Griffiths played more down the right from what I saw from aisle 30 and was dropping deep as well. Don't recall seeing him in up the middle role. Also he went down in left midfield in our own half IIRC.
"Everyone" was all over the place really and struggling to find space.
I am less impressed with A Rod as each game passes...and whats with the bunny hop he often does?
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Sorry yeah I meant to say he played down the right and burns was down the guts until he got injured and then it changed
We've found our level, which is third or fourth in the league. Still a great place to mount a successful campaign to "knock the (Aussie) bastards off"
I don't think we have "a level." At times this season we have looked like the best team in the league and then we have had moments like the last two weeks. I'm finding it hard after 24 rounds to actually say how good we are.
probably 4th best at the moment...
Thought it was more than 8.4k at the ground as well.
Probably fairly good turnout for a long weekend.
Just watched the second goal on replay.
We have a free kick in the MV half. Do we sling the ball dangerously into the box for a scoring opportunity?
No, we pass it backwards three times before giving it straight to the Victory, and Durante then completes the move with the fourth backward pass into his own net.
Absolutely shocking
Absolute rubbish watch the first goal again it wont take you long 35 sec, Roly has a choice of 2 passes inside to Alex and Mcglinchey to open the game up but no he turns back into were the victory players are and looses the ball,and the rest as they say is history .
How many times in various A League games have we witnessed players hot on attack near an opposition penalty area only to see it end up being passed back to their own goalkeeper whom then hoofs the ball up the field and lose possession.
Too many times even with the Nix they spend too much time passing backwards when the idea is to go forward. Sure one can say there are no optuions forward but too often there are.
Just watched the second goal on replay.
We have a free kick in the MV half. Do we sling the ball dangerously into the box for a scoring opportunity?
No, we pass it backwards three times before giving it straight to the Victory, and Durante then completes the move with the fourth backward pass into his own net.
Absolutely shocking
We aren't exactly renowned for our scoring ability from set pieces.
We've found our level, which is third or fourth in the league. Still a great place to mount a successful campaign to "knock the (Aussie) bastards off"
I don't think we have "a level." At times this season we have looked like the best team in the league and then we have had moments like the last two weeks. I'm finding it hard after 24 rounds to actually say how good we are.
It is hard to say where our "level" is because we beat good teams and then have shockers against pretty poor teams. Now we're losing against good teams I fully expect us to start cleaning up the bad teams starting with City this weekend.
I know it's hard for people to accept, but Victory are just a better team than us. Sometimes will be able to roll them, but most of the time they will be firm favourites.
Particularly when we have Riera, Siggy and Vinnie out and lose the sharkcod early.
I know it's hard for people to accept, but Victory are just a better team than us. Sometimes will be able to roll them, but most of the time they will be firm favourites.
I know it's hard for people to accept, but Victory are just a better team than us. Sometimes will be able to roll them, but most of the time they will be firm favourites.
Did you get on the $2.80 happiness insurance?
I think it's games like this where we see the level of some our guys, when we have to rely on them without our top players to drag them along. Boxall and Manny both look good in a backline with Dura and Siggie, but never without them. Riera makes just about our whole team look better. It's just part of a squad game in a salary capped league
Sure did. Doubled down when I saw Sigmund was out.
Depth is in some ways a function of whether a team has marquees. Being able to spread the cap over two fewer players makes a massive difference. In some ways, while the cap creates an even league, teams like Sydney and Victory (and maybe City in the future) should be in the top 4 each year.
I know it's hard for people to accept, but Victory are just a better team than us. Sometimes will be able to roll them, but most of the time they will be firm favourites.
I think most people accept this, to be honest. (after seeing us lose to them year in, year out in Melbourne - was nice to see us get a win here though) Delpierre is the best defender in the league and FBK is arguably the best attacking player. Finkler is probably in the top 3 midfielders.
Doesn't mean we can't hope to beat them everytime!
Also, this game hurt more because we folded like a deck of cards; not because Melbourne were better than us. They deserved the win, but we also deserved a little more fight.
Just watched the second goal on replay.
We have a free kick in the MV half. Do we sling the ball dangerously into the box for a scoring opportunity?
No, we pass it backwards three times before giving it straight to the Victory, and Durante then completes the move with the fourth backward pass into his own net.
Absolutely shocking
We aren't exactly renowned for our scoring ability from set pieces.
We scored from that one!
I know it's hard for people to accept, but Victory are just a better team than us. Sometimes will be able to roll them, but most of the time they will be firm favourites.
Did you get on the $2.80 happiness insurance?
I think it's games like this where we see the level of some our guys, when we have to rely on them without our top players to drag them along. Boxall and Manny both look good in a backline with Dura and Siggie, but never without them. Riera makes just about our whole team look better. It's just part of a squad game in a salary capped league
I don't know what Manny's excuse was though.
Sure did. Doubled down when I saw Sigmund was out.
Depth is in some ways a function of whether a team has marquees. Being able to spread the cap over two fewer players makes a massive difference. In some ways, while the cap creates an even league, teams like Sydney and Victory (and maybe City in the future) should be in the top 4 each year.
Brisbane claims that they have the third biggest player budget in the league, also WSW must spend a bit. Heart always had Marquees and were always crap, same as city.
Probably half the league have marquees?
Just us, CCM, Jets (who obviously previously have had marquees), and Adelaide without? Perth obviously had marquees forced upon them.
Sure did. Doubled down when I saw Sigmund was out.
Depth is in some ways a function of whether a team has marquees. Being able to spread the cap over two fewer players makes a massive difference. In some ways, while the cap creates an even league, teams like Sydney and Victory (and maybe City in the future) should be in the top 4 each year.
Brisbane claims that they have the third biggest player budget in the league, also WSW must spend a bit. Heart always had Marquees and were always crap, same as city.
Probably half the league have marquees?
Just us, CCM, Jets (who obviously previously have had marquees), and Adelaide without? Perth obviously had marquees forced upon them.
Except Sydney and Victory are willing to spend millions on their marquees. Doubt that is the case for the other clubs.
When you think about it the marquee rule is quite odd. You can spend loads of cash on one good player, or spend loads of cash across your squad and have a better team. Same amount of money. Most of the marquees who have genuine name recognition have actually been pretty crap. The best ones are players no-one had heard of before they came here. I'm not convinced that part of the salary cap is actually working right...
You're almost being encouraged to send a old of money on old has beens
Any system that allows Thwaite to be labelled marquee is broken.
When you think about it the marquee rule is quite odd. You can spend loads of cash on one good player, or spend loads of cash across your squad and have a better team. Same amount of money. Most of the marquees who have genuine name recognition have actually been pretty crap. The best ones are players no-one had heard of before they came here. I'm not convinced that part of the salary cap is actually working right...
You're almost being encouraged to send a old of money on old has beens
You can do both given marquees are outside the cap.
Any system that allows Thwaite to be labelled marquee is broken.
I often wonder whether the American sports luxury tax would work better (you have a salary cap but if you spend over it you pay $1 to the league for every dollar you spend on wages and the money is divided up between the other teams). I mean the salary cap is basically voluntary anyway if you can put anyone into the marquee roles
I think the marquee player rule is a good one because it gives teams a bit of flexibility and allows us to keep quality players in the league. Broich, Kennedy, Koren, Berisha, Janko and Brosque probably wouldn't be here otherwise. The point of the salary cap is to keep all teams sustainable and the competition relatively even. Giving those who can afford it the ability to bring in better players doesn't undermine that goal.
What I would like to see is only one marquee player for team but give teams discounts on players that club develops themselves. For instance, since we spent money developing Rojas into a good player then I think that only 80% of his salary should count towards the cap. If Rojas was on $150k then we could just count $120k towards the cap and use that 30k on another player. It would be a way to encourage teams to actually develop quality A-league players and give them a chance to hold onto those players.
Albert out really hurt us as without him it show just how poor the back two have become with age. One of the two is ok but there really needs to be some work put into a younger CD to play alongside either Dura or Siggy. and clearly Boxall is not been given the chance or just not up to it!
And as for DM how is Albert and maybe Vicelich the only two players in the country that seem to understand how to play the role properly? It's a thankless job that not many players seem to have the dicipline to play but nz is is dying need of these types of players!
Any system that allows Thwaite to be labelled marquee is broken.
Considering the lack of big name marquees in this league I don't really care if other clubs just want to put two players' salaries outside of the cap. We don't have a marquee but if we just slapped that label onto Nathan Burns then we'd be able to pay him more / pay someone else more.
Albert out really hurt us as without him it show just how poor the back two have become with age. One of the two is ok but there really needs to be some work put into a younger CD to play alongside either Dura or Siggy. and clearly Boxall is not been given the chance or just not up to it!
And as for DM how is Albert and maybe Vicelich the only two players in the country that seem to understand how to play the role properly? It's a thankless job that not many players seem to have the dicipline to play but nz is is dying need of these types of players!
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/apr/...
What a week to be Wellington. Often regarded as the bastard child of the A-League, Ernie Merrick’s merry men seemed all set to crash Australian football’s grandest party - wearing just stubbies and jandals, and clutching a six of Speight’s.
Fast forward eight days and they’ve suffered back to back 3-nil home defeats at the hands of Premiership rivals, and lost a key player to a potentially season-ending injury. Now, unlike Pavlova or Pharlap it seems New Zealand can keep you again.
With the title on the line it took Melbourne Victory’s Gui Finkler just twenty-three seconds to breach the Phoenix’s defence. What could have been had the ruddy-red cheeks of Ben Sigmund been puffing after him.
Which key player did we lose? Riera? Burns? Roly? Moss? Maybe is was other key players like Krishna, Durante, Sigmund, Rodriguez or maybe even lesser lights like McGlinchey, Fenton, Muscat or Lia. Boxall?
Griffiths has been an important player since he arrived, started at least twice and been off the bench a few times scoring a couple of goals.
Looking at the names I listed above, there is no way Griffiths is a key player. The operative word is KEY, not useful.
Despite the nit picking, I do enjoy theguardian's writing.
Griffiths may not be a key player; but I thought he would be quite important in our run in - especially accounting for other possible injuries.
Not 23 seconds either but still very lol-able.
Just completed the online survey from the last match:
Q: In 160 characters or less, please enter you favourite moment from the Wellington Phoenix vs. Melbourne Victory Hyundai A-League game.A: The first 34 seconds.
