miss.

SIGN A FUCKING STRIKER

I think we need wingers too. Once again our 4 central mids completely failed to break down a team which sat deep and narrow. We rely on our FBs for width but they're not contributing enough when they go forward. Riera also seems to have lost a bit of pace so can't make up the ground to cover on counterattacks as well as he once could, which means that we are vulnerable to opposition wingers getting behind our fullbacks too - like their 2nd goal last night.

Roly is less effective recently too because he's getting no time and space on the ball. Everyone's crowding each other in the centre of the pitch. A couple of times last night we strung together intricate passing in front of their box and it looked great, but mostly we just got in our own way.

We need to try something else but we don't have the squad to play any other way.

/thread

The one positive for me: Ridenton made a difference! He brought in some speed and made a goal when every other  Nix player would have fumbled it somehow over, banged into a jets player, been offside or not even at the right spot to get the ball at all. Two goals as impact player this season, he should start next week. Well done !

Too be honest, it's the same fudgein story every year. Over the phoenix to be honest, Ernie was supposed to turn this ship around but he hasn't. I can hardly be bothered turn it on now.....

Bye.

But seriously stick around. If the license extension is conditional on marquees and signing big players it could be interesting going forwards.

Ernie is obviously a great man manager and development coach - he is exactly what the Phoenix need, but maybe tactics are not his strong suit. Maybe we need someone who is tactically very strong, like a Rado Vidosic, to be in the coaching team.

No width, no pace, no well timed forward runs, no one twos between the lines to get in behind, no killer attitiude.

And no effective cover when fullbacks do get forward.

There is no chemistry in this team at the moment. Too much individual play, not enough combinations nor passes to runs into space to actually free players going forward and no anticipated second runs off that. And no strikers with confidence, tight ball control, instincts and a decent shot.

We are disorganised and fudging clueless and the only decent thing about this is Dura finally admitting they need to look at themselves.

And, as far as Roly goes, his head is bigger than his game sense right now. We are passing it around amongst the midfield until we give it to Roly. At which point he tries to beat the three players marking him and either fails, goes sideways, or beats them but runs into the next line of defense and gets kicked for his trouble.  It's stupid individualistic play.  For all his ball skills he is no midfield maestro.

Totally frustrated with Ernie and the team at the moment and not happy to be giving up a Sunday evening to watch us play like idiots.  I guess it shows.

God I so miss Kenny Cunningham by now.

I can see it every game that Krishna and yesterday Powell try to angle a run just to weave frustrated his arm after another pass to guy 3 m left/right. I think Riera is especially bad with this and Roly wan't to go a pile of players instead of play little one-two.

very frustrating that we let that ball of energy go for the complete opposite in sarpong  

What has he got to do with strikers?

Some pretty rose tinted glasses going on at the moment about the likes of Kenny, Brockie and Boyd. They're probably better than a few of the options we have currently, but wouldn't be turning us into anything more than a marginal top 6 team, as opposed to a 7/8/9 team.

he wanted to go back. His family didn't settle here and then returned to Costa Rica near the start of last season.

Still think that when Vinnie drops in between the CD, Dura and Fox need to get wider and the FBs to get further forward. The defensive organisation for the back 3 was a bit poor, when Carney sprung the poor offside trap for Jets third Dura, Vinnie and Fox were all pretty close to one another and not in line making it far too easy for Carney. Also, our possession based game struggles with Moss not being great with the ball at his feet. 

i actually stopped watching the game last night after it went 3-0 . was so over it . need a striker now 2 more weeks left in january to do it

i actually stopped watching the game last night after it went 3-0 . was so over it . need a striker now 2 more weeks left in january to do it

I watched half of the game against Waitak yesterday and thought WTF. Players trying to be too fancy when a short pass would suffice. Everyone seemed to be trying party tricks. BIG gulf between reserves and first team. I did not watch the game last night, too angry and frustrated about Christchurch and whether or not I can make it. Webjet and my C/Care having a disagreement. Looks like I may well be missing my first game. Fudge it. I'm desperate to get there.

This thread reads like I did not miss a thing and the Nix App said it all, 8 mins, penalty, Carney doing more diving than an Olympic Swimmer.

Wow..record number of passes.  As a stat that fails to excite me....all it means is that someone gives the ball to someone else and hopes they will do something with it..football equivalent of pass the parcel with no goal at the end.

cannot be bothered even reading this match thread,

It's odd, like Ernie is telling them not to use width. First Louis, who is a more than handy wide player and then Danaskos, who seemed equally capable of getting to the by-line just turning back and cutting in time and again. 

The difference yesterday equals Burns/Krishna. 

We win if they are there and the pressure through possession and territory we had. Some guys were capable of beating a player and then couldn't finish. But also they couldn't do it consistently.

I can't agree with you.  "Rose tinted glasses" usually implies remembering the past better than it really was. 

Kenny alone did more for us than for example Sarpong so far.  Sure, we can't hang on to people that do not want to stay or have great offers elsewhere. Of the players you mentioned I would have happily kept Burns, Kenny and Boxall. Of course there is the risk that Burns might have lasted another season or two till his past injuries would have caught up with him eventually (like they did with Ifill).

Rose-tinted glasses? We had a decent season last year with some of the above guys, that's a fact and not a misty-eyed sentiment.

Agree to disagree on Kenny. I didn't think he was actually that effective for us, at least in a way that would have made a huge difference for us this season. Then again he did every now and again pull out a moment of magic for us, which puts him above Sarpong, so I'll give you that. Still not a striker though (as per original comment).

If you read back I never actually mentioned Burns or Boxall who I agree would have made a difference for us this year.

Yesterday we had some of our best chances from flat balls across the box from wide positions but we didn't have a poacher to finish them off. Also there was Roly's long range effort which rebounded to WeeMac and he blew it. Dura got onto the end of a cross and bundled it over the line but was offside. I think those chances show that our patient passing buildups don't really work and that we need a striker who can get on the end of crosses or take those halfchances in the box. Powell might be that one day but he's still growing into the role I think. We could also do with natural wingers who can get to the byline and hit dangerous balls.

With Ricki we relied too much on getting it wide and putting it in the mixer, but with Ernie I think we've gone too far the other way.

Agree. We should go through the middle in the center of the pitch to keep option left, middle and right, but in the final third you stretch the defence left and right to thin out the lines.

cannot be bothered writing on this match thread.... oh whoops

I think we ALL can agree that the Jets are still a more shark team, that sadly enough managed again, to win against us. At least we have more  potential and are not owned by the:

'...least professional bunch of incompetent fudgetards this side of Jack Warner" -- Hard News

As i have said before the fans have stepped up big time in the #savethenix campaign its a bloody disgrace that those everyone is trying to save havnt stepped up also. The odd good result here and there just dosnt cut it any more, Domey just cant complain about crowds as long as we kept getting the crap served up like last nite.

You want crowds, sign a prolific striker. Not a converted player but a genuine one.

Think they would

1) finishing skills

2) 1-1 beating a player and making room for a shot

we had some chances we didn't put away and we had plenty of possession in and around the area. I think Burns and or Krishna would have made something- beaten players, dragged defenders out of position or released quick ball and we would have scored about 3-4 times. We were so dominant in that second half.

They are both get to the byline forwards, but then they can cross or dribble around defenders, or cut back.

Sure we had more of the ball and were trying to create more chances in that second half but it's hard to say we were dominating when we were already 2 or 3 goals down. The Jets didn't have to try to create chances because they had already done so successfully.

Thought Gully was reasonable and merited more minutes than he got yesterday.

Gulley was good but bringing Ridenton on made a difference.  In hindsight I would have taken Roly off instead.

Gulley was replaced by Doyle who made a much bigger impact than Gulley was doing.