The Wellington Phoenix Have Uncovered Their Death Lineup… But It’s Not Ready Yet
In a season with a few more blessings, the Wellington Phoenix might have taken 12 points from their last four games. As it happens, they’ve still grabbed five of the most valuable, not enough to get them off the bottom of the ladder but enough to get them within range.
With a dozen games left to make something happen, even the playoffs aren’t out of the question yet. Although for now it’d be enough just to see them get out of last place. For all the drama and chaos of this season, they’re not the worst team in the A-League. They’ve been competitive in so many games only to make a regular habit of choking them away with poor second half performances. However just lately, with their season on the brink, that seems to have changed.
Now, obviously they shoulda won last weekend against the Wanderers. Matt Ridenton had that brilliant chance right at the end and he didn’t know what to do with it. The same story with that dude, once he gets in the box he’s a little clueless – do I shoot or do I pass? But he’s getting in those positions, he’s creating those chances. You can only be so critical when the one thing missing is the final product. He needed to pass for that WSW winner-that-wasn’t but it’s always a bit silly to ignore 90 minutes beforehand to blame the result on one moment at the end. Even if the ‘almost but not quite’ nature of it seems to encapsulate this whole damned season.
Whatever, just don’t let that singular moment cloud the fact that for the second time in a row, and only the second time all season, the Nix came back from a half-time deficit to take something from a game. Previously their record when hitting the sheds in a losing position was: four games, four defeats. Their record when hitting the sheds with a lead? One win, one draw, two defeats. The next step is to stop conceding goals before half-time in games that they’re dominating, like in the recent MVC and WSW games, but this whole season seems to be a one step at a time affair.
What enabled the two comebacks? Subs and new signings. New signings who were subs. Put simply, Matija Ljujic and Nathan Burns have been influential when they’ve come on these last two games. And both times they’ve come on, it’s meant a sharp change in formation too. The 5-3-2 thing goes out the window when you can’t fit your best players into it (you could tell it was only ever a stopgap thing anyway). Burns came on after the Victory were reduced to ten-men and the shape immediately changed, Ljujic then joining him on the park at HT. They were a shared half-time double sub vs WSW.
Which means that in the 90 minutes that Burns and Ljujic have both been on the field, the Nix have scored three times and conceded none. They’ve both been around long enough now, they’re both ready to start. So there really can’t be any other option. Time to unleash the beasts.
What that requires is a permanent switch to the way they played both those second halves, with four at the back, three in the middle and three across the top. Krishna, Burns and Kaludjerovic are locks in the frontline. Then you’ve got, presumably, Paracki dropping anchor with Ridenton and Ljujic in front of him. A back four of Durante and Fox in the middle, Doyle on the left and whoever the hell on the right. Mullen was the man in the last two games, while Rossi’s absence was kind of but not really explained by Darije Kalezic in one of his pressers. The Italian’s been replaced both times that a centre-back needed to be sacrificed and apparently that’s down to his lack of pace. Kalezic wanted a quicker defender in there to cope with it all and so Dylan Fox got to stay on.
To be fair to Foxy, he played really well. In both games. Good enough that he’s got every chance of holding onto that starting spot, almost definitely ahead of Mullen and possibly ahead of Rossi too. But we’ll have to wait to find that out because a tweaked hamstring means that Fox will miss at least this next game against the Newcastle Jets and possibly a couple more on top of that. Should mean Rossi slots back in to try state his own case – it really is weird that he’s continually getting hooked. Rossi’s not been as good this year as last but he’s still a class above the young Aussies the Nix have got there, regardless of Fox’s decent form. Seems like he gets a lukewarm response from a lot of fans as well, which could be down to his appearing a kinda passionless player. But… sure, he’s not gonna beat his chest like Ben Sigmund. That’s coz he doesn’t have to. It’s a weird situation and the rumours that me might leave only exacerbate that.
Oh and Goran Paracki is suspended after getting his fifth yellow of the season, so that means somebody else has gotta do the defensive dirty work. And… there isn’t an obvious candidate. The easy choices are to slide either Mike McGlinchey (who’ll be chuffed at the opportunity after getting subbed at half-time twice in a row) or Ridenton further back, the other then playing with Ljujic in the more advanced midfield roles. The gutsier choice would be Alex Rufer. Maybe even dropping one of the other kiwis for Sarpreet Singh… (sorry, that was too much of a tease).
Last time the Nix played the Jets they lost 3-0. Old Mate Ernie got the best of Killer Kalezic and the whole thing really sucked. This time the Nix roll up with, to borrow a phrase from the NBA, their very own Death Lineup. Only problem is that with injury and suspension they can’t actually play with it.
By the way, is anyone else surprised that Paracki only got his fifth yellow last week? After playing every minute of the season so far, it seems like he’d be on something a lot closer to 15 than to five. Good for him, s’pose. Marco Rossi is the only other bloke in range of a fifth yellow, he has four so far but… yeah. Might not even notice if he got suspended.
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