Round 27 vs Wellington Phoenix - Sat April 14th in Auckland

[playmaker]

2 minutes ago, haz said:

I find it incredible to think HAL is a pro league, how can professional players getting paid $50+ not able to make simple passes?

Exactly, this is exactly why possession football doesn't work at this level.

[HEARTinator]

Bouzanis MOTM tonight no doubt.

[jw1739]

I wouldn't get too uptight about it if we lose. However disappointing the result is - if it is - it's a reminder that whatever Joyce has achieved this season there is still plenty to do before we are going to be genuine title contenders on a regular basis.

[Mr MO]

5 minutes ago, haz said:

Yea all are playing bad, just that Brattan always gets praise

Not tonight!

[haz]

Just now, jw1739 said:

I wouldn't get too uptight about it if we lose. However disappointing the result is - if it is - it's a reminder that whatever Joyce has achieved this season there is still plenty to do before we are going to be genuine title contenders on a regular basis.

Not the losing that concerns me, it's the basics like not being able to make simple passes

[fensaddler]

What are we playing at? 

[jw1739]

1 hour ago, haz said:

Better then any of Bobo's shit tap-ins

But Bruno is missing too many simple chances to be considered back to form yet. Put the simple ones away and you don't have to get the fancy ones.

[haz]

1 minute ago, jw1739 said:

But Bruno is missing too many simple chances to be considered back to form yet. Put the simple ones away and you don't have to get the fancy ones.

Yea made the comment before he missed the open goal. I agree

Wow we should be losing by about 3 goals

Edited April 14, 2018 by haz

[playmaker]

The concerning thing is our quality of play is laughable.

[Dylan]

Meh clearly have taken the foot right off the pedal, don’t think there is anything to be concerned about IMO

[haz]

We need to terminate Budzinksi's contract asap. What a waste of a position

[mus-28]

Can't split between Bozanic and Mauk for Spud of the Match. Both with absolutely zero impact on the game.

[playmaker]

Yeah put on Muscat Wazza, what a fkn joke

[jw1739]

Just now, haz said:

We need to terminate Budzinksi's contract asap. What a waste of a position

We've wasted two visa positions this season, one of them a marquee.

[playmaker]

1 minute ago, haz said:

We need to terminate Budzinksi's contract asap. What a waste of a position

Wazza needs to play him, that's the problem

 

[jw1739]

1 minute ago, playmaker said:

Yeah put on Muscat Wazza, what a fkn joke

That's ridiculous. Should have brought on Kamau to chase an equalizer.

[haz]

Just now, playmaker said:

Wazza needs to play him, that's the problem

 

Won't play him if he's shit

[Mr MO]

Now Wazza can take all these feathers out of his ass and show us how a trailing side is managed. My guess, same subs as every game regardless if you win or lose.

[haz]

2 minutes ago, Mr MO said:

Now Wazza can take all these feathers out of his ass and show us how a trailing side is managed. My guess, same subs as every game regardless if you win or lose.

Chasing a game and subbing on defenders...

[Mr MO]

2 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

That's ridiculous. Should have brought on Kamau to chase an equalizer.

Maybe that’s the consistency Wazza wants, same line up and same bench, same subs.

[xXCiTyZeNXx]

Worst performance of the season 

[playmaker]

13 hours ago, haz said:

Won't play him if he's shit

Don't go down that road, because it's fake news. So if he doesnt suit the Wazza style then so be it, but he is not shit. The definition of shit is the whole team that is on the pitch atm excluding Bouzanis. Not having Bud on the bench is a critical error, sacking Wazza is the solution.

Edited April 14, 2018 by playmaker

[haz]

Our record for wins in the final game of the season must be horrible

[kingofhearts]

All this result did tonight was confirm everyone's thoughts that Wellington should be third on the ladder and we should be second last. 

[Afif Adam]

Ahah we seriously can’t lose....everyone on the forum just loses their shit, we have a home final on Friday boys..there’s a reason we’re playing one

[Shahanga]

Got to hand it to him, no one does unwatchable football quite like Warren Joyce

[Shahanga]

9 minutes ago, playmaker said:

sacking Wazza is the solution.

Your account been hacked bloke?

[xXCiTyZeNXx]

Well...what do we do from here knowing we will play WSW, Brisbane or Perth at home knowing they will come into the match with nothing to lose? The way we played tonight is not a positive way to end the season losing to the Nix.

[Jovan]

28 minutes ago, xXCiTyZeNXx said:

Worst performance of the season 

Not even close.

[xXCiTyZeNXx]

7 minutes ago, Jovan said:

Not even close.

Very close 👍

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by xXCiTyZeNXx

[jw1739]

1 hour ago, haz said:

Our record for wins in the final game of the season must be horrible

We have never won the final match of the league season. (2D, 6L). And I think we've only won a couple of times in NZ.

That's just symptomatic of the work still required at the club.

Disappointing result, not good enough, but not the end of the world, although it's taken the gloss off the overall league success and probably knocked a couple of thousand off the crowd for next week.

And I never want to see that stupid phrase "...will look to bounce back in their next match..." ever again on the City web-site.

[Jovan]

I haven't checked it but a stat that mentioned last night. Was we have won 8 of our last 9 vs Wellington, now obviously 8 out of 10.

[fensaddler]

We continue to be horribly vulnerable against genuine pace. 

[playmaker]

Summary of the match.

 

 

 

[jw1739]

1 hour ago, fensaddler said:

We continue to be horribly vulnerable against genuine pace. 

While we stay so pedestrian as we do, this is not going to change. There's a laziness in the side that Joyce has still not eliminated. IMO it's an inherent characteristic of "possession football." If you spend half the match stroking the ball around in midfield, you just can't accelerate (physically or mentally) quickly enough to either defend at the back or take the chances at the front.

Edited April 15, 2018 by jw1739

[malloy]

17 hours ago, jw1739 said:

But Bruno is missing too many simple chances to be considered back to form yet. Put the simple ones away and you don't have to get the fancy ones.

Bruno used to miss easy chances all the time. 

[Dylan]

I almost want the off season forum back 

[belaguttman]

2 hours ago, jw1739 said:

While we stay so pedestrian as we do, this is not going to change. There's a laziness in the side that Joyce has still not eliminated. IMO it's an inherent characteristic of "possession football." If you spend half the match stroking the ball around in midfield, you just can't accelerate (physically or mentally) quickly enough to either defend at the back or take the chances at the front.

All football is 'possession football', the difference is in how you use the ball to achieve penetration. We can be just as ineffective using possession to play counter-attack football as it's also about player movement off the ball - this has always been our problem. We tend to run into a dead end in possession as movement off the ball is used to open up space, we are so static that we tend to close up and compress the space. Possession based football needs changes of pace, we tend to play at the same pace and that's why we don't create as many good scoring opportunities and have to reset back to the back 5.

Luckily I only got to watch the first 20 minutes of last night's game. We were playing well but I had an early booking at Provenance Restaurant in Beechworth. Great food and highly recommended BTW. Both Frau Guttman and I said 'we are going to lose this one' as the TV went off, this team is just so predictable.

If you look at out pattern this season we haven't yet been able to follow a single loss with a subsequent win, it's taken 3 games to get back on track. At least we won't be playing Perth, but I'm not feeling confident about the final. We'll lose the ACL playoff spot of a team below us gets to the Grand Final, so it had better be Jets of it isn't us!

[n i k o]

Don't know about you guys but right now I don't see this game as too big an issue. We had basically a makeshift defense throughout the game, it was terrible conditions (same for the Nix though). And considering the fact we were second best in every tackle perhaps suggests no one wanted to fully commit themselves on a nothing game in fear of injury before finals. So a number of 'what ifs' but just some food for thought. 

[Jovan]

1 hour ago, malloy said:

Bruno used to miss easy chances all the time. 

And scores crackers. The bloke is perfect for the A League. Just that bit better than everyone else but not good enough for the top top leagues. 

Last night was vintage Bruno,  scored a sublime goal and missed(not even close) a much easier chance.