R5 vs Glory Saturday 5:00pm SS4

Yeah im scared shitless about siggy at the back on thursday.

He played well there last season IMHO..and on the right when he swapped over.  If it works he wrong foots the right footed defender of course  and as he cuts in he can off load to someone with the ball maybe going forward(with momentum) not back as some left foot crosses do.

Fenton on the left LAST year? Must have been a game I did not watch then and there was only 2 of those.

"He played well there last season IMHO in the 2 games JV missed....and on the right when he swapped back"

Fixed :>).

My two cents worth. We seem like a team in transition. After last year's horrors, we are coming right but are a long way off being competitive at the top level.  We don't seem to be able to 'boss' teams yet.  Good players we have, and some not so good.  But as a team I think the best we can hope for this season is to be close to the play-offs and not get the wooden spoon.  We should have won games like today: 1-1, it was there for the taking and we did have our chances.  I'll leave it to those with more knowledge of football to dissect exactly what we need to do, and which players we need to re-shape or get rid of.  I remain deeply unconvinced about Huysegems, am saddened that Louis Ferenc Puskas Fenton hasn't yet found his spot, and  always look forward to Ifill when he comes on. Are we just a 'project' or is there more to us?

I am disappointed we haven't solidified our base in Wellington by playing too many games in regional venues. My gut tells me that towards the end of the season we will be much more competitive, and regret the points we have left behind at Christchurch, Napier and Wellington. 

We're stuck with this batch of players until next season (barring any randoms turning up in January) so Ernie's gotta work with what he's got. Last season proved we don't have the strikers to play a long ball or crossing based game, and we clearly don't have the pace to play a quick counterattacking game so the shortpassing approach makes sense, and to be honest I think we've generally looked alright at it the last few games. The only problem is that if we play with 2 deeper CMs (ie 4-2-3-1) then no 2 of Lia, Muscat, or Riera are comfortable enough on the ball to really make it work. If we put an extra man in there (ie 4-3-1-2 like today's formation) then there's too much pressure on Carlos to create chances and no width if the opposition want to clog up the middle of the park. 

I'd like to see Ernie try something new to make this work - no wins so far so nothing to lose. Maybe try a 4-3-2-1 approach and play Stein or Hicks or Ifill even alongside Hernandez and they can take turns drifting wider to create more space. Or go back to the 4-2-3-1 and play Hicks in DM. Or given the fact that there is no obvious place for Stein in the front half of a 4-2-3-1 (Brockie as point man, Carlos CAM, and no place for Stein as a winger) then maybe try him as a DM. Either way we need someone comfortable on the ball in tight spots to play in front of our back 4 if we want to succeed at this dinky stuff with a 4-2-3-1. Stein or Hicks could be awful and it could totally fail but we haven't won anything anyway and we look toothless in the front half of the park atm. And like I said above, short passing is actually probably the most suitable style of play for this squad at this stage.

The one thing that stands out after watching most of the other teams is that across the board most of our players are not athletic enough.

Conan Said: "Either way we need someone comfortable on the ball in tight spots to play (immediately) in front of our back 4".

This is very true.  Of muscat/reira/lia it's the new boy Reira who looks most able to fill this role - in the future.  Alternatively (or to support this function)  we need to have a better ball playing CB combo.  Maybe boxall in for sig??

Fenton at right back aside, tonight's performance didn't leave me half as bummed out as my fellow armchair experts....I think we're getting there, and ernie is an obvious onto it c*nt.

Can AJ be banned for his disgusting comment in 'off topic' section?

What is the difference between last season  and this season? last season we hoofed it forward and stuffed it up. this year we piss around at the back and then stuff it up, the only positive is Hernandoze and thats what he does for most of the match, they will not make the play offs, sadly they are shite......

Pretty sure sarcastic. But yeah the mentioning of that city around me is as offensive as swearing. Or other bad things like murder and molestation, which I also do not endorse in anyway. Just saying.

Having all the possession is one thing, shooting is another 

Thanks everyone for a great A-League game in my home town!

1. Atmosphere

I heard some people say there was no atmosphere but sitting in the stands it was quiet ok actually.

Certainly not the best I've ever experienced but was good. A few kids tried to start a Mexican wave a few times which didn't take off.

The YF were good behind the goal but must say went quiet for some periods of the game - especially when the Nix needed them.

2. The Game

Another draw, what can I say, but let's be positive guys. At least we don't lose too many, that's a positive. It's a point!

3. Performance

I get the feeling there's a whole lot more potential in this team than what the scores suggest.

Earnie needs more time to put his stamp on the team, find his starting 11, and some individual players still need to hit the peak.

Once we're settled into more of a rhythm I think we'll be good enough to push for play offs. Let's hope anyway.

Wanted to buy a scarf at the fan shop but only T-shirts there...

26 minutes of this big blue has been more entertaining than the entirety of both our home away games combined.

bring back Kenny

what was the match like? being there, it didn't seem too bad but from what i've seen on facebook it was pretty average. someone want to fill me in quickly?

Boring. Crowd was very quiet. Comentary.............omg. "he's got too much gel in his hair"

I am prepared to give Ernie as much time as he needs to get this right. In reality someone sooner or later had to rebuild this team. Even if Rickie had stayed on he would have had to eventually submit to getting rid of loads of the old players.....they just can't keep playing forever.

Positives for Ernie

1,We no longer play one dimensional hoof ball. He's not trying to convert us to Barcelona as someone pointed out. Most teams on the planet try and pass the ball around on the deck.

2, We are seeing loads of young kiwi kids get a chance. Some of them will be very good footballers.

3, He is getting some of the old dogs to learn new tricks. The DM's are not doing too bad a job

4, Ernie is a good coach...he will get there.

Problems

1, Terrible scheduling.....a young team is being put through the wringer with so many non ROF games

2, AW distractions. Must have some sort of impact with so many players keeping an eye on the AW situation

3, Too many new players finding their feet in the A-League at the same time. It will take players varying amounts of time to settle....trouble is we need most of them firing now!

4, Ernie's tactics are hamstrung by the lack of width. This area should be a natural outlet for Carlos. Trouble is Caira and Fenton are too gun shy to continually bomb down the flanks. Subsequently we can't go wide and are being outnumbered centrally in midfield....so everything is stalling

5, Recruiting failure. We are IMO short of 2 or 3 quality players. A decent experianced ball playing DM was a must and we did not find one. Plus an experianced RB would not go amiss.....a 15 goals a season striker would be handy too!

So five games in 3 draws and two losses, one of which was a 90+ conceded goal. Not great but not a disaster as well all things considered. If we can get some pace and width into our attack, if we can get Fenton settled at RB, if we can get Kenny playing like he was for CR earlier in the year we can push on later in the season. Keep the faith

have to agree with all of that

I thought that game was terrible, I could hardly watch. Compared to the games on afterwards, we look miles behind.

We were damn lucky to get the goal we did get.

Muscat was a lot better at right back, but then he was terrible in midfield.

Game was shit

9.6k

Christchurch games are largely family affairs. On a positive note that hopefully helps to build a fan base. We simply do not have the masses of disaffected young men like Western Sydney that gives the NRMA WSW it's "atmospheric" support in form of RBB.

I even saw small groups of mothers with one or two small daughters, no men in sight, at the game yesterday. Chatted to a couple of them and heard that the sound and colour from the YF stand was "what makes soccer different from rugby" (her words). That's the baseline comparison for people who do not see well-attended games in person regularly.

Main stands looked fuller that 9.6K which was probably just the official ticket scan (looked like just over 10K judging by the single empty section at the far end).  A couple of us noted that you could enter the grounds after half time without too much trouble, and that a number of people did (to the YF stand at least, as we saw them come in). Probably a number of small number of corporate presales also did not bother to turn up, which offset the number of those who bought the ticket on the day.

The biggest takeaway is how lucky chch is to have such a marvellous football stadium. Yes the circumstances of its construction were not ideal but how great would such a facility be in welly. No I don't believe it is realistic we ever will.  :/

too many poles in the way when I saw AWs v Tahiti...but close action I agree

Totally agree, 2 Defensive midfielders is putting too much pressure on Hernandez as the CAM, Someone's either gotta play up there with him or they need to try playing wider...