Welkom Roly! - Never to be an All White

Rufer and Ridenton for the youth team.

But yeah Fenton is too much quality to not make the bench - unfortunately after last year Boyd might be ahead of him in the pecking order. Nix kind of did him a diservice with the full back experiment.

I guess Fenton would be a good bench player as he can play quite a few positions now.

Ernie wont play two in the holding role in front of the back four cause he knows Reira can do that job on his own.  We have some nice conundrums this year...

Fenton should be on the bench - he did have a rough deal last season

Absolutely - and when you've finished 9th of course we're allowed to question some decisions!

By the way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing 3 quality midfielders - and we should do that definitely.  

Yeah...changing formations slightly like that would probably have more effect in FM than real life, especially with players that aren't so disciplined positionally.

That, when pressed, but with Roly playing further forward otherwise, and whenever possible, box-box.  If we take Ernie at his word.  Tim Brown on steroids.  Starting to think he could be a big deal for us.  Go Roly.

Ernie:

"With his squad all but finalised after signing versatile Dutch midfielder Roly Bonevacia on Friday, Merrick is now looking to build cohesion and combinations.

"I think it's a case of let's see how we can develop this, what position players can play, what we can do up front," he said.

"In a modern team, just about everyone's a midfielder except the goalkeeper, two centre backs and one striker.

"The rest are all hard-working, technically sound, very fast players. We're putting together that type of squad."

http://www.3news.co.nz/Wellington-Phoenix-seek-A-League-consistency/tabid/415/articleID/354300/Default.aspx#ixzz3AVzeIBuv

Otherwise 

                     Riera

            Roly              Mc-G

Kenny          A-Rod              Burns              

Boxall seems to be getting groomed for CB/holding midfielder cover, in case Riera or Roly needs to come off? 

The rest of the outfield bench then three of 

Fenton, Boyd, Krishna, Brockie 

you'd imagine Fenton covers more positions and gives a few more options to change the play

Brockie, I am guessing for his famed shooting capability

and then Krishna or Boyd

We are looking solid if not necessarily brilliant, and the secret to success will be workrate and playing well as a team (as well as finding goals).  With good enough quality cover for all positions.  You might think we'll be top 6 or better unless Gorrin goes down/fails to fire and we don't get weemac (or similar).  But actually I think we'll be shit, same as every other year.

Remember roly can play across the back line can he not? This will be important when our all whites are away for cb cover.

Nobody knows anything about Roly yet, but it would seem like he might actually be disruptive to our best shape or play as a fullback. We need more goal scorers in the team. Or one proven goal scorer at this level other than Brockie.

So far Burns, Rodriguez, Cunningham, Brockie* and possibly Boyd, and of course Jason Hicks, Cunningham and I'd put Krishna in the Jason Hicks category at this stage. Oh, and of course Siggie and Dura.

4-1-3-2?

or 3-5-1?

might hop this over to the other thread...

It'll be interesting to know how quick he is.  I guess we get an idea of that tomorrow

Did anyone watch him today?

Played second half. Looked a bit rusty but certainly looked technically able. Was doing some long passes at half time and was hitting the other player 30 yards away with both feet.

"I  have spoken to others (Dutch footballers) about coming here and I think some will come." Very good Roly. Agent Oranjie. Bring them on down asap. As many as you can get please.

"We can aim for places between third and six I believe.”

At least he's being realistic.

Johan Cruyff bring ya boots. Ari Haan - free kick specialist coach.

Didn't the Kingz have some dutch imports....Lammers!?

Oh no. I had almost erased the memories... arrrggghhhh!!! Arguably the most inept striker in the history of football.

And the All Whites had Bill (Willem) de Graaf. (eh Leggy?)

haha. not haha is that they're now well fukd. Hardly seems able to walk.

need more orange on the pitch

Unfairly maligned in NZ.

The only time in his career when he failed to score regularly was in his eight games for the Kingz.

He only had a short eight game stint. He was 36 / 37 by then, so probably rather past it.

Before coming out here for a couple of months, Lammers scored more than a goal every two games for his two main Eredivisie clubs, RKC Waalwijk (42 goals in 80 games) and NAC Breda (92 goals in 165 games).

He scored 185 goals in 425 games, mostly in the Eredivisie and French Ligue 1 (Toulon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lammers_(footbal...

These days he's manager of Eindhoven - FC Eindhoven that is, in the second tier.

He got Ivan Vicelich his contract at Roda because he recommended him and was head of the Dutch PFA at the time.

According to Merrick Roly came to NZ for the lifestyle,

Amsterdam sur le Pacific. Island Bay/Red Rocks (if it was done right) -

Only 14 Games into his Nix Career, IMO Roly would now be in the top two players (with Ifill of course) we have had at the Nix.

His contribution is immense and he is improving game on game. His ability to hold the ball and beat a player from a standing start is a joy to watch, and remember he was signed as a back up Centreback / Fullback / DM

Once he finds his shooting range..... wow!

He could, become the best import to grace the A League

Is this the proposed new Marine Education Centre?

#nimby

For me, he already looks like he's too good for the A League - hopefully he doesn't think so though

I'd like to think that you don't come all the way out here if you are looking to bounce back into Europe. We can compete with some league money wise and lifestyle is pretty appealing for a young family.

Hopefully it ends up being 'why move if I'm happy' scenario.

Wouldn't McGlinchey be in the same boat? Although he does have NZ connections I suppose.....

How could he not love the Wellington northerly

He's is probably to good.

Hope he tells his younger friends at Ajax how great the NZ lifestyle is and that they should sign with us to get playing time.

A couple of titles in two years would certainly help that lovin feelin!

Yeah he was apparently only six months away from getting his Australian Citizenship when he left to Japan, rather than restarting the process again he decided to settle in NZ.

fixed

Kohi?

Yellow Mini Made it to Invercargill. Stuart Island in the Background.

Think Ive already seen comments from him saying he'd like go to back to Europe asap?

All he complained about was something along the lines that he would prefer to be playing in a full stadium.

he'll be looking forward to the Hutt rec games then. 

If we can keep Roly beyond the end of his contract I'd be stoked but I don't expect him to stay. Hopefully he'll be one of those who gets in close with the playing group and comes to love the city but I think his ambitions are greater than the A-league and rightly so. He's too young and too good to stay forever.

Who knows maybe we'll win the league in the next two years and owners will deem in worth it to fork out some serious marquee wages to keep him around a little longer.