WPM R24 v Central Coast Mariners | Sun 17th Apr | 3:05pm | ROF

Hellas_johnny

These sort of results all can come down to poor recruitment start of season.   Too many academy youngsters being relied on.  An academy team that has come bottom in the nz national league.   No depth in the squad. Especially in defence and Especially when your main right backs are Elliot and Felton.  Sign bozinovski on loan.  Might as well have gone a player short he's barely played any minutes.  Disappointing 

Payne and Sutton are the starting full backs. 
Fenton is third choice and yet has been asked to start on too many occasions, while there are other weaknesses all over the park. 
Not quite fair, but McGarry is very one footed and that slowed our ball movement. 
Bozinovski has been substandard- Uffie would have hoped to have had more from him.
Our other main weakness is losing our starting midfield to injury and not bringing in any real injury cover of any kind. 
Though we’re short an imposing striker/goal scorer too and as much as Gael has been, neither him or Piscopo score as Uli did.
Sutton is also our not so secret back up playmaker. He’s had a great season. But also we missed him today. A large part of us v CC has been Nkololo beating up our FBs.
 
I don’t think we can say our season is over, but we’re relying on players coming back from injury and hitting form to challenge: at the moment we’re missing Laws, Rufer, Sutton, Lewis, Hooper and Ball is playing injured. 

You'd expect a good response this weekend. With a week long build up, no excuses. Hopefully Laws is close to a return. Think Sutton flies over Friday after his Covid isolation.

With players he has, think at the moment Uffie himself maybe a little confused as to Nix's best formation, with Rufer & Lewis both out. Something to work on this week.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/128385952/phoenix-clinging-onto-top-six-spot-after-losing-heavily-on-return-to-wellington

After a hectic past three weeks, the Phoenix will enjoy having a full week to prepare for their next game, against Western Sydney Wanderers at Eden Park in Auckland, where Talay will expect an immediate response.

“We’re still in a good spot with where we’re sitting. It’s a loss and it’s a loss that we didn’t want but at the end of the day we’re still in a great position to move forward,” Talay said.

“We’ll have a good week’s buildup going into the next game against Western Sydney which will give players time to recover, and there’s a possibility for me to actually do some tactical sessions where we can work on a few things to improve what we need to do.”

Hellas_johnny

These sort of results all can come down to poor recruitment start of season.   Too many academy youngsters being relied on.  An academy team that has come bottom in the nz national league.   No depth in the squad. Especially in defence and Especially when your main right backs are Elliot and Felton.  Sign bozinovski on loan.  Might as well have gone a player short he's barely played any minutes.  Disappointing 

Talay generally does very well with his recruitment, especially the visa players.

But Bozinovski, and Prso have both been duds this season. With hindsight Oli Whyte, and Trevor Zwetsloot (if he was keen on the Nix) would have been useful cheapest signings.

But hindsight is a beautiful thing, and they would likely only marginally have improved things. Losing both your starting DMs long term, within weeks of each other when the team had real momentum, is just plain bad luck. 

To be fair on Bozinovski and Prso, Talay has his own idea of how the team should play and what he wants. I think that some players just can't fit into his idea. Example, Elliott is an excellent full back but he spent most of the season on the bench having not played to Talay's liking at the start of the season.

The midfield was smashed literally and figuratively, once CCM worked out our tactics after 15 minutes.Very loose refereeing did not help us one bit. Coupled with that ,ball retention and passing accuracy overall was one of the poorest seen all season. No wonder quality ball wasnt supplied to  the strikers.

Np

This criticism is about their performance on the pitch, there is no sugar coating the goal difference and poor performances.

Ryan

Read the piece by Ball on keep up and tell me how fragile they are.

These guys have been doing it tough. They deserve some slack.

There's limits to how people can perform physically, their workload and travel schedule are immense as is their injury list. Look at Perth to see how other teams are performing in the same scenario.

It's a shame that the Wellington game isn't the second one, as they'll have a week to prepare for the game in Auckland.

kungfu panda

To be fair on Bozinovski and Prso, Talay has his own idea of how the team should play and what he wants. I think that some players just can't fit into his idea. Example, Elliott is an excellent full back but he spent most of the season on the bench having not played to Talay's liking at the start of the season.

Based on the FFA cup game he played Bozinovski is just too slow for this level, even if he otherwise plays exactly as Talay wants... pace isn't something you can train (at least not the % increase he would need to be A-League level). Prso, I honestly can't even remember him at all.

Anyway, as a team I'm not going to be harsh on them considering injuries. It's really quite an accomplishment we are in top 6 contention. Our style doesn't match up well vs CCM (or against a ref that doesn't want to dish out yellows when they cynically stop most positive plays we have). I expect a better performance against WSW especially since they have a midweek match before they travel here.

Good summary:
„That streaker kinda summed up the Nix performance; lots of anticipation & excitement as he prepared himself, only to be flattened as soon as he stepped onto the field.“
— Peter Clinton

I've never experienced such an upbeat atmosphere at the stadium after an absolute drubbing. You could write several books about all of the negatives of that game, probably a few chapters dedicated entirely to Fenton, but there were some real positives too. at 3-0 down with 10 minutes to go the fever zone was pumping, felt like we were pushing for an equaliser rather than a consolation goal. Dunno what the rest of the crowd was like, but 18k on Easter weekend with no public transport and seemingly no media hype about the game.... what a fudgeing effort Wellington. Gotta give some praise to Sotirio too. Hold up play was fantastic from very average service, sprinted for the full 90 and gave the team everything he had. He's copped a heap of flak from nix fans the last few years but shark transformed into a great player this season. 

It was the chance for us to give the player some fan love. It would be a better party if we scored some goals, nevertheless it was a party we all waited for, I enjoyed it very much.

coochiee

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/128386041/phoenix-fans-ecstatic-players-have-returned-home-despite-convincing-loss

 

InsulinMachine

We picked a bad day to fall apart on...

The wheels have fallen off 3 times in the last 4 odd weeks.

I am not an expert, so let others correct me here if needed:
My own observation is that we played better with the initial formation, until we went down a goal on CCM counter. My thought is that at that point Talay "blinked first" and reverted to his favourite 2-2-2, and while it looked OK on paper, with Payne going up to midfield, we got worse after that formation change, not better. I wonder if he had kept his nerve and continued in the same way we might have had a closer game than we did towards the end. 

Mainland FC

I am not an expert, so let others correct me here if needed:
My own observation is that we played better with the initial formation, until we went down a goal on CCM counter. My thought is that at that point Talay "blinked first" and reverted to his favourite 2-2-2, and while it looked OK on paper, with Payne going up to midfield, we got worse after that formation change, not better. I wonder if he had kept his nerve and continued in the same way we might have had a closer game than we did towards the end. 

I don't blame Talay for trying to change things but I don't think sticking to the original formation would've prevented a loss. Apart from the first 10-15 minutes of the match when we came out firing I though we were comfortably outplayed across the park.

The question now is whether there is enough time and player resources left for him to fix our defensive woes just enough to allow us to scrape together the last five or six points we need to get into the finals. 

I think the leadership on the pitch is a problem. As vocal as Sail is I think outfield players make better captains. The loss of Taylor has really done us in. 

Lot's of excuses. We played bad and lost high when we had Rufer and Lewis on the field, we played very good games without them.

Marto

I think the leadership on the pitch is a problem. As vocal as Sail is I think outfield players make better captains. The loss of Taylor has really done us in. 

Your point has some validity, but things were going pretty well with Rufer as captain 

As in some other games this season take those early chances and things could be very different. Hopefully Talay can refocus them and get something out of the last few games. Dont care what anybody says must have been hard keeping focused having caught up with family and friends after not seeing them for some time. The way some people carry on you would think they went out deliberately to lose and not put any effort in. 

seems a lot on here have no compassion/empathy for how difficult the last two and a bit seasons have been for the nix, some have had family with them in Aus some have not. Ball has had family with him but they recently flew back to the UK (wife and two kids) just for some stability, they've had 5 homes, 4 schools in 2 years. That's insane outside pressure for a anyone, besides he's carrying an injury which he is playing through. Look across the squad and there will be individual stories of the hardships this teams has gone through just to entertain us. Yes we as fans have struggled but so too have the players and their families. I was stoked to see the fans there and to see how many stayed behind to applaud the team for their efforts. Sure the result didnt go our way and that is annoying. But the vitriol thrown at the team is just unjustified. We have serious injuries to the senior leaders of the squad and are relying on our academy to bolster the squad. All, we as fans can do is continue to support the club and hope like fudge we get a normal season next year.

Well said theprof agree completely have seen posts from people who walked  out before fulltime and i just dont get that. Guess they are the same people who will be pushing their way to the front on the good days.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/a-league/128394108/phoenix-star-reno-piscopo-sorry-they-could-not-repay-wellington-crowd-with-a-win
says it all really.

Maybe just another perspective. I think the team were so eager to get a goal back that we were then incredibly vulnerable to more goals. Especially without a hard bitten natural DM ready to shut down any counter attack, any way necessary. Mariners were far more aggressive shutting down any potential breaks from us. And we committed a long way forward. 
Plus Lkololo. He's a talent. And he matches up against some of our weaker areas right now. 
Great to have them back at the Stadium. If anything their eagerness to get the result probably didn't help. Good luck to them for a crowd and result in Auckland. 

theprof

seems a lot on here have no compassion/empathy for how difficult the last two and a bit seasons have been for the nix, some have had family with them in Aus some have not. Ball has had family with him but they recently flew back to the UK (wife and two kids) just for some stability, they've had 5 homes, 4 schools in 2 years. That's insane outside pressure for a anyone, besides he's carrying an injury which he is playing through. Look across the squad and there will be individual stories of the hardships this teams has gone through just to entertain us. Yes we as fans have struggled but so too have the players and their families. I was stoked to see the fans there and to see how many stayed behind to applaud the team for their efforts. Sure the result didnt go our way and that is annoying. But the vitriol thrown at the team is just unjustified. We have serious injuries to the senior leaders of the squad and are relying on our academy to bolster the squad. All, we as fans can do is continue to support the club and hope like fudge we get a normal season next year.

 
 Reading that about Ball, could that possibly signal him exiting the club  at the end of the season?

Why would Ball break contract and leave now, when finally the club and therefore his family have some future stability ie TT border opening plus travel to and from UK sans MIQ soon possible

Who knows but would seem an odd time to leave having finished a tough 2.5 years

Get the feeling the club love D Ball, and he loves them back. I see him doing a Ifill/Greenacre and making a post football life in NZ

The first 3 goals were simply poor defending. Nothing to do with the midfield. Too much effort to complicate this issue.

Marto

theprof

seems a lot on here have no compassion/empathy for how difficult the last two and a bit seasons have been for the nix, some have had family with them in Aus some have not. Ball has had family with him but they recently flew back to the UK (wife and two kids) just for some stability, they've had 5 homes, 4 schools in 2 years. That's insane outside pressure for a anyone, besides he's carrying an injury which he is playing through. Look across the squad and there will be individual stories of the hardships this teams has gone through just to entertain us. Yes we as fans have struggled but so too have the players and their families. I was stoked to see the fans there and to see how many stayed behind to applaud the team for their efforts. Sure the result didnt go our way and that is annoying. But the vitriol thrown at the team is just unjustified. We have serious injuries to the senior leaders of the squad and are relying on our academy to bolster the squad. All, we as fans can do is continue to support the club and hope like fudge we get a normal season next year.

 
 Reading that about Ball, could that possibly signal him exiting the club  at the end of the season?

I dont think he will, he's made comments about how tough it as been but he has also posted and made comments about how dedicated he is to the club.

coochiee

Why would Ball break contract and leave now, when finally the club and therefore his family have some future stability ie TT border opening plus travel to and from UK sans MIQ soon possible

Who knows but would seem an odd time to leave having finished a tough 2.5 years

Get the feeling the club love D Ball, and he loves them back. I see him doing a Ifill/Greenacre and making a post football life in NZ

I would love that to happen, but part of me did wonder if he'd leave too. I really hope he stays and builds a stable future for him and his family. I'm still annoyed Taylor didn't do it, as he was a name that could attract but Ball is an absolute hero. 

You’ve never been successfully married have you? Lol

coochiee

Why would Ball break contract and leave now, when finally the club and therefore his family have some future stability ie TT border opening plus travel to and from UK sans MIQ soon possible

Who knows but would seem an odd time to leave having finished a tough 2.5 years

Get the feeling the club love D Ball, and he loves them back. I see him doing a Ifill/Greenacre and making a post football life in NZ