Ernie! Ugh, So The Victory Are Good... #SaveTheNix
Bickin Back Bein Bool
The Melbourne Victory have consistently been sniffing around the top of the A-League for as long as I can remember. When heading to Melbourne to take on the Victory - who possess the most potent attacking trio in the league - you better be ready for an intense affair, which our Wellington Phoenix weren't and were brushed aside in all aspects by the Victory who romped to a 3-0 win.
It feels like every game that the Phoenix play will serve as an example as to why they should or shouldn't have a future in the A-League. Which is probably unfair as they are just trying to win games and despite the fact that many other A-League teams would have been touched up by an on-point Victory last night, those who look merely at the scores or are neutral and watch these games will jump to conclusions. This definitely won't be put in the #SaveTheNix bucket as the Nix weren't close to matching the Victory, however it's important to remember that this Victory team were very good last night and will once again be title contenders.
The things that I like about the 2015/16 Phoenix were on display last night, which is reason not to go too overboard about this result. Jeffrey Sarpong was more involved and continues to look more comfy in the A-League and the creativity shown by himself, Roly and Michael McGlinchey kept the Phoenix asking questions of the Victory's defence. The ability to play an incisive pass is definitely there with Sarpong setting up Roy Krishna thanks to a delightful L1-triangle through ball only for the Victory to snuff it out, yet the Phoenix largely struggled to pull these passes off. More often than not they resulted in a turnover ... the signs of some attacking impetus was there though.
Melbourne enjoyed putting the Phoenix severely under the pump every time the ball came to the feet of a Phoenix player. It was the opposite when the Victory had the ball, with the Phoenix putting half as much pressure on as the Victory and they were able to run at defenders and pick slick passes with ease. Far too much time and space was given to Besart Berisha, Kosta Barbarouses and Fahid Ben Khalfallah as well as Gui Finkler, which is strange as you'd assume that the game plan would have been to keep a close eye on them. Instead, I was treated to an attacking lesson from the Victory which was fun because they are a slick machine although it was at the expense of our Nix lads.
Andrew Durante returned, which didn't help at all. Durante, well let's just say that he'll be better for the game as he was well short of his usual high standards which was compounded by the funky selection of Manny Muscat at right-back. I get where Ernie! is coming from with this selection as Muscat has been good while Durante's been out while Tom Doyle has shown glimpses of hope at left-back so Ernie! probably wanted to try Muscat on the right.
I don't mind that experiment and the results were there for all to see. Doyle is an athletic lad who gets up and down the sideline with good pace, just without the control or subtlety to pose a consistent threat. Making things worse was the performance from Melbourne's left-back Daniel Georgievski who was a menace going forward and chimed in with key tackles at the back. With Durante back and Muscat capable of slotting in at left-back, I want to settle on having Louis Fenton at right-back and go from there.
Vince Lia suffered a hammy injury, which gave Alex Rodriquez more game time and while it's a bummer for Lia, I'm pretty excited to see if A-Rod gets to start over the next few weeks. Ernie! wants the Nix to be defensively solid and you could see this from the shape they held when the Victory had possession as they were well organised with Lia and Albert Riera sitting in front of the back-four, thus making them hard to break down. Rodriquez's younger legs and extra zip around the park could be beneficial, especially if anything was to go by as the Nix need to be putting play-makers under far greater pressure.
What's clear about this Phoenix team is that they are a work in progress, which is fine and dandy as it's a long season and there's plenty of time for the Phoenix to find their feet. Against the Victory they were shown the blueprint and yeah, it sucked to see the Nix get outplayed like that but there's no reason why the Nix can't add their own spice (there's weapons a-plenty in our attack) to that blueprint and become a force.
Big ups to the many Australians who are showing their #SaveTheNix support.