If that was a "season defining game" our season is over. So let's start building for next year. All we realistically have to play for is seventh or eighth spot. What's gone wrong for me is right throughout the team:
Lochead - half the player he was last year. Seems disinterested
Durante - came with a big rep "best player in grand final" etc. Decent enough but no leadership or passion. Shouldn't be captain
Gao - waste of space. Word of advice mate, you are here and not Europe because you're crap. Now roll your sleeves up and get on with it. Show some passion for the shirt or walk
Bertos - getting better but doesn't seem the player he was last year. Has the look of a man who has jumped out of the frying pan into the fire
McKain - average
Brown - decent enough guy but limited talent
Coveney - a striker who can't score or last 90 minutes is a luxury we can no longer afford. Be ruthless Ricki. He's had a good career and now it's time to hang up the boots
Kwasnik - Huge disappointment.
In short, we have no leader on the pitch, no one who gets in the faces of the opposition and no one who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and make things happen. There's no point us having more strikers if we don't have a midfield that can find them.
On the plus side, we have two good goalkeepers, Sigmund looks good enough and our best player this season has been Dodds. I'm no Dodds fan, but at least he looks like he cares and gives it his all every week. He doesn't hide unlike some of his more capable colleagues.
Ricki needs to look at his coaching methods. If he can't fire them up we're screwed because no one else will want the job. Why was he praising the team after the game? We've now lost twice in quick succession to the supposedly worst team in the league. We have to accept that label now sits firmly with us. If we finish eight again we may as well knock it on the head and give the franchise up. Because if we can't do it with the set up we have here NZ will never have a credible team in the A-league.
The weird thing about Leilei Gao was that he was frigging awesome during a short stint at the New Zealand Knights. He was about the only one who would regularly crack the opponents in half.
But you're right, at the moment his attitude is ordinary.
Something is wrong in the state of Denmark though, I can't believe that this squad can be so bad on field. On paper, they're not a bad side. I don't think the Smeltz issue has helped, I sincerely believe he's had his mind elsewhere for the last month while he's tried to cover up and pretend he hasn't signed to go elsewhere, and I don't believe his apathy to the cause has helped out the other lads.
How long is Kwasnik signed for? He's rank average. The Phoenix need to invest in probably a South American mid field playmaker (I say that because they genuinely need some flair), a target man, and someone who has that knack of finding the back of the net. This season IMO is a write off, which is dreadfully bad news IMO for the growth of the profile of New Zealand Soccer in general.
....... Ricky is struggling at this level.......
