Us vs Mariners - 16:00 Sun - match Fred

I see what your saying but in all honesty we obviously need someone who is gonna finish/create chances in the middle of the park, personally I think Caceres could be the man for the job.  Lia is the man but at the moment Brown is playing well so I think they should be playing for each others position, because we need someone that is creative in the middle.

Ifill is supposed to be here as a forward, but is being played in more of a CAM, that's working ok at the moment, but having 2 beside each other really is a must this season. so why not have him stay where he is but maybe place Chen beside Acre, we can always sub Chen if it doesn't work.

so

 Bertos      Brown     Daniel

                   Ifill
  
       Chen             Acre

have Lia as a sub for Chen if doesn't work. but would be worth a shot shouldn't it?

Isnt  Bertos leading the league in assists??

Is it Better to have Ifill out wide to create a chance that our midfielders cant finish or Have him in the box so he can bury them??

Greenacre cant play upfront by himself, simple...
Ifill and Greenacre are our best strikers so stick them upfront together
Doesnt  mean with Ifill upfront he cant turn, beat him man and get a shot on target or lay it off for Greenacre....

Caceres from what i saw on Sunday can beat him man and get decent Delivery in...( Ferrante should have scored from one)...

Greenacre made a couple of runs where if our players were up to it they could have put him away and one in particular in the second half where Bertos ran at the defence and Greenacre made a beautiful run but Bertos went for the 35mtr drive when the better option was to push it through to Greenacre and you could see how frustrated Greenacre was.

The formation and play in the first half was fine and players from midfield were getting forward to support Greenacre and while Ifill plays a little deeper he works his butt off to get forward to support Greenacre. Second half we played a lot of pressured long balls and left Greenacre isolated far too much. I wondered during the game whether the pitch was taking it's toll on the players legs as the surface looked slow with a fair bit of grass on it?

Bertos in the central AM midfield role just does not work for me, that position requires an ability to hold and pass. For me Bertos's natural instinct is to get ball and run with it and in the last few games he has been a shadow of the player he was when he played out wide.

If Ifill is fit only change I would make is Caceres into the AM role and push Bertos out wide which means Daniel would drop onto the bench which is tough because he has been more impressive than Bertos last few games.

I could kiss you Piney... but I'd need a step ladder.

Doesn't matter... they can conject all they like but there will be no change from last weeks side (you know, the one that should have won 3 or 4 nil but missed chances*) unless players are unavailable in which case I reckon it's around a 1/3rd call on who starts out of Party all the time - Caceras - Chen.





* Not because there was no one up front with Greenacre but because we're sh*t in front of goalHard News2009-09-22 20:43:42

That combination didn't get a chance to gel did it now??

ifill is meant to be the target man...
He was signed as a strike partner for Greenacre

Since when?

If Ifill was used as a target man - i.e the furthest man forward and more often than not receiving the ball with his back to goal and a defender touch-tight to him - think of all the qualities he's shown in the last six matches that the Phoenix would miss out on.

In our young friends defence the Phoenix built that rod for their own back then they talked long and hard about that role when looking at Astroclaus and the Golf club.  Then when iFill was signed they kind of talked it up in his signing so it followed the message, despite the fact that anyone who knew iFill's play and history could tell people he was an attacking midfielder, not a striker.

As we played really well in the first half last week I don't have a real problem with keeping it the same. Second half we were a bit negative, but I think that was mainly to do with a negative attitude of holding on creeping in.

Except he's not that sort of player.  He's said all along that he's the sort of player that when the ball is bouncing around the area he'll get a foot or a head to it and put it home.  He's trying to learn some things that have never been asked of him before playing to our current tactics.

Nobody has mentioned this but i would like to see hearfield given a run at right back, now while his defensive qualities may be questionable, it would certainly give the team a much more attacking look without messing with the formation.

Change for changes sake...

I think my head may explode soon

I'm thinking of shutting the forums down from midnight until midday tomorrow just to save our sanity... and suggesting that for my mental health Sega don't release FM 2010 here.

 

Btw News, you did realise my text today was a pisstake.

                   Paston

Paston in goal? You're having a laugh... Ferrante FTW!

C-Diddy2009-09-22 21:15:52

Greenacre has 2 goals to his name, that is only one behind Thompson, Aloisi and Van Dijk. There is only Smeltz on 9 and Fowler on 4 with more than 3 goals.

I thought against the Fury he was one of our better players, first half he ran into space looked dangerous and combined well with Ifill and midfield. Second half for long periods he worked his butt off with bugger all support and trying to handle Paston's long ball assault on him. First time I've noticed him become a little frustrated with players not picking his runs and hoffing it aimlessly in the air to him and maybe he needs to demand a bit more from his team mates as no-one is working as hard for the team as he is.

Which one ?

I was getting flooded so replying in bulk.

Wanting Costa up front in a 4-4-2 for sunday

If I'd noticed I'd have LOLed.  Promise.

The gulf in class between Ifill's and Greenacre's thinking powers ex playing at higher level and the rest of the team is showing.  Good to see more discussion on playing styles and what we are still lacking..not that we have it in reserve tho.  Ifill has to stay right mid and we need another dedicated striker who complements Greenacres running and poaching potential.

----------------Pasto------------
-Manny-Siggy-Durante-Lochhy-
-Bertos--Lia-Brown--Daniel-
------------Ifill-----------------
-------------------Greenacre-

Subs: Chen, Crowther, Caceres, Rojas
Wolfben2009-09-22 22:04:08

                        God
Muscat Sigmund Durante Lochhead
                   Lia     Brown
           Ifill      Bertos      Daniel
                   Greenacre

Bench:
Crowther
Hearfield
Caceras
Chen

Yeah, sorry Michael you probably got caught in frustration at the influx of stupid.

Hopefully I'll have a new front page banner up tomorrow letting people know and as happens each week, this thread will replace the weekend match thread stickied tomorrow as well.
Hard News2009-09-22 22:18:12

Er, yes actually. I should perhaps qualify that phrasing by saying I meant most of the email notifications rather than most of the threads... the vast majority of emails notifications have been related to the Ricky Out thread that got renamed at some point to Coaching Angst. The other thread notices have got lost in all that traffic.

This may have already been noted, but Sunday will be the 50th Phoenix game (and of course, Ricki's 50th game in charge).

Although technically didn't Ricki miss some games while away with the All Whites in the past? They can't count towards his 50 can they? Just like if a player misses a match
Just being picky......

I liked the starting lineup against the Fury and would keep it the same.
Maybe change the bench to:

Crowther
Rojas
Mulligan
Hearfield