WPM R1 @ Perth Glory | Sat 18th Oct | 11:45pm | SS2

nixiefan

Putting it out there that Alby was excellent for the reserves this afternoon 

Nice to hear. Oluwayemi continues to be a real mix of good and bad

dunnix

Would love to know what was said at half-time though

We played better since about minute 30

We clearly lost out legs at around 70 but 30-70ish we absolutely dominated 

I expected absolutely nothing out of this team and thought we were in for a long night, but hugely encouraging signs imo. We have no depth as per usual so a lot will depend on injuries, but I think there's something there. 

Nagasawa looked like a different player having Eze to link with. Some of the passing through the middle was genuinely good and better than anything we saw last season. 

Eze was a nuisance all game and other teams will fudgeing hate him. If he keeps this up and stays fit he could be a bit of a cult hero 

I was also really impressed with James at the back who I thought had an incredibly tough task as imo LKH is nowhere near up to it. 

Reading through some of the comments and I'm kinda shocked at the lack of ball knowledge tbh, someone saying we were bad in possession.. We dominated it! Perth barely strung 3 passes together! 

Pass accuracy 60% v 80% 

650 passes v 270

70% possession 

Only one team playing football out there. The only reason we didn't win is imo LKH 

Better than expected signs from this squad, but I'm incredibly terrified of what Auckland, plus the likes of Adelaide and Victory will do to us.

HattyCW

Better than expected signs from this squad, but I'm incredibly terrified of what Auckland, plus the likes of Adelaide and Victory will do to us.

After watching Victory v Auckland they may bore us to death 


Having a strong spine in James, Rufer, Eze will go a long way. 

Still unconvinced with Josh but hey - Paulsen isn't there to bail Auckland out anymore 

Don’t think we should underestimate Perth. Think many will go there and won’t come away with anything.

one (of a few) criticisms of perth is that taggart should have moved out of the middle and run at sheridan and LKH. 

LKH has been away from the squad for 3-4 weeks, and wouldn’t have thought he was starting until whenever Hughes pulled out.

Chiefy said post match the decision to play this high line wasn’t made at the start of pre season but more 5-6 pre season matches ago. So being away for those 3-4 weeks recently wouldn’t have helped LKH tonight

Yeah that's fair re : LKH but I also just have never thought he's been good enough. He definitely isn't the kind of defender who can turn quickly and get back. 

We will see how he goes 

Any word on Hughes injury 

Also I thought Najjirine was extremely average but Armiento looks very solid without being spectacular - but exactly that sort of player we needed 

I'm glad I didn't pack it in when we were 2 - 0 down. 
A big thing I take from that is we can come back and actually score goals without relying on Kosta. 
Eze looks much better than I was expecting and Armiento could have his best season if he can keep that up, I like the passion he showed too but maybe don't throw the ball away next time.
Nagasawa's best game by far and we still have a couple of players back from injury soon 

Edit: Could Dan Edwards be the fix we need for LKH. He can play left back and centre back 

I only got to watch the highlights. 
4 seconds of our goals yielded four late shots on our players and a potential penalty foul on Eze by Kaltak. Those yellow cards didn’t keep up huh. 

Eze’s goal. Man from listening and reading I thought Nagasawa’s pass had done a lot of the work. Nope. For all that it was a good pass- Eze is alert to the potential of the pass and makes the run. Then makes 3 very good touches to take it down, around  Kaltak and the finish is sublime, soft, cushioned, over Kaltak, away from Sutton and away from Wootton who slid in to cover. Absolutely stunned. A very classy goal. 

And Armiento saw his chance and didn’t think, just put his foot through it. Good lad. 

Looks like I did well to miss the horror show. But the high line is tough and Hughes is, well potentially was with James arrival, our best defender. It won’t be for the faint hearted, but we wanted action right? 

Guna be hard to chose between Josh and Alby. The former is going to have the odd brain explosion sweeping, but will be odds on to make at least one to two saves he had no right to, the latter is going to be tidy with his feet and sweeping, but is also not made of vibranium rubber, the way Josh is, and on the evidence so far is a decent regular keeper. 

I’m going to be honest. A much better start to the season than I’d thought. Goals entertainment and some action. Just play Eze’s goal on the news and leave it at that! That should make a decent impression. 

Well we asked to be entertained……didn’t we?
Really enjoyed this game….lots of heart in the mouth stuff and drama. However once we settled we played some excellent football….hats off to Chiefy. You can see a coherent plan…..it’s not perfect and there is lots of work to do but it’s good to see positive football.
I really liked the new guys. James is a monster in defense. Eze will 100% become a fan favorite…..and he’s going to score lots of goals. He just discovered the ALeague…..where you get the crap kicked out of you and the refs do nothing. When you haven’t watched AL for a while you forget how rough it can be.
Good games also from Nagasawa and Rufer.
 The high line needs some work our we will get punished. Hughes must come back in and Josh has to sweep. We also need to improve ball retention in the midfield. If you miss hit a pass with a high line it’s curtains.
I know there will be ups and downs but I’m really looking forward to the season. It’s going to quite a ride 

Just watched the highlights, great result imo. Eze's goal was one of the best NIX goals I've seen for a while. Great start for our striker.

Can't comment on the game in general but from what I've read the high backline could seriously catch us out...

Looking forward to next week. The team looks more promising than last season.

Fell asleep on the hour mark because I had to be up at 5 for work, but will happily take that from the position we found ourselves in after half an hour.

As others have said, it looks like its going to he a heart in the mouth kind of season playing with a defensive line like that is sitting so high, but at the same time it also feels like we're going to throw some punches of our this season too - I mean, isn't that what we were all clamouring for last year? If thats the case, then bring it on!

On the players, James and Eze look like quality pickups for this league. Eze's goal alone is worthy of a contract extension in itself! Anyone who can put a championship winning defender like Kaltak on his ass after skipping on past him and deftly chipping the keeper for an introduction goal has definitely piqued my interest. Man looks hellishly quick as well. As for James, well I think he's going to have his work cut out for him this year, but on first glance theres a certain swagger and confidence about the way he plays, and you can guarantee he's not going to give an inch in terms of the physical contest. We need that bite and hunger for the contest at the back, and he gives us that.

Very good games from Rufer, Armiento, Nagasawa and Payne too. Feels like those four + James and Eze are going to be the nucleus of our XI this season. Chuck in Hughes when he gets back from whatever niggle he picked up before kickoff last night and those will be the ones doing a lot of the heavy lifting for 25/26.

On to Brisbane at home next weekend. COYN!

AucklandPhoenix

Don’t think we should underestimate Perth. Think many will go there and won’t come away with anything.

I disagree. They, as per last season, showed very little quality on the ball and had almost no idea what to do with it other than hoof it and hope. They are not a good team.

The only real difficult thing about Perth is the travel.

Add Hughes to that starting XI and get keeper to sweep and our defence will be better. Some great interplay in the attacking midfield. Two great goals, and I thought Payney's shot had glory written all over it! Piper added a bit of late impact. Well done!!

Is this literally the first time WPX have been above AFC on the ladder lol

coochiee

nixiefan

Putting it out there that Alby was excellent for the reserves this afternoon 

Nice to hear. Oluwayemi continues to be a real mix of good and bad

With our new suicidal highline, is Alby quick enough to play behind it? If he's as quick as his brother id say he's at a disadvantage with this tactical approach.

What a fantastic result! If only we didn't start so shaky. The high line is a bit suicidal but damn we should be entertained this season!

A lot of people in here saying we should have gotten 3 points from that?? I reckon we should wake you lot up at 1am or 2am in the morning and see how you do kicking a ball about 🤣 always a tough game in Perth - 99% of the time we should be happy with a point 

i think a few of us thought we should be chasing it a little harder

it was a bit odd, cheify went to a back 4 and we left 3 up top, but we also time wasted, which nullified quick delivery to the 3 up top. this was possibly a comms issue with old habits embedded

Nagasawa in his (deserved) player of the match interview talking about Eze constantly making good runs.  

Great goal from Eze but your key midfielder recognising the work rate and quality of the runs being made is good news for how those two should combine through the season.

Sun is shining in Wellington and wake up to a good result. Quietly very excited about this team, a lot of unknowns and sounds like it’s going to be quite an entertaining team. Those two finishes were top notch. Great ball by Payney! 

reg22

i think a few of us thought we should be chasing it a little harder

it was a bit odd, cheify went to a back 4 and we left 3 up top, but we also time wasted, which nullified quick delivery to the 3 up top. this was possibly a comms issues with old habits embedded

It looked pretty hot and we'd burnt a fair bit of energy getting the two goals back, I suspect. Chief probably setting up for the win with fresh legs and positive subs, but maybe tempers getting up at the end suggests things were a bit stretched physically and mentally for those playing through.  

But yeh. We only needed another good couple of minutes. Perhaps that wasn't in some legs though.

Not a great result, given we'd had the week over there. But signs we've got a team with some good fiesty on field leaders with attitude. And some entertaining play and potential. We'd still not want to loose Eze to injury ...

Nagasawa seems to have learnt how to handle the A League biffo. Maybe he's been hitting the gym or just got a bit better ride today. It'll be interesting how Eze adjusts to that too. He's big enough to dish some back.

Well well well , we maintain our slow starts to the season. At least it wasnt a loss.
First 25mins the high defensive line did not work, we made it way too easy for their attack and it cost us 2 goals. We also played right into their defensive press playing through the middle. For the rest of the game it seemed like we'd warmed up and the high line worked and we utilised our width and pace better. Eze's goal was mint, eased some concerns over his ability to score. 
We deserved the draw but had we been on from the get go could have come home with the 3 points.

Took us half an hour to wake up, but after that we were by far the better side.

Armiento, James and especially Eze look like outstanding pickups. Plenty to work on, but also plenty of positives - looking forward to next week even more now.

Is it only me who wasnt impressed by Armiento outside of the goal?

Nagasawa and ishige look far far better in this setup. It's almost like two small attacking players who like to pass would be better in a possession based attacking side than a route one defend the whole game out of possession side. 

imanixsupporter

Is it only me who wasnt impressed by Armiento outside of the goal?

I was not impressed with how hot headed he seems to be, he needs to chill out.

Was quite disappointed with Najjarine honestly.

He did have a very disrupted last season for WU with injuries though and when he was fit, was almost never in the starting lineup during his time there. A big contrast to when he was at WS prior.

Hopefully with some more consistent game time, and keeping himself injury free, he can offer something.

Sorry it was actually the latter stages of 23/24 through to the first few rounds of 24/25 when he was injured. Before and after his return from injury he was almost always coming off the bench at WU. 

Me being my usual messy self.

anaveragestem

What a fantastic result! If only we didn't start so shaky. The high line is a bit suicidal but damn we should be entertained this season!

A lot of people in here saying we should have gotten 3 points from that?? I reckon we should wake you lot up at 1am or 2am in the morning and see how you do kicking a ball about 🤣 always a tough game in Perth - 99% of the time we should be happy with a point 

I think the draw after first 20 mins is an excellent result

But they had been in Perth a week so no real excuses re the kick off time, except Payne and LKH flying in later

Monto

AucklandPhoenix

Don’t think we should underestimate Perth. Think many will go there and won’t come away with anything.

I disagree. They, as per last season, showed very little quality on the ball and had almost no idea what to do with it other than hoof it and hope. They are not a good team.

The only real difficult thing about Perth is the travel.

I do not disagree, but I think it is more to do with David Zdrilic gameplan than the team.  The current Perth squad is a group of decent talented players but as the game wore on it was clear Zdrilic did not adjust their team tactics.   We clawed our way back into the game not on the strength of bringing match winning subs, but because Italiano did not allow the side to panic and instead did a bit of positional tweaking at halftime, but keeping the same players until the subs who came on when we got tired, the tactics by then were the same as the prior 20 min or so.
My thought is that to play this kind of high press we really need faster defenders, especially on the left where LKH was probably a bit too exposed for my comfort.  If we see Hughes back soon that might be a good pairing with James though.
I think A-FC, WSW or Victory would give us a pasting right now, so it was good to have a game against Perth, instead of one of those, to get our season underway.

very surprised that Kaltak was still on the field by the end of the game, mutlipe challenges he made were yellow card worthy, yet he copped nothing!

imanixsupporter

Is it only me who wasnt impressed by Armiento outside of the goal?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360859057/why-26-year-old-one-most-promising-signings-wellington-phoenixs-coach-has-ever-made

Anyone know the foul count? It seemed to me that Perth were continuously trying to disrupt through fouling both on contact and in late arrival/contact, taking the ball player out after they had passed the ball.  Certainly, not every foul was penalised, so perhaps the foul count would be misleadng anyway. It was actually good to see our new players responding strongly to what was being dished out to them.

HattyCW

Was quite disappointed with Najjarine honestly.

He did have a very disrupted last season for WU with injuries though and when he was fit, was almost never in the starting lineup during his time there. A big contrast to when he was at WS prior.

Hopefully with some more consistent game time, and keeping himself injury free, he can offer something.

I thought he was fine, a lot of our attack in the first half came down his side. He got a bit of a rough up during the game, for isntance in the build up to Armiento's goal he played the ball to Payne, the ball would have been about 15m away by the time Risdon collected him with a very late elbow into the chest

Typhoon

Anyone know the foul count? It seemed to me that Perth were continuously trying to disrupt through fouling both on contact and in late arrival/contact, taking the ball player out after they had passed the ball.  Certainly, not every foul was penalised, so perhaps the foul count would be misleadng anyway. It was actually good to see our new players responding strongly to what was being dished out to them.

Perth 18 to 8 Wgtn

Should have been more to Perth. Some more yellows should have been handed out, but the ref sort of forgot after playing advantage.

Bullion

HattyCW

Was quite disappointed with Najjarine honestly.

He did have a very disrupted last season for WU with injuries though and when he was fit, was almost never in the starting lineup during his time there. A big contrast to when he was at WS prior.

Hopefully with some more consistent game time, and keeping himself injury free, he can offer something.

I thought he was fine, a lot of our attack in the first half came down his side. He got a bit of a rough up during the game, for isntance in the build up to Armiento's goal he played the ball to Payne, the ball would have been about 15m away by the time Risdon collected him with a very late elbow into the chest

Just snipped through the first half, watched the build-up to Carlo's goal again. I apologise for being too unfair on him.

imanixsupporter

Is it only me who wasnt impressed by Armiento outside of the goal?

If he scores a goal a game, I'm prepared to be otherwise unimpressed .....

Liked his aggro.

Would like to see him alone in a small room with LKH for five minutes before the next game. 

AucklandPhoenix

Liked his aggro.

Would like to see him alone in a small room with LKH for five minutes before the next game. 

Weird kink but ok

Actually don't mind the likes of Armineto and Eze showing some niggly mongrel. James looks a hard nosed character as well. As we know the Nix can be too nice at times.

But didn't enjoy some of Eze's other theatrics, trying to milk any contact. You can imagine that sort of stuff being rewarded or even encouraged in the Iraqi League. Hopefully after a few ALM games he'll realise it's different down here. 

He'll need to, otherwise very quickly opposition fans will be giving him a hard time - but hey maybe he'd like to be a Berisha like pantomine villain. Maybe he'd fed off the crowd abuse he'll get.