R5 vs Melbourne Victory | Sun 10th Nov | 6:00pm | SS7

Time to move on from the VAR stuff and focus on the next game.

What i'd like us to try at some point

What I think we'll go with this week

Not expecting us to change formation, but think the personnel is likely to be correct in the 2nd one (maybe Piscopo for McCowatt again though)

3-1 lose coming up. Kurtz to keeps his job after this match.

I'm super positive that we fix all issue from last week and win this. Wait...is Deng playing? Fricking Deng killed us the last time.

Would like to see Piscopo start again. He plays with a lot of attacking intent, whereas McCowatt is still new to the pro environment so is playing a bit more cautiously and playing it backwards a lot more.

Would also love to not concede from some sloppy/static defending. Add it to the Christmas wish list.

first one would be amazing! almost back to the way the snake had us playing.....

second is likely but with Davila on the wing instead of Ball and maybe Piscopo starting for McCowatt

Obviously, Ufuk is not going to take DeVere out. But since Fenton is out, would like to see either TAWH or Elliot in the RB with Payne playing in CDM along side Steinmann. Our AMS and Hooper should be lethal. I would really like to see them in this formation as well.

My prediction this week: A stalemate or 2-1 win for Victory. (Please prove me wrong Phoenix!!!)

out there call, but i'd like to see us play with one only 1 DM and have the other as a box to box CM.. if we have one in the squad? Devlin maybe? he had good raps on him from Sydney. 
Why I say only play with 1 is because currently the two we have are too similar and we need something else in there to change up the speed of our ball movement and make different runs. a Vinne/Reira & A-rod sort of combo. 

I personally reckon we need a CDM like Reira that'll be dynamic and everywhere which is the problem with Steinmann and Rufer they're too slow to react and be everywhere. 

Hope like hell we dont have to wait till then before they solve this issue. Because until they do it wont matter how good the attack if we continue to leak easy goals.

TAHW? Payne?

well we haven't seen them in action yet, so I'm interested to see how they will do. Payne to me doesn't seem like that type of player based off the ffa cup game.

Don't think Fenton is playing this week. Payne? TAWH? Elliot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GCxyHYM3pk Sam Sutton looked good in this game, and was promoted during pre-season to play with the first team so maybe a break out season for him

I really don't understand why everyone seems to be so keen to drop Rufer.  He was one of our better players last season, and is one of our few links to our past teams, and is the Vice Captain.  I really don't think he has been THAT bad, and i'm sure he will come right.

Neither Rufer nor Steinmann have been that bad but they are a very visible factor in a misfiring Nix at the moment. The much talked about formation problems have left them looking isolated and slow to react, plus I have to say I'm not happy with the amount of ball they are giving away under little pressure.

Obviously it's not feasible to expect a 100% passing accuracy but it bugs me to see players of their obvious quality turning the ball over quite so often. Especially Steinmann. Visa players simply have to do better in my opinion.

Dude you been on this forum? We were convinced Ollie Sail- as good as he is- was a dead cert to take over from Marinovic!

People are focusing on Rufer whereas I am not 100% sold on DeVere performance so far in light of the fast game played by our opponents. This was especially clear last weekend when Walter Scott was also tormented by MCY (but not as badly as I feared). 

Last season Rudan stopped us leaking goals and made us lightning fast in counterattack. Even with that, we were an almost-top-four finalist except that we finished sixth (Fenton's injury and the morale sapping Rudan's Opera Performance contributing).  As we are right now well below that last season benchmark, my own modest expectation is that we fix the leaky defence, like, right now.  The rest I can wait for.

Not so sure about stopping us leaking goals we had 4th worst goals against and conceded 7 more than the Jets who finished 7th. We are still conceding goals far to easily,a problem we have had for some time.

You would think with someone like Taylor there we shoulfnt be handing out goals around the box like we do. Far to easy to just blame the players in midfield and the attackers dropping back for that.

Interesting point about Taylor. Surely, at worst, you could ask a player of his experience to sort out how the back four play and then build from there, starting with the 2 holders not sitting right on top of the centre backs when we're under pressure

thought for a long time that we never adequately replaced Riera.

Feel really bad for the phoenix players chosen in All Whites. They have to catch a flight straight after the match to Europe. 

I feel like the majority of the big chances given away over the last couple of games have directly come from simple giveaways from Rufer/Steinmann in our own defensive half; maddening.

DeVere is also a big problem; he gets the ball stuck underneath his feet and is really clumsy when passing - this means that we're even slower to play out from the back and by the time he's ready to pass it, everyone has been covered.

I agree with this. Although from what I remembered, when steinmann gave the ball away, it was generally because rufer (generally) put him in a shark situation. Countless times against Perth he was given a hospital pass to deal with which resulted in a Perth attack or goal. Same thing happened against snake United. I like rufer, but he's regressed this season. He and the team need to get a grip, because our defence is woeful this season. Can't afford to keep gifting chances on a silver platter. 

yeah Rufer has gone backwards from last season, in the last four games his passing to players under pressure has caused a lot of mistakes.

Are you sure its not the players around him causing the mistakes>?

he has the ball, he can see who he is passing to and if they are under pressure or not, his choice.

But when he passed back because those in front of him were under pressure he was chastised for that. 

It is up to the people in front of him to find space and give themselves time. If they don't through poor movement or energy levels, then they need to have the postioning and strength to control a pass under pressure.

passing back to the defenders is often the only option, it shouldnt be his first option, especially if the cb's are on the backfoot. He's part of a midfield two and one of them needs to be the driving force to create options, either by passing early for a wideman to run onto or holding onto the ball and beating a player.

They play a bit like you posting on this forum.

Melbourne Victory squad: 2.Storm ROUX, 3.Corey BROWN, 4.James DONACHIE, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Kenny ATHIU, 8.Jakob POULSEN, 11.Ola TOIVONEN (c), 14.Thomas DENG, 16.Josh HOPE, 17.Elvis KAMSOBA, 18.Migjen BASHA, 19.Ben CARRIGAN, 20.Lawrence THOMAS (gk), 21.Adama TRAORE, 22.Kristijan DOBRAS, 24.Anthony LESIOTIS, 25.Brandon LAUTON, 30.Matthew SUTTON (gk), 50.Brendan WHITE (gk)

**2-3 to be omitted**

Ins: 30.Matthew SUTTON (gk) (promoted)

Outs: Nil

Unavailable: 1.Matt ACTON (shoulder), 5.Tim HOOGLAND (quad), 9.Andrew NABBOUT (hamstring), 10.Robbie KRUSE (hamstring), 13.Birkan KIRDAR (international duty), 26.Jay BARNETT (international duty)

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Stefan MARINOVIC (gk), 2.Liam McGING, 3.Luke DEVERE, 4.Te Atawhai HUDSON-WIHONGI, 5.Matti STEINMANN, 6.Tim PAYNE, 7.Reno PISCOPO, 8.Cameron DEVLIN, 9.David BALL, 10.Ulises DAVILA, 11.Jaushua SOTIRIO, 13.Liberato CACACE, 14.Alex RUFER, 17.Callan ELLIOT, 20.Oliver SAIL (gk), 21.Callum MCCOWATT, 23.Walter SCOTT, 27.Steven TAYLOR (c), 31.Ben WAINE, 88. Gary HOOPER

**2-4 to be omitted**

Ins: Liam McGING (promoted), 8.Cameron DEVLIN, 13.Liberato CACACE (Returning from Suspension), 17.Callan ELLIOT (promoted)

Outs: 16.Louis FENTON (Injured)

Unavailable: Nil

Vote for Wellington on this: https://www.a-league.com.au/news/melbourne-victory-v-wellington-phoenix-match-preview

As far as I can tell that's a poll for predictions not a competition for who can get the most votes, so I voted for Victory.

Whats bad about that?..footballers life, nice trip to Europe and a chance to get a  win.

Hopefully they get to spend some time in Vilnius, it's a beautiful city.

this week is same as last week. proper chance to win with a lot of victory players out however we say that a lot of times but the win never comes. fenton being out I hope they try payne at right back.  first game of season he actually looked really good there when he came on.  Cacace being back will help massively as Scott is very green.  seems more like a winger then a left back to me.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ufuk tries out Elliot on for Fenton's spot.

I'm going to go out on a limb in that Payne will replace Fenton and hold the spot even after he comes back from injury

I could see that too, but I think Payne should be given a shot at CB in place of DeVere.

I wouldn't be surprized to see payne and hudson-wihongi both starting soon