What a tease that was. Sign two players who should immediate aid the cause but then neither’s available to play a few days later when the Nix are away to the top team in the league, a team that hasn’t lost at home in close to two years. Which then leads to a lame-ass 4-0 loss featuring several comical defensive mistakes and it’s like the rest of it never happened. But no, Monty Patterson should be available to play next game. Tando Velaphi probably oughta roll into that starting keeper’s position. Things will get better. Trust in the process.

For reference, Sydney FC are just a step above everyone else this season. They’ve only lost once with a goal difference of +32 from 19 games. Nine points clear of Newcastle in second and there’s also a buffer between the Jets and the next jokers (Melly City). The Phoenix are last and have been serving up junk for most of the campaign. This would’ve been an unlikely task even at the best of times.

And best these times certainly were not. Roy Krishna remained out with injury and although Marco Rossi returned from suspension, allowing Goran Paracki back into the middle, Andrija Kaludjerovic was out with that heel thing and Tom Doyle was a late scratch. You wanna have that Next Man Up mentality but realistically this was too much. Competitive spirit, professional pride, etc. Sure… but come on. Even Don Corleone couldn’t rig a Phoenix win from there.

So delay the resurgence one more week. Hope at least one of those dudes comes good, if not all of them. Kaludjerovic might need a little longer since there’s not been a lot of official word on that matter. Meanwhile Roy Krishna has been in Auckland for further scans and second opinions on his dodgy hamstring – hey, it worked for Andy Durante. Neither of those sounds very promising, tbh.

Then there’s this news that Roy Krishna’s been linked with Uncle Tony’s Colorado Rapids. Obviously Hudson got a good look at Krishna both for the Phoenix and also for Fiji although he never actually coached him (Neil Emblen and Darren Bazeley have, though). Interesting, very interesting.

Now, Roy’s a favourite at TNC Towers, you may have already guessed that. But this is odd for a couple reasons. First is that as fantastic and crucial as Krishna has been for the Nix, he’s a 30 year old Fijian forward, currently injured, being linked to a Major League Soccer club. The only current All Whites laying it down on the regular in the MLS are… well, it’s basically just Stefan Marinovic and Mike Boxall right now. Tommy Smith will soon join that crew and a few others are possibilities. Krishna might be good enough, Boxall made the jump from A-League to MLS (with South Africa in between), but he’d be no slam dunk. Also Boxall had been there before and knew what to expect. It’s just an oddly specific transfer target under the circumstances.

Second is that the Rapids have already signed Tommy Smith, Deklan Wynne and Kip Colvey. At least one of those two young defenders will get loaned out, potentially two, but there are several other international players on this team as well. They just signed Scottish international Danny Wilson and they don’t even have an international spot free for him which means they already need to make some moves to fit that dude in. Finding additional room for Roy Krishna, even though they do need a striker, seems tricky.

Now, there’s another side of this to consider. Roy Krishna is off-contract at the end of the current A-League season and the Nix are keen to re-sign him. But Krishna has an agent, like most footballers. That agent’s job is to get him the most money possible. The thing in the Herald said they had sources in North America but a quick squizz around social media brings nothing but their own story so… dunno. They also said there was a vast difference in suggested transfer fees between the two clubs but that’s odd too since he’s a free agent in a few months (you know, like the majority of this playing squad). The Rapids might not be so keen on waiting those months out when they’re already starting preseason as we speak but, still… how much to the Nix expect to get for a guy that could leave for free mid-year?

Good rule of thumb when assessing players is asking how many other teams in same league would put him in their starting side. In Roy Krishna’s case, it’s most, if not all. Phoenix need to do what they can to keep him. I hear his agent is asking for stupid money though.
— Jason Pine (@pineyzb) February 3, 2018

Initial guesswork says this is a bargaining tool for Roy to get paid what Roy deserves to get paid. And he deserves whatever he can get. Having said that, the Nix can’t compete with many foreign clubs for salaries. They can wait as long as they want to re-sign guys like Matt Ridenton, Logan Rogerson and Alex Rufer because those guys will probably have to take what they can get but Krishna might be able to do better elsewhere. Hence the longer they wait, the longer they take that risk. Of course, we’re also talking about a new coach who’s been visibly and vocally unhappy with the performances of this team and probably wants as much squad flexibility as possible while he’s figuring out the direction this team needs to go.

Krishna needn’t worry there. His absence has made it clear how crucial he is, it ain’t just the goals and assists that matter but their entire style of play. It was strange that the Nix didn’t begin with a back three in Sydney but then that system relied on Krishna’s pace and energy up top to create most of their attacking chances. They ended up switching to that formation eventually but the game had shrunken away before them as soon as they were 2-0 down… which only took quarter of an hour because they defended like silly little children.

And when they’re conceding goals like that, nobody can argue about their place in the team. Even Andrew Durante and Goran Paracki, the two defensive leaders out there, literally ran into each other to concede possession for the second goal. And the most pedigreed dude, Marco Rossi, ignored that through ball for Alex Brosque to score the first goal. There was Dan Mullen’s giveaway for the third. A lack of tracking and positioning by the lot of them for the fourth. These were some disgusting goals to concede.

But you get nowhere by looking back in frustration. Instead know that a new goalie and attacking winger are on the way. Marco Rossi left this game injured but Dylan Fox was again decent off the bench. At this point, it’s hard to argue against him starting every game. Marco Rossi is a superior player but he simply isn’t doing it at the moment. Hard to blame him, he’s been embarrassed by substitutions and missed games with both suspension and injury. Now he’s hurt again. However this isn’t personal. Fox is out there fighting for his burgeoning career. Let him do his thing for a while as Rossi reassesses it all. The door is always open for him to get back in and recreate the form he showed last season.

At this point it’s also hard to keep defending Lewis Italiano’s mistakes. Velaphi’s coming in cold but the Nix are not in a position where they can wait for things to get better. They’ve tried that already. Similar with Monty Python Patterson > Adam Parkhouse, though Parky’s only there because others are injured. Having said that, did he really offer more than Logan Rogerson would’ve from minute one? As for Sarpreet Singh, the Nix website said he was unfit to travel so there you go.

Speaking of academy players, if there was one positive to take from that last game then it’s Liberato Cacace’s work as a left wing-back on A-League debut. To put that into context, he’s a defensive midfielder who’s been playing in his other preferred position of centre-back for the reserves, still a teenager as well, and he did a damn fine job at LWB against the best team in Aussie at his first call. Another young guy pushing for recognition in the first team, gotta love it.

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