In terms of tactics, I could start a whole thread on how this one played out.
Our fullbacks are supposed to be our outlet of width with strikers staying central so we have numbers in the box. But Brockie and Huysegems were often wide.
The problem with this game plan, is that when our fullbacks push forward, they then left huge holes in the defence which the opposition flooded with up to 3 players at once ( fullback, attacking mid, striker)
I'd just like to point out how eerily similar the game last night was to the first game we played in Melbourne last season.
Who says that history doesn't repeat itself?
I'd just like to point out how eerily similar the game last night was to the first game we played in Melbourne last season.
Who says that history doesn't repeat itself?
I'll bite
As an objective question for you, how much of this post is blinded by Ricki love?
Yup you don't like change. We went through that with Terry and Ricki so that much is extremely evident from you. Unfortunately, change is common place in football and unless your first name starts with an "S" and ends with "ir Alex Ferguson" you don't get the right to hold your seat forever. This is not sentimentalism (and Ernie has said that himself) its football and the only thing that matters is results. Ricki had his shot and as with the Phoenix (and soon to be AWs) it was his time to move on. Its a natural coaching lifecycle. Were you calling for Sack Ricki at the end of the Phoenix season 1 after 27(?) games and finishing last?
Another objective question. Do you think we are playing better football under Merrick vs Ricki last year?
Grumpy old bastard alert
My 2c. Fenton: got pwned at right back. I actually think Leo was better but I'm hesitant for more chopping and changing. Still, I think Fenton should be a substitute winger running at tired people from 60mins on.
Hernandez: not a great game. Tried multiple defense-splitting passes and most of them were never on. Still, one of them was I suppose.
Iffy: earned a start, but then again, he's looking best running at tired defenders. Conflicted about this a bit.
Durante: ack. Everyone gets one brain-fade a season I guess.
Riera: looked really good.
Boxall: I'd start him over Fenton as RB at this point, and Leo over both of them.
Overall I think the MV pundits saying that they "let us back into the game" aren't giving us enough credit, we basically forced our way back in and I was gutted / encouraged at the same time, I can definitely see what Ernie's trying to do, and for most games so far, we've done exactly that for ~60 mins of the game, it's just those 20-30 mins where we concede 1-2 goals that are killing us.
Given the schedule it was always going to be a slow start, I can see us hovering around 7-9th until Xmas and then making a late run into 5-6th later in the season. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to inspire the fans to the point where Welnix start breaking even this season.
We may have had the last 20 mins but the only way we got back into this from the 30th to the 70th was because the tards went "We're up by 3 and its in the bag, job done". As Ernie said, he didn't make any tactical changes until the half because they could not hear him so its not like we suddenly said 'shit lets play football' at the 30 min mark. We were allowed to get back into it because they took the foot off the throat.
Leo is a better RB but you are not in favour of chopping and change yet you would have Boxall ahead of Fenton who is behind Leo............... what?
Riera was like Manny and Lia and that he offered zilch out of the midfield. He plays just like he did at ACFC, lateral or backwards. Him or Lia is the one I would drop for the next game.
Grumpy old bastard alert
[/quote]
Another objective question. Do you think we are playing better football under Merrick vs Ricki last year?
[/quote]
Yes way better in my opinion, you can actually see them trying to hold on to the ball. We do a lack a few good players who are comfortable on the ball.
go gunners
We're playing better football under Merrick. There's just a few annoying things to be ironed out. Like everyone's mentioned, the high defence was dumb. Also need a decent DM and a proper RB. So close, yet so far. The Nix are on the cusp of being a good team, and so the fact it's not coming together is very hard to take.
Grumpy old bastard alert
Riera looked good a few times going forward; it's just a shame he does it so rarely. The most frustrating thing is where we have possession in a good area, and it goes all the way back to Moss just because of a bit of pressure.
[/quote]
Another objective question. Do you think we are playing better football under Merrick vs Ricki last year?
[/quote]
Yes way better in my opinion, you can actually see them trying to hold on to the ball. We do a lack a few good players who are comfortable on the ball.
Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days
We're playing better football under Merrick. There's just a few annoying things to be ironed out. Like everyone's mentioned, the high defence was dumb.
He does need more time. I wasn't particularly enthralled by welnix picking Merrick but have been reasonably happy with what he has done and how the team is trying to play. He has been here a few months, introduced a significantly different gameplan, and done so under terrible conditions what with the number of unavailable players.
He does have a lot of issues to work through. He hasn't settled on a formation at all and he does need to get this sorted. At the same time I support the fact that if he sees that something isn't working he won't keep repeating it.
Up front the team is a bit uncreative. They don't seem to have a clear idea on how to create goal scoring chances. A lot od passing seems pointless I thought it was actually a bit better against victory.
He has identified that to get a team from NZ to perform, that is spending less than most other teams, needs to utilise the advantage we have of NZ players not counting as foreigners and bring through young players. He doesn't have a track record of this, at Melbourne he bought all his players, but at least he has picked them. I'm reasonably confident that some of them will get game time this year. IMO the lack of this was Ricki's greatest failing.
The jury is still out on him imo. I don't think he is divorced from reality. The season is still early and there is massive room for improvement. Its promising but at the same time we can't afford to keep losing forever, we really need a win.
My 2c. Fenton: got pwned at right back. I actually think Leo was better but I'm hesitant for more chopping and changing. Still, I think Fenton should be a substitute winger running at tired people from 60mins on.
Hernandez: not a great game. Tried multiple defense-splitting passes and most of them were never on. Still, one of them was I suppose.
Iffy: earned a start, but then again, he's looking best running at tired defenders. Conflicted about this a bit.
Durante: ack. Everyone gets one brain-fade a season I guess.
Riera: looked really good.
Boxall: I'd start him over Fenton as RB at this point, and Leo over both of them.
Overall I think the MV pundits saying that they "let us back into the game" aren't giving us enough credit, we basically forced our way back in and I was gutted / encouraged at the same time, I can definitely see what Ernie's trying to do, and for most games so far, we've done exactly that for ~60 mins of the game, it's just those 20-30 mins where we concede 1-2 goals that are killing us.
Given the schedule it was always going to be a slow start, I can see us hovering around 7-9th until Xmas and then making a late run into 5-6th later in the season. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to inspire the fans to the point where Welnix start breaking even this season.
We havent been playing bad football at all. Our defence needs to be sorted asap
Siggy doesn't fit in with the possession game plan. He can't compose himself on the ball and he can't pass. Swap him for Boxy imo.
Personally I think Siggy has been playing well this season. His passing this season has been fine. I wouldn't even consider changing him atm.
We're playing better football under Merrick. There's just a few annoying things to be ironed out. Like everyone's mentioned, the high defence was dumb. Also need a decent DM and a proper RB. So close, yet so far. The Nix are on the cusp of being a good team, and so the fact it's not coming together is very hard to take.
My 2c. Fenton: got pwned at right back. I actually think Leo was better but I'm hesitant for more chopping and changing. Still, I think Fenton should be a substitute winger running at tired people from 60mins on.
Hernandez: not a great game. Tried multiple defense-splitting passes and most of them were never on. Still, one of them was I suppose.
Iffy: earned a start, but then again, he's looking best running at tired defenders. Conflicted about this a bit.
Durante: ack. Everyone gets one brain-fade a season I guess.
Riera: looked really good.
Boxall: I'd start him over Fenton as RB at this point, and Leo over both of them.
Overall I think the MV pundits saying that they "let us back into the game" aren't giving us enough credit, we basically forced our way back in and I was gutted / encouraged at the same time, I can definitely see what Ernie's trying to do, and for most games so far, we've done exactly that for ~60 mins of the game, it's just those 20-30 mins where we concede 1-2 goals that are killing us.
Given the schedule it was always going to be a slow start, I can see us hovering around 7-9th until Xmas and then making a late run into 5-6th later in the season. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to inspire the fans to the point where Welnix start breaking even this season.
We may have had the last 20 mins but the only way we got back into this from the 30th to the 70th was because the tards went "We're up by 3 and its in the bag, job done". As Ernie said, he didn't make any tactical changes until the half because they could not hear him so its not like we suddenly said 'shit lets play football' at the 30 min mark. We were allowed to get back into it because they took the foot off the throat.
Leo is a better RB but you are not in favour of chopping and change yet you would have Boxall ahead of Fenton who is behind Leo............... what?
Riera was like Manny and Lia and that he offered zilch out of the midfield. He plays just like he did at ACFC, lateral or backwards. Him or Lia is the one I would drop for the next game.
Sigmund did nothing wrong last night (other than that yellow for blowing up at the ref), he was getting hung out to dry time and again by Fenton who was all over the show, I lost count of the number of times he had to cover the shambles at right back.
Fenton doesn't look a RB to me, offers so much going forward he seems wasted at RB, on the wing he could have provided much more in attack for us last night.
Dura had a really poor game, no-one to blame but himself for the 2nd goal, if it's that tight then as CB put ya foot through the ball and get it the hell out of dodge. He looked really slow and ponderous most the game.
We just seem really inconsistent at the moment. Guys doing well one minute then the next it's a shocking pass or dumb mistake. Not sure what it is. Body language was not fantastic either.
All Whites | Phoenix | Baggies
PS Am I the only one who noticed that, while Hernandez played one very nice through-pass to get Brockie in on goal, almost all of his other attempted "defense-splitting trademark Hernandez passes" went straight to a tard?
We're playing better football under Merrick. There's just a few annoying things to be ironed out.
But the league is getting better, and playing hoofball, while it may get results sometimes, is not progressing. We can't play games like we're the All Whites, just trying to scramble and get a flukey goal every game. That won't develop players, and won't give us a title, ever.
Although I agree that there's nothing wrong with hoofing it out from the back occasionally when there's no real options.
The club need to keep up with the times and change the mind set too. Not some victim of staying in the past. The football is getting to be of a higher standard for sure so we have to adapt. Even in bringing in better players that relying on the old tried and tested ones. That's if we want to be serious about this of course. And yes, better players will cost you more money. I believe we are heading in the right direction youthwise and we may well find more gems like Rojas was. Plenty out there waiting to be discovered. That boy "Burns" - The one with the curly blond hair at the U19 tournament, showed a lot of skills. (Fever persons in attendance when we arrived up there should know the one I am referring to.)
FYI:
Long ball does not equal hoofball
"Phoenix till they lose"
Posting 97% bollox, 8% lies and 3.658% genuine opinion.
Genuine opinion: FTFFA
Agree so much
FYI:
Long ball does not equal hoofball
Grumpy old bastard alert
Grumpy old bastard alert
[/quote]
Another objective question. Do you think we are playing better football under Merrick vs Ricki last year?
[/quote]
Yes way better in my opinion, you can actually see them trying to hold on to the ball. We do a lack a few good players who are comfortable on the ball.
Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.
Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.
Agree so much
Agree so much
*jumps on board*
Incredible stamina. No shame. Yellow Fever.
Agree so much
*jumps on board*
FYI:
Long ball does not equal hoofball
So has anyone pushed the panic button yet? I think the angst button is half-way down.
not sure that schedule can be used as a reason for tactical failures - they team knew this was going to be the case - as a coach I'd be screaming at the bosses asking them to explain why they'd make the players travel so much in a 6 week window. For mine the reliance on the DM's to be ball players hasn't worked - manny and Lia have not stepped up to the ball playing style the club and Ernie want. Frankly it still pains me to watch siggy try to play the ball from the back and look almost lost/confused.
Queenslander 3x a year.
We're playing better football under Merrick. There's just a few annoying things to be ironed out.
Actually, getting outplayed quite a bit these days
Agree so much
*jumps on board*
I am with you in principle. However:
Exactly! Especially that last point. I'd be tempted to can the Auckland games and keep them in Napier! We could have future CHCH games when the 7's are on here. Labour weekend = Napier
The squad is basically last year's squad - minus some squad players + untested rookies + Hernandez. Why does/did that equation convince anyone we would be anywhere near the playoffs. This isn't England. There is no promotion or relegation. We aren't going to win the league this season so why does it matter if we come 6th or 8th? Ideally we wouldn't come last and I hope the players want to do well for personal pride. The point is this is a transitional season. You don't sign a heap load of 17 year olds and then expect them to pay off instantly. We are playing far better football as our midfield actually passes the ball to the each other. It will take time though.
If you don't have patience you are no going to like Merrick. The Phoenix simply don't have the money to go from last to first in one season.
