R3 vs Western Sydney Wanderers | Sat 3rd Nov | 7:35pm | Westpac Stadium

Already so excited for this one. WSW are all over the show at the moment, whereas we are looking like a well drilled and competent unit. Not over confident though, Wanderers have plenty of quality up front to unsettle our back line. If we do win however it'll put us on 7 points, a points tally which last year took us till Round 13 to get to. Early days, but at the very least you'd have to say we don't look like the easy beats this season. COYN 

Dura's 250th game for the Nix

I wont be expecting a win, but Ill be hoping for one.  

We are a team this year that could be hard to beat, and the players are shwoing more passion than we have seen for a while.

COYN!

Don't forget to bring something to donate either or you can donate during the week at the Backbencher or Four Kings.

It will be interesting to see how Baumjohann goes and who we get to mark him. Seems to be WSW's best attacking outlet by far, from what I've seen of him

Who's gonna be the WSW coach? Babbel is out. JP De Marigny also out. 

I think JP is available. Pretty sure some FFA Cup games counted towards his suspension. 

COYN! I'm sure we can beat WSW with or without VAR.

Good to see Durante get 250 for the club and even better to see Rudan utilising his experience and valuing it in a way that so far (still early days) has benefited the team

Same lineup if everyone is fit?

When was the last time we went three matches in a row with same starting XI?

I would be tempted to give Nichols a start at home, but I doubt Rudan will change his lineup unless needed.

Rudan said we've got a clean bill of health, so expect to see the same. Really can't remember the last time we had a consistent line up.

I hope to see a bit more fluency going forward - I don't think Krishna/Singh/Williams have clicked at all yet. I'd also like to see a goal from open play.

Id be comfortable with the same starting XI but would bring the subs on sooner. Nicholls for Mandi, Burns for Williams and whoever else is needed.

I wish we had that guy in our midfield, he was pulling the strings.

Same initial 18 and same matchday 16  even - has that ever happened two games in a row?

Agreed 100%. 

Both Williams and Singh are strong individual performers; the kind that takes a while to develop chemistry with other players.

Also that the team is built around solid defence first and then creating attack. I think part of the difficulty is the tactics in the first two games to prevent the other sides from clicking first. It's working, but differs from the conditions for Ernie ball. That said Singh didn't have his best ever game last week, but convinced he will. Thought he looked like Broich at times.

I'm loving the feeling of cautious optimism rather than doom and gloom! Fire up. 

Williams and Krishna should be nailed on starters for a while to come yet - Williams is the big unit that defenders get bashed around by, while they're all obviously terrified of Krishna's pace. 

Burns is going to have to do something special off the bench to threaten those two, I'd imagine.

I reckon Singh will be rested first though, given his age etc - Rudan will be mindful of him losing form/burning out if he's overplayed. 

Burns could be the replacement there.

I don't see Burns as an attacking midfielder like Singh. He's got the pace but not the touch or passing ability to be effective there. Nichols for sure.

although I'm not sure Burgess is ready to start, if Singh is rested then I'd start Nichols purely on the basis of experience and leave Burgess on the bench.

We clearly need a bit more from the attacking side, defending is all good but up front we are not creating enough chances. I hope Rudan brings Burns and Nichols a earlier into the game to have some impact. Burns running around for 10 minutes is a bit of a waste.

Rudan has said that starting spots would be performance based. On that Singh didn't have a bad game but definitely room for improvement with his free kicks and shooting in front of goal. Be good to give Nichols a longer run this week and keep up the competition for places, so players know they have to perform or they lose there starting spot. 

When Burns is 1v1 it's already written in the stars that he loses it. I will always love the guy for *that* season he had but he seems even less effective than brining on Parkhouse with 10mins to go at this stage. 

Like the look of Burgess. Seems incisive and smart, taller presence too. Wished he would've pulled the trigger in round 1 though.

We actually created a decent amount of chances, we just didn't make the most of them. Taylors miss stands out but Singh whould have done better with a couple chances and so to Krishna.

It's between either Singh or Burgess for that top of midfield position as it stands.  I think Nichols could do well there if given the chance but I would prefer Singh to be given another couple of starts before he is dropped.

Let's not forget he did a lot of running and covered really well vs Brisbane - he's young but technically quite astute.  He just needs get himself into more dangerous positions more often.

re attacking options - bringing Burns on would actually weaken the attack, if the moves keep breaking down when he gets the ball (as they did against Bentleigh).

Better to take a defender off, probably Durante, and have four in the mid - Mandi, Nichols, Burgess and Singh, with Williams and Krishna up front.

Not a great early forecast for Saturday Night.

Bugger

Did NZ get the memo that it's almost summer?

Fixed

Let's hope the imports don't get scared off from this quake, especially the ones with families!

Lets hope our stadium isn't damaged either.

Last time it was re-scheduled.

This wasn't that big or close..just a deep rumble.

If the stadium gets damaged enough can we build a rectangular earthquake proof one?

I would like to see another 9k crowd or more for this game.

Just seen this impact to travel on Saturday from those coming on sh1 north of tawa - https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/wellington/traf...

More detail here https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/wellington-north...