WPM R10 vs Newcastle Jets | Sat 28th Dec | 5:00pm | Leuven pre-game

Hate to say I told y'all so, but Rojas' signing has proven to be as expected, arrives with no game fitness, needs time, gets start and shock horror gets injured, now we wait for a month and start over. He has the skill and maybe the attitude, but the man is simply not built for regular footy, much like when he was first here.

theprof

Hate to say I told y'all so, but Rojas' signing has proven to be as expected, arrives with no game fitness, needs time, gets start and shock horror gets injured, now we wait for a month and start over. He has the skill and maybe the attitude, but the man is simply not built for regular footy, much like when he was first here.

Hooper version 2.0

As well the club is happy to play on loyalty and cap in hand when they come asking the members to eat costs during COVID times. 

It is a business, but very few businesses have customers chanting ‘Phoenix till I die’ and saying’In Chief we trust.’

This is a very different kind of business model, tied to an old club as well requiring a kind of honour code. 

This isn’t American greed capitalism or conspicuous consumption (well in the a league) In fact, in many cases football started as a way for factory bosses to entertain factory workers on their half day off. 

And we’ve said it as an assumption, but are we solely built around Marco? 

It seems like he’s not the only bet we’ve made on attack that isn’t as good as last season. We’ve seen Ishige put us in with chances and win a game. Retre has won us a game. Kosta is amazing. Rojas has won us two, in combo. Payne is relied apon.

Our defense has lost us 3-4? 

Off the bench we’ve bet on Cola, Walker, Piper, Sheridan, Sutton, Al-Taay and most recently Brooke-Smith. This is not a Marco only issue. 

If we’re to take a step up in tactics from last season we need to take a step up, not a step down in the tactical ability of our playing staff. 

Fenix

djtim3000

Fenix

mjp2

number8

3 Points is positive.
But we may played 10-15min good football and fell back to garbage after the Retre goal.
Piper was free on the side and  waved like a madman, no one passed to him because they know he is not good enough, his touches and simple layoffs are horrible, is this really the best young player in the National league?
I also thought Rufer lost the plot, I can’t remember any decent vertical pass. There is something wrong in this team.

I think we are playing the same style as last year but without the control in midfield that Kraev gave us, nor the extra drive we got from Old. And without quite the authority in defence that Surman and Paulsen gave us. And without the occasional special sauce from Zawada.
Rojas would have made us a better attacking side but he's barely been on the field. And Ishige, Retre and Nagasawa might have proved better than they have shown so far.  

So the same style as last year, with less control, less bite and less authority on defence. And, so far, without the intended benefit of Rojas.

That said, there is still time. We've got a lot of kids getting minutes. Rojas hopefully eventually will get a decent run of games.  If we finish strong we could still have a good season.

I think what you are trying to say, is that without those players and that attitude, we are complete and utter shyte. Todays effort didnt resemble football, or entertainment. No individuality, no surprise, no initiative, no positivity. It was formulaic overcoached crap. 

I don't know how you can say that when our first goal was scored by an individual surprising the goalkeeper with initiative and taking a positive shot when he saw the keeper out of position.

Come on. Barbarouse's moment of skill was obvious and certainly had nothing to with tactics, team plan, and constant backward passing.  Of course it was excellent. The rest of the game wasnt. If anything, it shows what is possible when you are , like, positive, make the most of your opportunities, take shots and put the ball into the box. Unlike the shyte we watched for 88 minutes.

We are unable to play unless the attack starts from the centre half. We pass back to him/them all the time, its the most predictable garbage Ive ever seen. We pass back to the centre half when we have throw ons and free kicks at the penalty box mark. That is negative bollocks. Its dull. Noone wants to watch that. 

Do you listen to the post game interviews? Chief was about as unhappy with the performance as I've seen any coach after a win. Calling it overcoached crap when it isn't what the coach is even wanting to see is an interesting take...

I think this game was more telling as to how confident the players are. There is low confidence across the board from the boys. They looked nervous after the Jets goal and if the Jets were half decent they may well have got a couple more. 

Unfortunately this is sport and that is how some seasons can turn out. I think some of our signings have been much worse than what I was hoping for - Nagasawa has been poor and Rojas has been even worse considering his absence. Retre I'd give a pass, I think his performances are improving, same with Ishige. Definitely not inspiring stuff from either of those two though aside from when Ishige has a dead ball to work off. 

Past the signings, our young kids are clearly too young to make any great mark on the league just yet - maybe next season or the following for them. The future is fairly bright there though.

Overall I think it is mainly a personnel issue and the fact they're down on confidence. Unless something changes with this or Rojas makes a miraculous return we won't get higher than 6th this season.  We'll likely lose over in Melbourne in the new year i suspect. They're a better side than WSW who we lost to 4-1

Somehow Hughes does not look like an obvious scapegoat for the season.  I feel more compassionate than irate about those few goals / lost points / he might have contributed to.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but has Kosta now scored the Phoenix's longest ever goal?

The only other goal I can think of is of course Brown's against Sydney. Kosta's today was inside the centre circle, while watching Brown's again, his was a bit outside the circle.

Still remember when Vukovic both nearly received that achievement and scored the longest A-League goal when his goal kick against Glory, guided by the wind, bounced over Velaphi but hit the crossbar.

HattyCW

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but has Kosta now scored the Phoenix's longest ever goal?

The only other goal I can think of is of course Brown's against Sydney. Kosta's today was inside the centre circle, while watching Brown's again, his was a bit outside the circle.

Still remember when Vukovic both nearly received that achievement and scored the longest A-League goal when his goal kick against Glory, guided by the wind, bounced over Velaphi but hit the crossbar.

Didn't Leo Bertos score a long ranger on a wet pitch??

LG

HattyCW

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but has Kosta now scored the Phoenix's longest ever goal?

The only other goal I can think of is of course Brown's against Sydney. Kosta's today was inside the centre circle, while watching Brown's again, his was a bit outside the circle.

Still remember when Vukovic both nearly received that achievement and scored the longest A-League goal when his goal kick against Glory, guided by the wind, bounced over Velaphi but hit the crossbar.

Didn't Leo Bertos score a long ranger on a wet pitch??

You mean this one?