WPM R5 v Sydney FC | Sun 19th Dec | 8:45pm | SS7

Rufer is not the issue - the overall quality of the squad is.

Out of starting 11, how many would start at Sydney? Payne at a push, but no one else.

MetalLegNZ

Rufer is not the issue - the overall quality of the squad is.

Out of starting 11, how many would start at Sydney? Payne at a push, but no one else.

That's the crux of it. Yes there are lots of reasons why we look so ordinary but the bottom line is there is simply not enough quality in this season's squad. 

Still time for an angry Ben Waine!
Loved the confident left foot strike.
Play to the whistle! 

Waine train!!!! wooooooooo!
nice touch from Old!

Excellent! Nice poacher's goal.

InsulinMachine

We're the sort of team that could play another 2 hours and not score. That basically tells you everything you need to know. Weak defense, midfield and attack. It'll take much more than one new signing to turn things around.

 Look what you've done! Quick! Say something about Ben Old not being able to draw a foul in the box.

Bullshark that wasn’t a foul 5 times at the start of the game.

Pity Old wasn't on earlier. I am genuinely excited about this kid.

Wait for the 20 seconds of extra time lads.

Edit - pleasantly surprised.

Don’t throw your hands up Nick- clatter him.

We look better with Old and Pennington on.

Come On Phoenix!

Piscopo could've been a hero there. Great rob by Pennington.

Surely the only thing stopping pennington from starting over rufer is a lack of match fitness

Scoreline flattered the Nix but good on them for pushing hard to the death.

Even when ref specifically says they will add on time during injury time they still don't.

Wont win a game until Royz is back.

It’s the hope that kills ya! 
Paulson stood up well. 
ALF shows the benefits of an experienced goal scorer up your sleeve. 
Reno still off the pace, though missing Davila creating space for him and he didn’t get many calls. Ref let a lot go, but for both sides. 
Eh. Could have pinched something there. 

Seriously though, what happened to Royz?

Oh and we are in a dire situation now with 3 straight loses…

Oi Oi Edgecumbe

Pleased with the young Kiwi kids making an impact. Old good. Pennington good. Waino kept going.

 This. We looked at the very least a lot more interesting to watch when the young fellas came on and started to move with intent and intensity. I actually enjoyed watching that last twenty or so.

I wanna know too.

Oi Oi Edgecumbe

Pleased with the young Kiwi kids making an impact. Old good. Pennington good. Waino kept going.

Actually, Waine improved once Old and Pennington were on. Did anyone else notice that difference?  It could be the quality of passes and a more positive play from Pennington. Kid has a future. 

We're just that team that will play other teams into form. Hooper missed today.

I’m really hurt from today.. this was a team that was there for the taking.. haven’t won jn 4,  an ageing squad… lots of questions asked of them.. and we showed them waaaay to much respect. Fudgeing Elvis Kamsoba could have a cup of tea, a Covid test and isolate for 2 week , watch lord of the rings series and still had time to take a shot.. second goal they walked through us. We decided to play in the last 15 minutes.. so disappointing.. not sure how many Mexicans we can sign to make any changes.. really disappointed. At the moment were nowhere near it, and while we show glimpses, I see us really struggling

alon222

I’m really hurt from today.. this was a team that was there for the taking.. haven’t won jn 4,  an ageing squad… lots of questions asked of them.. and we showed them waaaay to much respect. Fudgeing Elvis Kamsoba could have a cup of tea, a Covid test and isolate for 2 week , watch lord of the rings series and still had time to take a shot.. second goal they walked through us. We decided to play in the last 15 minutes.. so disappointing.. not sure how many Mexicans we can sign to make any changes.. really disappointed. At the moment were nowhere near it, and while we show glimpses, I see us really struggling

Agreed. This was a game that should've been ours regardless of the difference of quality between us and them. They were way out of form.

Can we please stop dropping back into our own half to defend when the opposition has the ball? Clearly, NOT working this season. 

I would much rather press and defend higher up the pitch and closer to the opposition goal. It's so disappointing to see our players retreating rather than going for those 50/50s (most of the time where we could win). 

nufc_nz

Seriously though, what happened to Royz?

Reading the comments yesterday, there was a bit of Royz in most people. 

nufc_nz

Rufer is dogsh!t. Shouldn’t be in the starting 11 let alone captain.

A LOT of people saying this

Feverish

nufc_nz

Rufer is dogsh!t. Shouldn’t be in the starting 11 let alone captain.

A LOT of people saying this

Rufer still living off his families name. Does not make team on merit. 
Lazy in defence and only half pace jogs around the field.

I've been saying Rufer shouldn't be there this season since the start of the season. Our midifield is a major issue, we have no distribution to Waine/Sotitio with Lewis and Rufer. They both dwell on the ball, and lose possession with poor passes or trying to that killer ball which doesnt work. Pennington andOld are the way forward. Old needs time to develop but Pennington has to be playing the 90 now. I would be dropping both Lewis and Rufer, bring Pennington on and either ball or Reno into the middle. It's not as defensive as Lewis and Rufer but the can pass and control the game. On the wing you can have Prso or Old. Things have ot to change or we are going to be looking very bad come January.

and if no Royz means we lose then im ok with that, although I think he i hiding behind other accounts

theprof

I've been saying Rufer shouldn't be there this season since the start of the season. Our midifield is a major issue, we have no distribution to Waine/Sotitio with Lewis and Rufer. They both dwell on the ball, and lose possession with poor passes or trying to that killer ball which doesnt work. Pennington andOld are the way forward. Old needs time to develop but Pennington has to be playing the 90 now. I would be dropping both Lewis and Rufer, bring Pennington on and either ball or Reno into the middle. It's not as defensive as Lewis and Rufer but the can pass and control the game. On the wing you can have Prso or Old. Things have ot to change or we are going to be looking very bad come January.

At some point after we scored, Pennington turned over the ball near the half-way line and we transitioned into a flowing, purposeful counter that Piscopo almost scored from - delighful to watch. This was the Nix of last season, and where we are really missing Cammy. 

However Pennington and Old were on for almost 25 minutes before Waine somewhat fortuitously scored and during that time, the Nix barely had the ball. After we scored it seemed to me to be a lot more of the SFC nerves rather than any of our individuals that changed the game.

Start with the positives. 
Fantastic debut by Paulsen.
Play the kids. Old, Pennington and OVH provided the spark for our comeback in the 2nd half.
Rufer is lazy and not up to A-League standard.
I hate Sydney FC.

if Talay keeps Rufer in the starting XI going forward its going to be a long hard season! We've all seen and said it, he is slow, lazy, a poor passer of the ball and lacks vision. Alongside him Lewis is struggling too, losing Devlin has hurt us massively.

The tempo set by our midfield is slow and ponderous. Pedestrian for most of that game. You could hear Talay yelling at the midfield. "Pass forward". Which says it all. Very little positive intention and slow ball speed. So easy to defend against.
We don't have the same quality as other teams this season. We know that. So we have to make up for that with team cohesion, grit guts and energy. But I'm not seeing it. We made an average Jets team look like world beaters. And we missed a great opportunity to beat an under performing Sydney FC. Very frustrating. We were the worst performing team over the weekend and last weekend.
Changes need to happen as per other comments on this topic.

The terrible marking in the penalty area was what cost us last night. Fenton was all over the place.

The amount of times Rufer and Lewis have passed backwards instead of playing those through balls to Waine and Sotirio is so disappointing.

PENNINGTON NEEDS TO START!