Words can't describe that rubbish. Atrocious. I'm over watching that.
Was at the game and decided not to read the forum cos I was amped we were top of the league and we'd held a team on an 11 game unbeaten streak scoreless and made them look average on attack. This morning I check the page and within the first 6 pages there are two "we are playing so negatively I hate it" posts form you. It you really dont like why have you watched it for half a season already? Clearly Chiefy wants to play counter attack posession based football, which demands we hold onto the ball and draw the defence out of their pattern. This means long periods of passing the ball back and across the defence waiting for the break. Everyone of our attacks split their defenders, apart from the final touch/shot we had them on the back foot. Both teams went into that game not wanting to lose, this is haow it has to be at the top of the table. You smash the teams you can, like they did to Adelaide and you grab a point or steal a win against the tougher opponents. I'm expecting we wont see you around when we are celebrating finishing top?
It was kind of a pity we played CCM and not Western United as it would have definitely been a win today, turning even more casuals/band wagoners on to the good ship Phoenix.
Hopefully the casuals enjoyed seeing what a decent 0-0 result can look like. It was an entertaining game, plenty of good defensive effort with the occassional decent attack from both sides.
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
Boring? What did you need to make it interesting or exciting. Sure a goal or two would have been great but it was still a tense and interesting battle. Would it have been interetsing if we'd been chasing a from a goal behind? Or just leading 1-0 the whole 90?
It was kind of a pity we played CCM and not Western United as it would have definitely been a win today, turning even more casuals/band wagoners on to the good ship Phoenix.
dome is saying on social media that pre sales for the next game are strong
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
Boring? What did you need to make it interesting or exciting. Sure a goal or two would have been great but it was still a tense and interesting battle. Would it have been interetsing if we'd been chasing a from a goal behind? Or just leading 1-0 the whole 90?
is beating every team 7-0 while not ever passing backwards or sideways too much to ask? Passing in any direction other than towards the goal is negative football. We should just shoot for goal from every kick off really.
The goalie has the ball at his feet, with 21 players in front of him. The centre half has the ball at his feet with 20 players in front of him. Every possession reverts to one of those situations. Including free kicks and throws near the opposition box.
Its negative, predictable and totally devoid of all initiative. When possession is won, they decline the opportunity to attack so often. The result is no chances are created
You have to get the ball into the box and see what happens. Positive things happen when you are positive. Eg throw ins, you have to throw to someone in the box who can hold it up. They could get fouled and win a pen. They could win a corner , or maybe even manage a shot! Time and time again these situations were recycled back to the centre half. Quite honestly, it was pathetic to watch. CCM did little different
The talk is that we had players out blah blah blah. It wasn’t the skill level we lacked, it was a positive attitude
The goalie has the ball at his feet, with 21 players in front of him. The centre half has the ball at his feet with 20 players in front of him. Every possession reverts to one of those situations. Including free kicks and throws near the opposition box.
Its negative, predictable and totally devoid of all initiative. When possession is won, they decline the opportunity to attack so often. The result is no chances are created
You have to get the ball into the box and see what happens. Positive things happen when you are positive. Eg throw ins, you have to throw to someone in the box who can hold it up. They could get fouled and win a pen. They could win a corner , or maybe even manage a shot! Time and time again these situations were recycled back to the centre half. Quite honestly, it was pathetic to watch. CCM did little different
The talk is that we had players out blah blah blah. It wasn’t the skill level we lacked, it was a positive attitude
Nice to have you posting Fenix, more opinions are better than less especially on the forums as it makes for interesting discussion. It is just a very shark opinion though and a very surface level view of an entire match.
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
Boring? What did you need to make it interesting or exciting. Sure a goal or two would have been great but it was still a tense and interesting battle. Would it have been interetsing if we'd been chasing a from a goal behind? Or just leading 1-0 the whole 90?
is beating every team 7-0 while not ever passing backwards or sideways too much to ask? Passing in any direction other than towards the goal is negative football. We should just shoot for goal from every kick off really.
If you're not winning by 7 are you really even winning?
Chiefy adapts our game plan based on the players available to him. He’s mentioned this approach in interviews. Our team focuses on having a strong defense, encourages attacking moves to stretch opponents, and excels at counter-attacks utilising the spaces created. It does mean though, in games like vs CCM and WSW the teams neutralise each other and therefore becomes a bit of an arm-wrestle. I don't think it's boring but more tactical chess game. Surprisingly, despite low expectations at the start of the season, we’re now leading the league. SO Let’s stay positive and praise the boy guys! They've done really well, and the fans have done really well showing up in numbers too!!!
The goalie has the ball at his feet, with 21 players in front of him. The centre half has the ball at his feet with 20 players in front of him. Every possession reverts to one of those situations. Including free kicks and throws near the opposition box.
Its negative, predictable and totally devoid of all initiative. When possession is won, they decline the opportunity to attack so often. The result is no chances are created
You have to get the ball into the box and see what happens. Positive things happen when you are positive. Eg throw ins, you have to throw to someone in the box who can hold it up. They could get fouled and win a pen. They could win a corner , or maybe even manage a shot! Time and time again these situations were recycled back to the centre half. Quite honestly, it was pathetic to watch. CCM did little different
The talk is that we had players out blah blah blah. It wasn’t the skill level we lacked, it was a positive attitude
Good grief! So attacking football all the time is all that you want? It's not how all managers want their team to play, and clearly the nix and ccm were playing very similar styles. It's a defensive mindset for sure. There are two ways to win a league, you can take the attitude of "we'll score more than everyone regardless of what the score" or "We'll score just enough to win games and make it tough for others to score against us". The current Nix is in camp two. The first is probably more risky as you're gonna conceed goals and come up against a team that defends well more often than not. For me, and I'm sure plenty of others here, I want the nix to be smart about their play, I want them to win, but I want them to not lose more. A solid draw against another top team is massive. Not losing away is HUGE! This is how we win the league. Beat the teams we should beat, dont lose to the other winning teams and maybe steal a goal or ntwo and the win. This will see us win the league. Chasing two or more goals a game will only see us conceed 2 or more a game and we'll be out of the 6 with loads of goals scored but losing games by 2. In regards to the throws, on that I'll agree, the lack of options for the thrower does my head in, but that's only to do with the pace of the game nothing to do with the lack of attacking options.
Really cant believe some of the moaning across various forms of social media. We have a new untried coach who hasnt had much of a budget for players. Yet he has out performed ALL of our previous coaches. Yep its not perfect and mistakes will be made but instead of the bitching and moaning of some. I prefer to be thankful for where he has us sitting and await with eager anticipation for whats really going to be unleashed as he and the team get more in sync.
My two cents. I enjoyed the game, thought the atmosphere was great but wish the stadium took the crowd numbers seriously.
I say stadium because as we were trying to get through the gates we overheard red badge asking for more tickets scanners to be opened. They were doing a good job of bag checks but had to keep it slow as the space between bag check and scanners was pretty cramped with only one side of the scanners open.
I don’t understand why there weren’t more open given they are electronic so staff numbers must stay low. If red badge had enough staff then the stadium should have.
It is all well and good for Dome to say arrive early but if gates only open an hour before kickoff I don’t see how you could ever get 12,000 through the gates with half of them closed.
This type of experience doesn’t help encourage casuals IMO
My two cents. I enjoyed the game, thought the atmosphere was great but wish the stadium took the crowd numbers seriously.
I say stadium because as we were trying to get through the gates we overheard red badge asking for more tickets scanners to be opened. They were doing a good job of bag checks but had to keep it slow as the space between bag check and scanners was pretty cramped with only one side of the scanners open.
I don’t understand why there weren’t more open given they are electronic so staff numbers must stay low. If red badge had enough staff then the stadium should have.
It is all well and good for Dome to say arrive early but if gates only open an hour before kickoff I don’t see how you could ever get 12,000 through the gates with half of them closed.
This type of experience doesn’t help encourage casuals IMO
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
You know what would look really good on an advertising campaign?
Us winning the league. Whichever way it needs to get done.
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
as has been said, pre sales are high for the next game already, so while turning on the flair (which the Phoenix can do) will make the game more entertaining, were clearly doing enough to keep the casual fans engaged.
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
You know what would look really good on an advertising campaign?
Us winning the league. Whichever way it needs to get done.
100% Winning the league is the best sort of advertising you can get. But we haven't won the league yet...
Glad to hear sales are good for Saturday. Hopefully we put on a show and win, but I will take a boring one as well.
Our complete inability to create anything resembling a decent chance that isn't from a counter attack strikes again. We really need to improve there if we want to achieve anything come finals time. All a team needs to do is sit deep and we're no threat.
Makes the Brisbane game an even bigger missed opportunity tbh.
We have struggled with that all season. I think that has cost us about 10 points at least so far this season.
I also think Kosta and Payne have gone off the boil again, past their purple patches.
somehow I feel unlucky for OVH. The ball never balls goes his way when he takes the right option, but then he doesnt take the right option regularly enough.
He had a clear through on goal opportunity early in the second half but the ball carrier chose to pass it to the right wing where it was wasted. I got the feeling the other boys don't have enough faith in him (lets not forget his old man wasn't exactly prolific for a striker either).
I would have hooked Ball before him though. I really think A League is beyond Ball now.
I think simply enough he’s not a fox in the box striker. He was involved in plenty of other moves iirc. But he just didn’t know where to position himself in the box, or what runs to make.
I saw them look to the right wing often, OVH or no, so that was a tactic, but Kaltak got everything.
I thought he’d done well previously wider or deeper, making runs and playing crosses.
To be fair, none of the attacking players had a great day today, against two magnificent defenses.
Our complete inability to create anything resembling a decent chance that isn't from a counter attack strikes again. We really need to improve there if we want to achieve anything come finals time. All a team needs to do is sit deep and we're no threat.
Makes the Brisbane game an even bigger missed opportunity tbh.
We have struggled with that all season. I think that has cost us about 10 points at least so far this season.
I also think Kosta and Payne have gone off the boil again, past their purple patches.
I actually thought Kosta was really unlucky yesterday. He is making some great runs, but because we don't have that creative player in the middle (Kraev could do this job but he was all over the pitch yesterday (in a good way)), the players weren't picking the right pass or waiting too long. Happened a few times in the first half where he was pointing to where he wanted it, but didn't get it. Then the chance he did get he was unlucky but also under a lot of pressure to get any sort of contact.
Kraev best player on the park. Old second and Kaltak third.
This is a good take. Thought Rufer was immense too.
Didn’t think Kosta or Payne had bad games? Loved Payne surging up the middle of the park and Kosta worked very hard, just- Kaltak and 3 or 4 pals are an obstacle!
somehow I feel unlucky for OVH. The ball never balls goes his way when he takes the right option, but then he doesnt take the right option regularly enough.
He had a clear through on goal opportunity early in the second half but the ball carrier chose to pass it to the right wing where it was wasted. I got the feeling the other boys don't have enough faith in him (lets not forget his old man wasn't exactly prolific for a striker either).
I would have hooked Ball before him though. I really think A League is beyond Ball now.
Odd statement; I don’t think his old man ever played as a striker. Also not entirely sure that sort of thing is hereditary. But who knows, maybe Caleb Rufer is banging them in every week for Ray White Tigers in Northern League Social Div 3.
3. What is the point in bringing on Supyk with 2 minutes to go? If you're going to bring him on, give him 15-20 mins.
No lose substitution; Seen to be making subs and giving kids an opportunity without the risk of weakening defence which he sees as why we lost last week. Attacking sub, looks like still trying to win it. Gives a young kid a few minutes up against the big boys. If he scores it looks like an inspired move.
Only possible loser is Luke. He didn’t score. A few more 5 minute cameos like that he’ll be lumped in with OvH as not up to it.
somehow I feel unlucky for OVH. The ball never balls goes his way when he takes the right option, but then he doesnt take the right option regularly enough.
He had a clear through on goal opportunity early in the second half but the ball carrier chose to pass it to the right wing where it was wasted. I got the feeling the other boys don't have enough faith in him (lets not forget his old man wasn't exactly prolific for a striker either).
I would have hooked Ball before him though. I really think A League is beyond Ball now.
Odd statement; I don’t think his old man ever played as a striker. Also not entirely sure that sort of thing is hereditary. But who knows, maybe Caleb Rufer is banging them in every week for Ray White Tigers in Northern League Social Div 3.
Like some English cricket player's response to a Mark Waugh sledge that he wasn't good enough to play for England.
The goalie has the ball at his feet, with 21 players in front of him. The centre half has the ball at his feet with 20 players in front of him. Every possession reverts to one of those situations. Including free kicks and throws near the opposition box.
Its negative, predictable and totally devoid of all initiative. When possession is won, they decline the opportunity to attack so often. The result is no chances are created
You have to get the ball into the box and see what happens. Positive things happen when you are positive. Eg throw ins, you have to throw to someone in the box who can hold it up. They could get fouled and win a pen. They could win a corner , or maybe even manage a shot! Time and time again these situations were recycled back to the centre half. Quite honestly, it was pathetic to watch. CCM did little different
The talk is that we had players out blah blah blah. It wasn’t the skill level we lacked, it was a positive attitude
Good grief! So attacking football all the time is all that you want? It's not how all managers want their team to play, and clearly the nix and ccm were playing very similar styles. It's a defensive mindset for sure. There are two ways to win a league, you can take the attitude of "we'll score more than everyone regardless of what the score" or "We'll score just enough to win games and make it tough for others to score against us". The current Nix is in camp two. The first is probably more risky as you're gonna conceed goals and come up against a team that defends well more often than not. For me, and I'm sure plenty of others here, I want the nix to be smart about their play, I want them to win, but I want them to not lose more. A solid draw against another top team is massive. Not losing away is HUGE! This is how we win the league. Beat the teams we should beat, dont lose to the other winning teams and maybe steal a goal or ntwo and the win. This will see us win the league. Chasing two or more goals a game will only see us conceed 2 or more a game and we'll be out of the 6 with loads of goals scored but losing games by 2. In regards to the throws, on that I'll agree, the lack of options for the thrower does my head in, but that's only to do with the pace of the game nothing to do with the lack of attacking options.
And before CC battered their last opponents we’d scored 25 to their 27, which doesn’t suggest we’re particularly tardy on goal scoring.
I can understand where Fenix is coming from. But I think we had Zawada, Pennington, Al Taay and Sutton out so we were missing a good chunk of our squad. Crosses to Kosta and Ball are wasted against good defense and we couldn’t have Kraev and Zawada in the box.
With the more experienced midfield behind him it also allows Payne to rampage forward and not worry about getting back to cover, which has been successful for us.
I think Chief likes foot on the throat ball, which is not end to end, but we just put pressure on and ramp it up. We retain possession and so that makes it hard for them to score against us. We like to keep the ball moving so they’re not sure when or where the strike is coming from.
Simply Chief’s greatest rebuttal of Fenix’s critique is the table. Equally a ball into the box can lead to a turnover of possession, and the opposition controlling the game.
I think we’ll see more attacking play with Pennington, Salas and Al-Taay available. It’ll mean more freedom for Kraev for a start.
But yeh tough games coming up and a test of the team and its tactics.
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
Conchie, like all young players, needs time and support and guidance from senior players. He’s not there yet, but it’s a project. All the other fan favourites also needed a season or two. I don’t see him becoming a starter this season as some were talking him up pre-season
The tactic all week in training was; *Near post low and hard *Cut back low to penalty spot *Far post dinked chip to nod in (you know, like we conceded last week) Maybe could have made like trying to get there, but probably would not have, since he was there for the nod in.
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
At the game did it feel like the crowd was bored? On the tele there was a great roar every time Rufer or Surman made a tackle and the impression was of a crowd that understood was going on and was right behind their team.
Most of are tired enough if we walk to the supermarket, let alone play 3 games of footy in one week.
I really felt from the noise like no one was that casual, but these were people coming back after after years of flashy, inconsistent play resulting in poor table position and early finals elimination.
One of the key parts of us not losing to CCM was Kraev helping Payne to keep Torres from shooting on goal. That meant Kraev only going forward when he felt safe to do so, and still having Surman behind him. I can only repeat what I said before. While some of us here would like us to win a game, Chiefy clearly wants to win the Championship. If that means not losing against a team that smashed Adelaide 0:4, so be it. I appreciate we only got a point from it, but more importantly CCM did not get three points last night. Still, my own skewed view is that our tough game was Brisbane, not CCM, because late in that game last Friday we run out of experienced players - that is why Brisbane was parked in our half towards the end, with several energetic competent players coming on for them. A few of our core players were missing or simply exhausted, and our bench was thin. This can happen again if we have suspensions and/or injuries. This is why Chiefy went to WelNix to get an affordable good player (Salas) on a loan. That is insurance policy for the finals, when if we lose we may not get a second chance to bounce back.
Lots of passing back or laterally. Lots of time where the CB from both teams effectively put his foot on the ball and no one moved for a few seconds.
There are exciting 0 - 0's and then there are boring ones. The problem with the latter is the average punter won't care about the tactical batlle. So whilst some of you here may have appreciated the fact, the reality is most people don't. It might be why goals and celebrations are always front and centre of advertising campaigns.
At the game did it feel like the crowd was bored? On the tele there was a great roar every time Rufer or Surman made a tackle and the impression was of a crowd that understood was going on and was right behind their team.
Most of are tired enough if we walk to the supermarket, let alone play 3 games of footy in one week.
I really felt from the noise like no one was that casual, but these were people coming back after after years of flashy, inconsistent play resulting in poor table position and early finals elimination.
Not the impression in the stadium?
it definitely didn't feel like the crowd was bored. It wasn't the crazy celebration of being on the lead, but I've been there with bored crowds. Didn't feel like that but I sit near the YF zone so my experience is always affected by the zone.
To an extent Chiefy's, to some, negative tactics suffer by comparison with just about every other team. It's no coincidence that the ALM goals per match average so far is well in excess of any previous season, because the amount of almost suicidal attacking play is something to behold.
Fun for the neutral but must be a nightmare for fans watching their team ripped open time and time again after someone has tried to play a 5% ball while their midfield and defence is over committed. Teams with excellent attacks like Sydney, Adelaide, MC, even Perth are falling off the pace because they are being constantly caught out at the back.
Considering we are missing one of the best strikers in the league and have a defence which on paper is essentially no better than the leaky back four we had last season it is clear that Chiefy's plan is bang on the money. So far anyway.
Our complete inability to create anything resembling a decent chance that isn't from a counter attack strikes again. We really need to improve there if we want to achieve anything come finals time. All a team needs to do is sit deep and we're no threat.
Makes the Brisbane game an even bigger missed opportunity tbh.
We have struggled with that all season. I think that has cost us about 10 points at least so far this season.
I also think Kosta and Payne have gone off the boil again, past their purple patches.
I actually thought Kosta was really unlucky yesterday. He is making some great runs, but because we don't have that creative player in the middle (Kraev could do this job but he was all over the pitch yesterday (in a good way)), the players weren't picking the right pass or waiting too long. Happened a few times in the first half where he was pointing to where he wanted it, but didn't get it. Then the chance he did get he was unlucky but also under a lot of pressure to get any sort of contact.
Same with Payne, he was making massive runs forward and screaming for the ball and just wasn't getting it.
We've had that run of more away games than home, hit the five cards suspensions part of the season pretty hard, and have had a key import out for weeks and a couple of other match day players also out. And we always run a thin squad.
And we're still top of the league.
Never had it so good but the coach needs to change the gameplan to be more entertaining. Right ....
Well it'd be nice, but I say no.
I get it. But I suspect we're going to belt a team or two shortly, so I'd be happy if Chief sticks with his plans for a few more games and we see how it goes. With a bit of luck we take a big win in front of a 10k plus crowd and convert a few more fans.
we kept the best attacking team in the league dead quiet. That's impressive, regardless of the result.
Conchie is struggling. Did not impact the game in any way liked I hoped which is why we have perhaps signed another import.
OVH is an improved player than last year, but lacks a goal scorers instinct, both times he could of made the far post run, he held back. Did wonder if dicussed tactic is for the pull back ball rather than the quick one across the line? If not - poor on his part.
LKH can not cross a ball to save himself. If he is going to continue playing as a LB he needs to work on this big time - is he ahead of Hughes as back up CB if Sutton was fit?
Was impressed with Kraev, that tackle in the first 5 mins to stop their counter was brilliant.
Conchie, like all young players, needs time and support and guidance from senior players. He’s not there yet, but it’s a project. All the other fan favourites also needed a season or two. I don’t see him becoming a starter this season as some were talking him up pre-season
The tactic all week in training was; *Near post low and hard *Cut back low to penalty spot *Far post dinked chip to nod in (you know, like we conceded last week) Maybe could have made like trying to get there, but probably would not have, since he was there for the nod in.
LKH, see Conchie response.
And our last goal was Al-Taay lifting a ball over the first man with good pace, to Kraev arriving at the back post.
Just want to comment about LKH from the Podcast opinions. Needless to say I don't agree with the panel. While Payne (great player) maybe more creative than LKH and more accurate with his crosses. I think that misses the point entirely. LKH wins the ball far more than Payne, this is why he's so important to the team. When discussing and comparing the 2 of them you can not miss this point. Their primary roles are as defenders. Adding to the attack is the secondary role.
Rufers Primary role is to disrupt the opposition advancing into the final third, his secondary role is to be creative. Rufer is a much better player this season than any previous season because he's changed the way he plays. Now it's phenomenal how much he wins the ball. 2 years ago it was abysmal. He makes a couple of tough tackles a game but 95% of the time he's winning the ball with cunning- toe pokes or getting his body between ball&player. This is much better because it's less physically demanding, less likely to cause injury and much more effective. Rufer will be serie A next season.
Another point. Rufer works so well with his team mates now, with Pennington and Al-Taay. This is another very big improvement.
Do enjoy your counter point posts KP, and you have converted a few I think to be Pennington fans. But.............."Rufer will be Serie A next season." That is likely taking the positivity too far!! But hey fudge it, keep it up. Payne for La Liga.
Do enjoy your counter point posts KP, and you have converted a few I think to be Pennington fans. But.............."Rufer will be Serie A next season." That is likely taking the positivity too far!! But hey fudge it, keep it up. Payne for La Liga.
Well thanks. But I only say what I think. I do think that Rufer, playing the way he is would fit nicely as a DM with a team like Genoa. I like Payne a lot but I'd put him in Scotland. And I'm really sorry for that.
Aiden O'Neil is doing well in Belgium after his terrific season with Melbourne City last year. Rufer is better in my view.
