R19 v Sydney FC | Fri 2nd Feb | 9.45pm | SS3 | #Dura279

i think paracki had one blocked and parkouse had one thats still rising now

Happy that’s over with, now bring on next week.

Did very well to hold Sydney to 4 goals

10 mins on FFW this morning was enough for me to get the gist of it...not unexpected given players available.

Fox has got to be our starting Cb with Dura. Rossi needs getting rid of. Ridenton such a shame he was injured he was one of the best.

Parkhouse (Left Foot) playing on the Right. 

WeeMac (Right Foot) playing on the Left. 

Defense totally disorganised.

Italiano couldn't catch a cold. 

Unable to make more than two passes so resorted to giving possession away by hoofing it.

Sat deep, invited pressure, hoof ball, repeat. 

Young Cacace the only highlight in 90minutes of football.

Anything I've missed?

so you're blaming all the errors that have occurred when its a dura/rossi combo on Rossi? dura has, for the last 2/3 seasons played himself way too high. generally it appears as though he is covering a woeful midfield, however he leaves his other CB exposed resultig in desperate tackles etc. Dura ws directly responsible for their second goal - he tackled his own player and lost the ball! he was art of the two players that left italiano in a one on one situation last week. - I could go on!

Look i respect dura for the leadership and effort he has given the nix- but noone can convince me that he has had a terrible couple of years and is starting to show his age and frustration that he can no longer boss the defence like he used to.

Just yet another hard watch to add to the list from all the seasons.Getting thoroughly sick of copping shark.Yep i agree Rossi has been bad but think he got hung out by Italiano rushing out then stopping. Seems he may be injured again maybe that could be part of his problem trying to play when not fully fit.

Like others impressed with  Cacace,lets see what method the Phoenix use to mess up another young player.They could try any of the following playing in positions not familiar with,give him splinters by sitting on the bench with no game time,a token 2/3 minutes at the end of yet another rubbish performance or try something completely new and just throw him to the wolves.

hamstring issue with Rossi and Krishna.

I did not to expect to win this. And the tactics where good enough to keep Sydney at arms length, but we gifted them 3 goals two of them in the first 14minutes and made to whole thing even harder.

They tried for the 90min, sadly most of our players are just not good enough, outplayed and outclassed. Hope we get a few more moments this season, we may lucky enough to avoid the spoon but I‘m looking forward for new squad next year. Keep all the Balkan boys, Krishna, Burns, Fox, Mullen, Singh and Ridenton the rest I don’t really care anymore. 

Based on his performance last night, I'd probably start Cacace ahead of Doyle/Abbas next game. 

Burns unable to get any ball

Give Roy a pay rise

Big changes needed now Don`t wait to next year

Have we got any players like Cacace lurking in the cupboard

if so get them playing now

I'm not happy with Dura every game either. His performances are also pretty turbulent. But Fox can at least cover himself (and Dura, by the sounds of it). I have way more confidence in Dylan than Dura, and honestly, Dura than Rossi.

Someone with more knowledge than I may assist here: It seems unlikely to me that Dura is playing high through choice. Is it more likely that he is playing in a system that calls for that? He's had some cracker games for NZ against better opposition than teams in the A League and we have praised him for those performances. He doesn't strike me as the type of player that chooses to play in a style that exposes him regularly, but he does strike me as a player who will play according to the way his coach tells him to.

If you can bear it, the highlights are here. The defending on all four goals is absolutely terrible, I don't need to name names...

https://www.a-league.com.au/video/full-time-highlights-sydney-fc-v-wellington-phoenix-0

What can one say that hasn't been said.??

No player is going to play to be exposed the way he has. I don't think that he has been good for a couple of seasons and if you think I am wrong, have a look at the number of goals we have conceded with a player of ' so called ability ' 

I don't have any more knowledge, but what you are saying does kind of echo my growing uneasiness that this coach may be a dud. Although it's true that Italiano is a substandard keeper, and we have been rather cursed with backline injuries there is still no reason why our defensive structure shouldn't be much, much tighter than it is. 

Why isn't it? Why are these guys, extremely experienced guys, making the same schoolboy errors they were making from early season? And why is the defence overall still such a shambles, despite the fact that man for man it is actually as good as most in the league? Add to that the 'interesting' selections where players are played out of position on the wrong wings, etc, plus the coach/asst coach meltdown and it all adds up to a big fat sigh of frustration that yet again the club has found a way to shoot itself in the foot.

if the coach goes because we fudge up next season then the management team who hired him need to go too

#domeout

If it was a one off, you could put it down to tactics for that particular match. But he did it with previous managers as well. He's the sort of defender that everyone thinks is fantastic because he makes the odd critical block, but in reality it's because of his poor positioning/reading of the game. It wasn't so noticeable when he was younger, but now he doesn't have the legs it's blatant. 

I actually think the shape and organisation of the back 4 looks better when Dura isn't on the pitch - which is strange given his experience and supposed leadership ability.

Like with Siggy, there's a nostalgia with Durante that he is still perceived as being a great defender, but that was several seasons ago and he's playing past his used by date imo.

Absolutely right.

Did anyone see the FourFourTwo ratings from the game? here's the link https://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/player-ratings-sydney-fc-v-wellington-phoenix-484326/page0

4 of the back 5 were set to man mark with dura being the free defender. The setup was for him to come out and challenge players in the space in front of the defence or cut out passing lanes.

Part of the reason for our better form has been due to dura being back in the side and playing well.

We switched to a back five halfway through. Prior to that it we were playing with 4.

You seem to like Durante and I'm not going to change your opinion on that, so we'll have to disagree.

Thought he was immense filling in the shoes of Winston Reid against Peru. He doesn't seem like a guy who is done quite yet. 

This is a good summary about Ridenton's season- sublime and silly:

"A real Jekyll and Hyde performance from the Kiwi midfielder. Showed many glimpses of class including some exceptional close control to play his way out of trouble in the first half. However, there were moments where simple passes seemed too strenuous to pull off and was sluggish." 

I really hope he'll get in the goals and some good ones. The goals from Rufer, Ridenton and Parky (and Mikey) just haven't happened, though Goran and Mullen have managed one. Behind Kalu and Krishna  (and Dario!!) our goal scorers haven't been on target, though as Sydney showed last year a team with 3 goal scorers and the rest defending and creating will actually be fine.

I think this season has showed Mat to be a scrapper. We need more lucky headbandages and goals scored late or shot unimpressively past the keeper, rather than blazed spectacularly into row Z. Muscats, Sigmunds, Browns, Daniels. I'm hoping Goran and Matty are going to be thought of in that category. And Mullen and Fox have impressed me of late too. 

no he wasn't Paracki was playing DM not CB.

perhaps we saw it differently

Take those graphics with a grain of salt. They've been wrong so often (e.g. Doyle was listed as our left winger in a front 3 earlier in the season).

that was when we changed from a 4-3-3 to a 5-3-2, they've been pretty accurate since then

In the first half Paracki was ostensibly playing as a DM and man-marking Ninkovic, which often led to it looking like he was a right-sided centre back in a back three when Sydney has the ball

About 10 minutes into the second half, when Cacace came on, Galloway went to right wingback, and picked up the man-marking duties, leaving Mullen, Fox and Dura as CBs and Cacace as left wingback, though when Galloway tracked Ninkovic in to midfield, it often appeared like there was instead a gaping hole at right wingback.