WPM R19 vs Melbourne Victory | Fri 14th Feb | 9:35pm | Sky Sports 2

One shot on target 🎯 😃 

Every time the commentators mention Vergos I look up expecting to see Leo Bertos.

siac

martinb

Wife perked up when she heard Piscopo’s name. Had to tell her it wasn’t for us though…

My wife did this with Kurto after he left.

E

Least Rufer is back.  😁. Anything else is a bonus.

Been playing better last five mins or so... need to keep it going

Piney will be down in Melbourne tmr too I’m guessing…

IMG_0275.jpeg 2.84 MB

Ridiculous yellow for Sheridan given the decisions in the first half. Game of 2 halfs for the man in the middle.

Like to see the XG on Kostas miss

Really should have bundled that in

nufc_nz

LT01

Why are Nagasawa and Brooke-Smith not starting?

Because they’re sh!te.

Man I'd so love the 16 yr old kid to prove how dumb that comment is, in the cameo he has here.

coochiee

nufc_nz

LT01

Why are Nagasawa and Brooke-Smith not starting?

Because they’re sh!te.

Man I'd so love the 16 yr old kid to prove how dumb that comment is, in the cameo he has here.

I think he already has, with that one jinking run into the box.

Well this is 90 minutes I'll never get back.. hopefully the kids sleep in a bit in the morning before they wake me.

If we’re guna rely on that kind of brilliance to score, why not try to find an Ifill replacement? 

Where are Van Hattum and Surman? Heh. 

mjp2

coochiee

nufc_nz

LT01

Why are Nagasawa and Brooke-Smith not starting?

Because they’re sh!te.

Man I'd so love the 16 yr old kid to prove how dumb that comment is, in the cameo he has here.

I think he already has, with that one jinking run into the box.

 Similar to the City game!

We started reasonably well tonight but by about halfway through the first half it was back to business as usual.

My prediction of no more than 1 win in the next 9 games, made before the Macarthur game, lives on for another week. 

A dire and uneventful loss to Victory or City on a Friday night is basically an annual ritual for us at this point

This game is summed up by it pissing down with rain 

And the Victory coach wearing an appropriate rain jacket with Chief parading his drenched blazer.

You’ll be fine, mate. Watching the Nix doesn’t mean just a light morning snooze in…they’re coma inducing these days.

Nommag

Well this is 90 minutes I'll never get back.. hopefully the kids sleep in a bit in the morning before they wake me.

 

Just dreadful.

Shame about the loss. That was one tough day in the office, but overall not a completely bad performance once Rufer came on. At that point we played better than we did against Brisbane or CCM (Victory was simply a better opposition than those two).  
Hope to see Rufer getting more minutes. Payne survived a bit of a knock to the knee seemingly with no lasting damage. Kosta still isolated, patience of a saint personified.  I am looking forward to seeing Chico on the field next weekend. Unfortunately Sutton has to sit that one out.

Sadly to the AAMI Park script. Little 4 game unbeaten run comes to an end.

Not much quality from either team. The return of Rufer the only real positive. He's just so good in those tight spaces.

A few injuries tomorrow for Auckland would be handy.

LBS looks class, should start if fit IMO.
Too many mistakes tonight.
Can see the team coming right if Payne and Rufer get back to their best and the new 12 works out.

AucklandPhoenix

This game is summed up by it pissing down with rain 

And the Victory coach wearing an appropriate rain jacket with Chief parading his drenched blazer.

Don’t forget the seagulls making it feel like we were back in Porirua Park.

But yeah it was nice to say welcome back to Rufer after the game.

Kosta got away with one there. Privilege of pedigree.

Walker did well a bit deeper. Just little things, like trying to press and contain Miranda instead of giving up the foul. Same with Brooke-Smith and the offside. Wish he’d buried that. He’d already beaten everyone twice- just run it into the net! They’ve had a couple of good chances each, but still zero on the goal contributions. 

I’m wondering why Sheridan ahead of Roa Conchie? It’s one of those Chief intriguing ones. 

Ultimately even if we’re doing something interesting with that tall/tough timber out wide, we’re struggling to connect to runners or infield so not much point. 

Well. We need to get results urgently. Passed looking good. OVH/Logan Rogerson clutch play getting points rather than trying clever shark. 

We were just boring, as always.

We are the most boring team in the league and it's not even close. This is the most boring Phoenix team I have ever seen.

I don't know what their goals are for the rest of the season, but surely you'd think not completely alienating their fans with dire football would be on the list.

When we lose to Auckland next week that will truly be curtains for the finals - after that I just want to see us try to play football, to dominate and make teams fear us again, to create chances and to entertain. 

At this point I'm just praying Perfect FC somehow don't win the premiers plate, but I'm gradually losing hope.

If they do, they know where they can shove it, regardless of the fact the team itself in all honesty have earned it, 10 matches still to play after WU tomorrow though.

Can't fudgeing wait for another depressing derby next weekend, Auckland to sink us even further, and to listen to AFC's godawful fans, happy days, though hopefully we get to see Geraldes for the first time, plus have Rufer ready to start again.

Scoreline of 0:1 away against Melb Victory is not too bad.

But it's our football.  So negative, so boring, so NOT entertaining.  

Probably the most boring Nix team in history.

I like Chiefy, and he has a huge amount of credit in the bank after last season. But as Martinb pointed out above picking Sheridan ahead of Conchie is a strange one. It seemed to me Sheridan was playing as a deep lying DM in front of the CBs??

It was the MAC game we won 2-1 where Conchie came on at HT, and proved a game changer? It almost seems sort of personal he's hardly getting mins.

Sheridan has played RB, RWB, RCB, RW and now as a DM all this season I reckon.


Still I wouldn't rule out the Nix being an exciting watch 2 seasons from now. LBS, GSR & Walker are all exciting talents. This year's U20 WC will hopefully give us a gilimpse of that. Even Piper. 

But it all rests on Chico and maybe Rufer to save this season from being a damp squib.

Embarrassing tonight. Once again the fans turn up and no one else does in yellow and black. Questioning if chief will ever face the Melbourne fans. If it ain't a win we don't see chief.

Looked awesome on tv tonight 

CboZ

Embarrassing tonight. Once again the fans turn up and no one else does in yellow and black. Questioning if chief will ever face the Melbourne fans. If it ain't a win we don't see chief.

 

Aaaahhhhh... just saw the result after choosing 8 hours of refreshing sleep over staying up to watch the game, knowing what would transpire in Melbourne 

number8

Will Chico will fall in love with football again watching this drag?

He's not gonna get a chance to fall in love with the game if Cheif doesnt change his tactics. How you can go through 60 minutes of football with one (if that) clear shot of goal is atrocious. Horrible to watch, loack of intent and drive to score. Even in his prematch interview Cheif was like "yeah, its been tough to win here but we'll just hope it clicks" Hope what clicks, back pass and bait the opposition? Theres nothing to click, your tactic is so clear and easy to predict its not funny.

Contrary to most of the above posts, I was pleased with the grit shown by the young guys especially. Hughes and Sheridan have improved heaps. AKH catching corners. Piper did well. Caught out on a counter attack sucks.

i'm considering calling time on this. temporarily at least.

there's just very little point in watching these games. nothing happens. 

we were dull last year too, but we broke lines and enough happened to keep us just outside the definition of boring. we got away with a lot and we had paulsen. 

this year, without the cattle, we're so poor. it's barely football, just occupying defensive space and then running low pass strings before defending again.

our new 10 (12) will probably keep me hanging in their for next week. plus the fact it's auckland

Oi Oi Edgecumbe

Contrary to most of the above posts, I was pleased with the grit shown by the young guys especially. Hughes and Sheridan have improved heaps. AKH catching corners. Piper did well. Caught out on a counter attack sucks.

The only reason we are caught on the counter is cos we keep losing the ball in dagerous places, I was pleased to see us using the long ball from goal occassionally, but just too many errant passes.

Opposition defences do not have anything to fear when we arrive. They know all they have to do is shut down kosta, which is easy for two CB's and there is no other threat on goal. We concede at least one goal per game, which is ok but if we cant score then they basically know they have the win.

All Victory and City have to do is play at AAMI park and we waive the white flag before kick off it seems.

We have to face the reality, season is done. We may get the occasional good spell of play, maybe a win. I still can’t see any progress in tactics. Yes we had injuries but even the playing squad still looks confused. Recruiting was bad, Retre, the two Japanese are not firing, they suddenly forgot how to play football?
Even Italiano must sit in the video analyzing seasons and must think this is a bit of a shark show. We need a new coach, he can’t turn it around.

number8

We have to face the reality, season is done. We may get the occasional good spell of play, maybe a win. I still can’t see any progress in tactics. Yes we had injuries but even the playing squad still looks confused. Recruiting was bad, Retre, the two Japanese are not firing, they suddenly forgot how to play football?
Even Italiano must sit in the video analyzing seasons and must think this is a bit of a shark show. We need a new coach, he can’t turn it around.

agree with all of this apart from i hope cheify can change things. i don't have any evidence that he can't change/improve things, so he gets the benefit of the doubt from me for now. each week it gets harder to support him.

Did anyone listen to Chiefy's post match interview with the broadcast panel? He's way too upbeat. "I can't fault the players, I've been really happy about how we have played in the last 8(!) games". Honestly sickening to hear

imanixsupporter

Did anyone listen to Chiefy's post match interview with the broadcast panel? He's way too upbeat. "I can't fault the players, I've been really happy about how we have played in the last 8(!) games". Honestly sickening to hear

thanks for sharing. heck....

you'd have to hope he doesn't really believe that

coaches have to be careful not to protect their players to the point of risking their own reputation

3 goals scored in the last 5 games/7.5 hours of football says it all really. And what's worse is shots attempted/on goal. Not sure what the stats are exactly but pretty sure they're poor.

Hard to get excited with this playing style tbh. It was great when we were grinding out wins last season but it's fallen flat now. I'd give Chief this season and the next I'd want to see us markedly improved by January, otherwise I'd look for a replacement. It's pretty dire. We are barely better than Perth or Brisbane.

Our defense is actually quite ok but going forward we are abysmal in every sense.