Ernie! Why So Good Wictory?
An away journey to the Melbourne Victory/Wictory, not ideal. The Wellington Phoenix were feeling the good vibes, they had put together a few good performances and they were tasked with a good challenge, a challenge against one of the benchmark teams in the A-League. A Challenge.
How about the crowd though!? It was a big stage for the Nix and the Melbourne Wictory crowd made it that much more awesome, so shout out to the Wictory fans.
The Nix fell short, 2-0. It was a game that puzzled me, on the one hand I want to rip in to the Phoenix for the amount of ball they gave away, stupidly. On the other hand, the Phoenix looked pretty good - when they did string a few passes together they had good movement, crisp delivery and they did offer a threat.
I'm the Mystery Doctor and I love defence. When the Wictory tried to attack through the middle, the Nix looked good, they could handle that in the most part. Albert Riera, Andrew Durante and Ben Sigmund are good enough tacklers in a crowded space and they can crowd the ball carrier near the top of the box. However, out wide, yikes. Louis Fenton and Manny Muscat weren't terrible, but they showed that they could be made to look silly by quality wingers. It was a worry, I don't know what the solution is - get Tommy Doyle in there? I wouldn't back Muscat or Fenton 1 on 1 so do we need better support from the wide midfielders? I don't know, it's just a bit of a worry.
The other worry is going forward. Either the lad with the ball runs at a defender and gets tackled or shit the bed, the amount of passes that either go to casper or a Wictory player. Like stupidly, players not getting their head up to check what's going on, players completely mis-reading the movement in front of them, just way too many turn overs. It's such a stinker because in patches we are shown that they can look threatening especially when a few passes are strung together. Roly Bonevacia can be a threat running with the ball and some of his passes were fired in to a team mates feet - crisp distribution, then the next minute he kicks it to casper. Same with Rodriguez. I want the Nix to go forward, but maybe they just need to hit a few more passes laterally and backwards to just build it up ... because last night it looked a little bit kick and hope.
Would you rather see Michael McGlinchey and Nathan Burns 30 metres apart, you play on the right and I'll play on the left type of thing? Or attached by a 15 metre rope, feeding off each other and linking up a whole lot better? I want to see them creating things together, instead of doing something alone, looking up and seeing their striking homie out on the other side of the field.
Maybe this looks better when Jeremy Brockie is on the field, he and Nathan Burns can link up with McGlinchey roaming around. They definitely improved when he came on. Ah, I'm sorry Jeremy, I want you back.
On the whole, I feel positive though. These are all things that need to get figured out. Ernie has to see it to fix it and I've got confidence in him to get things right. The Nix were under the pump, they had quick, nippy, skillful wingers running at them, they had that Finkler guy dancing with the ball in the middle of the field and they still managed to look threatening with the ball despite giving it away most of the time. It's all good baby baby.
Who Are Ya? Hello, I am Louis Fenton. Ah, Mr Fenton. I'm not 100% sure that you're the best right back with the Nix but I'm 100% sure you're not the best right back in the A-League. Lol, jokes bro. You're all good, I like the threat you offer going forward and unlike many right backs who love to streak forward but walk back hoping someone has covered them, you get back. While you didn't exactly lock down that flank, you defended pretty well and the Nix need their fullbacks to offer width on attack, which you do/did.