v Cold Ghost, Fri 11pm SS3

plus GCU are one of the better defensive sides in the league  mjp22010-10-02 11:54:58

This is basically the story of our season. Away from home anyway.

Perspective from a travelling supporter;

Agreed.

It's all long balls over the top or else midfielders holding on for too long and losing the ball. If I was a neutral I'd hate to watch this Nix. How many clearcut chances have we had this season? Apart from the odd goal do we ever really test the opposition keeper?

Right, well, here is some stats:

So far this season we have made 100 shots, 42 of those on target, 3 have hit the woodwork and 24 have forced keeper saves.

So we hit 11.11 shots per game, 4.67 (or 42%) of which are on target. We hit the woodwork once every three games. And finally force a keeper save in about one in four of our shots, or, 2.67 times a game.

Read what you will from that.

Seems a little on the high side. According to the stats here:

http://livescores.theage.com.au/matches/football/match3954.html?page=team-stats&refresh=1285976288155

the Phoenix were good for 3 shots on goal last night, which sounds a bit more realistic.

My apologies, those 3 shots were 'shots on target', so more accurate to compare with the "4.67" that was quoted.

If anybody describes Pav as being raw again I will break something.

I want to see Pav and Greenacre up front together in the next game.

I think the reason I'm so disappointed about last nights result is the fact I know we have the quality players to win against most teams in this league but we don't seem to step up, even at home we don't look unbeatable imo.

How aboout Roar?

A performance for which the word 'abject' was invented.

Can someone point Ricki in the direction of his drawing board?

That's me done.

ANGST. Agony. Angst. Frustration. Despair. Sad. Annoyed. Upset.

We have looked very shakey at home,  lucky to win again both Sydney and NQ,  if the team doesnt improve soon the home record will be gone also

Point him in the direction of this forum,  perhaps if he sees our passion it may rub off onto some of the players

The home record will go regardless. Like Ifill said last night all good things come to an end and one day we will be beat at home again.

Tells the story.

Yes it sounded like the players are now expecting to lose at home as well as away - nightmare!

Seems to me Toto is a pretty polarising figure, I didn't think he was woeful last night. He wasn't any worse than anyone else we had on the park anyway. By the stage he came on Gold Coast had such utter control in the midfield that I am not sure what could have been expected of him.

I'd go along with this. He put a few poor balls in, but on the upside, he went searching for the ball and making himself available for it, which is more than can be said for most of his team mates to that point.

It may be urgency, but he does at times seem hurried, and not sure if he comfortable holding the ball and assessing options (this was my opinion of him at training as well).

We could certainly do with such a player - someone who can stand on the ball, reassess options and direct traffic. Oh hang on, they all play in Europe.

I gotta get all this out at once before I explode:

1. Riki makes substitutions to late, waiting either for the other manager to act first or a decline in perfromance. Riki needs to be pro-active in his subsitutions, He knows what needs to be done he just does it 10 minutes too late and we lose control of the midfield and our subsitutions don't have time to get it back and simply don't have the time to impact the game.

2. Our stregnth going foward is entirely dependent on Ifil having a good game. He vanished in the second half and so did our attack and foward drive. Bertos needs to step up and use his pace and get more balls across and we desperatly need a central attacking mid-fielder with real class and good ball distribution and we have no-one close to matching that discription.

3. Next game I want to see a line up of attacking intent. Pav should start with Greenie, more attacking presence in the box, we need more players there to smash away our crosses and pressure opposition defence. And I want Paston back. He's just better.

on the positive despite the general resenment I thought Hearfield had a pretty good game in defence (I had low expectations).

Ultimaly we need to play the game we're good at: Strong defensive base, feed mid-field, up wing, cross. Little triangles in the box have done us wonders before, that part of our game vanishes away from home.
We have a pretty decent side and we can contend the title but it will take some serious work, Ifil cannot be the only source of decent ball.

Well that was all over the place but its not inside me anymore!

I've heard (second hand admittedly) that this was the case at the World Cup too, Nelsen and the senior players were running the team and Ricki was doing very little. This was from one of the players.

I'm sick of hearing this 'Ricki makes subs to late' nonsense. So far this season he's pulled players at half time, pretty sure i've seen subs around the 55 minute mark, obviously the 60-70 minute mark is when he (and most managers) make the majority of his changes, not many in the 70-80 minute period, and a few more in the last 10.

The reason most of the subs begin to be made around the 60 minute mark in all teams is that is the logical time to make them - players are starting to tire after getting a break at half time, and leaves enough time for the subs to get into the game and make a difference.

I personally think that its time to get rid of the dead weight in the squad...Tim brown has contributed little or nothing forsome weeks now...Leo Bertos  gives us about 5 minutes a game...Troy Hearfield....is he ever going to get any better?  our current away form makes some of these players a luxury that we cant afford and sentiment and to a certain extent loyalty may need to go out the window and say well thanks and goodbye...alternatively Rikki may have to take a crash course in TACTICS    and not just play at managing!.....rant over

Last games - V GCU, Heart, Victory, NQF,  - our attack has been nowhere near good enough, trying to penetrate with long crosses from mid-field, lacking any imagination. Must be a real worry our inability to create chances & force saves.

By the end of the game, it was pretty demoralisin last night.

Feel sorry for Greeny. Bagged him a bit for not finishing last year. He's in some real form I reckon this season- a couple of great finishes ruled out and he always gets clattered and not properly protected by the refs. We've had a lot of players who've started with a bang and then dropped off (Elrich, G**, Dadi, Ward, etc etc...) but he might be a player who gets better and better for us...

seems unlikely to me

That was that BS from some guy at the sunday news or something wasn't it? Ricki came out and gave him a real serve...

dirty offensive rumour made bigger than it is. if you use the search you can track down Ricki's response to it in the archives...

Apart from a couple of brief spells I can think of - when Ward got on the ball and sprayed it around a bit against Sydney and when Daniel had a good 25 minutes against Perth - for me its been that way all year. We rely on stifling the opposition and then hoping when the balls falls for us from a turnover, mistake or a long ball hurled in the mix, that the ball falls for kindly for somebone - or Ifill does something clever. At least at home we seem to have more intensity and win games by suffocating sides, away that doesnt happen and the rest of our game gets exposed.

I would be prepared play some of the reserves and take a loss to drive it home to certain players that they have to put in an effort or they don't play

yeh wouldn't mind seeing some or all of Musa, Rojas and Diego involved at some point...especially as if they might have to be...guna be funny- we aren't going to have any reserves team!

mcCallister ahead of Pav if we are going to keep playing hit and hope, but Pav if we want to attack on the deck...Kosta> Pav IMO...

Like I said, it was secondhand, and I'm a big fan of Ricki's so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. And for fear that the dom post might approach me with a job offer, I will stop the muck-raking, I just thought it was an interesting perspective is all

Just watched the game again and I have some observations (gotta do something until the next game on the 15th):

Goal 1 - 3 players at fault, Siggie for diving in and missing the initial tackle, durante for not showing the player the line and letting him cut inside and make the pass to Djite then North for not knowing where Djite was and letting him have two touches and you could argue that Vukovic could have done a little more with the save. So 4 errors leading to a goal, if any one of those players did the job properly like they do 99% of the time it wouldn't have led to a goal.

Goal 2: I don't blame Hearfield, the guy in the corner got a lucky pass out, but it was baffling to see Ward standing in such a nothing position, the other player definitely at fault was Vukovic who somehow let the ball go between him and the near post. Also partially North who let Djite get ballside of him.

Goal 3 - Ifill let his man go and gave him the simplest of headers, pretty easy really. Hearfield also let his go and could easily have caused a goal too, so it was surprising to see him with hands on head complaining at Ifill. Again Vukovic could also have done more to save it, it wasn't going quickly and he seemed to let it go.

So to sum it up, Vukovic had a shocker, so bring Pasty back in for the game against the Heart. We need consistency in the back 4 as that is what got us on the playoff run last year, so keep the same, Siggy Dura North and Hearfield and give them time to gel. North had a bad game, i'm sure this is an exception to the rule based on his pedigree. And on freekicks, why is Ifill defending the backpost? That is all.

why do people immediately blame the goalie when it goes between his legs?
Seriously what can he do?

Erm...close them?

New goalkeeping coach?