the midfield dont support the strikers enough..phoenix defend way to deep, which also affects the attack, with a huge hole in the middle of the park between attack and defence..
That's quite true actually.
That's one of the things I notice different to last season, back then we had the likes of Ferrante blasting shots over the crossbar because he was just outside the box backing our strikers up, this year its nothing but opposition players - little wonder our possession stats are so low recently :P
Hearfield has done pretty well, in recent games I've been very impressed with the way he's controlled balls flown towards him from our defense, on a couple of occasions against Queensland his first touch from a long ball got him in behind the defense - if he can turn those into goals we might have a Rukavytsa type striker on our hands.
A few games ago Ferrante had about 5-6 shots straight at the keeper from outside the box.
Agree that we have been sitting way too deep as of late, though, and McKain seems to be the only one who knows how to hold the play up and wait for support instead of lumping it forward to Smeltz.
Wouldn't go too far re: Ruka comparison. Hearfield is nowhere near as fast. Remember, Hearfield is also older.
valeo2009-01-07 22:23:28
