R19 vs Melbourne Victory | Sun 1st Mar | 7:00pm

Played so well today but im going to have to be the one that says this. Burns is a hog...

Hogs and beasts have their day.

Not a hog. Everytime he looked there was no one in the box - only Krishna at back post being marked by defender and weeMac near edge of box being static. Think he could find real joy with nutpuncher up there.

Ernie is a tactical genius

Switched from a 4-3-3 with krishna to a 4-4-2 with Grif (2 Defensive mids and then 2 attacking mids) --> It looks like we got our new plan B

Also switched to what looked like a 4-5-1 for the final 5 mins..

The griffiths sub genuinely changed the game.

Fudge yeah 3 points victory away --> this is our season

In two weeks we could either be hanging on to fifth place or clear at the top of the table!! imagine 2 more wins in a row now, we'd be huge news!! COYN

Agree 

Burns is a classic greedy little striker which is exactly what you need ,unfortunately his team mates up front just weren't on the same page half the time ,maybe Griffiths might help who knows but Burns is total class !

As for Wee Mac his shooting ability is piss poor so why would Burns take the option of passing it to him ?

A wet one no doubt ?

2nd best attack in the League.

2nd best defence in the League.

still trending

Ernie Merrick Interview

http://www.foxsports.com.au/video?v=phoenix-press-conference_1227243802077

What a great game, game of the season maybe?

MoM should have gone to Moss, he kept us in the game and did not make one mistake.

Im sorry but i have to make this comment, everyone talking up how amazing burns is and was tonight, he he absolute rubbish, tonight he didn't look up for his players in space. If he could hold onto the ball, look for players or learn to shoot we would be leading the comp..... the amount of stupid shots he will take or the amount of times he won't pass the ball to a player in a better position is incredible, we would have won by three goals tonight if burns was a team player. 

Yes he has scored 11 goals this season, keep in mind his 11th was because he was lazy and taking his time getting back onside so when we had a break he only had to walk back on side for a simple tap in.

You sound like a Jets fans who wants Griff back. Well sorry Griffs with us.

Don't think i mentioned Griff in my post? do you mean burns? haha

Looking forward to the next podcast. Suuuuuchhh a good weekend for me; brewday, blackcaps win, chiefs win, PHOENIX win in melbourne with two goals from set pieces!! :) :)

Same, was waiting for them to call offside about 5 seconds after he put it in the net.

That makes a monday morning much more bearable.

It really happened.

i would love to have seen the Victory dressing room afterwards. War zone? Kicked chairs?

That was a really good game from both sides and I really enjoyed it. I would not have been upset it Victory had won it because they played well. If you were a neutral looking at this game, the fair representation of it was a draw. Victory has significant chunks of it and we did too. I think our teams superior fitness allowed us to finish stronger and hence we got the result. The last 10 mins, Victory slowed a lot.

Its fair to say a significant majority thought this game was going to be a loss and nothing but, but we were competitive for a bit and playing our way even when Victory were on top and I guess when you read through the forum thread, you can see the elements of hope in there because we had not folded (from a performance aspect on field) like we normally do against Victory. At the half, it could have been 5-3 to them but we did have 3 good chances which is telling in that.

A lot of people have an issue with the penalty reading back over it but that foul there was the exact same thing that City and Jets did to us last 2 weeks. It was not brutal but it was late and school kids get told to stay on their feet in the box so really, that was a massive massive brain fart from Sigmund that could well have made a huge difference to the game. Lucky for us. I hope when he watched the tape, he raises his hand and goes 'yeah, my bad' He certainly was not protesting it cause he knew.

I thought Moss made some outstanding saves and when he launched himself at Kostas feet when both were at full flight, you kinda got the sense he was having a bloody good game and was not going to be beaten easily. He was left badly exposed by Muscat on the second goal when he did not tuck in and left a gapping hole the size of an ocean liner for Kosta to run through. When Manny realised what happened, it was too late for him to track and make a difference and Kosta executed.

There are ravings for Boxall and from an attacking aspect, he changed the game. For his main role, as a defedner, and across the back 5 (Riera) in general, they all had moments where they were made to look foolish. Riera got caught when Victory ran a 2nd marker to harry his touch and he got caught (and not the first time this year teams have figured his touch can be wary), Muscat was exposed on the 2nd goal, Sigmund gave the penalty, Durante was screened and left with Kosta running right past him for a 1v1 on Moss and Boxall was beaten in a couple of footraces up his flank. He is a beast and gives us a great and effective set piece target. I thought he had a decent 1st spell but the 2nd from a defensive stand point, was not as strong. As a team, we struggle with the counter attack and have not got that right all season. To me, this is what I would be working on at coaching and setting up for this to really make them work and figure it out both defensively under pressure but also for Burns, McGlinchey, Roly and Roy to figure out how to run one.

A-Rod ran and did a lot of the intangibles you don't see. There is no doubt that he is the piece that should be in the midfield instead of Lia so it might be the last we see of Vinnie in a starting role for a while. I thought Roly was stronger late in the game once Griffiths came on and there was a formation change where Roly played more as a left half. There was one run he made around the 60th min roughly where he was in 20yards of circular space around him and rather than press it and be aggressive, he looked lost and was looking to find a pass. Thats something he was not doing prior to the break and I wonder if he has been coached to be more of a conduit in the scheme of things and not call his own number so much. McGlinchey had an improved game compared to his last 4 and it was good to see him get on the ball more. You sensed he could make things happen if only it was a sharper pass or that defender was 2 feet to the left/right. 

Krishna used his pace and nothing more and I thought this was the first game where he was ineffective. The sub for Griffiths was the right one (choke gasp splutter) because Griffiths then made effective passes to the right guys in the right space at the right time and showed he has the legs to chase a ball too. As much as I hate him, when he came on, we did take control of the game and while it may not have directly been because of him, I think it force a slight formation change to accommodate him where we went to more of a 4-1-2-1-2 with a more pronouced diamond midfield with A-Rod and Roly on the right and left respectively and McGlinchey at the apex. Either way, that for me was the moment we took over. Burns backs himself but there are times when he takes it too far or he backs himself at the wrong time or there are better options. His cut back is a heavy touch and thats normally where he gets in trouble because he has to chase it. Its not as pretty as Ifills. I'm not being overly critical of Burns because he has 11 goals and its working for him but you do wonder 'could we have more if only at this point in time here, he did this, instead of that'?

Next week we have no Manny and the problem is, is that he does not learn. Thats his second suspension and I think he will get another before the season is out. Shermy is injured, Fenton is/may still be concussed, Manny is suspended. You are probably gonna see Doyle start or perhaps if Fenton is fit, he comes back and Boxall slides over to the left but I don't think thats the right option. I would prefer to go with Doyle as a natural left footer and Boxall has done nothing wrong that says Fenton should come back in straight away.

Does that game become a kickstarter for things to come? When you look at the table and how condensed it is, its hard not to boot ourselves for the 2 points dropped to CCM at Eden Park, then against City and Jets. We could be top and I think our inability to punish poor teams that we have dominated could decide our play off spot rather than wins like this one.

Glad to see somebody else shares my view of Manny's part in their 2nd goal. His positioning was way off, which allowed Kosta to make the run he did.

Penalty, I had absolutely no problem with. Siggy cleaned the MVC player out. No doubt in my mind it was a penalty.

I thought Griffiths offered us much more than Roy did. Thought Roly, A-Rod, Mossy and Burns were our best on the day. Both full backs were a bit ropey defensively, but they stuck at the job.

Great win, nice to be scoring goals again. Hopefully we can now push on from this and put a decent run of wins together, starting this weekend.

You forgot perhaps the most important mention of all - Lia didnt make a single mistake all game.

Agree. It's the type of foul that hardly ever gets called because the shot goes wide.

also agree re Manny.  That is him on the far right about to get smoked by Kosta. Took him too long to sense the run of Kosta and the danger. By the time he reacts he is done for pace. Last of pressure on the ball player hurt us as Dura got caught between trying to block the pass to Kosta and pressing onto the ball player.

I think it is pretty standard to ignore post (clean) shot contact so it is a little surprising it was called.

Thought there was too much space allowed to whoever received that infield pass from Costa in the first place. Not the easiest tracking a give and go which I assume Manny was doing

Na it was roly that let his player run past him.

I though Manny would be out anyway, is his missus not giving birth? Some stupid foul to get a clean sheet, he looked quit relaxed when he got the card.

If Sigmund had two footed him, would the ref go 'well its post contact on a shot so doesn't count mate. That foul is identical to what has happened to us the last 2 weeks and we can't sit here and whinge about no protection from the refs when we are doing the same in return.

Watching the highlights; have no problem with the pen, and A-Rod made a fantastic defensive block that I didn't see when I was in the stadium.

A-Rod's defensive block sums up why he's in the team over lia. haha

I may have been harsh there. He was caught further forward to shut down their back line but never recovered to track the runner.

Geria is just lurking on the touchline. Would have been in the back of Manny's mind, so a little slow to react to Kosta's run.

Did think that Geria could match Krishna for pace and the reason he was not so effective. Geria was really good. 

I'm surprised Kevin Muscats jaw doesn't fall off with the amount of chewing he does.

Who was our guy who got wiped out in the box a while after that? 

I thought that was a peno. Yea the guy took some ball but he bobsledded right through our guy. Definitely no better than their peno, at the very least.

If Lia started we would have lost this game.

That one got all ball, whoever our guy was never touched the ball. Siggy Also never touched the ball, got all player, no doubt it was a penalty.

Yea that's where I wonder... because in the outfield if a player goes two footed, all ball, but right through it as well as the man, then he can still get red-carded. But in the box, it's ok?

Admittedly I haven't seen a replay since it happened, so can't judge the height of the feet and if studs were showing etc, but at the time it looked nasty to me, like at least a yellow if it was in the outfield.