Match 15 vs Melbourne City | Mon 5th Apr | 9:10pm | SS7

Well read by Uffie at HT. Made the right changes. 2nd half high press worked for most part. On balance City deserved the win. But Nix had chances in 2nd term.
 
Nix sit 10th with a -1 GD. Tough to make the top 6 now, but really they ain't playing that poorly. Maybe tomorrow Jacinda will give the green light to some proper home games, aka a Trans Tasman bubble, and there is a late season charge.

Colvinator

Payne a liability tonight, though has been good in many matches. Hopefully does better next to Taylor.

Payne had some great moments, and both him and Lewis can pass a ball. Loved seeing Lewis one touch linking play keeping our momentum going. Payne stepping out and putting McGarry through into attack was great.
Think maybe Hemed should have stayed on. We want him or Uli with that 93rd minute chance. That said Ngoy was lively, but I don't think he's that much better than Hamish Watson. Both can do a job, but.
Ball is keen to pull the trigger, but maybe we need McGarry, Waine et al to be a bit more confident or greedy- they were expecting the strike from Uli and no one else was threatening really.

I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that we are not a top 6 team this year. Yes, we have a quality squad, yes we play quality football, but those are not getting us 3 points. We really have to step up. The way we conceded the 3rd goal was disappointing. McGarry or Ball should've shut him down and poor tracking by Fenton on the other side. Unfortunately, we don't have another RB. Fenton has been woeful! Hopefully, Talay has learnt his lesson about starting Rufer ahead of Devlin. Payne and Sail saved us from an humiliating defeat.
 
Really hope Tayls and Reno are back for the next game. 

coochiee

Well read by Uffie at HT. Made the right changes. 2nd half high press worked for most part. On balance City deserved the win. But Nix had chances in 2nd term.
 
Nix sit 10th with a -1 GD. Tough to make the top 6 now, but really they ain't playing that poorly. Maybe tomorrow Jacinda will give the green light to some proper home games, aka a Trans Tasman bubble, and there is a late season charge.

 worried about the insurance situation, but damn hope so!

Our strongest 11 at this stage although, I am compelled to put TAHW at RB.

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NZPhoenixFan

I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that we are not a top 6 team this year. Yes, we have a quality squad, yes we play quality football, but those are not getting us 3 points. We really have to step up. The way we conceded the 3rd goal was disappointing. McGarry or Ball should've shut him down and poor tracking by Fenton on the other side. Unfortunately, we don't have another RB. Fenton has been woeful! Hopefully, Talay has learnt his lesson about starting Rufer ahead of Devlin. Payne and Sail saved us from an humiliating defeat.
 
Really hope Tayls and Reno are back for the next game. 

wonder how we would have gone starting Cammy with Rufer later. Gotta remember Cammy gave up the ball easily against Macarthur and after he came on tonight, but settled. Don't think he had a full 90 in him against City's midfield.

martinb

NZPhoenixFan

I think we just have to come to terms with the fact that we are not a top 6 team this year. Yes, we have a quality squad, yes we play quality football, but those are not getting us 3 points. We really have to step up. The way we conceded the 3rd goal was disappointing. McGarry or Ball should've shut him down and poor tracking by Fenton on the other side. Unfortunately, we don't have another RB. Fenton has been woeful! Hopefully, Talay has learnt his lesson about starting Rufer ahead of Devlin. Payne and Sail saved us from an humiliating defeat.
 
Really hope Tayls and Reno are back for the next game. 

wonder how we would have gone starting Cammy with Rufer later. Gotta remember Cammy gave up the ball easily against Macarthur and after he came on tonight, but settled. Don't think he had a full 90 in him against City's midfield.

At least he wouldn't have made silly errors like Rufer and would've shut down their mid quicker.

It was a good game to finish the seasons hopes of a top 6 finish. I dont think Talay can squeeze any more out of these would-be players anymore then he has. We are at our limits here and we should just be contempt in not finishing with the spoon. It was good why'll it lasted. 

Royz

It was a good game to finish the seasons hopes of a top 6 finish. I dont think Talay can squeeze any more out of these would-be players anymore then he has. We are at our limits here and we should just be contempt in not finishing with the spoon. It was good why'll it lasted. 

Just realized we are up against Perth and WUN in our next 3 games. Maximum points (even though we can't) in these games will have us in the mix for the top 6. 

But still, don't think we can make top 6.

With Taylor and Piscopo back (which I understand we will NOT be the next game, or two) we are competitive for the top 6, without them no chance.

Rufer proved beyond doubt that he is too slow, passes backwards too often and puts our defence under unnecessary pressure when doing so. And is one tackle from a card. In fairness to him, I'm still wondering how he never got a red card when he was hacked down from behind last night. It was exactly the same as "That other tackle" that copped him one a few weeks earlier. I felt sorry for him then as I do now. I actually wanted him to kick on from last season where he actually did start to show some really good form but this season I am wondering if he is living on a family reputation. He needs to sort his crap out. 

Sotorio scores the odd goal but he is only good as an 80th minute sub. To me, he really did nothing that game other than give the ball away. 

Waine might not be the best forward around but he looks interested and doesn't give up. I would have started him instead of Sotorio. 

One thing that does amuse me, why do we continue to put in high crosses to what is probably the shortest attack in the A League who are up against a lot of tall timber in the opposition?

You talk about giving someone a chance to grab a start and Sail has certainly done that and some.

Tough one to take that one. We played some great football but Christ , do we shoot ourselves in the foot. As others have said, our defence is woeful and it’s just such basic errors that keep pinning us back. I didn’t watch until the end as I needed the sleep but what a turn around at half time. Kudos to uffie for making the right calls. I think this proves that rufer and sotirio  are not starters against certain opposition. Really hope we’re able to get a couple of home fixtures. Top six is gone though. 

When we are good we look great, all other times we look clueless. Goals scored directly from possession lost in the mjid-field (both sides) - that is just poor. Rufer again, laborious on the ball, slow to move and his first instinct is to pass back to his CB, and then when he does eventually look forward he finds an opposition player. Devlin looked more energetic and disruptive and Lewis has way more accuracy. I thought Laws did a decent job, Taylor might have been stronger and may have helped with stopping their first goal, and possibly broken up play on their second, but Laws' pace helped him track back to assist Sail when they had a couple of 2 on 1 situations and the couldn't score. Good to see Hemed busy and scoring again, he and Davila look sharp together. 
Top 6 hopes are fading. We are three wins behind Sydney (6th) and every team above us has games in hand. It's doable, but we need to get on a good winning run.

That game sums up our season and very similar to the start of the season where we were missing Piscopo and Taylor. Conceding through a corner and/or counter. Drag ourselves back into the game but don't quite have enough pick up point(s). Seems to be lots of those game this season where we've lost/drawn games where we could easily have drawn/won. Kinda games where we would win it last season. 

Makes you wonder what difference having a proper home game would make. Evidence overseas seems to be the home advantage is lost with no crowds. So logically would make sense we are losing more of these close game this season. 

Fact Nix sit 10th in a 12 team league with a -1 GD, shows that not too far off the pace, but yeah dropping points in many tight games. So yes if played at the ROF in front of home fans pumping you up - some games would likely have gone the other way.

On another note to me Devlin's had a mixed season, but do love that niggly, win at all costs attitude he brings. You need a player like that, when the chips are a bit down. Great to have in a game like last night, when heads could easily have dropped with City up 2-1, and seemingly running rampant early 2nd half. That melee he created post Laws conceding a yellow, was classic in your face Scrappy Doo.

Payne getting too much love. Made a couple great blocks, but he made some terrible passes as well which put us in trouble.

One big issue we have is, none of our CB's want to carry the ball forward. Payne did it once and it opened up a huge amount of space as defenders were forced to move, creating space. 

We'd be lucky if we averaged 1 carry a game from CB which forces our DM's to drop even deeper to get the ball.

Apart from Devlin and Waine, don't know if our subs even influence our game.

Fenton our most dangerous aerial threat? 3 headers, two on target, one cross bar, one goal.

NZPhoenixFan

Apart from Devlin and Waine, don't know if our subs even influence our game.

Aside from Sotiro's late winner against the Jets, I don't recall Nix getting much late game scoring threat from their subs all season. I'd let both Ngoy and Muratovic go at season's end. Maybe even Sotiro, if he's off contract. 

Meanwhile City bought on young Colakovski, who looked class in his cameo.

2ndBest

That game sums up our season and very similar to the start of the season where we were missing Piscopo and Taylor. Conceding through a corner and/or counter. Drag ourselves back into the game but don't quite have enough pick up point(s). Seems to be lots of those game this season where we've lost/drawn games where we could easily have drawn/won. Kinda games where we would win it last season. 

Makes you wonder what difference having a proper home game would make. Evidence overseas seems to be the home advantage is lost with no crowds. So logically would make sense we are losing more of these close game this season. 

The home advantage would help but also wonder if our lack of squad depth (magnified by injuries) shows us up in the back end of games. Opposition teams have been able to bring on decent players that can have a positive impact on the game - very rarely do we. The extra subs in the past year further exacerbates this/highlights this.

I have long been in the Rufer fan club and thought all he needed was some confidence to start showcasing his talents, unfortunately last night he looked bereft of confidence and very tentative when we really needed him to step up and show some leadership..... early in the season he was playing instinctively and connecting with Davila through the middle but now he looks hesitant and ponderous, time for a spell on the bench.

Fenton is another head scratcher, has a great engine but is far too predictable and never looks close to getting a dangerous cross in ala McGarry on the other side, his technique and body shape always seems to be wrong which is incredible for a pro footballer who should be working on that relentlessly.... we should try and get Callan elliot back if we can as I do like Payne as a CB.

For all those pointing out the mistakes of Rufer and Payne- yeh definitely they should be the junior guys next to Taylor or another import up against the form team of the comp who have money to burn. Not their greatest games, but no one realistically can expect them  to go from breaking into the side or being in and out one season to dominating the league's top team the next as the team's  senior players.
They've had much better showings- but this City team has been rampaging against all comers lately.
Fenton has better pace,  interchanges and cut backs, but isn't as much chop at long passing or crossing as Rufer, McGarry or Payne. 

wilbaker

Gotta hope for no defensive injuries during this game. No cover on the bench 

I noticed that as well.  We only had 6, not 7 subs named.  I guess if any issue with the backline it was Rufer to CB or RB, which was no longer an option after half-time, and Sutton to LB.

Also Paine is a magnet for the ball at the moment, which is both good and bad as he seems to be in one incident a game which costs a goal, but my question is where is Laws whenever this is happening?  Why is he not involved in his share of moments.