We're a team who tend to park the bus and play for the 1 nil win so it's no surprise that, when we only need a draw, we do the same when we're 1 nil up. It's like parking it on a 2 nil lead in a regular game. Mostly unenjoyable to watch, by the way.
Kraev looked lively when he came on which was promising. Zawada is obviously our talisman up top (should have at least got a double tonight though) and I think Sasse was very good in patches as well with some heads up and positive football - was a good outlet and found some good balls through to feet for our guys to get in behind them. Would like to see him take up a more central position or at least drift in centrally more frequently, because he at least looks a threat, whereas coming from wider he seems to drift out of matches for large periods.
Clean sheet is a positive and a confidence boost for our defence after being blown apart by teams in the run in.
Adelaide will be a whole different kettle of fish next week, and they'll be hurting after getting trounced by CCM last night too. But we've got our name in the mix, so I guess we've ultimately achieved what we set out to do at the start of the season.
Your point? Despite us holding out, we are not good enough to park the bus in this fashion. I wouldn’t be so smug considering we were playing against the wooden spooners.Doloras
Napier Phoenix
We are not good enough to park the bus for the rest of the game. I am predicting a draw or Mac win
I think the tactics today were partly to do with the atrocious weather. Hard to do tricky short passing through the midfield when it is so slippery. I thought centre midfield pair worked really hard and limited the Macarthur chances well.
On the balance of things I generally trust uffie's decision making but geez it bugged me that we waited till the 80th to give Kraev a run. I know he's been struggling recently, and I think it's no coincidence that we've struggled as a team in this final third of the season while Kraev has been in his rough patch. Surely if we have any chance at getting past Adelaide we'll need BK on form, so it irritated me that he only got ten minutes to do his thing against the worst team in the league right before our most important game.
Horrendous watch but hey ho, 3 points and a clean sheet. Certainly preferred this than a draw. Surely to god this team take some confidence from the game. Will Ball ever score? That last chance where he opted to square it to no one when he was through on goal, guys shooting confidence must be shot. Anyway, onto next week. Awful kick off time but COYN
Driving home from the game and I’m fudgeing pumped for the playoffs. You know what, we were never going to pump MacArthur 4-0, but a team that’s out of form just kept a clean sheet and created chances. A month ago we’d be cheering Sail chewing up time or Pennington taking a shot in the guts to keep the opposition out.
We might not be the favourites against Adelaide but there will be 11 players with Phoenix badges on their chest who are 90 mins away from a home and away semi and I’ll take that any day.
Our team has legitimate things to address but ffs what value is there in getting on players’ backs right now? There’s four games for us to win the a-league and a whole off-season to fix the issues.
Got the result. Good combination from Ball and Sasse and patience from Zawada. Maddening he can’t seem to score more than one a game, but the amount he’s scored we can’t really complain.
From here it’s about getting results however we can. A home final would be nice.
And thought it was much better to see players make a lot of tackles and get mad at each other when there was miscommunication or mistakes. Much better than the slumped shoulders of last week.
It's a tough game. At least this time we didn't allow the other team to look like Messi every time they got close to the box. Sasse once again showed he is capable of being something special. He could help us spring a surprise or two in the finals. We need to keep him for next season.
I hope Ball starts scoring in the big games ahead, I still believe he can score. I thought Ugargovic was very good last night, he’s one of the few players who constantly performs. Not sure who fills the Ugargovic/Lewis gap in the next season. Both are very tidy midfielders.
On the balance of things I generally trust uffie's decision making but geez it bugged me that we waited till the 80th to give Kraev a run. I know he's been struggling recently, and I think it's no coincidence that we've struggled as a team in this final third of the season while Kraev has been in his rough patch. Surely if we have any chance at getting past Adelaide we'll need BK on form, so it irritated me that he only got ten minutes to do his thing against the worst team in the league right before our most important game.
I'm not even sure that he's been out of form. He looks our most dangerous player every time I see him play.
Not sure what Talay is not seeing in him. Maybe he's fallen out of favour.
And consistently starting Barbarouses as well now. It's truly baffling.
Love Zwanda, but he butchers a lot of good opportunities.
Not sure what’s Zawada xG is, but he’s still one of our top ever strikers. Zawada scores every 133 min Burns(14/15) 161 min Krishna (18/19) 120min Brockie (12/13) 131 min Sometimes he only had one chance and he buried it. If he scores the same a mount of goals next year, he will be for sure the all time greatest strikers. Zawada may need only one chance on Friday to kill Adelaide, we don’t know yet what he’s capable of under maximum pressure. It could be a night of legends, I’m talking to you David Ball :-)
The thing I like about Zawada is he's always pushing to improve himself. In all the interviews whenever the interviewer says something like "you make it look easy" he always says it's not easy and he has to try really hard and train and push and never takes anything for granted. Amazing work ethic and he's not letting his first proficient season get to his head.
If he keeps pushing like he is and keeps getting game time then there's every chance he'll be better next season.
The thing I like about Zawada is he's always pushing to improve himself. In all the interviews whenever the interviewer says something like "you make it look easy" he always says it's not easy and he has to try really hard and train and push and never takes anything for granted. Amazing work ethic and he's not letting his first proficient season get to his head.
If he keeps pushing like he is and keeps getting game time then there's every chance he'll be better next season.
Yeah, it's about having a good mental attitude/mindset, and practicing your skill sets using the right techniques over & over again until it becomes second nature that makes someone a good player... basically the same principles apply to anyone's job, whether they do office work, a tradie etc.
We're a team who tend to park the bus and play for the 1 nil win so it's no surprise that, when we only need a draw, we do the same when we're 1 nil up. It's like parking it on a 2 nil lead in a regular game. Mostly unenjoyable to watch, by the way.
As mentioned before not a fan of parking the bus... we got away with sitting on a 1 goal lead against the bottom team, try that against the better teams in the playoffs & we will get punished.
The thing I like about Zawada is he's always pushing to improve himself. In all the interviews whenever the interviewer says something like "you make it look easy" he always says it's not easy and he has to try really hard and train and push and never takes anything for granted. Amazing work ethic and he's not letting his first proficient season get to his head.
If he keeps pushing like he is and keeps getting game time then there's every chance he'll be better next season.
Yeah, it's about having a good mental attitude/mindset, and practicing your skill sets using the right techniques over & over again until it becomes second nature that makes someone a good player... basically the same principles apply to anyone's job, whether they do office work, a tradie etc.
quite a few people can coast quite far on natural talent.
The thing I like about Zawada is he's always pushing to improve himself. In all the interviews whenever the interviewer says something like "you make it look easy" he always says it's not easy and he has to try really hard and train and push and never takes anything for granted. Amazing work ethic and he's not letting his first proficient season get to his head.
If he keeps pushing like he is and keeps getting game time then there's every chance he'll be better next season.
Yeah, it's about having a good mental attitude/mindset, and practicing your skill sets using the right techniques over & over again until it becomes second nature that makes someone a good player... basically the same principles apply to anyone's job, whether they do office work, a tradie etc.
quite a few people can coast quite far on natural talent.
That is the excuse for people who don’t want to put the effort in.
The thing I like about Zawada is he's always pushing to improve himself. In all the interviews whenever the interviewer says something like "you make it look easy" he always says it's not easy and he has to try really hard and train and push and never takes anything for granted. Amazing work ethic and he's not letting his first proficient season get to his head.
If he keeps pushing like he is and keeps getting game time then there's every chance he'll be better next season.
Yeah, it's about having a good mental attitude/mindset, and practicing your skill sets using the right techniques over & over again until it becomes second nature that makes someone a good player... basically the same principles apply to anyone's job, whether they do office work, a tradie etc.
quite a few people can coast quite far on natural talent.
Natural talent/flair will only take a player so far though... if they want to be the best they can be they'll put in plenty of hard yakka, and be very well drilled in the skill sets in their position too.
