Season 25/26 General Discussion

Full time 3-0 
Cassidy with a goal chalked off moments before the final whistle.

Not sure what for maybe a foul in the box as it was quite scrappy

Half a Pint

Full time 3-0 
Cassidy with a goal chalked off moments before the final whistle.

Not sure what for maybe a foul in the box as it was quite scrappy

GG Eze Dub

Definitely feeling more positive about the opener against Perth after that.

YoungHeartHM

Half a Pint

Eze, Najjarine, Armiento and Loke all came off.

Piper playing as centre forward

Corban Pipers preferred playing position - Anywhere

henry-lawrence.png 21.56 KB

Needs a Striker dot.

Had a small chat to Chiefy after the game.

He said he was very happy with the first half, not so much the 2nd.

Said he wasn't originally planning on giving LBS any minutes as he wanted to give him a break after the U20 World Cup but needed to in the end so others could come off.

He mentioned he's noticed now that due to our high line that opponents are subbing very early against them to try and handle the press, which in turn means he's subbing more. But he feels there's good depth and a lot of pushing for positions.

Nelfoos

YoungHeartHM

Half a Pint

Eze, Najjarine, Armiento and Loke all came off.

Piper playing as centre forward

Corban Pipers preferred playing position - Anywhere

henry-lawrence.png 21.56 KB

Needs a Striker dot.

I couldnt be arsed editing the pic 😅

While we're at it, a goalkeepers dot is missing too.

Half a Pint

Full time 3-0 
Cassidy with a goal chalked off moments before the final whistle.

Not sure what for maybe a foul in the box as it was quite scrappy

Did Dan Edwards get on?

The only player not accounted for between your updates, the two in Oslo, the three who played for reserves yesterday and the two known injuries (Mileusnic and Retre)

Came on for Roa Conchie in the 2nd half. Took up the left wing back spot, with Armiento moving to the inside left attacking position.

KiwiBantam

Came on for Roa Conchie in the 2nd half. Took up the left wing back spot, with Armiento moving to the inside left attacking position.

Bravo

So, not goal keeper?
That's disappointing (;-)

(edit, see somebody already spotted that!)

YoungHeartHM

Half a Pint

Eze, Najjarine, Armiento and Loke all came off.

Piper playing as centre forward

Corban Pipers preferred playing position - Anywhere

henry-lawrence.png 21.56 KB

 

I'm reaching here, but I'm a bit annoyed that this is the first pre-season game against another A-League team that the club have acknowledged.

Nothing about Sydney or WSW games that I've seen, but the 3-0 win vs the likely spooners gets a nice graphic. But hey; every silver lining has a cloud, right?

Conchie was playing as one of the two 10s then? First time there IIRC. How did he go?

KiwiBantam

Came on for Roa Conchie in the 2nd half. Took up the left wing back spot, with Armiento moving to the inside left attacking position.

Comment from u/mr_trender on reddit re: Eze and James. Some good insight, even if the spelling ref may need to get involved.

"Yeah Eze looked good, putting himself about etc and really did take his second goal really really well. Guided his header into the corner. I think he gives you guys a different dimension. Like I said your boys weren’t always playing out from the back like previous seasons. Chiefly was more than happy going long and playing off him which I think will be apart of your game this year.

Canadian CB did play and was very physical I think a good Scott wonton replacement. He was very vocal and was probably the main reason for CCM having so many offsides called. He really marshalled your backline.

Pretty impressed with both of them. Only thing I would say is that he got rolled a couple of times and twice two CCM boys got through one on one because he mis timed the offside jump."

From the Dome school of management

We only sing when we are winning

dunnix

I'm reaching here, but I'm a bit annoyed that this is the first pre-season game against another A-League team that the club have acknowledged.

Nothing about Sydney or WSW games that I've seen, but the 3-0 win vs the likely spooners gets a nice graphic. But hey; every silver lining has a cloud, right?

AucklandPhoenix

From the Dome school of management

We only sing when we are winning

dunnix

I'm reaching here, but I'm a bit annoyed that this is the first pre-season game against another A-League team that the club have acknowledged.

Nothing about Sydney or WSW games that I've seen, but the 3-0 win vs the likely spooners gets a nice graphic. But hey; every silver lining has a cloud, right?

Can someone play a different record? This one's skipping.

nixin

Conchie was playing as one of the two 10s then? First time there IIRC. How did he go?

KiwiBantam

Came on for Roa Conchie in the 2nd half. Took up the left wing back spot, with Armiento moving to the inside left attacking position.

He played that position in the friendly vs Olympic, and has played RW for Chief before when we had a bit of an injury crisis.

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

YellowAndBlack

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

Treat it as a jinx hopefully their bubble well and truly bursts and we turn things around and the reverse happens. 😁

ballane

YellowAndBlack

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

Treat it as a jinx hopefully their bubble well and truly bursts and we turn things around and the reverse happens. 😁

100% agree!

YellowAndBlack

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

it's the same every season, the nix could have the best squad on paper and the pundits would still pick us coming last

theprof

YellowAndBlack

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

it's the same every season, the nix could have the best squad on paper and the pundits would still pick us coming last

Feels so much better that way when things go well.

theprof

YellowAndBlack

Man so many of the former stars and commentators on insta are picking AFC to win the championship and all have us bottom 2 with CCM and most have us last

it's the same every season, the nix could have the best squad on paper and the pundits would still pick us coming last

Even when we were top of the ladder for most of the season before last, it only took them 21 or so rounds to admit we were going well. The bias is mental.

Auckland should definitely be up there as favourites they've kept most of their squad and the departures have been replaced well and you could even say they have slightly better overall squad this year than last year.
Especially when you compare our departures and arrivals the following season when we came 2nd to Auckland is depressing.
 
Auckland
Departures:
Paulsen
Galloway
Moreno 
Mata
Smith
Toomey

Arrivals:
Girdwood-Reich
Brook
Sail
Cosgrove

Phoenix
Departures:
Paulsen
Surman
Old
Kraev
Zawada
Pennington
Salas
Ducan

Arrivals:
Retre
Nagasawa
Ishige
Piper
Rojas
Oluwayemi
LBS

Paulsen finally moving offshore is gonna be the biggest shock to AFC - much like his departure was for us.

theprof

Paulsen finally moving offshore is gonna be the biggest shock to AFC - much like his departure was for us.

Yeah will be interesting to see how big of an impact it has. I don't think Woud is up to it but I feel like Sail might go back to his best with a solid defence in front of him compared to the Perth defence he's been with the last few years.
Neither will be as good as Paulsen though.

So plan B is Piper up front? 

Is Rufer back to full strength and fitness? Can he get an MVP type record? 

What is his plan B if Nagasawa is unable to hold the midfield against stronger opposition? Might we see him further forward? 

How did Edwards look? 

Tbh, off that little bit of news, I’m happy. We had weaknesses and we’ve recruited to improve them. We had style issues and it seems, to some degree, as if we’re keen to change that around. And honestly, if we’d won last season dominating possession and shutting the opponents out of games I don’t think we’d have had the complaints. 

It sounds like Eze has worked on issues from the Heidelberg game. Good.

I’m happy we’re not trying to push Josh into playing out from the back, when he’s not AP. 

Also I’m happy to get some news about the team, which has been slow to emerge in pre-season. 

General rant. This whole high line thing has failed massively so far, we have conceded incredibly soft goals in 3 of our 4 games. I wonder how much professional pride the defenders and Chiefy have about this. 

I would hope they would be angry and ashamed about it, particularly about the first AFC goal. I would want to hear them publicly saying things like I don't want us to be conceding goals like this anywhere near this often, we are not going to allow this to happen in the next game etc.

But it seems to me there are such low standards around the Phoenix. None of the defenders are going to get dropped (except for maybe one player dropping out for James). None of them even had the good manners to look particularly upset as all the soft goals fly past them, they just convey a resigned sort of helplessness. Chiefy is going to express vague disappointment about a failure to execute and that's about it. Heck, even a public censorious comment from somebody higher up like Dome would be welcome at this point, but of course that'd never happen, the Nix hierarchy could not be more comfortable with mediocrity. 

The overall vibe is just so unprofessional and uncompetitive and unambitious and I find it all a bit frustrating. 

imanixsupporter

General rant. This whole high line thing has failed massively so far, we have conceded incredibly soft goals in 3 of our 4 games. I wonder how much professional pride the defenders and Chiefy have about this. 

I would hope they would be angry and ashamed about it, particularly about the first AFC goal. I would want to hear them publicly saying things like I don't want us to be conceding goals like this anywhere near this often, we are not going to allow this to happen in the next game etc.

But it seems to me there are such low standards around the Phoenix. None of the defenders are going to get dropped (except for maybe one player dropping out for James). None of them even had the good manners to look particularly upset as all the soft goals fly past them, they just convey a resigned sort of helplessness. Chiefy is going to express vague disappointment about a failure to execute and that's about it. Heck, even a public censorious comment from somebody higher up like Dome would be welcome at this point, but of course that'd never happen, the Nix hierarchy could not be more comfortable with mediocrity. 

The overall vibe is just so unprofessional and uncompetitive and unambitious and I find it all a bit frustrating. 

until the Nix are prime Pep Barca I don't think you will be happy. 

I think the high line has been mostly fine, apart from the first 20min against Perth. Even against AFC it was some individual errors, no different from Brimmer's error that led to our goal. Against ccm we out shot them 13 to 0 in the first half, against Roar (who we are the only team to beat them so far) they didn't really pose a threat and the goal we conceded was more a communication issue than anything to do with a highline.

The season is 4 games old. Chiefy has his 2 most experienced defenders out with injuries.

And it's too early to know if AKH (coming back from injury) could do a better sweeping job than Oluwayemi. I'm sure Italiano is mulling his GK choice over the FIFA break.

Save the rant as a Christmas gift to all, if the same bad mistakes are happening as 2026 approaches.

imanixsupporter

General rant. This whole high line thing has failed massively so far, we have conceded incredibly soft goals in 3 of our 4 games. I wonder how much professional pride the defenders and Chiefy have about this. 

I would hope they would be angry and ashamed about it, particularly about the first AFC goal. I would want to hear them publicly saying things like I don't want us to be conceding goals like this anywhere near this often, we are not going to allow this to happen in the next game etc.

But it seems to me there are such low standards around the Phoenix. None of the defenders are going to get dropped (except for maybe one player dropping out for James). None of them even had the good manners to look particularly upset as all the soft goals fly past them, they just convey a resigned sort of helplessness. Chiefy is going to express vague disappointment about a failure to execute and that's about it. Heck, even a public censorious comment from somebody higher up like Dome would be welcome at this point, but of course that'd never happen, the Nix hierarchy could not be more comfortable with mediocrity. 

The overall vibe is just so unprofessional and uncompetitive and unambitious and I find it all a bit frustrating. 

over reaction much???

Jeez man, you need to take a few chill pills before you cause yourself to stroke out.
You're reactions to four games of the season are s wildly over the top I wonder what your expectations are from an aleague team?
Angry and ashamed? Seriously? Loke is still a kid and this is his first season in the first XI, LKH is still only 21ish, same with Hughes, Sheridan is in his second season and is also in his early 20's. The two players that would be leading the back line are injured - sure they'll be annoyed about the goals they conceeded as anyone would be with a mistake, but they will learn form it and get better.

Piling in like you do eavery time is just plain irrational.

Ok actually fair point about the Brisbane goal. While very soft it wasn't really a high line issue, I misremembered about that.

The team's results haven't been terrible so far but we had a better start last year with two wins from our first four. It isn't about the results as much for me as I wish I saw a more competitive attitude all around. 

Because yes, i really think if you are a defender with any pride then you should be angry and ashamed about conceding after 27 seconds. Bad results can happen, losing can happen, that's fine, but losing that way to Auckland is a million miles from acceptable. I was pretty happy after the Mariners draw as we created enough to win that game and didn't let in any howlers. That can happen, sometimes the chances don't go in, they got a but lucky with their goal. I hope to see a public stance of wanting to put things right in the lead up to the Macarthur game.

Anyway just an opinion, I promise I don't need to take medication or am at heightened risk of a stroke about it. 

It’s not so bad dude, exciting to watch and likely to get better over time.

Just got to see how it turns out long term results wise.

If the team follow this approach and make the top 6 by season end, then it will be a good watch.

If bottom two at season end, then yeah understand the pain.

Both scenarios are possible.

AucklandPhoenix

It’s not so bad dude, exciting to watch and likely to get better over time.

Just got to see how it turns out long term results wise.

If the team follow this approach and make the top 6 by season end, then it will be a good watch.

If bottom two at season end, then yeah understand the pain.

Both scenarios are possible.

some silver lining is that 3 of the 4 teams we have played sit above us on the table, and we have a 1-1-1 record and competitive against all those above us - probably should have taken more points. 

I'm prepared to give it till we have played each team once.

coochiee

The season is 4 games old. Chiefy has his 2 most experienced defenders out with injuries.

And it's too early to know if AKH (coming back from injury) could do a better sweeping job than Oluwayemi. I'm sure Italiano is mulling his GK choice over the FIFA break.

Save the rant as a Christmas gift to all, if the same bad mistakes are happening as 2026 approaches.

Not only that also lost one of his defenders before the Perth game so backline has been very makeshift. At least we are scoring and not playing the boring rubbish we had last season. Do gotta laugh how quick some are to condemn

I’m prepared to wait until I’ve been able to watch Kambli in defense with Hughes! Issues with coverage early doors.

Actually tbh, I don’t mind if we start winning more regularly. It’s a bit like being a spinner when you see a batsman wanting to get down at you or go after your bowling. Runs or wickets are coming soon!

I mean, as far as I’m concerned, it’s like night and day compared to last season. Sure they’re going to be frustrating moments across the season but bloody hell, last season we were bored into submission, and against them last week, we at least tried (execution is another debate all together). Fudge last season as the alternative. 

Has cheify mentioned getting an injury visa replacement for ishige?

nope.

theprof

nope.

Typical phoenix 🙄