vs Sydney ROF 7:15pm Sat

Both on friday

Greenie needs the ball in the box to score to bad we're to sh*t to give it to him there.

Really struggling to understand negativity towards Greenacre. I struggle to recall him receiving bugger all service from the midfield and he is being served up a load of poor long balls (Mac as well). Torres would not look good with the service we're providing for the strikers!

Might just be me but he also seems to be having to drop back and help the midfield as some of the midfield seem to have been missing in action.

Really hope Big Mac is dropped this weekend. Turned it on pre-season. Donkey since.

don't care who plays aslong as we win.

Greenie likes the rain I reckon. Half his career highlights on Youtube are in the rain and his best haul for us in that opening game was on an absolute sh*te of a night.

disagree

Greenacre is a striker FFS, not a middle distance runner. His main job is to score goals not "to do a lot of running". Too often he is missing in action when there is stuff going on in the box. Last year the Nix were near top of the League for balls into the box and Greenacre never seemed to be there very often(5 goals and 1 assist)

Little stat, since Smeltz left, strikers have scored 14/48 of the Phoenix's goals. The strikers are Greenacre, Dadi and Barbarouses.

Draw what you will from that but it might be interesting for those complaining about lacking goalscoring strikers.

Don't let facts get in the way of a good old rant. Greenacre has scored 2 from 4 games this season - not too bad a return and same as Ifill. Greenacre has had 6 attempts on target again the same as Ifill, rest of the team have mustered 7 attempts on target between them. Greenacre possibly getting better with age. Greenacre did not look dangerous against Perth but the service to him and Mac was diabolical!
whitby fever2010-09-07 22:48:58

He played in a front two those games, rather than playing him in the hole behind a lone striker. I posted earlier in this thread, saying I feel he drops back too deep when we play like that, its not a role that suits him. He should be getting the ball around the box, not near half way.

I think he just gets frustrated when no balls come to him, so he goes looking for it.

Everyone knows when the ball is at his feet in the box he will hit the target. He just hasn't been in those positions lately.

Greenacre has always said from day one, when he arrived, that he is a striker that plays off a bigger target man.

That means he prefers to play in and around the box, but we're not giving the ball to him anywhere near there.

Note the goals he has scored have been from balls in and around the 6 yard area.

Greenacre drops back to cover our midfield because he has to, because our midfield tends to be/has been AWOL in the last few weeks, and leaves a big gap for the forwards to defend into.

We're not the fastest team up the pitch on a break, so it's hard to expect Greenacre to run a marathon covering for our midfield, then magically appear in the box when a miracle long ball gets hoofed in that direction.

I agree it would be nice to see Greenacre knocking in a number each week, but being realistic, that won't happen unless we structure more goals, and stop expecting to always score on the counter attackArd Righ2010-09-08 09:56:57

Not totally relevant, however here's a link to Malta 0 - 2 Latvia. 3:25 in and Muscat narrowly misses a goal! Pretty impressive stuff.

Hey mods, do we have a thread where we discuss the Phoenix international players? That could be an idea, even though 90% of them are AW's.

Heading to the game this weekend from the hawkes bay should be good

Hello,

I go with your picks

will we be graced by the presence of C-DIDDY @ home this weekend... he'll prove the difference.

be sure to bring the lucky headbandages

Hello,

All the best to our Phoenix boys' for their game against SydneyFC this week. I am aware that I am only a new poster in here, but I shall not be posting for a week or so as I am flying out to Christchurch a little later...Back home to my family, and taking my gumboots with me...alot of mess
to clean-up.


Byebye for now

He was delivered a perfectly good ball last weekend by Pav unfortunately he was waiting on a bus somewhere and didn't arrive in the "box" until it was far to late! much to the consternation of the ball crosser!

that was one glaringly obvious error on Greenie's behalf, not sure what he was doing before the play unfolded - so it could have been justified. Eitherway, to have such a perfect ball drift across the 6 yard box with no nix striker within screenshot is criminal.

yea, if you watch the replay, Pav was running to the corner flag, so greenie tracked out of the box presumably to try support him.

I'm not making excuses but could it be a possibility that greenie wasn't expecting the cross ?

I thought Pav did well to cross the ball from that position.
whooooooo2010-09-08 15:59:04

Can anyone sit in the Yellow fever area?

Ironic how travel is suposed to be a factor playing Perth or any Oz team away but we all want North and Manny to step off plane from Europe on Friday and play or come off the bench!

Got some tickets for friends coming Pax = 7178 to 7150

Yes. At half time.

Can we really..?

Well, if you let an Egan in...

I didn't think you could enter the fever zone unless you had a fever zone ticket. The red badge people are always checking each ticket in those aisles before they let you through.

Excellent news.

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/182649,carle-set-to-be-sidelined.aspx

thats true, but anyone can buy a fever zone ticket.

Although I always get through without having tickets to the FZ by saying my brother has them in our bag, which is in the FZ. Always works.

I can't make this one but its okay, cause my f**king season pass hasn't arrived yet.

Ross the prolific striker