Thank you Mr Herbert

Thank you Mr Herbert

Thanks Mr Herbert...

Siggy needed a run, at least Brown got rested, Lochy's allegedly as fit at the start of the season as a Premier League player is midseason and Bertos hasn't done anything good since November 14, 2009.

I'm not too worried.

It was mentioned on the podcast, it was a sticky position for him, he would have wanted to bring his Phoenix players off but he can't look bias to the Nix lads so he has to nurse all the players through it.

I agree, thank you Herbert.  Showing that you can take both roles (Nix and AW coach) seriously, and that you're not going to let one get in the way of the other.

I also think they should have been brought off early.

If they show signs of fatigue on Sunday I'll be annoyed. This was an international friendly with the ability to use six subs. On Sunday we have something far more important.

Also Thank You for guiding the national team to the World Cup and being the first coach to take a NZ team to the playoffs of an Australian Football comp

This calls for a:

SACK RICKI

Yeah.

No complaints about conflict of interest there.  Wish he'd shown one.

I just thought the point of this game was to see how fringe players performed in a international game.....as there are still squad places up for grabs. So whats the point in selecting a guy like Haynes and then leaving him on the bench.

FFS.  This week he is the coach of the AW, and should have done what is best for the AW. He obviously has a top 14 or 15 players that he wants to mould into a team.  Imagine what the bosses of NZF would say if he dragged 5 of those top players because they had another game in a few days.  They would be f**ked off.  He was in a no win situation. 2ndBest2010-03-04 21:59:23

Will help them sleep on the plane!

Travel and moving through time zones far bigger issue than whether they play 60,70 or 90 minutes. Players get pretty shagged at training 3 days before a match. And 3 days gap between matches not unusual in any case.

I'm not sure NZF would've said anything? The All Whites first team is almost set in stone as it is so I don't know that he really needs to mould a team so much that it's to the potential detriment of the Phoenix.

If Herbert had shown preference for his Nix players, there would then be a snowballs chance in hell of the managers of the Euro AW's releasing their players for anything other than the most critical of matches

the purpose of these games was to get the team playing together as much as possible,im glad he took his role as AW coach seriously and did that.

Thread Hi-jack.  I need the game  on DVD.

Anyone got it ?

Gutted for you.. I do.
When do you need it?

Next few days. I need to send it to the Middle East.

Sunday?

All good.  I'll bring you a blank replacement.

im pretty sure all involved will have no trouble getting up and going the distance on sunday, they're international footballers, one cant expect them never to have to play 2 games in a week

Sack Ricki

I heard on Radio Sport the Phoenix All Whites arrive back at 10am tomorrow.  Anyone going to the Airport to welcome them back?

There are moaning minnies who can never be satisfied. The people who whined that we weren't getting top class friendlies pre-World Cup are now the ones crying about Phoenix players being tired. The people who were crapping their strides about OH NOES if we get beaten 6-0 NZ FOOTBALL IS DEAD FOREVER!!! are now the people whining that the All Whites coach played his best team and got a respectable result. The people who called Rory Fallon all sorts of names because he wanted to stay in Plymouth and look after his club are now the biggest "CLUB BEFORE COUNTRY" chauvinists of all.

Ricki is not immune to criticism, but "criticism" is a different thing from "pessimistic moaning as a psychological security blanket against possible disappointment". As someone else said, Siggy needed game time, and got it, and at least he can be sure that the ref on Sunday won't let the Jest strikers rugby-tackle him off the ball. Doloras2010-03-05 09:38:49

Bertos says he is feeling quite fatigued, with his legs feeling very heavy and tired and it is going to be tough to get them going again for Sunday.

Yeah, that's what I would say if I were Leo, too. To lull the Jest into a false sense of security!

 

To be honest, I was a bit surprised that Ricky did not make more liberal use of the subs available, particularly with regard to the Phoenix players.

It is very common for international managers to reach agreements with club managers over how many minutes certain players would play in friendlies, so I kind of expected Ricky to do something along those lines.

Ricki clearly thought it a good idea to leave the Nix players on for all or most of the game, or else he wouldn't have done it. You - and the OP in this thread - seem to be talking as if it were an obvious blunder, without any attempt to understand what Ricki's plan might have been.

It is possible to argue that Ricki made a mistake, but to do so you have to at least understand what his logic might have been.

If the national coach was anybody else we wouldn't even be discussing this.

Not saying it was an obvious blunder - but it's certainly an unusual approach to a friendly game.

Leaving all the Phoenix issues aside, using all the subs in a game to just have a look how they all cope in a game with a high quality opponent in a hostile crowd situation would have been beneficial. So like I said, I was surprised at the way he approached it.

Whether that proves to be a bad mistake on Ricky's part only time will tell.

Not so sure about that.

??? Okay, I've checked it out and OP in this thread is full of crap, Ricki used four subs (NOT two) out of a possible six: McG for Coombes, Wood for Smeltz, Fallon for Killen and Barron for Brown. Were you really hankering to see Old and Haynes given a run?Doloras2010-03-05 11:34:10

Leo was our best going forward all night, and was still running at them on full time.  Would have been silly to take him off because we've seen before for club and country that when you pull off attacking players you're just inviting the opponent to attack you.

The boys may be fatigued on Sunday, but that's where we come in. We will create an electric atmosphere and get the boys through on pure adrenaline.

Not so sure about that.

Complaints would be ever worse because we wouldn't have the Heil Ricki brigade.