It irritated me that this was one of a handful of NZ football journos describing our success, when there’s a million other stories that could be written.
From watching ALM this season I would say Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and even the Jets play more attacking football than us. Currently they are between 12 and 17 points behind us on the table. Some of those teams have had injury issues but of course we have been without our star striker.
I think a lot of coaches are struggling to recalibrate their tactics in a season where they don't have the same quality of squads to draw on. Chiefy has shown himself to be very shrewd in this regard. If he hadn't been I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be way down the table too.
It irritated me that this was one of a handful of NZ football journos describing our success, when there’s a million other stories that could be written.
No one calls Kane Williamson boring.
Poor comparison because cricket has 3 variations. Kane is a NZ GOAT, and I love test cricket, but his spot in the 20/20 team is often called into question because his scoring rate can be too low for that format. He's a great in the longest format, and that's often about the grind, loved by the purists mostly.
Rollo was pretty matter of fact. The Nix are grinding out results, and don't have much star power. No Krishna, Davila or Steven Taylor.
And yeah as above the rugby types who were at the Waitangi Day game would have left saying typical soccer, no goals, boring blah blah. But another complaint of those same people is 'the Phoenix are useless ain't they, they have never won anything'. So winning the toilet seat, or even getting to the Grand Final will change some of that annoying rhetoric. Winners are grinners.
From watching ALM this season I would say Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and even the Jets play more attacking football than us. Currently they are between 12 and 17 points behind us on the table. Some of those teams have had injury issues but of course we have been without our star striker.
I think a lot of coaches are struggling to recalibrate their tactics in a season where they don't have the same quality of squads to draw on. Chiefy has shown himself to be very shrewd in this regard. If he hadn't been I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be way down the table too.
Perhaps in intent, but look at the number of goals they've scored and conceeded.. Adelaide, for 30 against 31 (9th) Perth, for 32 against 36 (11th) Brisbane for 28 against 37 (8th)
Nix for 28 against 18 (1st)
For me that is a clear example of why attacking football does not guarantee a winning season. Despite scoring more or the same goals as the nix they have each conceeded 1.5x as many goals per game than us.
Hayden and Langer used to score 400 in a day and now we’ve got BazBall attacking everything.
No one focuses on Williamson’s leaves or how often he defends. They don’t complain about him seeing out a day’s play without losing a wicket. They look at how many runs or how many centuries he scores. They talk about his mental strength and how good his technique is.
Sorry don’t really care about short format. It’d be like playing without goal keepers. Some of the goals would have be limited in comparison to the game proper.
Hayden and Langer used to score 400 in a day and now we’ve got BazBall attacking everything.
No one focuses on Williamson’s leaves or how often he defends. They don’t complain about him seeing out a day’s play without losing a wicket. They look at how many runs or how many centuries he scores. They talk about his mental strength and how good his technique is.
Sorry don’t really care about short format. It’d be like playing without goal keepers. Some of the goals would have be limited in comparison to the game proper.
kinda proves the poiunt that NZ's sporting fanbase is very heavily foccussed on Rugby and cricket - we all understand the importance of Williamson batting for a day and scoring 150, heck we'd even probably be happy with an AB's win over England if the score was 9-3 and a true defensive battle. But put a 2-0 football battle in front of people and it's boring.
From watching ALM this season I would say Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and even the Jets play more attacking football than us. Currently they are between 12 and 17 points behind us on the table. Some of those teams have had injury issues but of course we have been without our star striker.
I think a lot of coaches are struggling to recalibrate their tactics in a season where they don't have the same quality of squads to draw on. Chiefy has shown himself to be very shrewd in this regard. If he hadn't been I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be way down the table too.
Perhaps in intent, but look at the number of goals they've scored and conceeded.. Adelaide, for 30 against 31 (9th) Perth, for 32 against 36 (11th) Brisbane for 28 against 37 (8th)
Nix for 28 against 18 (1st)
For me that is a clear example of why attacking football does not guarantee a winning season. Despite scoring more or the same goals as the nix they have each conceeded 1.5x as many goals per game than us.
Exactly. That's where Chiefy has been clever in taking a, let's be honest, fairly limited squad and tailoring a style to suit it, ie, a patient possession game that minimises the danger of being ripped open by teams with better attacking resources than us.
On paper our defence is no stronger than the last few seasons but the defensive structure is so well organised now that we have become very hard to break down.
I reckon one of the key elements of that is Paulsen's ability and confidence with his feet. I have literally never seen a Nix side that can play out from the back as well as this one and Paulsen is a huge factor in it. Sail is an excellent keeper in many ways but we would never be able to use these tactics if he was still here.
Totally agree! That and the consistent selection of the back four, Surman and Wootton, Payne and Kelly-Heald have built a strong partnership with Paulsen and are rarely trubled.
Eh, been running my mouth with opinions this week, but I might as well finish this thought too.
In a cricket comparison no one expects a huge scoring game on a green pitch or a two paced pitch or a square turner. But it’s still seen as a fascinating arm wrestle.
I’d say games with players injured and tired on short turn arounds fall into similar categories for football. If you take out your marquee striker who scored a hat trick, maybe it’s guna slow your scoring rate.
And to what you’re saying Prof that the public don’t understand some nuances, well part of that is the job of the football media.
With a bit of luck, Surman and Kelly-Heald will form the basis of our defence for a few more seasons. Add Hughes to that, very composed for a young bloke.
Big shout out to Adam Griffiths. He was defence coach at WSW last season, and they had easily the least goals conceded in the regular season at 27 from 26 games, 5 fewer than next best Melb City. By comparison the Nix conceded 45 goals. Wonder what Griffiths thinks of Marko!
Now the Nix are much improved defensively. Wonder if the plan is already that he succeeeds Chiefy, when Italiano eventually moves on. But of course if Griffiths builds a reputation as a defence coach guru, bigger clubs could come knocking soonest.
With a bit of luck, Surman and Kelly-Heald will form the basis of our defence for a few more seasons. Add Hughes to that, very composed for a young bloke.
6 regular starting players left an older Melbourne city team after they won the league last season. I think that we should just enjoy this season. A lot of these guys are going to get offers abroad. Kosta and Ball will probably get offers with Auckland. If we win the league, it'll be a rebuilding job next season.
Eh, been running my mouth with opinions this week, but I might as well finish this thought too.
In a cricket comparison no one expects a huge scoring game on a green pitch or a two paced pitch or a square turner. But it’s still seen as a fascinating arm wrestle.
I’d say games with players injured and tired on short turn arounds fall into similar categories for football. If you take out your marquee striker who scored a hat trick, maybe it’s guna slow your scoring rate.
And to what you’re saying Prof that the public don’t understand some nuances, well part of that is the job of the football media.
and currently the football media are not doing anythign to help, they are essentially buying into the "we play boring football" narrative.
With a bit of luck, Surman and Kelly-Heald will form the basis of our defence for a few more seasons. Add Hughes to that, very composed for a young bloke.
6 regular starting players left an older Melbourne city team after they won the league last season. I think that we should just enjoy this season. A lot of these guys are going to get offers abroad. Kosta and Ball will probably get offers with Auckland. If we win the league, it'll be a rebuilding job next season.
100%. Better comparison maybe even the Mariners, who openly like the Nix develop young talent to sell. CCM sold Triantis, Pavlesic, Cummings, Silvera, McGarry, & Túlio, after last season's unexpected GF win.
Ayongo & Nkololo went overseas with "Mutual contract termination" plus Moresche left. And of course coach Montgomery was head hunted to Hibs.
Very much enjoy this season, don't plan too far ahead, because if the Nix have similar success the team could also be gutted, this off season. And who'd begrudge Welnix cashing in.
If Zawada could have stayed fit, we'd probably have 10 more goals scored. Would we be entertaining enough then?
With Zawada fit I think we'd see the team able to score those non counter attacking goals that we've struggled with this season a little. A striker that can have that incisive final pass played to in the box and get a shot away from it would be lovely. We'd definitely have more goals.
Remember when Keegan Smith was promoted to tye first team because ge allegedly gad that ability and the European coach wanted to play that way? Outpost
theprof
Outpost
From watching ALM this season I would say Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and even the Jets play more attacking football than us. Currently they are between 12 and 17 points behind us on the table. Some of those teams have had injury issues but of course we have been without our star striker.
I think a lot of coaches are struggling to recalibrate their tactics in a season where they don't have the same quality of squads to draw on. Chiefy has shown himself to be very shrewd in this regard. If he hadn't been I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be way down the table too.
Perhaps in intent, but look at the number of goals they've scored and conceeded.. Adelaide, for 30 against 31 (9th) Perth, for 32 against 36 (11th) Brisbane for 28 against 37 (8th)
Nix for 28 against 18 (1st)
For me that is a clear example of why attacking football does not guarantee a winning season. Despite scoring more or the same goals as the nix they have each conceeded 1.5x as many goals per game than us.
Exactly. That's where Chiefy has been clever in taking a, let's be honest, fairly limited squad and tailoring a style to suit it, ie, a patient possession game that minimises the danger of being ripped open by teams with better attacking resources than us.
On paper our defence is no stronger than the last few seasons but the defensive structure is so well organised now that we have become very hard to break down.
I reckon one of the key elements of that is Paulsen's ability and confidence with his feet. I have literally never seen a Nix side that can play out from the back as well as this one and Paulsen is a huge factor in it. Sail is an excellent keeper in many ways but we would never be able to use these tactics if he was still here.
Remember when Keegan Smith was promoted to tye first team because ge allegedly gad that ability and the European coach wanted to play that way? Outpost
theprof
Outpost
From watching ALM this season I would say Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and even the Jets play more attacking football than us. Currently they are between 12 and 17 points behind us on the table. Some of those teams have had injury issues but of course we have been without our star striker.
I think a lot of coaches are struggling to recalibrate their tactics in a season where they don't have the same quality of squads to draw on. Chiefy has shown himself to be very shrewd in this regard. If he hadn't been I have no doubt whatsoever that we would be way down the table too.
Perhaps in intent, but look at the number of goals they've scored and conceeded.. Adelaide, for 30 against 31 (9th) Perth, for 32 against 36 (11th) Brisbane for 28 against 37 (8th)
Nix for 28 against 18 (1st)
For me that is a clear example of why attacking football does not guarantee a winning season. Despite scoring more or the same goals as the nix they have each conceeded 1.5x as many goals per game than us.
Exactly. That's where Chiefy has been clever in taking a, let's be honest, fairly limited squad and tailoring a style to suit it, ie, a patient possession game that minimises the danger of being ripped open by teams with better attacking resources than us.
On paper our defence is no stronger than the last few seasons but the defensive structure is so well organised now that we have become very hard to break down.
I reckon one of the key elements of that is Paulsen's ability and confidence with his feet. I have literally never seen a Nix side that can play out from the back as well as this one and Paulsen is a huge factor in it. Sail is an excellent keeper in many ways but we would never be able to use these tactics if he was still here.
Keegan Smith’s problem was that he didn’t. And he didn’t have a united team around the approach.
Paulsen has been playing like this his whole life and been part of the Nix main team for 2-3 years, rather than just rapidly ascending.
