R5 vs Glory Saturday 5:00pm SS4

My personal opinion. All you need in this league is pace.. sheer pace. Look at the likes of Roar, Sydney, Victory etc, they score goals due to having pacey wingers/ attackers. These guys don't need to be good, but be able to get behind the defence. Even when they cross a ball, only about 15% of them reach their target, but that's how they get lots of goals, getting the ball into the box, wait for a mistake or a deflection etc. Our team doesn't have the pacey wingers, and we like to go down the middle, play the ball through Hernadez. If you gonna play a midfield game, you need better midfielders. Lia doesn't cut it. Roar can also play the ball around nicely and then look to get the ball out wide. When you look at this weekend stats.. Durante and Sigmond only players with shots on target come on please!!!!

Saturdays game was a major turning point for me, now i know we are going to struggle again this season. Watching the ChCh game and then watching the Syd v Mel game was chalk and cheese, was like watching games from league 2 in England, to the Championship. The middle of the season is where teams get fitter, tactics get better, new players start to gel.. i don't see that in our team.. Ernie is still searching for the right formation, and to be honest watching us play on Saturday, its back to square one?

Last point, still think its a bad move having all these "away" games in NZ? From the 13th Oct - 1st December, not to play in front of your home crowd is crazy! Playing at the Stadium on 1st Dec, then 5 days later in Perth and back again to play Roar!!!

We will be lucky to get a single point in the next 5 games! ( Syd away, West Syd Home, Perth away, Roar Home, CCM away)..

We lack a player who can get in behind, I agree.

Ernie has ballsed it up. He's trying to play a tactic which won't work with these players in this league. Simples.

Doloras' M.O. = Ricki god. Ernie sod.

Cannot see this changing anytime soon.

Guess we'll see how that stacks up on Thursday morning.

Yeah, but a good result won't change the fact that Ernie is still a decent coach.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

whilst i think Doloras is being a little harsh on Ernie in that he has ballsed up....he was given a team that struggled with the free flowwing passing game end of last season, yes he's added a few players but at the end of the day the core players who are driving the playing out from the back style are the same - siggy, lia, manny - possibly the worst offenders, dura not so much but he still struggles with it on occassion.

If Ernie's goal was to win the league this season then he has obviously "ballsed it up". If his goal this season is to begin building a team that can play constructive passing football and aim to make the playoffs I think he's doing a reasonable job. 

We arent that far away from clicking as a team and being really dangerous. Our defence is awful though.

Really? I'm not saying the quality of our game was great but the standard of the Syd v Mel was no great shakes either. Five goals, all the consequence of half arsed defending, goalkeeping blunders and outright stupidity. Lots of huff and puff but apart from a few nice passes from Nicholls and some skillful moves from ADP (most of which consisted of conning the referee into awarding him free kicks and avoiding getting a yellow card for himself) there was little to suggest that this game was on a higher level.

I agree with you though that our failure to even look like beating Perth shows that we are going to struggle this season, but then to be fair not many people here expected anything different from day one.

Benji Totori. Can run but.....

I'd say there are a couple of problems with our attack so far (I think we look pretty good defensively compared to last year).

1.  We hold possession much better but it's a little bit aimless, I still don't see an absolutely clear plan for how we create goal scoring opportunities

2. Brockie/Huysegems doesn't look like a partnership but leaving either our means we're lacking goal scorers

3. A two man defensive midfield has been overrun - and a 3 man defensive midfield means we lack width, our attack gets outnumbered and we really don't create goal scoring opportunities.

4. We're not really getting our full backs involved in the attacking play as much as we need to 

In relation to point 4, and it has been discussed, when they do get forward, no one covers for them and we get exposed in behind them (Perths goal as the example)

We really miss that gun DM signing we were looking for.

We don't want to leave either Brockie or Waffles out at the risk of not having (enough) goal scorers/threat... though with both on the pitch we're lacking a goal scoring threat, and we don't have the dominant/controlling DM we had hoped hence we need an extra body in the midfield.

Neither is effective playing wide so one has to go - and I like both so tough call. If we have Carlos (and we do) then I can see Waffles providing more outlet than Brocks as he has a better footballing brain and makes more intelligent runs - also, he holds the ball up better and is more likely to create secondary opportunities for Carlos/Kenny/Iffy whoever is coming through from the midfield... hopefully.

Brocks can (and does) work off scraps and can create/score goals that few other players would, as we saw last year... though if we're playing a more possession based/structured game which we are, I can't see a spot for him - aside from the last 20 if/when we're chasing a goal or two.

And stuff.

Christie will rise again. Christie is risen.

Really? Brockie.. does everyone think he is that good...? The way i see it is this.. every striker has a blinding season once in their lifetimes (apart from the very best, where they perform year in year out). Last season, it was Brockie's and McBreen... But to be honest, when a player has as many clubs in such a short career ( 10 and only 26) it shows that they aint very good.. their records don't lie! McBreen (300 games 73 goals), Brockie (244 games 63 goals)..Rooney (390 games 193 goals). Now im not comparing them, but no matter what league you play in McBreen and Brockie has a poor goals per game ratio. Those are stats of a midfielder.  Take off Brockies Phoenix record and its dismal reading (217 games 45 goals) in average teams!!.

This season Brockie will struggle to score goals i think, last season was a one off, therefore you have to look where goals are going to come from? I cant see the midfielders getting into double figures (Lia, Hernandez, Fenton, Muscat etc??) 2009-10 season 47 goals scored, 2010-11 38 goals scored,2011-12 36 goals etc.... this season.. 5 goals thus far, on track for 30 in a season... so not much better than last year.... Should have bought a decent striker!!!!

...and a decent midfielder and a decent right back...

Can't wait for Phoenix restart. I am so over Herbert, AW's and NZF. Best and forgotten thing in media right now, is that we have a really well setup professional football club in NZ, trying to rebuild a squad capable of winning the A League in about 2 years.

Ernie won't disagree with a lot of things being written in this thread, but it's one step at a time. Getting the youth sort out done pre-season was important, and will still need 2 or 3 games to get closer to his preferred starting selection.

- re Brockie - Ernie won't be over impressed with what he's seen, but after last season, is giving him a chance to repeat.

- he knows that Muscat and Lia wouldn't be starting lineup material in any other A League midfield, and is tweeking with what resources he's got.

- he'll be aware he's gotta get more out of these Kiwi kids. Storm Roux looks like he's been playing RB for CCM for years and big quality. But Fenton and Tyler head a pack of young Kiwi talent that just hasn't stepped up to the next level yet. Probably the "Mum dropping them off at practise and making sure they have a packed lunch" factor. 

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