Welcome To The Annual Wellington Phoenix Midseason Revival
This, apparently, is just what the Welly Nix fellas do. They begin each season with a stumble-and-trip out of the starting blocks, giving everyone else a jump as they dust themselves off, but then eventually they get into their stride and by the end of the race they’ve caught right up with the pack. Ideally you wouldn’t wanna be kicking things off with a massive handicap on the league table like that but if you keep overcoming it with funky unbeaten streaks then... well, it all balances out in the long run, don’t it?
The Nix have won three games on the trot. They were stuck in a rancid run of form and dealing with the aftermath of a covid outbreak that tore through the squad and then they ripped off three dubs in a row. What does three wins in a row look like in this A-League season? Three wins in a row is the difference between these two pictures...
From last place on the ladder to one point off the finals places. Still with ages left in the season too so they’re basically completely back in the hunt now. There’s no runaway leader this term, at least not yet. Sydney FC were in a shambles when they played the Phoenix back in December. Two points from four games had them a single point off last place yet they bagged a 2-1 win over the Nix and have only lost once since and briefly went top of the table last weekend.
This is a wild season. No caps. Every team is dropping points, every team is picking up points too. The ladder is always gonna be a mess when some teams have only played seven matches and some teams have played eleven times (the Nix are in the middle with nine games played), but how about this: every team has at least two wins and at least to defeats. Western United are the only team with more wins than combined draws and losses.
All of which is to say that any team that can string a run of positive results together is going to get swift reward in the standings. Which is slick news for the Wellington Phoenix fellas because the only thing they excel at more than losing a bunch of games early each season is then going on mean unbeaten streaks immediately afterwards. It’s literally an annual tradition at this point.
In 2018-19, the Mark Rudan season, they only took 5 points from their first 6 games. The sixth of those games was a 1-1 draw against Perth Glory that began a nine-game unbeaten streak. They ended up finishing sixth to crack back into the finals for the first time in four years, even if they were comfortably beaten 3-1 by Melbourne Victory in the first round.
In 2019-20, Ufuk Talay’s first season, they lost four games in a row to get started and then drew the fifth (1 points from 5 games) and that was followed by three straight wins to kickstart another nine-game unbeaten streak. The wheels came off somewhat after the covid lockdown restart (effectively starting again thus typically they only took 4 points from 6 games in that stretch)... but they still earned a club-record third place finish on the ladder before going down 1-0 to Perth Glory in the elimination final – a match in which they dominated, to be fair.
In 2020-21 they took 5 points from their first 8 games, the slow start a little more elongated than usual having to spend the entire season away from home. It also proved harder to get out of as a couple of wins on the bounce didn’t lead to the usual season-saving unbeaten run. That ultimately proved to be their downfall as despite going on an 11-game unbeaten streak to end the season... they fell one point shy of making the finals.
And now here we are in the 2021-22 season where more than ever the need for a sturdy foundation was hammered home and a draw and a win in their first two matches seemed to offer exactly that. But then they lost four in a row. Including two really demoralising 4-0 defeats in which they were smoked off the park by Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United. The one bit of relief was that their rotated FFA Cup teams were getting the job done with a run all the way to the semi-finals... but the Nix’s league form was nothing short of abysmal.
At which stage they won three games in a row. 2-1 over Western United, 3-1 over Macarthur, and 1-0 over Melbourne Victory. Cannoned them up the standings to completely revive their entire season. Begging the question: What exactly has changed? How did they manage to turn this sucker around?
There are a bunch of subtle answers to that question and one overwhelming big answer. The big one is the tree trunk, the subtle ones are the new growth leaves sprouting off of it. The big one, of course, being the introduction of Gael Sandoval and Scott Wootton.
You don’t need me to drop 2000 words here about the importance of import players in a capped league like this. You don’t need me to do that because I’ve already done it. Read that piece and you’ll get the idea. The Phoenix’s first six A-League games were played with only two of the five available import roster spots in use. David Ball worked as hard as ever to little reward, often working too hard to make things happen in attack, while Gary Hooper started great with two goals in two games but had to leave the squad for personal reasons after the fourth match. When rock bottom was reached with that 4-0 loss to Adelaide, David Ball was the only import in the squad.
Then came the Western United game by which time Hooper was back and Sandoval was available for selection and they both scored in a 2-1 win. The difference was instantaneous. The class that pair exuded made everyone better around them, teammates knew they could trust them and that seemed to give those teammates more confidence in their own games. Let alone the quality that Hooper and Sandoval provided in the form of that ultimate currency: goals (the Nix scored once in that four-game losing streak – only once).
All of which is a complicated way to say that the Phoenix have been playing better with better players. As for Scott Wootton, he needed a little more time to get adjusted, and to work through a niggle or two, but even though he didn’t have a particularly busy game on debut against the Victory... it feels like it probably ain’t a coincidence that once he popped up with his steady and experienced presence in that backline the Welly Nix immediately kept their first clean sheet of the A-League campaign. Better players = better team. Funny how that goes.
Then we come to that new growth... which surely has to start with the central midfield combination. Alex Rufer and Clayton Lewis have walked out for all nine of these games. It wasn’t the most well-oiled combination last term, Lewis in particular tended to play a lot better next to the ceaselessly mobile Cam Devlin, but in theory there was no reason why they shouldn’t be able to play well together. Left and right footed options. Rufer’s very physical, Lewis is technically gifted. Both have a good eye for a forward pass. Both have strong work rates and won’t shirk the dirty work.
Yet for whatever reason they weren’t clicking. Six games into this A-League campaign and the calls were loud for Nick Pennington – or perhaps even Josh Laws or Sam Sutton – to have a punt in the midfield because Rufer and Lewis simply were not getting it done. But rather than tinker with things, Uffie stayed true to his original plans and in these last two games especially those two have been superb.
For Lewis, it’s a matter of expanding his passing range. He’d often fallen into the trap of trying to play too conservatively with how he moved the ball when his best attribute is his incisive ball-playing. Against Macarthur (win two of the trio), Jaushua Sotirio started up front with a very deliberate plan to run in behind their high defensive line as often as possible, leading to a heap of chances. Lewis was one of the blokes who understood that memo best, winning the ball in the midfield and straight away looking to unleash his speedy striker. Graciously, that aggressive passing instinct remained against the Victory too.
Rufer also needed to get back to doing what he does best. He’d had a tendency to sit too deep during the losing spell. He was letting the play come to him rather than anticipating and disrupting it. Plus his distribution wasn’t quick enough. Lingering on the ball trying to make the right pass rather than trusting the lads around him to be able to continue to work the ball forward. Last few games though he’s moving the ball quicker, he’s asserting himself defensively and in the right areas, and he’s even drifted forward to good effect a time or two. Both lads are doing what it says on the tin. And those meals go together like spaghetti and meatballs.
Or how about Reno Piscopo? Genuinely disappointing over the first couple months as he tried and failed to step into Ulises Davila’s abandoned shoes. He was shooting way more than usual but without Davila’s clinical touch. Getting on the ball heaps but trying to do it all himself. Dribbling into traffic. Taking selfish options. You don’t want to take away that supposed selfishness from a player as skilled as that, no way, but he had to make better decisions. More than anyone it feels like the arrival of Gael Sandoval has taken the pressure off Reno Piscopo who has scored in two games in a row now after going scoreless ‘til then.
David Ball’s also gotta get some credit for turning things around. With him, he just needed more support. He’s not a number one option yet he was forced to try and be that when surrounded by young local players. Like, the amount of times he lost the ball trying to dribble past dudes... that ain’t it. That’s not how Ball should be playing. He’s an extremely hard worker who facilitates and weaves his game in around others.
The way he set up the winner against the Victory was a perfect example. Staying active out of possession to intercept the ball then a great cut on his defender (he may not be a dribbler but he’s absolutely immense at faking a shot and gliding past a defender in the area) which completely overcommits the goalie and he has the presence of mind to simply slip it wide to Piscopo for the (mostly) simple finish...
Defensively there’s not a lot of difference in terms of shots allowed or their xG tallies, for example. It was pretty clear watching these three wins that Oli Sail and Alex Paulsen needed to be enormous between the sticks and even beyond those saves they rode their luck at times (eh, they were due). These three wins, they were behind on xG against Western Utd (0.89 vs 1.20) and they were dead even against Victory (1.02 each). They did have a nice healthy advantage against Macarthur, although a lot of those chances fell the way of Jaushua Sotirio whose existence trends beyond any statistical measurement. Dude came through in the end though with two bangers.
Helpfully Scott Wootton’s now there to settle things down so we can expect the defence to get better quickly. Curiously, Tim Payne has slid back out to right back in the last couple matches. The team’s best performing pre-Wootts central defender but also the best right back in the squad and by playing him there it allows Talay to keep a left/right footed combination at CB with Wootton and Joshua Laws, while also turning that fullback spot into a position of strength thanks to Payne’s delivery and defensive awareness. Like, Callan Elliot and Louis Fenton have plenty of lovely qualities but neither can get close to Tim Payne in those two (crucial) areas. Especially defensively which is massive considering that Gael Sandoval’s free role is going to leave the RB exposed more often that is ideal.
And on the other side we come to the undercover hero of the whole bloody revival: Sam Sutton. Always gotta mention that Sammy Sutts is a midfielder by trade and that he should still end up there long term - this isn’t a Libby Cacace thing where it turns out he’s a natural left back. But these last two games are as natural has he’s ever looked in that spot. Let us not overlook the fact that he had two assists in the Macarthur win. James McGarry, an objectively good attacking fullback at this level, only has three assists in his 29-game Wellington Phoenix career to date. Sutton’s crossing is fantastic. He’s looking super confident in the opposition half, confident in his options and seeking to attack whenever possible. It’s been awesome to witness.
Crazy thing is it felt like the Nix were in that rock bottom phase for a lot longer than they actually were. Several covid postponements will do that to ya. As worrying as a covid outbreak can be within a squad, it really did come at a convenient time when you consider that it allowed them to minimise the points that they dropped during that dark period. Those games will instead now be played after reinforcements have arrived and the team’s prospects have dramatically improved. The Annual Midseason Revival making a timely appearance. Lesssssgo.
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