Ernie! Don't Wander Round Here No More
The Western Sydney Wanderers crossed the ditch to face our lads, two teams at different ends of the spectrum and boy oh boy, am I happy that the Phoenix are at the right end of that spectrum. Against those who like a Wander, the Nix looked sublime in stages and then fell back in to the pool - imagine a little chubby kid trying to jump out of a pool, sometimes he does if seamlessly and efficiently while sometimes he just keeps on falling back in.
When you're tracking along nicely, things tend to go your way and the Nix were able to cash in on those benefits. The Nix started very strongly and looked awesome with the midfield combining nicely, holding the ball but the Nix don't look at their best simply holding the ball. They mix up simple, obvious passes with more incisive options that form a lovely bridge between fluffing around with the ball and playing direct. It also doesn't look like there's a trigger for this, it's more fluid with guys content to pick easy passes but as soon as there's a direct option they take it and flow forward.
Ben Sigmund started the game with two passes to his attackers, which sums up the Nix when they're at their best. They are far form predictable, you can pigeon hole them as a team who just muck around with it in the midfield but then you'll encounter a swarm of Nix players charging forward with slick turns, touches and impressive lines run from the strikers.
Roy Krishna made the most of this, as he ran in behind the defence, in to the box. You've got to be in it to win it and Krishna's pace meant that he had a jump on that 17 year old defender, at the very least the penalty was a reward for Krishna getting the jump on the kid. I reckon he clipped Krishna, so fair penalty.
Except for a few gorgeous attacking moves in the 2nd half, the above was the chubby kid seamlessly and efficiently jumping out of the pool. For the closing stages of the 1st half and the entire 2nd stanza the Wanderers were on top with Tomi Juric having a field day inside our box, but unable to knock one in. That geezer down WSW's left flank, the one with the long name was awesome as well, but somehow we hung on.
Honestly, the Nix looked pretty trashy for much of the match. There was no linking, nothing that resembled the style of play the Ernie! or us as fans want to see. Glen Moss was good, so I don't want to name and shame him, but him throwing the ball to Michael McGlincey who has a player right up his backside kinda epitomised this. If the Nix weren't putting their team mates under pressure they were passing to a Wanderer and they just kept inviting Western Sydney not only in to their half but back in to the game.
Vinnie Lia is no Alex Rodriquez.
I'm not 100% sold on Louis Fenton and Tom Doyle, well not yet as I'm sure they'll continue to get better. There's plenty of high class attacking threats out wide in the A-League and with the centre of our defence pretty solid, they need to be just as solid out wide.
Watching Nathan Burns, Roy Krishna and Michael McGlinchey as a front 3 is rather orgasmic. The movement and versatility is the key, they can roll through the 3 different areas (out wide and in the middle) which makes marking them a bitch. Throw in some speed and slick movement and you've got a top shelf front 3 ....
That will need some tinkering as Burns joins the Dingos and Krishna battles an injury (and no more Jeremy Brockie :( ). It could be a lot worse as the Asian Cup shuts down the A-League for a while, which gives us the opportunity to put a positive spin on this as hopefully we see the youngsters get a go and Kenny Cunningham. The key is that McGlinchey will still be there and I'd love to see him really control things, allowing who ever plays alongside him up front to play with freedom.
Who are ya!? Tomi Juric, the problem here is that you really impressed me. You're big, quick and showed some lovely touches but you basically won the game for the Nix! So thank you for being unable to score, hopefully that changes for you and the Wanderers because you're pretty good at this football thing.
Anyway, we agree with Kyle...