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

Yep. 

It wasn't exactly hard to predict, either. All you had to do was ask Victory fans who previously loved the bloke - his star had faded considerably in his final season there and his limited pace was becoming a huge issue.

I do find it funny that Hernandez got a lot more criticism despite producing far more than Finkler or Rodriguez ever have.

I thought that signing Finkler was truly batshark crazy considering the other holes in our squad at the time.

Except they got a free, no-risk/no-cost look at this duo for the back half of this season, and if that doesn't pan out - looks likely - that coaching cleanout will happen, at the only time it realistically can - the offseason. No time to do it halfway through.

Aside from the errors we made, thought that was a very naive formation against sydney too. Perhaps an actual 4 2 3 1 with wee mac for finkler, and roly alongside a rod, might have offered us better control....

Just the very basics like passing to our own players seems to have deserted the team.

Edit: I know stats don't tell everything but A-Rod is there to recycle possession and feed the ball to more advanced mids or wingers, and to break up attacks, and those stats are actually a pretty good measure of how much he does. 

I feel like a broken record constantly defending A-Rod but I always wonder how people miss how much work he gets through

Nix just sent this tweet, Russian hackers perhaps?

Here's your #Nix starting XI and bench for tonight's game #COYN #NixintheSix #SYDvWEL pic.twitter.com/LgTGQyKqd5

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) February 10, 2017

Replies to the tweets are funny

Phoenix social media person showing solidarity with the team by putting in a poor performance.

The tweet is still there 2 hours later.  Massive facepalm

more down to the players at this point

When Finkler signed I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who secretly thought to themselves that having scored a bazillion goals from free kicks for MV he would never, ever, EVER score one for us. 

He did hit the post once and that will surely be the closest he ever gets.

Yep, I had higher expectations too but sadly he has not consistantly performed as well as he did at the Victory. Do the Nix have a habit of turning a good player into a crap one?? Kosta being another example.

Who's in "a hole"

We have pretty much ruined Finkler's career I think. I mean after this season where's he going to go???!

Central League or Masters

I think a lot of the Sydney supporters would have been nervy the way we finished the first half and came out of the sheds in the second. The goal for 3-1 was against the run of play at that point and the way A-Rod was dictating the tempo was one fo the reasons for that. I've become a big fan of his. 

Yeah!   and how many points have we taken off Adelaide this season? 

 Sure, they are in a hole, but they are standing on our shoulders

Totally disagree. Theoretically...if we had bought in.....say, Ange Posticoglou instead of Des, where do you think we would be now? 

  We have a squad full of very good players. You can point the finger at some of the players to some extent but the buck stops with the coaching.....Welnix made a mistake with their appointment. We have to live with that until the end of the season and hopefully we get a coaching cleanout in the off season

I think A-Rod is incapable of driving the team by himself, but when the other two midfielders are playing well and covering him he's good at recycling possession quickly.

In saying that, a lot of his flaws don't really become apparent just purely by looking at his stats. He gets pushed off the ball easily. Pressured easily. He doesn't play anything incisive. He's not great at tracking his man. Most of the balls he loses are in dangeorus positions. Just watch the game against Sydney. He did not cover himself in glory, despite the goal. (which was lucky but inventive) . I think he just seems a bit of a lightweight in our midfield, personally. Now - a guy like Ridenton probably has similar issues, but he's a kiwi and not an import.

Now, this could be said for most of our midfield so it's not just him. But as an import, we need to have higher standards. A-Rod would not play for any team in the top 4.

I didn't actually see the Sydney game except highlights so can't comment on that performance but that's still only one in isolation. The general reason that when he loses the ball it's in dangerous positions is because he's constantly making himself available to receive passes when the rest of our midfield is being pressured. Sometimes that means he runs out if options though. Sure, occasionally he just plays a dud pass but any player at this level does that too. I think he gets picked on for that stuff because people don't notice him when he's doing his regular work because it's not flashy so all they can remember is his errors. And he makes the rest of the team, especially the mids, better when he's playing by always being there to receive the ball and play it on. This season we've won 33% of the games he's started but only 14% of the ones he missed or came off the bench. Yes, he's not going to single-handedly turn a match but I don't think that's his job. I'd say he's justified his import spot more than Roly or Finkler have this season. 

How can you say we've ruined Finklers career?  It was going down hill at the end at MV and he's personally gone down hill further from there.  You'd be on safer ground to argue that buying Finkler, and Ernie playing him despite his apalling overall dead ball delivery, slow pace, limited contribution to our press and general midfield play has been a big part of the problems for the Nix this season.

I'd argue part of the reason we improved after Ernie left is because we stopped starting him.  And, I'd hazard a guess, not having seen the game,  that part of the problem against Sydney was we started him again.

Hasn't the Fink created the most chance for us?

And have we taken those chances to good effect?

Have read through much of this tread or the last two matches but Durante has been quite closely involved in most of the goals we've conceded in the last three games.  

Is his time up?  

Yes he's a good leader but he's the same age as me and I think his match reading and positioning has dropped off considerably this season (ignoring the natural loss of pace that happens in your mid 30s).

Eg I'm guessing many are blaming A Rod for the sharke pass that resulted in the goal but it was also an abysmal kick from Durante that SFC latched on to to score from.

I think he's shown moments of class here and there in open play, but not enough. He's also getting more stick because he presumably didn't come cheap and he's got a good pedigree in the A League. To be fair to him too it seems like he might have some family stuff going on in the background (the trip back to Brazil?) and we don't know how that could be affecting him mentally.

I don't know why his match reading and positioning has dropped of as with age and playing experience one would expect both to improve.

But it hasn't Leggy. Which is a shame because he was a decent defender 5 years ago but age catches up with us all. It has been obvious in more than the last 2 games too. I wonder if this frustration is what is causing him to get more verbal at refs. Yes we know A League refs are crap but the overt  questioning is sometimes over the top and unnecessary.

I think Dura has a lot of added pressure with the change of coaches, which may well have affected him too:
a) feeling responsible for Ernie's demise
b) thinking he has to take even more of a leadership role
c) helping out the new coaches with decision making

I think he is still a very decent defender, but maybe needs a clear mind.

I think that Dura has too much on his shoulders. He should just focus on his on the field stuff. He seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Not only is he the senior defender, he also is the captain. He is also lumbered with a head coach who is younger than him and is very inexperianced. Des never had a pro career(and from the news article in the Oxford Mail it appears his background at Oxford United was coaching the Under 9's LOL) . From what I have heard Dura has plenty of imput into the coaching side.

Hopefully in the off season Welnix will cleanout the coaching staff and get some experianced hard nosed coach. Dura can then get back to being a defender. He's good enough to play pro for a few more years IMO

Mariners?

Our defence is still sharkloads better than it's been in recent seasons. Dura is a part of that turnaround.

Think people have forgotten how leaky the defence used to be.

Not even the Mariners are that desperate... 

No one can ever forget the season one defence. It was as bad as the Kingz or Knights. Except Lochhead whom was doing ok except for the odd penalty conceded.

He was a first team coach, he gave an anecdote on stuff about an FA cup match that he was a coach in.

The Wellington Phoenix website has the following quote " Buckingham is a former first team coach at Oxford United"

This is completely untrue. He was never first team coach.

Oxford United first team coaches for the last decade(source English football archive)

Jim Smith                 March 2006 to Nov 2007   82 games

Darren Patterson     Nov 2007 to Nov 2008       59

Chris Wilder             Dec 2008 to Jan 2014        269

Mickey Lewis           Jan 2014 to March 2014    12

Gary Waddock         March 2014 to Jul 2014     8

Michael Applelton     July 2014 to present          91

It appears he did lots of jobs at Oxford which included working with the goal keepers and trainer.....which might explain why he was on the bench at an FA cup game. However it appears he was far from the top job. Remember also that Oxford United is  League 1.....which is third tier in the England. Des's should have stayed as football development manager at Waibop...thats his level