Total Football FC (Nix) vs Roarcelona, 10:30 pm 1 Jan

 While we definitly need some sort of injection in midfield,my biggest frustration at the moment is our players seemingly lack of ability at one of the most basic skills in football and thats completing a pass.The number of times in recent games that we give away possesion because we seem to under hit a pass is just bloody ridiculous.

Getting pissed off with our continual tactic of just banging it up front and somehow thinking our guys who are genrally shorter than the defence will make somthing of it.

Also why is it that when one of the young guys screws up so many good chances he dosnt get slammed like others do.

Since I was barreled for my negative view on our last performance I did say I would write about the positives from this one.

The positives as I see it

Paston: Many think he is a spent force. Realistically, if it was not for his keeping tonight, it could well have been 6 or 7. Would others have made the same saves? Tough to know.

Leo has made a really good fist of RB. Interesting hearing Mulvey say after the game they targeted him but I think if any coach had any brains, they would come down the other flank. -1 for intelligence there Mike.

Shots on goal actually work. As Brockie has shown, trying to walk it in does not work. We need shots on goal. Even if you use the concept of law of averages, you have a better chance of scoring if you shoot and put the bloody thing on target. The standard of keeping in the A League is certainly not that flash so pump them under pressure and see what you get from it.

Manny will be getting a rest. He needed one anyway for being out of form and Ricki was not going to drop him so...

Thats about it.

As far as I'm concerned NUFC needs the ban stick. Total negativity (bordering on trolling), abuse of other members only makes it worse. Adds absolutely nothing to this forum, neither insight or humor.

Some thoughts on the game and the current state of play.

1. tpmyhill nailed it upthread when he said we are not playing as a team. Lots of effort and skill and determination from most players but we are not seeing combinations develop, especially the mid-field linking with the strikers. 
2. The Curse Of The Long Ball.  As others have noted this doesn't seem a particular effective tactic.
3. Bertos has been fantastic all season, great attitude and skill.
4. Haven't (yet?) seen much value from Waffles apart of his early goals. Would like to see Totori play for longer to see if he really has the goods.
5. Been really impressed with Fenton and to a lesser extent Boyd.  Plenty of skill, energy and desire but we need to remember they are both young and need time to really develop their potential.  
6. As others have noted Lia must have some incriminating stuff on Ricky
7. The quality of the referring in the A-League is at a same level as the quality of playing.  Variable, shall we say.

Actually I think we are playing well and are always there, or there abouts. We have proved we can come from behind, and we are playing better away from home. But there are some issues to be addressed for us to start getting the consistent results I think we are capable of.

Looks like Lia willgget another chance against the victory with Herbert saying Smith possibly has a broken cheekbone along with bertos.

 the road trip to brisbane was always going to be a tough ask. On current form i'l take a top 6 finish

Abuse ?

I think not. Sorry if I have offended you. However, just because you are offended, does not mean you're right...

Didnt see game..will try and catch replay this arvo.  YF and Dickens have/had something in common......we may still get 6th but I agree it just isnt geling on the park at the moment.

Fully expected Boyd to collect a yellow or two during the season..he has bordered on it in couple of games so far when things go wrong...  yoof....

Brockie still confounds...as does Heysegems not getting more game time but not with Brockie..they dont mix and match.

Exactly. An injection of one quality midfield player would make such a difference. Yes it would be good to have Hogg to put pressure on Lochhead, and yes Herbert hasn't worked out how to use Stein. But this campaign will fall off the tracks if they don't find a solution in the window, or from within in midfield. The A League's left Lia way behind, and Muscat is struggling because of it. 

Amusingly most of those saying the A-League has left Vinnie behind and who have made Lochhead designated scapegoat are the ones who slagged Brownie when he's a player both the AWs and Phoenix could use right now.

Brown's only what 31..He retired so he could do his masters Degree.. Couldn't we get him to transfer his degree to Wellington uni

Since I seem to sit in parts of that camp

Brown - I think Brown brings a higher work rate than Lia and have always been a fan of Brownie. If nothing else (and a nod to El Grap) his timing into the box was significantly better than our front guys being used right now, a fact I mentioned last week?

Lochhead - I think people have forgotten what it was like 2-3 years ago when he was out injured for 6 weeks. The difference was obvious and most recently, Rowe shows that when he got is shot. However, it would be nice to see him get some competition for his position. Some people do perform better with competition. Has Lochhead really had much in the last 5 years (Tsatts?) In some respects, because Durante and Sigmund are not the fastest horses, a bit of pace from the wide backs may help against faster teams.

All i can say is that I will be hugely disappointed if im seeing both Lochhead and Bertos in the back line next season. Id like to see the club look seriously at this right back issue for once. Id imagine Boxall to be pretty annoyed at the moment, I would be.

Glass Cheek?

Can't see anything being done to make the nix win at the Tard Dome. 

What we got is what we got.

Just found free Internet after telecom data roam fail. Leo looked to be taken out by a purpose full shoulder not head clash from where I was sitting.  Our vision to find the open player was very limited. Totori spent a lot of time with no player within 30 m of him and we played the ball into trouble?

There is little point in being negative....we just keep rehashing the same old points. What did disappoint me though was that we reverted to hoof ball(39 aerial balls in the second half and Paston longballing 95%) We had been making such good progress in the last few games trying to keep the ball on the deck and moving it through the youngsters. I guess deep down Ricki is that type of coach and maybe the "total football" lark was just to keep the owners quiet for a couple of weeks.

Bertos has been fabulous at RB. I can't praise him enough for the work he has put in converting to that position. Not easy switching positions late in your career so its  a testament to his character that he's made such a good go of it. He's probably got the mother of all headaches at the moment.....get well soon Leo, we need you against the Victory.

Anyone got an update on his head injury or Smiths injury?

Paston and Brockie were great too....who would have thought Brockie would be in the running for A-League Golden boot.

Looks like we could have Totori and Lia at RW and RB against Victory......these two defending wide against Rojas/Thompson...this could get very messy. Lia to get red carded after 20 minutes for cutting Rojas in half!

Can't be bothered reading through the whole thread, so don't know if anyone's brought this up, but one think that was noticeable last night was how horrible the first touch of some of our players is (especially thinking here of Manny and Lia, although there were others). I know the pitch wasn't supposed to be great, but it was clear that some players were able to adjust to that.

But the point is that it's virtually impossible to transition the ball through midfield if it takes your CMs 2 seconds to just get the ball under control, before they can even start thinking where the ball's supposed to go next. In that time even in the A-league they have people on their arse, and all the passing lanes are closed off. Which means that we either end up losing the possession with alarming regularity and in dangerous areas (virtually all of the Roar chances in the first 20 came because of this), or we just end up going backwards and hoofing it 60m down the field straight to the opposition.

This. ^

Our midfield is a train wreck.

Yes.  Clearly the answer to the fact that Leo is making a very good fist of Right back is to play a wrong-footed Centre-back there.

Insightful.