vs. Roar - Weds 3rd November

The old partnership was a bit sh*t.  Newcastle won a title when everyone else was dreadful.

you may be right but what other choice is there? I dont think Siggy is the answer

I honestly expected the Roar would beat us....the signs were all there.

totally agree Zini

It is not that we lost last night, but the way we lost that really hurt! We capitulated. AngusBeef2010-11-04 12:25:39

When players dont play well then the fans ask for changes then when the team isnt playing well and there have been changes fans ask for a settled side.
Why have we seen so many changes in line ups this year? Injuries, international duty, sickness or is it simply changes for the sake of changes?

I won't stop going...but please can't we play some football on the deck, more industry and mobility in the midfield and across the park for that matter, stop hitting 50/50 40/60 balls 50+ yards ... I can no longer take my kids and use how we play the game as an instruction exercise for them to absorb and learn from. I saw more beautiful football at the Napier u19s than I've seen at the Stadium all season so far.

He wasn't let go.  He had an offer from the nix but decided to seek more game time elsewhere.

Ange has got the Roar team playing very good football. Tactically astute. Taken a leaf out of the best teams in the world at the moment. Inside wingers, false nine, attacking fullbacks, a sort of modern centre half, nice triangles and movement. I am sure if Zonal Marking watched the game they would have been impressed. Textbook stuff.

On the flipside we looked rather static and got pulled out of position rather easily. It was a bit cat and mouse with their fullbacks and our wingers, do we stay forward and exploit the space and hopefully force their fullbacks deep or do we track them back forcing our wingers deep.

Great example of a false nine for their 3rd goal, striker dropping deep and taking a defender with him and murdocca going a long way past the striker into the space created by the run. Also great example of inside wingers and attacking fullbacks for first goal, Kosta's run pulling Manny in and occupying dura at the same time and franjic getting forward ahead of ifill and into the space vacated by manny who was following Kosta to cross for Kosta to convert.

how does their goal where Kosta tried a pass and it took a deflection and fell to a player who shot far post but deflected and went in near post fit in?

Totally agree we have been tactically left behind this season. The Roar gave us an excellent example of how the modern game can be played. Similar to how the game has developed in Europe(for example....the young German team at the WC)

So where does that leave the Nix. Last year we were very succesful with a rock solid defense, muscle boys in midfield and an excellent Ifill scoring the wonder goals.

Always a bit of luck involved. Need to have a look at the space afforded to the player.

Cross from Kosta, Elliott gets a touch with his head and lands at Broich's feet. Reinaldo is in a good position occupying two defenders.

Anyone at fault? Ifill? North?

LisaKi2010-11-04 15:33:10

Kosta had to go as he just wasn't getting played by Ricki. playing for Ange has improved his game.  All power to him.

agree completely.

one thing i will add is that the roar deliberately left sigmund to play the ball - a good old trick, pick the worst defender, leave him alone, mark the rest and reduce the quality of the ball coming out of the opponent's back third. 

elliott still managed to find space though (credit to him) and just wasn't given the ball.

Thought they were poor last night and to see the crowd going early was rare for the ROF. Why do we appear to have 2 teams going in the same direction all game and only the team in Orange appearing to do any running off the ball. The Medic2010-11-04 15:58:54

Just watched the highlights  (I was at the game too). We lack three "P's".
PACE- speaks for itself
PASSION- our leadership has gone to sleep. Tactically we were 20 years out of date. It was like watching an early round English FA Cup game- say Man U v Exeter City. Durante as skipper? How about giving Daniel a go with the armband? How about recruiting some coaching staff who are a bit more contemporary? Paston is too quiet with his defense team- isn't there another goalie somewhere? Most of the side need a firework up their arse (seasonal reference there). The YF are passionate enough, how about the team?
PASSING- pretty woeful all round.
We weren't really that bad, we were just out-played by a superior team. Can we join the 21st century now please?

The thing that exemplified the game for me, was the number of times we had a throw in and Muscat/North/whoever stood there waiting waiting waiting for anybody to run into a bit of space and take the ball. Then they gave up and threw it as hard as they could back to the defence.

Ifill's having a stroll, ball watching, while a Brisbane player has acres of space to run to the edge of the box.

5 Phoenix players concentrating on what 3 Roar players are doing?

Text book marking fail.

at the end of the day we gave them to much space in the midfield. We needed to specifically play a game in which a high pressure/ semi fouling game when we didnt have the ball. Ifill or bertos should have be sacerfice to mark broich the whole game and we should have attacked mainly down 1 side.

Wow.  One team with excellent technique and constantly moving hard off the ball to create space against a team that believes it can bomb it forward to a short as hell striker who also can't help but position himself poorly and get offside for no reason at all at times.  We got exposed badly by one of the better passing teams in the league.  It's about time a manager in this league has truly dedicated himself to avoiding the aerial ping pong passing style of this league. 

At no stage did the Phoenix look like they could hang with the Roar.  They were shown up, badly.

Good luck to the Roar for the rest of the season.  Despite whipping us badly, I loved the style and fluidity of their football.  I almost cannot stomach watching the Phoenix at the moment.  No technique, no flair, no creativity, no precision, just a couple of centre halfs who want to bomb to a hopeless English hack up front.  We are EASILY the worst team to watch in the A-League at the moment.

Anyone with a spec of creativity like Daniel is banished to the bench, for blokes who have no vision or creativity whatsoever.  Ricki needs to have a bloody hard, serious thought about what's going on out there because IMO crowds will begin to tail off not only because of the results but the lack of entertainment and skill value.
The(O)Dor2010-11-04 18:28:32

C'mon then oh smug one... how much did you take the TAB for?

Our answer is Karl Scutt.

Should think NOT!!!  Shame for even hinting at the sentiment...

There are a lot of questions on here about why this was done, why this wasn't done, why so and so started and so and so didn't and you know what? we don't get any answers. In the US with american football at all levels [highschool to pro] each week the coach fronts up on TV or local radio and talks about the week in depth. They are interviewed with tough questions and put on the spot to give straight answers. That should be happening here with the Nix [as an idea]. Let Rikki front a radio show for 2 hours every week where he is asked, "why did you drop Pav and bring in Mac after the Adelaide game?", "why isn't Jade North playing like a socceroo?", why has the club not signed any full backs?". There may be some legitimate reasons for all of these things. The club needs to treat it's fan base with a bit of respect and not leave it all to trust because [as we see now when things aren't going too well] fans get disgruntled and don't bother turning up.

i tell you a question i'd like a f***king answer to:  why do they insist on playing towards the fever in the first half?  maybe they want the noise of the fans "behind" them in the 2nd, but frankly it's rubbish.  we want them coming our way so we can roar them home.  no bloody good having them miles up the park where we can hardly see and they can probably hardly hear us.

since the run has ended, this would be one easy thing to change to get things back on track.

Because they lose the toss?

Lots of fans have mentioned many reasons why we are not winning. A lot are true, but what I think is that we are not playing with any direction. I question why as a team we are not as sharp as the rest of the league. Training?
Why are we not techenically as good?. Coaching? None of us really know what is going on as you have to be in the squad or on the coaching staff.
One thing I do know is that we have some good players, who for whatever reason are not performing.
The question was asked yesterday how the players were rated.Most answered 4 to 6. Any side that has 2/3 players getting around 5 is going to lose every game as no team can carry that many players having an off game.
I hate to say this, but the blame must lie with Ricki and all the coaching staff.
Playing to our potential we should at least 4/5th.
We have a chance v Perth as they are shocking at the moment. 3 points there and we could be on our way.

that was my first thought - but they've played that way every home game.  have we lost the toss six times in a row?

Of course the heat is on Ricki, he has a good squad but they aren't performing as a team. He's in charge of that, he has to motivate them and get the machine running smoothly. He is the one who has to answer all the questions. In saying that, he has two thirds of the season to do something about it.

Well as we discovered in Maths the other day, that's very possible.

I blame that group of Bubbles supporting Roar

I would.

edit. blood thicker than....etcTopLeft072010-11-04 21:30:37

Feverish2010-11-04 21:47:34

Ricki still can't get the subs right.....last nights just cocked the team up more..2-1 down we still had a chance to nick something..[ Lia should have gone at half-time for Ward]... but once the subs were made and we went three at the back Brisbane were laughing....... 

We need tactical subbing, not just random.

.