Ernie! Tough Bickies
Once again the Wellington Phoenix failed to put the ball in the back of the net despite putting on a bit of a show against Melbourne City. The game finished 0-0 even though the Nix had a fair amount of decent opportunities to seal the win, but once again Ernie Merrick was happy with the effort and intent from his lads.
The defence was a bit better for the Nix this week, but for me the issue of scoring goals is still lingering like that ol' elephant. It was similar to last week's game against the Western Sydney Wanderers in that the movement and chemistry going forward was there, the fact they created these opportunities and got themselves in to great positions is evidence of that, but there's not much point if you don't slot it home.
Last week I noted that a lot of the time it was Roy Krishna who found himself in plenty of space in the box, only to scuff the chance. It's not a vendetta against Krishna, but I just don't think that's his key role, unless he's going to dedicate plenty of time to knocking those chances home. Like I said, the movement is fantastic and he does very well to get the jump on his defender, but that means zilch in reality.
What's not great for Krishna is that he couldn't put a chance that was right up his alley, away. He picked up a nice long ball from Roly Bonevacia, beat his defender with pace and then muffed in as the goalie approached. It's pretty stink that most of the opportunities fell to Krishna, but if he knocks them home then we don't talk about the negatives huh.
While the speed of Nathan Burns and Krishna perfectly suit the play of the Nix, if they're going to keep putting these delicious crosses in to the box then they need someone to put them away.
Ernie made a point of saying how the fouls from City stemmed the flow of the Nix's attack. City conceded 22 fouls compared to 11 from the Nix and it's clear that opposing teams are finding ways to slow the Nix down. The Nix love to string passes together and attack swiftly, which can be countered by fouls that stop the play, that's simply sport. It's going to be interesting to see what Ernie is going to do to counter this and of course the lack of goals.
I point this out because this weekend they face the Newcastle Jets who don't have a whole lot going for them and you can sense that they'll probably adopt a similar method. There was definitely a red card worthy challenge in there, but that's more dumb defending than a cynical challenge. The real issue for the Nix is tackles that aren't worth a yellow, but are worth a free kick as it just kills any flow the Nix had.
In the past two weeks the Nix have played two of the bottom four teams, ended up with two 0-0 draws and haven't been as clinical as they were before the Asian Cup break. With the Jets heading to Wellington, the Nix really need to stamp their mark on this game because I'll bet a buck or two that the top teams are watching and taking note.
There's absolutely no reason why the Nix shouldn't play more games at the Hutt Rec. It looks awesome, more compact and a lively atmosphere. We get the double dose with the game against the Jets also at the Hutt Rec, so hopefully the Nix can do the business this time around.