The Great 2016/17 Coaching Saga

when assessing des and greenie you have to consider what it is they have inherited and whether another coach could do better

i doubt ramon could get much out of this squad. his acfc squad is his squad and is choc full of imports. 

we would not be able to attract a 'super coach'

would mark rudan have been able to do better? i'm not so sure. the a-league is tough and it's taken john aloisi a few goes to get it right. kevin muscat had ange's team handed to him and in his early days in charge he looked like he was going to stuff the whole thing up

the bottom line is that whoever is in charge has to coach these players and they are not good enough

and we will not be able to attract a decent coach next year if these players are retained. the club foolishly recently renewed a number of player contracts. in doing so, they've risked setting the club up for mediocrity next season because any coach will want shot of most of this squad

The talk of Ramon and his imports isn't really relevant (other than he has a good network), the players he has are still amateur or at best semi pro. Our setup is completely different - we have the pick of virtually all the talent from NZ, access to the Australian market, and our five imports. He should be able to find players in the market which fit his game plan fine, we also saw with Sigmund under Merrick that players can surprise even themselves in how they learn and adapt to a gameplan.

We also don't give Ramon credit for his flexibility, ACFC changes fairly dramatically depending on the opposition (or depending on if they are amateur or pro), and even between seasons we've seen ACFC be more direct some years and more possession based in others. He's also adapted well to losing key players like Krishna and Riera.

ramon has considerable flexibility at ACFC

any coach at the phoenix gets:

- a small squad

- tighter import restrictions

- players on contract, and even if you release them early their salaries still count towards the cap

the opportunity for improvements to the roster are restricted for any coach and the club's folly of renewing contracts before they had a new coach on board only made that situation worse

i'm not casting doubt on ramon's ability. i am pointing out that there are massive restrictions in place and these restrictions will make it more difficult for any coach to have success with the phoenix

ramon with this team might be a bit better than des and greenie, or it might be a bit worse. the limitations mentioned above make it difficult for improvement

His restrictions at ACFC are much larger than those at the Phoenix though, he has to find players who are willing to play for virtually nothing.

i had a discussion with a mate the other day and the discussion was about what we would do with this team tactically

we agreed that:

- you couldn't press, because the defenders would get caught high, turned around and played through

- the full backs were bombing forward too often and because the centre backs lack mobility the back 4 was being played through too easily. but if the back 4 can't sit high, the full backs have to be positioned further forward or the attack has no supporting width

- acceleration is important for a DM, especially if the FBs are bombing, but lia is turtle slow

etc etc etc

the bottom line was that we couldn't come up with a plan because of the problems with the players. we ended up concluding that the fullbacks had to stay back and sit tight and the centre backs had to play long diagonals to a front three from deep positions which we both thought was pretty dire

all of this because we simply do not have the right mix of players in the defensive third

Claudio Ranieri needs a job now

But would he be a step up from these two? Only by about 10 light years.

I realise that a number of the players are also "coaches." :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/opinion/89714882/auckland-city-coach-ramon-tribulietx-is-the-man-to-fix-the-phoenix

Then he points out the international nature of ACFC's squad as a positive despite the fact it's the major question mark over whether Ramon could adapt to the A League. And finally he seems completely ignorant of the fact that Ramon doesn't have the correct qualifications for the role.

Just bollocks from start to finish really.

Until the last couple of years there have hardly been teams banging on the FFA's door, and half the teams in the competition have required the FFA's assistance if not direct ownership. The Phoenix were there when the FFA needed teams, and the FFA have profited because of it.

As Dome said on the pod a couple of months ago the teams take a relatively small share of the profits of the A-League and so the losses that the Phoenix owners funded have directly contributed to the FFA's bottom line.

I keep coming back to the same question - is Ramon even interested in the job?  If he isn't, it's not worth talking about him as an option. Perhaps a hard nosed Aussie coach is the answer.  

I still wouldn't mind Rudan to be honest

Did he come over for an interview with Welnix?  Wonder what put him off - not enough money or having to live in Wellington.

Welnix denied they were talking to him.

But there was talk that Rudan demands complete control of the football department and we know WelNix are meddlers, it's also by far the toughest job in the a league.

I am not usually a hater, but there were enjoyable last few years of Sunday Star Times, free of Billy Harris and his wisdom. Looks like he is back but not improved by much.

Could those who thought appointing Des and Greenie till the end of the season was a good idea, please step forward now.

NO THAT'S RIGHT IT"S ALL ROBS FAULT!

So its no bodies fault then that we are such a  bloody shambles and have been apart from the occasional time they decide to perform.Frankly its the lack of accountability that is  the problem,i for one dont go with the theory that what we have is as good as its going to get.Sadly the passion the fans have appears to mean little to the team and management despite what they both mutter at times.

Becoming increasingly hard to stay motivated the only plus with the traveling circus is the good break between home games. .

That's a very simplistic take. A tonne of unknown variables to be able to make any kind of comparison with what we would have been like with manager x.

Really depends on whether there were any viable alternatives. Usually pretty slim  pickings mid season.

I got the impression was that their appointment was the cheapest option, not the best option.

Based on?

Rather than spend on a new coach whom would want to appoint his own staff and recruit his own players in January, they went for the guys already on a conteact and whom knew the players they had. A temp fix that if it work would be seen as a master stroke that cost nothing or if it did not, then it would be seen as a cheap shambles which it has. Cockrill was correct in his recent article.

Another question I have to ask is how much more do the blind faithful have see before they too believe enough is enough? Not aimed at you Dale. I appreciate your questioning of my comments.

What if they have a coach in mind who was either already contracted to the end of the season? Or one like Ramon who didn't have the right qualifications at that stage but apparently does now?

Believe It or Not

Seems legit

Tim Brown is coming out of retirement ?

I think this is a fair point - I thought though that it might have been a good opportunity to try Ramon out, almost like a coaching trial for 4 months. 

Not entirely sure he would sign up for that long (assuming he could with badges). Had CWC to look forward to. Might get replaced at ACFC. etc etc

Absolutely, that's from the Phoenix pespective.  I guess in hindsight it looks obvious now but they Des/Buck thing was never going to be a long term solution