R3 vs Melbourne City | Sat 21 Oct | 7:35pm | SS2

Come on Nix

We'll need a miracle, Roy's pretty divine though

Nix to win 5-2

Hope Rossi will recover in time for the game. 

Any news on Durante? It would help to have at least one of them back.

Would like to see Vidosic moved into the #10 role for this game, we looked much better with a Paracki/McGlinchey/Vidosic spine at the end of the Sydney game. I like Ridenton but he was outclassed against Sydney and we have to find ways to get Vidosic more involved, he is wasted out wide atm.

2 days out from the game and the match thread has 5 posts in it........#notnearlyenoughangst

A wait and see approach. Did alright against Sydney, could possibly pull a surprise but don't wish to build up my hopes.

I hope we win

To much All Whites distraction this week

More likely to win this than the All Whites go to Russia.

Dura out for up to 12 weeks.

That's a shame, and likely to miss the AW games then? 

Welcome to the post-Dura team.  Hope Rossi will be back for the MC game.

The stuff article says 8 weeks.

I suppose if there's any consolation it's that we've signed players knowing that Durante would be unavailable for a few weeks so do have depth. Just hope Rossi is fit.

That's a good shout. Who would you have out wide in his place?

Ouch - that sucks. Dura may not be the fastest in the league but he is a known quantity.. Of course we need Rossi more than ever now, although I personally haven't been swept off my feet as I expected I would be by a very experienced Italian center back so far.

Galloway Mullen Rossi Doyle

Paracki McGlinchey

Krishna Vidosic Parkhouse

Kaludjerovic

Not the biggest Parkhosue fan but he is faster than Abbas & can whip a good cross in.

I like him, he was good for us last season. I'm guessing the injury affected pre-season has got him off to a slow start

My alternative.  Abbas was not great against Adelaide but was an improvement on Doyle against the Smurfs.

Melbourne City FC squad: 1.Dean BOUZANIS (gk), 2.Manny MUSCAT, 3.Scott JAMIESON, 5.Bart SCHENKEVELD, 6.Osama MALIK, 7.Nick FITZGERALD, 8.Neil KILKENNY, 9.Marcelo CARRUSCA, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 13.Stefan MAUK, 17.Tim CAHILL, 18.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 21.Ruon TONGYIK, 22.Michael JAKOBSEN (c), 25.Iacopo LA ROCCA, 26.Luke BRATTAN, 27.Marcin BUDZINSKI, 44.Ross MCCORMACK

**two to be omitted**

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Lewis ITALIANO (gk), 2.Daniel MULLEN, 3.Scott GALLOWAY, 4.Goran PARACKI, 7.Gui FINKLER, 8.Dario VIDOSIC, 9.Andrija KALUDJEROVIC, 10.Michael McGLINCHEY, 11.Hamish WATSON, 12.Adam PARKHOUSE, 13.Marco ROSSI, 14.Alex RUFER, 17.Ali ABBAS, 19.Thomas DOYLE, 21.Roy KRISHNA, 23.Matthew RIDENTON, 24.Logan ROGERSON, 30.Keegan SMITH (gk)

**two to be omitted**

So neither Fox or Lowry added into the squad. Maybe DK sees Doyle as a serious CB option, after playing him there vs Sydney?

Didn't they say he could have played but they didn't want to risk him so early in the season?

Anyway, it sounds like he's out this week too

I wasn't sure if we had a left FB or a right FB with Winston in the middle.  But that's all sorted now.  Would like to have Rossi and Durante in cabinet, but Mullen and Fox, or Lowry, or Doyle will have to do.  How come we have so many centrists?

All I can say is that it sure took a long time to finalise the squad selection. I just hope it will deliver the goals.

Well, I'm good with Manny ('cause he played with us) and I obviously know the Superstar, but apart from them it seems to me like we're playing a bunch of 'no names'. I need to either do some homework or continue to believe we might be overrating our opponents/underrating ourselves?

Their squad is full of seasoned aleague players, and they've splashed the cash around again. I'd say they are odds on to be top 4 this season, as much as I hate saying that.

They haven't been playing great though. Shutting down McCormack seems to be easily done, compared to Fornaroli (and McCormack doesnt even look like he wants to be there half the time). They've managed to score three lucky goals from Kamau who has otherwise been terrible - I've never seen a player make so many mistakes and choose the wrong option so many times in general play but still managed to get on the scoresheet. An organised Nix team should be up to frustrate them plenty.

Watched the Vuc v City game live. City had a hell of a lot more class going forward - the difference was obvious. Victory worked bloody hard to match them though.

I would expect either Luke Brattan or Marcin Budzinski to score against us on the night, rather than Tim Cahill who will likely be wrapped in cotton wool ahead of Australia's WC palyoffs against CONCACAF opposition.

All I miss is a team full of Vinnie Lia's

GameDay  yeah boy lets have em

COYN

For crying out loud, guys.... IT’S FARKEN GAME DAY!!! WHERE’S THE FARKEN FIRE?????? COYN!!

We’re the Phoenix, we’re gonna get dicked!

Fired up! 

Dario to score a header

Several reasons why we won't win this game

-Paracki needs to start tracking back and helping when we lose the ball, I often forget he's on the field

-Vidosic has to try and put himself up for headers instead of trying to take it down and play with his feet

-Kaludjerovic is basically Totori, all pace, no skills. Ditto for Lewis Italiano

-Keegan Smith looks jaded. We should bring in a fresh face (Someone Young)

-We need someone to play like Alex rufer who'll take the game by the scruff of the neck and get involved. his long shots really strike fear into the opposition GK.

- Marco Rossi still can barely speak English, let alone Australian

-FFS! Why haven't the Nix started chartering flights to away games yet. A reasonable and practical solition

-I forgot Galloway was even on the pitch he was that Anonymous

Some Positives:

-Last week we looked solid at the back and hard to break down

-Abbas has been focused and composed

- won last week on YF tipping

- Crenulla Riots on the horizon

- Hamish Watson is always good for a goal or at least the trademark classy first touch. Reminds me of Marcos Flores

- all of Melbourne are still wanking to that codhill goal in his first derby so we might catch them napping (or something else to that effect).

-Our superb away record away in Melbourne.

Some Possible Solutions: (Transfers)

-Get that young (He looks young anyway) Smeltz kid in. I checked on Amazon and like nothing ships to Malaysia. He was really angry in one of his insta posts.

-Theres this Italian tennis player (Dabbles in football). Maldini or something. He plays tennis now. Just can't remember who he played for.

-Pogba. Swap deal for Weemac. I heard they were after him?