R7 v WSW | Saturday 7pm | Sky Sport 2

Guttered.

(hi News)

Disappointing second half. Rufer did ok as a sub, but Louis struggled and Appaih, well what chance did he have?

Dura and Mossy excellent, Manny good, Mikey pretty good, not many others imposed themselves.

Just go home to my brothers house after the game, Meet some cool people, Nix's were in the game except for the 2nd half we had nothing - Needed more Ridenton. Not Appaih.

.

dbl post

If anyone hears that you are going to another away game, can we please make sure he does not make the flight....

We deserved nothing over 90 mins. Very fortunate to be level or even not 4 down at half time. woeful defending in first twenty, some schoolboy errors. We always looked likely to score, shame sarpong didnt turn up. Moss was great, 

If the same team we had in wellington last week turned up there tonight we would have beaten them. Siggy suffering from a virus all week and weemac with jet lag. I can't help but feel like we should have gone to the bench earlier. hope Siggys all good we need him.

What happened to our second half dominance of last year?  Seems to have gone the other way.

I blame Brandon for the loss.

Sack Brandon

Am really starting to feel sorry for him! That is a lot of trips (and money) to spend to not even see us get a draw! Awful luck. 

The celebrations when the curse is finally broken will have to be huge. It's becoming part of Phoenix legend. 

Conceded from the same spot from a corner as against Brisbane a few weeks ago, maybe need to re-look again at our defending on corners.

Weird to keep subbing Sarpong at half time.  Kind of need to make a decision either way on him, but I always think an attacking player should get the 10 after half time to show they can turn it round (occasionally a half time sub is needed if your shape is completely wrong or your defence is stuffed but wouldn't get into doing it regularly).

Yeh pretty bad that no one was controlling that space at the back stick. It's a basic. Prob wouldn't have happened if Siggy was on the park (I hope). But he wasn't.

He obviously didn't do the job that he'd been asked to.

Fixed.

Re the first goal.  Ball came off the crossbar to the wanderers, ball passed into the middle of the pitch, drawing in Gulley and a CB (not sure who - presume Dura and/or Siggie went up for the FK).

Gulley is first to the ball but hits it awkwardly and it falls to a Wanderers player who passes to Bridge in acres of space.

Should he have gone for the intercept, leaving that whole side exposed for Bridges?

Poor organisation on a defensive set piece costs us again. And poor defensive organisation on an attacking set piece as well for that matter.

Also, I  think our shape is all wrong and it has looked that way for a while, with the exception of the Adelaide game. But then Adelaide were very poor defensively against us and did score twice and create a few other good chances too, so maybe that game did paper over a few cracks in our play.

4-2-2-2 can be difficult formation to play effectively and we're seeing why. The first issue is that we lack width. In theory, our fullbacks should be going forward to overlap but they aren't often. The two more advanced midfielders and/or the two strikers do drift wider sometimes but not wide enough, or if they do then the rest of our midfield drifts towards them too and we end up compacted up against a sideline. Our two deeper midfielders also don't seem clear on who should be tucking in to the space in front of the backline so it's easy for opponents to get between our lines. Because we're in a box shape the passing angles are easy to cover for defending players and our runners often end up just running into space which is already occupied by one of our players.

I'd like to see us switch to a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 to address some of these issues. Even the 4-1-2-1-2 formation we used a lot last year would be better I think. I also think that Roly could play a bit deeper and be more of a deep lying playmaker. I like A-Rod but he's been poor this season. Sarpong is meant to be a winger so maybe he should be given the chance to play there, because he hasn't been at all effective playing where he has been.

Here's what I'd like to see:

                                       Moss

 Gulley              Siggy               Dura          Manny 

                          Roly                Riera 

  Sarpong                     WeeMac                 Appiah

                                     Krishna

Obviously Krishna as a  sole striker isn't ideal but the rest of the shape isn't working currently anyway. If we focused on through balls or counterattacks down the wing with low flat crosses on the end of then he should be able to do the job required.

Sorry but every game I have seen Appiah in he had done nothing - He has pace but his passing/dribbling is not there - has no imagination to create something out of nothing. Ridenton is not as fast but at least try's to make nothing into something and is getting better. Appiah has not improved let alone delivered when hes been on.

Another option if Appiah isn't deemed to be up to it would be Krishna out wide and Powell up front. Or Fenton starting on the wing instead of Appiah.

http://www.footandball.net/the-donkey-kick

Offisde for their first goal? Siggy gets dropped by a fore arm, was the guy carded Strebe?

I like the formation but think the team would be better of if Sarpong was starting from the bench. He does seem to be a quality player when his head is in the game, but he's clearly lacking in confidence and being asked to perform a role that he isn't used to (i.e. leading the line) must be part of that. 

In terms of being dropped, you'd have to have a chat to him and explain the reasons why, something like it's not that we don't think you're good enough, in fact we think you have quality and believe in you but we need to get you firing. So we're going to start you from the bench and get you out wide and running at fatigued players, no pressure to score goals, just do your thing and do it well.

TV 3 news still thinks Siggy had virus....no mention of concussion.

Bring back 4-4-2.

haven't heard any talk of concussion?

link?

Shark. Poor Siggy and poor defence. I guess that means Manny CB. Hopefully Doyle LB. I was not impressed with Louis there, even if the All Whites chose him for it.

Appiah has looked very raw, fast but quite a loose touch and not a lot of subtlety - just sort of a head down bulldozer.  Which is fine against the weaker teams but often a bit more is required against A League defenses

Really? travelled halfway around the world, played 90 mins in 30 + degrees turned round flew all the way back, sitting with the peasants, then played 90 again all in the space of 8 or 9 days after travelling another 3 and a half hours across the Tasman?

I know Ernie does not like to make excuses but that is a big week in anyones books.

Ernie refreshingly open about that he was not happy with the performance. Move on quick and play better on Thursday to get in front of FFA FC!

Round 8 this Thursday eh...quick turnaround.

 If his job is to get as close to the 10 yard box as fast as he can, Then he has some success. But once there he is dead wood. His easily marked out of games and has no imagination + flair around the goal mouth when its needed.

Subbing on Appiah for a quick counter attack to accommodate Krishna has not work period.

Needs more than a few minutes though.  I would have liked to see him on earlier against WSW as strikers tend to do well against their former clubs.

Remember he also has the pre-season record for the nix.

True, my point is it isn't ideal to keep having to reorganise the team at half time

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Guarantee that Appiah would've contributed more than Sarpong if he had the same amount of minutes. I'm not a massive fan of Appiah; but he at least looks like he's trying. Sarpong doesn't seem to give a sh*t.

Where as Appiah has done nothing.