R5 vs Glory Saturday 5:00pm SS4

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

YES. I said this after last week we lack athleticism across the park. Means we need three to do the job of two players in the center of the park as well as up front where Brockie does almost nothing in the build up (he plays like a park footballer really). 

Bad mistake from siggy for the goal. Mexico will be licking their lips.

We badly need to add width to our attack. 

Our possession game is good for keeping the ball but in the attacking third we do look like we don't know where to pass to create scoring chances. Noone is making the run off the ball behind the defence and that's exarcetbated by the lack of a wide player. If be tempted to move Fenton up and try him there even off the bench if you're not going to play Cunningham.

Still, I enjoyed that game and we should have won it with the two second half chances. In the end its going to take better players for us to improve though

Arn't we doing the MOM poll this week ?

Maybe we shouldn't... Lia might actually win it legitimately this week!

To be fair I have seen him play worse.

“That was a terrific start but we didn’t press ahead and seemed to take our foot off the accelerator,” Merrick said.

“I think there were some negative thoughts from last year swimming around at that point.

The Auckland game?

RB initially i thought. Yeah wait for more reports i guess

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

Can we send kenny home then. I think hes a dud

You don't know anything. 

Anyone have any clue as to what the second line above means?

Kenny "George Paladini" Cunningham?

It might depending on if seeing thus far is as good as his Country wants. OK, his time on the field has been limited but from what I've seen so far, his lightening speed has been matched by the opposition defenders and thus far I don't remember him actually having a shot. Just my opinion anyway. If he proves me wrong, I'd be very happy to withdraw my observation and apologise.

hasn't he been selected for Costa Rica again? good enough for them, but not us? Doesn't add up.

It might depending on if seeing thus far is as good as his Country wants. OK, his time on the field has been limited but from what I've seen so far, his lightening speed has been matched by the opposition defenders and thus far I don't remember him actually having a shot. Just my opinion anyway. If he proves me wrong, I'd be very happy to withdraw my observation and apologise.