R19 vs Sydney FC | Thur 9th Feb | 9:50pm | SS2

It's all a bit depressing at the moment and I feel like I should avoid watching this game, but I am a glutton for punishment so I will. 

Watson in for Smeltz.

COYN, do the unthinkable.  

must win, or a top 6 finish is going to be very tough.

The weather is a max of 30 so will have cooled down by KO

We're going to get humped!

The 'unthinkable' has happened before, remember the Knights were at death's door but went over to Sydney and beat them 2-1! It was a temporary reprieve though.

Was Sydney unbeaten the whole season before that game?

As long as it's not a repeat of that 7-1 result, but I'd take a point if it was offered. 

This is the type of game that the Nix occasionally do very well in. Just hope it's this weekend and not next season I guess.

Imagine that - beating Melbourne & Sydney in the same season!

I hope we win

WE MUST WIN!

We won't win.

We won't win.

Interesting that with Smeltz out that Finkler or Roly are being talked as a possible false nine in a 433/4231 setup, so similar to Ernie's setup.

6 pointer?

For some reason, I'm strangely fired up and feeling optimistic, despite the performance last weekend. It would be a great addition to Phoenix folk-lore if we can pick up 3 points against the A-League's (thus-far) Invincible's on Thursday. With the Phoenix' absolute erratic and inconsistent performances you never know what you're going to get, so here's hoping for a good one. 

On thing in our favour is recent history, we're undefeated in our last three trips to play Sydney

It's Mates Night Out at @AllianzStadium on Thurs! Free sausage roll if we score 2 goals in 70 min - https://t.co/RaxstBTb3a #SydneyIsSkyBlue

— Sydney FC (@SydneyFC) February 7, 2017

Big Macs > sausage rolls

Carl's Jr better than any of the rest. You have Carl's once and you can never go back.

The same Carls Junior that has a reputation of sexual discriminiation and of calling it's employees scum? Or whose CEO is now the Secretary of Labour, a devout anti abortionist, a religious nutter, and has talked regularly about wanting to get rid of paid sick leave and the minimum wage?

Played tonight, on a cool, miserably wet Wednesday night would've been more to our liking.

Thats the one. Delicious! It's a bit of a drive from Sydney though! 

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I think Burger Wisconsin is better.

Oh good, nothing like a Fever match thread to get side tracked by a food conversation!

A politics of food discussion no less.

0-1 Nix

Sydney are on a roll

Watching most of the games since Ernie left far and it seems to me that Des and Chris are acting like Ernie clones. Apart from a few positiional changes .......like playing with a true striker and having A-Rod and Lia together in CM I am not seeing much different from Ernies methods. We still pass the ball slowly with most passes mainly sideways or backwards, we still constantly recycle the ball through the defenders. Our play in the last 30 metres is still ponderous. We still don't really utilise the speed of our wide attackers 

A friend of mine watched a few Nix training sessions recently and he said he was surprised by how much imput the senior players were having...guys like Durante were doing lots of talking. Nothing wrong with that....its important to have imput from guys who have been there, done that. However you kind of wonder at how the coaching dynamics works when you have such novice coaches and some very experianced senior players. Chris is one of the boys from his recent playing days. Des is a real newby to be head coach. Despite the media saying he comes from coaching Oxford United I can;'t find any record of ever being head coach there. Seems like he was a trainer or  whatever(If anyone can update???)

 IMO the post Ernie bounce was largely due to player input.....more effort etc. We know that several senior players publically lobbied to have Des and Chris as coaches. Des and Chris  publically thanked Ernie for upskilling them as coaches. So are we seeing the same old Nix? It didn't work under Ernie....why should it work under a couple of Ernie clones?

We have some very very good players, especially on attack. But guys like Costa and Finkler look shadows of their former selves....IMO  we missed a good opportunity to bring a fresh new approach to the coaching setup. We have Des and Chris for now and I hope they can pull things around but you have to admit with the next three games against teams in the top four, our chances of grabbing that last playoff spot is not looking good. 

and then if the duo are deemed to be not the future, a "fresh new approach" can be brought in at the time only time it realistically can, the offseason.

You're kind of fortunate to be playing us on the Thurs in some ways.

Fri, Sat & Sunday are all expected to be in the very high 30's this weekend..

Blech.

Reckon the Nix could concede a whopper of a scoreline here

coyn

Fire up farken!