WPM R27 vs Adelaide United | Fri 18th Apr | 9:35pm | Sky Sports 3

coochiee

martinb

Sad to say I think Brooke-Smith coming on also. They just attacked him from that point and then when we moved to cover him they switched play to good effect. 
And we couldn’t as of yet put him into space in attacking areas.

Yeah Pounds has been disappointing with his cameos the last month or so. But hey he's only 16.

Hughes, Sheridan and LVH all starting to show some progress in their 2nd ALM seasons, especially Hughes. At least he knows where he will be playing each week, unlike the other two! Some hope these younger guys will be better again in their 3rd season.

I like see at least some mins for GSR before the campaign is over.

I’m not blaming him at all. A player doing a lot of defending was taken off and he was brought on and expected to do the same. The opposition spotted the weak point and attacked. 

He needs to be getting the ball in front of him on half way or further forward. His heat map shouldn’t be under any circumstances, mostly in our box. 

Italiano said he wanted to keep LKH & Ishige on. Only fatigue & cramp forced him to make those changes. 

But the Nix need to strengthen their squad depth and so bench for next season.
Need to replace Sutton and Wootton with some seasoned pros. Not Academy kids.

Off topic sorry, but a round robin of 3 full rounds, for a 27 game season in two ten-team leagues, sounds good.
Fast track a few more teams eg Canberra, South Melbourne. Promotion / relegation would definitely add interest. Have the A League organizers considered this?

On topic, lots to like tonight, but not the defence. Subs were on too late to have much impact. IMO Sheridan and LKH both played well but shouldn't be keeping Nagasawa out.

coochiee

They have everything to play for, the Nix nothing.
Wootton & Sutton know they are leaving. Expecting a flat performance. Happy to be wrong.

It's these circumstances where a 20 team A League split into A1 & A2 divisions with pro/rel would actually make the end of the the season interesting. The 'threat' of having to go to warm Darwin in late May not quite the same thing.

Wow, we're shambles... and no end in sight. I'm not going to add anymore, I think it's all been said by now. The season has been a complete disaster and I can't wait for it to end. My last bit of enthusiasm for watching this team has died some time ago. That's never happened in 10+ years of following the Nix.

Bring on next season...

coochiee

Italiano said he wanted to keep LKH & Ishige on. Only fatigue & cramp forced him to make those changes. 

But the Nix need to strengthen their squad depth and so bench for next season.
Need to replace Sutton and Wootton with some seasoned pros. Not Academy kids.

Spot on. Just to return us to parity with an 11 place season. 

Some good performances but against an Adelaide team on a downward spiral. Most promisingly, Kosta and Ishige seem to be on the same wavelength. We had no right to the first goal- it was two pieces of individual brilliance. If we could add Ben Waine or an understudy to Kosta to that mix we’d have some tea potency in attack.

Josh saved two goals with stunning saves, but they knew his weak spot from corners scoring one, despite Phoenix markers on hand and Hughes clearing the other. 

It’s hard to know what the keystone is to unlock it all and hold it all together. Hopefully we’ll find out! 

Firtst 20 minutes we looked like we woiuld lose this 4/5-0. So many gmaes this season we have been asleep early in games and we get punished. Josh O. seems to take an aghe to get into games. Both of their early goals wre very saveable. Defence didnt help him with either of them but he should have done better. The rest of the game was pretty much ours until the dying minutes.
Story of our season really.

Josh seems to only save bangers. Try the most basic shot on him and it will go in for sure. So weird.

InsulinMachine

Wow, we're shambles... and no end in sight. I'm not going to add anymore, I think it's all been said by now. The season has been a complete disaster and I can't wait for it to end. My last bit of enthusiasm for watching this team has died some time ago. That's never happened in 10+ years of following the Nix.

Bring on next season...

 
I agree, the last half year took all the joy out it. I was angry for a while but now I just hope it will be over soon and we get a reset in off season.

martinb

coochiee

Italiano said he wanted to keep LKH & Ishige on. Only fatigue & cramp forced him to make those changes. 

But the Nix need to strengthen their squad depth and so bench for next season.
Need to replace Sutton and Wootton with some seasoned pros. Not Academy kids.

Spot on. Just to return us to parity with an 11 place season. 

Some good performances but against an Adelaide team on a downward spiral. Most promisingly, Kosta and Ishige seem to be on the same wavelength. We had no right to the first goal- it was two pieces of individual brilliance. If we could add Ben Waine or an understudy to Kosta to that mix we’d have some tea potency in attack.

Josh saved two goals with stunning saves, but they knew his weak spot from corners scoring one, despite Phoenix markers on hand and Hughes clearing the other. 

It’s hard to know what the keystone is to unlock it all and hold it all together. Hopefully we’ll find out! 

Kosta, Ishige, Chico and Waine. Hopefully Chiefy and Gill could make that happen.

Biggest issue we have now is that we have players coming off contract and our season is done in three 2 weeks. Plus Nix have said they wont make any new player decisions until the coach is sorted out. Off contract players are gonna be ripe for the picking.

Sounds look Chiefy will be reappointed this week. Big hints of that in the post game pitchside chat with him last night. The players may even know that already. 

You'd expect negotiations to start before the season finishes with whoever Italiano & Gill want to keep.

coochiee

Sounds look Chiefy will be reappointed this week. Big hints of that in the post game pitchside chat with him last night. The players may even know that already. 

You'd expect negotiations to start before the season finishes with whoever Italiano & Gill want to keep.

That's unfortunate 

coochiee

Sounds look Chiefy will be reappointed this week. Big hints of that in the post game pitchside chat with him last night. The players may even know that already. 

You'd expect negotiations to start before the season finishes with whoever Italiano & Gill want to keep.

Yes he seemed very confident he will be back next season

Half a Pint

coochiee

Sounds look Chiefy will be reappointed this week. Big hints of that in the post game pitchside chat with him last night. The players may even know that already. 

You'd expect negotiations to start before the season finishes with whoever Italiano & Gill want to keep.

Yes he seemed very confident he will be back next season

thought he came across a little too much, like he's still pleading his case. 

The post match press conference was decent, good and different questioning that we normally see which elicited interesting responses from Chiefy 

Rock Hopper

Did anyone catch the post match interview with Hughes? Bloody classic.

"How did it feel to get your first A-League goal?"

"Second actually, mate." Hughes didn't miss a beat. 

Was half expecting a "Oh are we counting own goals are we?" Response from the airhead Aussie commentator.

My only real laugh out of that game was Sutton headbutting Hughes in his goal celebration and leaving him momentarily stunned. After Retre headbutted the dugout last week I'm hoping someone can complete the hattrick next week.

Turfmoore

Help me out. Trying to find a word that rhymes with Mauk. 

Dork

I decided to look at the heat maps, not sure how accurate SofaScore is, but here are three of Adelaide's forward heat maps:

adelaide.jpg 170.61 KB

You will see Goodwin and Yull barley went over the half way line, Mauk a little more but not much. Id say 90%+ easily in opposition half.

Phoenix by comparison:

nix.jpg 174.42 KB

What a difference. Is this the style chiefy has been talking about, it seems one set of attackers for Nix goes back to defend while another set go forward in counter.
 
A player like Kosta, to me at least, has one very good attribute, that is one touch shooting. That attribute is one of the best in the league. So why the heck would chiefy want him back defending, there are players on the team that are way way better at defending. Same sort of thing for the other two players, come on Ishige crumbles under most tackles, he isnt a defender, why have him back at all when he is very useful up front?

I am just lost at the tactics, it doesnt make sense for the players. Some players are fairly even at defending and attacking, but most are one or the other. I'd just love to see, even as an experiment, our team playing in traditional positions and see how it worked.