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

I went to the game v City at AAMI and this was magnitudes better than that

You can see that we can be good if we had one more top attacking player out there to help Kosta. There's just too much on his shoulders 

I thought we started the better team by far but dropped off 

Positives out of this season are a few of the young players, I finally see what Piper brings for example - he's a young Payne, an out ball, wins every header. Should not be starting yet though.

We looked a different team when Rufer came on and it showed how much we've missed him too. Only guy in our entire midfield who demands the ball. Only guy who can ping switches of play consistently. Only guy beating guys 1v1 in the middle to open space. 

Look at the depth on Victory's bench- Bos, Arzani, Fornaroli. That's what we're competing with..our squad is not even in the same conversation.

I gave up 4 hours sleep to watch that?? I had to get up for work at 4:50am.

The last 15 minutes were the best. Why? Because "the Rufe" came on and immediately had a positive effect. He looked right at home and the whole team appeared to relax and started playing again. Piper - a cross between Siggy & Payne. Gonna develop into a very solid dependable player for us. He has a great long throw and great in the air. Try him up front with Kosta since we are not going to bring in a striker. 

AKH is showing that a goalkeeper needs a bit of height like he has. I feel very happy with him starting.

LG

I gave up 4 hours sleep to watch that?? I had to get up for work at 4:50am.

The last 15 minutes were the best. Why? Because "the Rufe" came on and immediately had a positive effect. He looked right at home and the whole team appeared to relax and started playing again. Piper - a cross between Siggy & Payne. Gonna develop into a very solid dependable player for us. He has a great long throw and great in the air. Try him up front with Kosta since we are not going to bring in a striker. 

AKH is showing that a goalkeeper needs a bit of height like he has. I feel very happy with him starting.

A bit of a worry though if the entire team relies on one player to come on to make a difference?That tells me there's a real lack of cohesion, trust and failure to play as one unit. 

A good team plays with confidence and intend even if one or two key players are missing.

87 shots total all season.

What a joke. 

7 defenders starting when your 6 points off the finals and need points.

What a joke.

I beginning to think Chief needs to go. This is the worst NIX season I can remember.

Was at the game but it was such a bore we found the seagulls more interesting then the on field play from either side.

Sadly we've put too much confidence in the kids and are dog sh-it because of it.

Normally I'd say Cheify has to go but I/We don't know how much input WelNix have on this team and their desire to sell sell sell. Surely being sharke reduces interest in our squad.

MetalLegNZ

87 shots total all season.

What a joke. 

7 defenders starting when your 6 points off the finals and need points.

What a joke.

I beginning to think Chief needs to go. This is the worst NIX season I can remember.

The Kalezić years were pretty bad. This year we just can't score and have no stars to push us to the next level. 

MetalLegNZ

87 shots total all season.

What a joke. 

7 defenders starting when your 6 points off the finals and need points.

What a joke.

I beginning to think Chief needs to go. This is the worst NIX season I can remember.

 Seasons 1, 2 & 3 were pretty bad. Whilst the attacking presence was very good, the defence back then was beyond comical.

Chiefy is still doing exactly what he did last year, except now we don't have players like Old, Kraev, Ball (who was actually very effective last season despite not getting many direct goal contributions), Zawada and even OVH as attacking threats. Instead, we have Ishige and a bunch of kids who are not ready. None of the kids are as good as OVH, and Ishige has proven to be less effective than Kraev. 

Those players we lost had the quality to create goals without requiring us to have possessional or territorial dominance, they were incredibly efficient, they needed so few chances. And they represented a release valve for all the pressure that our defense was always under. This season the defense is under the same or greater pressure almost all game every game, as we never have most of the possession and we always face more shots than we take, and there is never any goals from our attackers to give our defenders something to actually defend. And we have lost Surman too. Hughes has been extremely good for his age, just not quite as good as Surman was.

The system doesn't work with the players we have at our disposal (once Rojas and Cola were out), but Chiefy won't pivot. He keeps trying the same thing every game. There's no evidence he can actually do anything else. It's so depressing. I'd love to see us try a proper 4-3-3 with three actual midfielders (3 out of Rufer, Retre, Nagasawa & Roa Conchie) and three forwards (Kosta, Ishige and whoever) and actually try and dominate the midfield and spend more time near/in the opposition's box than they spend near ours. I doubt we will see that in the near future though, especially with Sutton suspended for the derby.  

When we were "bad" in previous years at least we were entertaining, we try to score goals, we concede, we push forward, and we had way more shots and attacking intent than this current system.  I'm leaning towards letting chiefy go, he had the players last year to grind out results and I think he was really lucky if you look at how much we outformed xG last year.  But luck will normalise at some point and together with injuries and player departures, we've had enough number of games and results to show that he's plan A (sit deep absorb pressure and try to score a goal from counter) is simply not working for this team and this crop of players.  He's not shown any glimps of plan B or tactic flexibility.  The fact that the players look "lost, confused and static" is because they were forced into a Chiefy system they don't really fit in.  Our football is so bad and boring. Together with the odd decisions to stick to inexperiencd youngsters over Ball, Conchie, etc Im losing hope and struggling to see how this could change next season.   Unless Chiefys been specifically instructed by the Welnix on player selection/tactic.

Elemenop

MetalLegNZ

87 shots total all season.

What a joke. 

7 defenders starting when your 6 points off the finals and need points.

What a joke.

I beginning to think Chief needs to go. This is the worst NIX season I can remember.

The Kalezić years were pretty bad. This year we just can't score and have no stars to push us to the next level. 

The Kalezic year was so bad it made people think it was multiple years. I think most Nix fans have become accustomed to paying for the privilege of being punished every fortnight - but turning up to watch Kalezic's bleak tactics (seemingly always at 7.30 on a Sunday night) with 4000 other miserable bastards was borderline masochistic.

Give me an Isaac Hughes freak oggy any day over watching Adam Parkhouse doing, well, anything really.

Hate to disrupt the thinking on Ishige, but last year Kraev got 6 goals and two assists. 
Ishige is on 6 assists and 2 goals already this year. 

It’s not his fault. Despite the lack of drive out of midfield a goal contribution every second game says we need to turn the scapegoat radar elsewhere. He’s a forward, but not necessarily the dribbler that Kraev or Old were. And he doesn’t get half the foul calls. 

We’re guna be better with Rufer and Payne back, at around 50% potential, and we’ll be even better when Francisco lands. 

Was commented on last night, we've lost all our goal scoring options from last season, Zawada, Kraev and Old combined for 17 goals last season. Then you had Kosta on top of that, This season we have scored less that 17 total and Kosta is the bulk of them. We didnt replace our goal scoring options with like for like. Ishige with 2 goals has not replace Kraev, He's closer tol Old's contribution but abd is getting the same attention from oppositions but less suport from the refs.
Chief is responsible for the lineup and he's now playing a LCB at LM, with a RB in the CM role. The sooner Rufer is back starting the better. But Cheif needs to go back to basics and play people in the strongest positions. We can't keep fielding 11 utility players and hoping shark clicks.

Such grim times. I reckon Joshy would have saved that goal instead of watching it sail past but who knows. I thought we played better yesterday but still only half a performance. 

We don't deserve to be in the top 6, we are not better than any of the teams above us and arguably a few of the ones under us. Is our new lord and saviour Chico the answer?  Is putting Kosta on the wing and have someone else be the lone striker the answer?  I don't know but I'm not expecting things to imrove. 

Sheridan or Hughes have to have a concussion check, per Chiefs post match interview. Not sure if he was subtly flipping the bird or not...lol

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That shot that scored took a deflection which made it hard for any keeper to track its path, initially it was heading straigt to AKH but the deflection wrong footed him.
Kosta is our loan striker, we have noone else who can play centrally, if he was on the wing that would leave Supyk centrally.

Don't even care about making the top 6 anymore, not going to anyway, like pretty much everyone here, just want to enjoy watching the Phoenix and see us actually pose something, anything of an attacking threat again. 

Getting Rufer starting again and hopefully Geraldes are honestly the only ray of hope we have left for the season.

imanixsupporter

Chiefy is still doing exactly what he did last year, except now we don't have players like Old, Kraev, Ball (who was actually very effective last season despite not getting many direct goal contributions), Zawada and even OVH as attacking threats. Instead, we have Ishige and a bunch of kids who are not ready. None of the kids are as good as OVH, and Ishige has proven to be less effective than Kraev. 

Those players we lost had the quality to create goals without requiring us to have possessional or territorial dominance, they were incredibly efficient, they needed so few chances. And they represented a release valve for all the pressure that our defense was always under. This season the defense is under the same or greater pressure almost all game every game, as we never have most of the possession and we always face more shots than we take, and there is never any goals from our attackers to give our defenders something to actually defend. And we have lost Surman too. Hughes has been extremely good for his age, just not quite as good as Surman was.

The system doesn't work with the players we have at our disposal (once Rojas and Cola were out), but Chiefy won't pivot. He keeps trying the same thing every game. There's no evidence he can actually do anything else. It's so depressing. I'd love to see us try a proper 4-3-3 with three actual midfielders (3 out of Rufer, Retre, Nagasawa & Roa Conchie) and three forwards (Kosta, Ishige and whoever) and actually try and dominate the midfield and spend more time near/in the opposition's box than they spend near ours. I doubt we will see that in the near future though, especially with Sutton suspended for the derby.  

May not happen next week at Auckland but I think Nix will very soon go 4-3-3. That’s why Chiefy has signed Chico. But he needs all of Sutts, Rufer and Chico starting. LVH is poor defensively compared to Sutton

So 4-3-3 is not next weekend but should be okay after that with luck

You can blame Italiano, but he definitely wanted to setup more attacking at season start. Rojas and Cola out changed all that

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

Yeah I thought at the time Sutts maybe could have done a bit better. But he's still much more sound as a LB in a back 4 than LVH. Feel Chief wants Sutton there before going 4-3-3, and also needs both Rufer & Chico starting. So sadly it's likely continuing with the defensive shape another week at Mt Smart

Really last night it was the swift counter attack that created the space & goal, as VUC's 3 imports combined to capitalise. Machach-Santos-Vergos. Pinpoint cross from Santos

Like everyone else here I was happy to see Rufs get some minutes in his legs - We need him to put in a longer shift next week.

Not much else to be happy about for the match in all honesty - we just aren't creating any chances going forward, and considering how few we are creating it's a hell of a lot of responsibility to put on Geraldes to come in firing straight away, but that's where we are at really.

I was gutted when Sutts got that yellow, meaning our already thin squad will be that little bit thinner next week - but he too seemed pretty gutted and annoyed at himself when he realised. Verstraete for the Jafas did it right getting his 5th yellow 2 games before the derby

He's generally been really solid defensively this season, so much more solid than Walker or LKH have been at left back. Even this example you use to justify calling him a bad  defender is a weak example. A truly bad defender would lunge in, get beaten entirely, and the winger waltzes into the box totally unhindered. The fact remains there were two centre backs near the player that scored and they should have been able to deal with that cross, that's far worse defending than failing to stop a cross coming in. 

theprof

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

martinb

Hate to disrupt the thinking on Ishige, but last year Kraev got 6 goals and two assists. 
Ishige is on 6 assists and 2 goals already this year. 

It’s not his fault. Despite the lack of drive out of midfield a goal contribution every second game says we need to turn the scapegoat radar elsewhere. He’s a forward, but not necessarily the dribbler that Kraev or Old were. And he doesn’t get half the foul calls. 

We’re guna be better with Rufer and Payne back, at around 50% potential, and we’ll be even better when Francisco lands. 

Ishige has been one of our best, even though he can be inconsistent in his performances. Would put him in our top 5 with Kosta, Payne, Rufer and Wootton, and remember he's a new player too unlike any of them.

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

imanixsupporter

He's generally been really solid defensively this season, so much more solid than Walker or LKH have been at left back. Even this example you use to justify calling him a bad  defender is a weak example. A truly bad defender would lunge in, get beaten entirely, and the winger waltzes into the box totally unhindered. The fact remains there were two centre backs near the player that scored and they should have been able to deal with that cross, that's far worse defending than failing to stop a cross coming in. 

theprof

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

Not talking about diving in with his feet, he literally leans back to avoid being hit by the cross, he does it every time - looks like he's "trying to block" but in reality he's avoiding the ball all together.
FB 101 get your body between the ball and the goal, he's always so far behind the play its depressing. Saying he's a better defender than Walker (a winger) is really not helping your point.

Nah finishing the season losing every game would be shark. The kids have already had plenty of mins this campaign. Maybe if with 2-3 rounds to go, and is no mathematical chance of playoffs, you yes focus on them

LBS & GSR are only 16-17. They will keep learning through the Central League and then NZ U20s with a WC this year. They will continue to develop even if they don’t play much more ALM mins. Though LBS looked exciting in his cameo last night, lazy offside aside 

Be interesting to see some data on how the Nix rank for mins young players in the ALM this season. Feels like we would be up there near the top

What are you talking about? He doesn't lean away from the ball at all, why would he do that? The winger had acres of space as it was a quick break scenario, and had enough pace to make things very difficult for Sutton, but Sutton does what you are supposed to do in this scenario, show the winger out wide, to the byline, where worst case scenario he can get a cross in which your central defenders and goalkeeper should deal with 9 times out of 10. I have no idea why you think this very typical sequence of events in a football game is damning evidence showing that Sutton is a shark defender. Do you know the first thing about football?

theprof

imanixsupporter

He's generally been really solid defensively this season, so much more solid than Walker or LKH have been at left back. Even this example you use to justify calling him a bad  defender is a weak example. A truly bad defender would lunge in, get beaten entirely, and the winger waltzes into the box totally unhindered. The fact remains there were two centre backs near the player that scored and they should have been able to deal with that cross, that's far worse defending than failing to stop a cross coming in. 

theprof

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

Not talking about diving in with his feet, he literally leans back to avoid being hit by the cross, he does it every time - looks like he's "trying to block" but in reality he's avoiding the ball all together.
FB 101 get your body between the ball and the goal, he's always so far behind the play its depressing. Saying he's a better defender than Walker (a winger) is really not helping your point.

Ernie Merrick was looking a lot older than I expected in the pre-match presentation thing last night - It has been a while since I last saw him though to be fair

imanixsupporter

What are you talking about? He doesn't lean away from the ball at all, why would he do that? The winger had acres of space as it was a quick break scenario, and had enough pace to make things very difficult for Sutton, but Sutton does what you are supposed to do in this scenario, show the winger out wide, to the byline, where worst case scenario he can get a cross in which your central defenders and goalkeeper should deal with 9 times out of 10. I have no idea why you think this very typical sequence of events in a football game is damning evidence showing that Sutton is a shark defender. Do you know the first thing about football?

theprof

imanixsupporter

He's generally been really solid defensively this season, so much more solid than Walker or LKH have been at left back. Even this example you use to justify calling him a bad  defender is a weak example. A truly bad defender would lunge in, get beaten entirely, and the winger waltzes into the box totally unhindered. The fact remains there were two centre backs near the player that scored and they should have been able to deal with that cross, that's far worse defending than failing to stop a cross coming in. 

theprof

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

Not talking about diving in with his feet, he literally leans back to avoid being hit by the cross, he does it every time - looks like he's "trying to block" but in reality he's avoiding the ball all together.
FB 101 get your body between the ball and the goal, he's always so far behind the play its depressing. Saying he's a better defender than Walker (a winger) is really not helping your point.

Having played LB for nearly 30 years I'd like to think I know a bit about the game yes! Whether we agree on how Sutts played that particular attack, I think we can all agree he should have done better - I'll continue and say the space he allows the attacker, whether he is showing him the sideline or not, is way too much. The only way he stops that cross (which is his job) is to close down the space (which he rarely does).

I'm avoiding criticizing Payne for allowing the header to connect because I'm just happy he's back. (But, he should be infront of the striker, not pushing him towards the ball) - I think it's wootton in front of him who misses the initial header too.

Noah4thenix

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

No. I don’t want to see more young players. I can see them in the central league if I want to. I watched OvH for a few years and now he’s ‚developed‘ and could attack, he left to some obscure club. We had a good balance of young players in the past but that 16. 18 old doesn’t win us any games.

"16, 18 year olds don't win games"
Sorry to harp on about this, but LBS could. Young players are commonplace in the A league now.

number8

Noah4thenix

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

No. I don’t want to see more young players. I can see them in the central league if I want to. I watched OvH for a few years and now he’s ‚developed‘ and could attack, he left to some obscure club. We had a good balance of young players in the past but that 16. 18 old doesn’t win us any games.

We're a bit poos aye

nixin

"16, 18 year olds don't win games"
Sorry to harp on about this, but LBS could. Young players are commonplace in the A league now.

number8

Noah4thenix

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

No. I don’t want to see more young players. I can see them in the central league if I want to. I watched OvH for a few years and now he’s ‚developed‘ and could attack, he left to some obscure club. We had a good balance of young players in the past but that 16. 18 old doesn’t win us any games.

LBS has been good in the minutes he's played no doubt - but I wouldnt say he's been game winning - or else we'd have won a few more when he played.

nixin

"16, 18 year olds don't win games"
Sorry to harp on about this, but LBS could. Young players are commonplace in the A league now.

number8

Noah4thenix

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

No. I don’t want to see more young players. I can see them in the central league if I want to. I watched OvH for a few years and now he’s ‚developed‘ and could attack, he left to some obscure club. We had a good balance of young players in the past but that 16. 18 old doesn’t win us any games.

Yes, and some amazingly talented ones too. Herrington, Eames and Wong are all 16-17 yrs old and have impressed me hugely. Obviously not ideal to have too many on the pitch at once but for clubs more effected by this season's brutal slashing of the salary cap younger players have become a fact of life. 

It isn't actually possible as a fullback to always stop a cross going in. If failing to stop one cross going across you makes you a shark defender then there aren't many good fullbacks out there. How many crosses happen in every single game?

Sure there are situations where a winger is given all the time in the world to slowly set themselves for a cross and to be able to attempt to play the perfect cross without any pressure being put on them, but that isn't what happens here. It is a fast break, the winger is moving at speed, he has acres of space around, there is no other defender around to help Sutton. He did not have all the time in the world to measure his cross, he had to do it quite quickly. Sure, Sutton could have done better, but he didn't actually make a mistake, he certainly could have done a lot worse in this situation. This is a very strange example to justify calling him a shark defender and I don't think you'll find many on this forum who agree with you.

theprof

imanixsupporter

What are you talking about? He doesn't lean away from the ball at all, why would he do that? The winger had acres of space as it was a quick break scenario, and had enough pace to make things very difficult for Sutton, but Sutton does what you are supposed to do in this scenario, show the winger out wide, to the byline, where worst case scenario he can get a cross in which your central defenders and goalkeeper should deal with 9 times out of 10. I have no idea why you think this very typical sequence of events in a football game is damning evidence showing that Sutton is a shark defender. Do you know the first thing about football?

theprof

imanixsupporter

He's generally been really solid defensively this season, so much more solid than Walker or LKH have been at left back. Even this example you use to justify calling him a bad  defender is a weak example. A truly bad defender would lunge in, get beaten entirely, and the winger waltzes into the box totally unhindered. The fact remains there were two centre backs near the player that scored and they should have been able to deal with that cross, that's far worse defending than failing to stop a cross coming in. 

theprof

Funny you say Sutts is a better defensive option than LKH, yet the cross they scored off came from Sutts side, if you watch how he defends cross he gives the winger way too much space and then leans away from the ball when it's crossed instead of getting his body in the way - he is a shark defender.

Not talking about diving in with his feet, he literally leans back to avoid being hit by the cross, he does it every time - looks like he's "trying to block" but in reality he's avoiding the ball all together.
FB 101 get your body between the ball and the goal, he's always so far behind the play its depressing. Saying he's a better defender than Walker (a winger) is really not helping your point.

Having played LB for nearly 30 years I'd like to think I know a bit about the game yes! Whether we agree on how Sutts played that particular attack, I think we can all agree he should have done better - I'll continue and say the space he allows the attacker, whether he is showing him the sideline or not, is way too much. The only way he stops that cross (which is his job) is to close down the space (which he rarely does).

I'm avoiding criticizing Payne for allowing the header to connect because I'm just happy he's back. (But, he should be infront of the striker, not pushing him towards the ball) - I think it's wootton in front of him who misses the initial header too.

To clarify I'm not using this one example to say that he has been poor this season, this is one of many situations where he has givin his man more space than he should, resulting in a cross that he should be stopping or making more difficult.

I have the opposite impression, I don't seem to recall him impotently letting wingers cross without putting enough pressure on. Have you got a better specific example than that one? There was one other instance in this game where a player got to the byline and crossed but Sutton had gone in hard to win that one and was quite unlucky to not get the ball on that occasion. 

Defence ain’t the issue. It’s the impotent attack

Outpost

nixin

"16, 18 year olds don't win games"
Sorry to harp on about this, but LBS could. Young players are commonplace in the A league now.

number8

Noah4thenix

Talked to my Uncle after the Brisbane game and his opinion was that we should just use the rest of the season to give academy players more minutes. We aren't gonna be relegated and we probably aren't making top 6 so it honestly might not be the worst idea. Prepare for the next season by training our younger players more

No. I don’t want to see more young players. I can see them in the central league if I want to. I watched OvH for a few years and now he’s ‚developed‘ and could attack, he left to some obscure club. We had a good balance of young players in the past but that 16. 18 old doesn’t win us any games.

Yes, and some amazingly talented ones too. Herrington, Eames and Wong are all 16-17 yrs old and have impressed me hugely. Obviously not ideal to have too many on the pitch at once but for clubs more effected by this season's brutal slashing of the salary cap younger players have become a fact of life. 

I think the awkward discussion is that Nix youngsters at present are not close to as good as the youngsters that some of the other teams (Adelaide, City, WU) have atm. Departures of AP, Surman and Old play a part in that I guess.

imanixsupporter

I have the opposite impression, I don't seem to recall him impotently letting wingers cross without putting enough pressure on. Have you got a better specific example than that one? There was one other instance in this game where a player got to the byline and crossed but Sutton had gone in hard to win that one and was quite unlucky to not get the ball on that occasion. 

I cant cite individual instances, but it's something I've seen from him in multiple games, particularly this season. It's not the fact he doesnt dive in, it's purely the space he allows wingers attacking him, and when they cross he leans back to avoid being struck by the ball. He frequenty turns his body away from the ball making himself narrow when he should be doing the opposite.

coochiee

Defence ain’t the issue. It’s the impotent attack

I agree with coochie on this. If we had scored at least a couple (like the Jets did) then we would not be asking whether Sutton is a good left fullback or not.  Allowing the opposition to score on Friday night was a whole Nix defence problem, not a Sutton-only problem. 
And I am sorry but I am not buying the whole "brutal cuts of money affecting all across the league" argument.  We still see Fornaroli, Isaias, Taggart, Germain or even Scott Neville being around and being effective when it matters - all players in their mid-thirties with loads of experience and probably on decent wages (I do not know).  I think money thing only becomes overwhelming in extreme cases when it clearly makes all the difference (Auckland FC is an example of that  - very good imports and a good expensive coach, which come from a big budget spent well).
You can foster your up and coming youngsters but they need reliable established players around them on the field.  Selling Old and Surman and letting Zawada go was one thing, but not being able to retain Pennington and Kraev (who went across the ditch to clubs "experiencing brutal cuts" just as much as we did) is another.  

You're right, defence isnt really the issue, conceding goals is always gonna happen and we have one of the lowest goals against (19) - only two better than us, Auckland (12) and Melb C.(15)
Although if we had a defence and keeper like Auckland we'd be in a better position.
Our goals for (16) is the 2nd worst in the league with only Perth (12) below us.