WPM PS vs Wellington Olympic | Sun 22nd Sep | 2:00pm | Martin Luckie Park

Lineup in the first half was:

AKH
Payne Hughes Sheridan Sutton
Conchie Rufer Nagasawa
Ishige OVH Rojas

Sheridan was at CB and did very well.

OVH’s goal was set up by some Rojas magic, sending his defender the wrong way and dribbling 10 or 20 metres.

Second half was a very young side with Mo Al-Taay captaining. We looked solid again and Brooke-Smith was impressive. Piper looked solid at CB when he came on later.

Supyk’s goal was due to a mistake from Justin Gulley. Supyk missed a 1v1 later, although I think Basalaj got a hand to it. Supyk was also struggling to stay onside, but he looked good overall.

Solid hit out with some key players missing, Olympic were good but we didn’t really allow them any chances on goal. 

Very interesting that Sheridan was CB and that OVH was the 9

imanixsupporter

Very interesting that Sheridan was CB and that OVH was the 9

Front line was fluid but OVH seemed to be the main man up top for the first half, Supyk in the second.

I was also surprised about Sheridan CB but he did very well.

nufc_nz

IMG_2201.jpeg 216.9 KB

Found this on reddit.

Oh hey that's my pic lol

Site kept crashing for me so I posted there and not here

imanixsupporter

Guessing it is:
AKH
Sheridan Payne Hughes Sutton
Conchie Rufer Nagasawa
OVH Rojas Ishige

20240922_140912.jpg 426.79 KB

Edit: 20 minutes in, anybody watching got an update, how is the team set up etc?

imanixsupporter

Who is playing where on the pitch? 

As I was seeing the play in the first half we had Rufer and Conchie in front of the defence. Ishage and Rojas central in front of them with van Hattum up top. Nagasawa seemed primarily to be playing as a left sided wide mid with Sutton overlapping him.

Payne up and down the other side working with Ishage inside him.
But reasonably fluid with Rufer and Conchie advancing to support play as need be. 

My impression is we got more ball through the centre to Rojas and Ishage than we did in previous seasons. Still using Sutton and Payne for width, plus Nagasawa, but using the short passing route through the centre more.

I guess you could see it as a 4231 shape, except I thought both Ishage and Rojas were holding more centrally.

Nagasawa drifting left in a similar way that al-Taay would drift right in behind Payne last season? Or a bit more advanced?

mjp2

imanixsupporter

Guessing it is:
AKH
Sheridan Payne Hughes Sutton
Conchie Rufer Nagasawa
OVH Rojas Ishige

20240922_140912.jpg 426.79 KB

Edit: 20 minutes in, anybody watching got an update, how is the team set up etc?

imanixsupporter

Who is playing where on the pitch? 

As I was seeing the play in the first half we had Rufer and Conchie in front of the defence. Ishage and Rojas central in front of them with van Hattum up top. Nagasawa seemed primarily to be playing as a left sided wide mid with Sutton overlapping him.

Payne up and down the other side working with Ishage inside him.
But reasonably fluid with Rufer and Conchie advancing to support play as need be. 

My impression is we got more ball through the centre to Rojas and Ishage than we did in previous seasons. Still using Sutton and Payne for width, plus Nagasawa, but using the short passing route through the centre more.

I guess you could see it as a 4231 shape, except I thought both Ishage and Rojas were holding more centrally.

Thanks for that. 
In your opinion how was the play overall? Good points + things we could have done better. That, and how did Nagasawa & Ishige look?

Sounds like a good quality hit out, which to be fair, is exactly what you want heading into the final few weeks of pre season.

imanixsupporter

Very interesting that Sheridan was CB and that OVH was the 9

Maybe Sheridan at CB, was just to keep Payne at CB as much as anything. Payne hasn't played that much lately, and possibly still building fitness for the up & down RB role.

Nagasawa looks like a proper baller, think he's a quality pickup.

Honestly a fairly boring first half from the Nix, looked relatively solid defensively but didn't think we offered a lot going foward at all, yeah I know that was a lower intensity pre season hit out but I still would've liked to see glimpses of some attacking evolution from last season. Honestly I think Olympic got the ball foward more effectively in the first but just lacked the professional quality up front to put the ball in the back of the net.

Second half with all the reserves was a much more fun, albeit less tidy. Far superior from a spectator perspective.

coochiee

imanixsupporter

Very interesting that Sheridan was CB and that OVH was the 9

Maybe Sheridan at CB, was just to keep Payne at CB as much as anything. Payne hasn't played that much lately, and possibly still building fitness for the up & down RB role.

Payne played RB and was up and down the line constantly. Sheridan was partnered by Hughes at CB.

Did Olympic put out a full strength side themselves? I heard Watson wasn’t playing - and on an Insta post of the walkout they had a few young faces themselves? 

Friar Tuck

coochiee

imanixsupporter

Very interesting that Sheridan was CB and that OVH was the 9

Maybe Sheridan at CB, was just to keep Payne at CB as much as anything. Payne hasn't played that much lately, and possibly still building fitness for the up & down RB role.

Payne played RB and was up and down the line constantly. Sheridan was partnered by Hughes at CB.

Yeah I meant Payne at RB

YoungHeartHM

mjp2

imanixsupporter

Guessing it is:
AKH
Sheridan Payne Hughes Sutton
Conchie Rufer Nagasawa
OVH Rojas Ishige

20240922_140912.jpg 426.79 KB

Edit: 20 minutes in, anybody watching got an update, how is the team set up etc?

imanixsupporter

Who is playing where on the pitch? 

As I was seeing the play in the first half we had Rufer and Conchie in front of the defence. Ishage and Rojas central in front of them with van Hattum up top. Nagasawa seemed primarily to be playing as a left sided wide mid with Sutton overlapping him.

Payne up and down the other side working with Ishage inside him.
But reasonably fluid with Rufer and Conchie advancing to support play as need be. 

My impression is we got more ball through the centre to Rojas and Ishage than we did in previous seasons. Still using Sutton and Payne for width, plus Nagasawa, but using the short passing route through the centre more.

I guess you could see it as a 4231 shape, except I thought both Ishage and Rojas were holding more centrally.

Thanks for that. 
In your opinion how was the play overall? Good points + things we could have done better. That, and how did Nagasawa & Ishige look?

Sounds like a good quality hit out, which to be fair, is exactly what you want heading into the final few weeks of pre season.

I saw more "attacking evolution" than Monto maybe suggests. But we didn't put up too many shots. Ishage got a couple away, so I don't think he's shy of having a hit.

Hard to say if we have got enough to really trouble good A League sides. But it also had the feel of a community day 45min run, so we'll see what they can do in the pre-season games in Aus.  I'd like to hear we can score a few goals in those. But even then it's early days. 

I thought Rojas, Ishage and Nagasawa all added something. Not forgetting Retre who didn't play. Didn't show the pace of an Old, but Olympic weren't running any sort of high line so not a lot of room to show that.  Hard to say comparing those three to Kraev, Old, Pennington and a half season of Zawada. But a couple of them will need to score a fair bit and Kosta will need to have another good season. I'm not sure about all that. We're also short and that will affect our attacking game. 

It will be interesting to see how we go. It looks like we intend to be a quick tempo passing side. How well that produces goals will be the trick.