The State of the Saving of this Welly Nix Season
Ordinarily a 0-0 draw away to Central Coast isn’t such a bad result for the Wellington Phoenix. Just like the 0-0 draw away to Brisbane wouldn’t have been such a bad result a few weeks back. Problem is that when you’ve only won one game from 12 and are slipping further and further out to sea at the bottom of the table, now six points back from Brissie and CC (with worse goal difference), draws don’t really do the trick. Wins are what’s needed. Maybe a few goals as well. Anything short is another missed opportunity.
Mate, and weren’t there a few of those on New Year’s Eve? Matt Ridenton blazed the best of the Nix’s chances to score but most of the chaps had ‘could do better’ shots at some point. Considering the Phoenix only had around 35% of possession away from home on a public holiday, the fact that they ended up with twice as many total shots as their rivals was decent. They just didn’t score from any of them.
Typical, really. The Nix have only scored 15 goals in 12 games and five of them came in their lone victory (5-2 vs Perth, remember that happy day?), this was the sixth time that they’ve been kept scoreless. Half their games they haven’t even hit the net. We’re still not halfway through the season so there’s always hope of a dramatic turnaround, the A-League is a competition where you’re only ever a month of wins away from a leap up the ladder and the Phoenix are a notoriously streaky team. One win can bring on a run of eight unbeaten. In the same way that one clumsy defeat can lead to… this.
But there’s something they say about spilled milk and the same applies to sloppy goalless draws that could have been much-needed victories. It’s done, gotta focus on the next one now. And as disastrous as this season has been so far, with so many one-uppings on the negativity, there were a couple reasons for hope that emerged this week. One comes from the game itself and the other from the back pages of the fish and chip rags.
First off, Darije Kalezic has copped a little heat lately. It’s to be expected from a new manager who’s taken unpaid risks to try turn things around. Keegan Smith didn’t last as the starting keeper, even if he’s still on the bench. The Nix have trended away from the deep build up play to try chase those desperately needed short term results and that’s meant the relative experience of Lewis Italiano makes much more sense. Three or four times Italiano made fantastic last-ditch saves to recover from his own silly dropsies and fumbles, so he’s not exactly been the saviour either but no harm no foul and all that. Then there’s the constant tinkering in the attacking roles, particularly on the left. Or that whole Vidosic Clan thing, yeah that wasn’t ideal either.
Then again, the formula wasn’t working, that was clear to anyone to see. So getting rid of the Vidos allowed Mr Kalezic full control of the team and, very curiously, that meant an immediate shift in formation. At first glance it looked on the teamsheet like Tom Doyle would be the latest lad tried out on the left wing but what actually happened was the Nix shifted to a 5-3-2 shape. Doyle and Scott Galloway played as wing-backs, three centre-backs in there (Mullen/Dura/Rossi) with Mike McGlinchey returning to the midfield trio and Roy Krishna playing off of Andrija Kaludjerovic.
Here’s what that does. It allows Krishna to play through the middle where he’s at his best and threatening the goal. Krishna’s been at the heart of heaps of goodness this season while playing mostly on the right wing and the same was true down the middle against CCM. The three midfielders were already in play but things are different when you’ve got wingbacks pushing up, constricting the amount of ground you need Goran Paracki to cover and thus freeing up Matt Ridenton to push forward a little more. Just gotta work on that finishing, chief.
So we don’t actually lose a whole lot on attack while significantly improving the defence. Marco Rossi is Italian so he knows the art of defending inside-out. Andrew Durante has gotten used to the 3CB thing with the All Whites. Dan Mullen’s got the other two to show/tell him where to be. With the way the Nix are going that does mean they’ll be playing kinda deep but then the deeper they go, the more room Roy Krishna gets to work with on the break. Central Coast had a lot of possession. They only had one shot on target (and eight in total) for all that footy. Heaps of corners but nothing came of any of them. That’s impressive. That’s something to build upon.
Obviously the wingbacks could be improved upon, particularly Galloway. He’s not really the guy you want getting up on the overlap, ready to swing in the perfect cross. Not when Roy Krishna has been that dude on the wing until now. So there’s the possibility of converting another player into that role or maybe signing another joker, whatever’s easiest. Shame we don’t still have Jake Tratt, he loved a good marauding forward.
Hey and the Phoenix are already active in the old transfer market so what’s another signing? Already news has broken this week – beginning with a sighting at Wellington Airport – that Nathan Burns is coming back! Nathan Burns! He won the Johnny Warren Medal in his previous season with the Phoenix! Bingo. Then there was also the rumour of another addition, Serbian attacking midfielder Matija Ljujic. He’s 24 years old with a strong left foot. Good on set pieces and scores a few goals. A former teammate of Kaludjerovic.
That signing will be confirmed in the next day or two, while Burnsy is already settling back in. He was unveiled the day before the NYE game, signing on a two year deal having turned down other offers to return to Wellington. He won’t be available this week but should feature against the Victory on Jan 10, or at least vs Western Sydney a few days later. Nathan Burns! Alright!
Umm, a couple thoughts on Burnsy. If Ljujic is gonna arrive as the Gui FInkler replacement then Burns is the Dario Vidosic replacement. All goods there, however those of you thinking he’ll wander in and pick up where he left off last time might need to take a step back. He didn’t exactly hit the ground running the first time he was in town (it was after he scored that legendary first WP hatty that he began tearing it up) and his subsequent stints since in Japan have been a bit crap. This is a guy who has played at eight different clubs in 12 years as a professional so he’s always been a hit or miss player.
At 29 years old there’s nothing to worry about in that regard, which is nice in resisting the comparisons to Shane Smeltz’s return last time out which didn’t even last until the end of the season. Burns has taken some Ls since he left the Nix, cashing in on his career-best season. Now he’s on his way back to the site of his greatest triumphs. That makes plenty of sense for him and hopefully there’s plenty of motivation with that as well. It’s also a warning though.
Where exactly he plays is hard to predict. There isn’t really a place for him in the 5-3-2 unless Roy Krishna or Andrija Kaludjerovic are dropped. Ljujic will probably replace Ridenton in the starting XI (ushering Matty Rids to the right wing back role?), a very attacking switch that they might just get away with if the defence can grow from what they did in the last game of 2017. Burns in the midfield though… dunno about that. Of course, it could be that they go back to the old formation as soon as they’ve got the reinforcements to fill it out. Ljujic on the left wing would be a banger, or possibly in the central attacking mid role, with Wee Mac going deeper. Burnsy could play anywhere in that front three. Only one person really knows what Darije Kalezic is thinking and that’s fine.
Are they once again ignoring other positions to keep on signing high profile attacking midfielders? Eh, depends which way you look at it. Ljujic and Burns in, Finkler and Vidosic out. They still could use a stronger goalie, another centre-back, a wing-back or two, maybe even another defensive midfielder, but all they’re doing here is replacing two squad members that they’ve lost so you can’t hardly complain about that. There might still be more to come.
And if there’s a bit of shuffling that needs to be done to fit in the new boys then that’s not really a problem either. Or at least it’s a good one to have. This Nix team needs more talent, anyway they can get it. Like, there’s that other saying too… something about beggars and choosers…
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