v Central Coast, Sat 13, 7.30pm

 

I would love to say something positive but am finding it pretty hard to think of anything. Players seem to of lost all confidence. Playing Greenacre up front by himself isn't working. He gets no decent service. Where is Nicky Ward?

 

Also I see Kosta scored again tonight. He would be a handy player to have in the team this year, what a loss he has been. Good on him though for seeking an opportunity elsewhere and making the most of it.

Some of the more pertinant coments were along the lines of "the nix have no attack down the centre....always go wide....too predicable"

A few comments about its too soon to dump the coach because he was so good for the Nix and the AW's recently.

 

Here's hoping some of the players currently on the outer like Pav, Ward and Hearfield have a ripper game against Waikato for the Nixettes and really put their hand up for inclusion next game

 

We've got young players eager to show how good they are - Rojas, Pavlovic and Crowther(?). I'm willing to bet that the majority of your young fellows have done this in the Youth League before being thrown in at senior level.

Don't forget, your youth internationals are playing better teams in tournaments, and coming from a larger talent pool as well. One of our youth sides recent failed to get past Tahiti for a World Cup.

 

I agree with you that an injection of youth into our side might be a solution, but at this stage, it isn't necessarily going to be Kiwi. We're already going down that road with Pav, but Ricki is quite conservative and doesn't have a record of throwing in young guys. (Kosta, Rojas, Draper...)

 

So lets have a couple of fun game s- Yellow Fever 11's vs the Phoenix 6 (reckon that would give the yellow fever team a good chance ) - play for fun, start enjoying the game and maybe make it a semi regular bit of fun

 

Ok won't solve any of the big issues but would be a bit of a laugh and get some smiles back for the players and fans. 

not being critical, just a thought though i dont necesarily beleive it, because we by far are the best supporters in the a-league. But do any of you think it might have anything to do with playing infront of the same crowd for 3 years, listening to the same chants that most other a-league supporters groups have every other game? it must start getting dull to the players hearing the same things all the time

 

and i by no means beleive that is why, its just a thought, maybe we could work on more specific club unique chants?

 

This was quoted by Sam W in the stuff article linked on the home page (WC hangover).

 

It looks a bit funny in the story - hints at some desperation to me.

 

 

 

If this is the game plan, you'd think they'd practise crossing.

agreed! wasted talent here!! no game time and not appreciated, AND fits way better with the roar game plan.

(opps will that make you rumble georgie )

 

but come on, eveyone can express how much we miss him surely?

 

 

Except the gaffer did not want him for the AW's a couple of months ago. Rickie prefers the big bangers up front.....suites  the style of play he wants. Kosta would be great in a "ball on the deck, faster style" of play but the AW's currently don't play like that.....so he won't fit. Ditto for the Nix

Betcha Greenie et al wouldnt say no either

Still plenty of time for us to come good.

 

 

Me too, but the problem is that we don't really have the players to play that sort of game. There isn't a huge amount of pace in our team, unfortunately.

Luck.

Not forgetting the lack of passing ability which at times is absolutely woeful. Elliott aside (and he really only impresses when hitting 30-40 yarders) we seem to lack the ability to create through the midfield with accurate, incisive intelligent passing. Don't know the stats but the number of assists from our creative midfielders (do we possess such a beast?) would be relatively low in comparison to the rest of the league I would think. I have been impressed by the quality of a lot of the goals we are conceding, particularly the ability of opposition teams to set chances up with creative midfield play. has long been a problem in new Zealand football and the Phoenix are paying the price for playing a simplistic version of the game accordingly. Tricky Ricki needs to come up with a cunning plan to help lift the team that better suits there abilities. This might be a stretch given that ability is fairly limited in key areas of the pitch. Greenacre is doing remarkably well for the sh*t service he is getting and spends far to much time trying to create chances by acting as the first line of defence than is reasonable, all down to poor passing/option taking as we move forward, often the consequence of a woeful ill advised long ball out of defence. Siggy is the worst culprit, often becasuse he makes himself available in an isolated spot, soon as he gets the ball everyone stops working almost as though they are resigned to the fact he's going to lump it and being a guy who hates to dissapoint, he does.

 

There, sorted .

 

Pretty sure he was off contract, so not sure the Phoenix were entitled to ask for a transfer fee.