Reece Caira - Designated scapegoat

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix/news-display/phoenix-sign-young-international-reece-caira/71751

Scapegoat is a very important position within the club. 

It gives fans someone to blame when things aren't doing well. And it gives fans something to complain about when things are going well. 

Good luck Caira, am sure you'll enjoy such a rewarding position!

Nathanial Haillemaraman (sp?) will fancy himself a chance for a contract now.

Welcome to the club Reece!  I look forward to seeing you play.

Hard to comment without having seen him play. Sounds good on paper, reports from some of you guys not so promising. At least it was a position we could have had a lot of trouble filling and not too many more needed now so team is starting to take shape. Hope next signing is a central midfielder who will be starting.

Has been ripped up by two Central League teams so far. Cross your fingers.

Can you be a bit more specific on ripped up there Smithy. I did read it in the training game threads but surely we would not sign a complete muppet and go backwards. I haven't seen him nor know who he is nor would others not in Wellington.

Are you able to give an unbiased comparison to Lochhead, Hogg and Rowe whom we have all seen?

Been to all 3 preseason games so far. Reece has played in the last two. He looks pretty competent on the ball; has decent skills and has decent composure. He is a better passer than Lochhead in my opinion and slightly more skillfull from what I've seen thus far. Is reasonably quick, but not explosive I don't think. Has made a couple of very nice crosses when getting forward but it was a bit rare seeing him getting forward much in both matches. I recall him skillfully beating his man in the box in the final third and setting up Ifill I think in the Miramar game. Defensively he looked a bit dodgey to be honest. Made a horrible mistake against Miramar leading to a one on one and a goal for the Miramar winger. Also got a little bit dominated down the right side of the pitch a couple of times against a quick winger last night. All in all it seems like an okay signing though, I can't really think of a better domestic (Nz, Aus) left back at this point in time and he has youth on his side. Seems like a better option investing in this guy than signing a 30 year old Aussie reject. 

I'll hold my judgements until I've seen him play this season but for what it's worth, I think that it seems like a pretty good decision by Ernie at this point in time.

Super hard to judge off of minimal appearances.

A lot of people here were big Rowe fans - but obviously Ernie has had both of them with the club at the same time and thinks Reece is a better prospect so we have to respect his experience.

Think Caira is a lot quicker and agile than Rowe - and more defensively sound than Hogg (waits for mention of preseason blunder)

Lochhead to me is probably the better of the 4, although he was unlikely to improve much under Ernie whereas the younger few will probably be more suited to the way Ernie wants to push his fullbacks forward.

Side note - Hoggy essentially turned down Ernie's invitation to trial with the club so out of the two fullbacks available to him, he chose Caira over Rowe.
Good to see he is making tough football decisions - despite whether or not we all think they are the best decisions.

Did Hogg turn him down? Interesting. I wonder why that was (assuming it was not because of the Scotland trial)

Caira can't be the new scapegoat yet, he's still got to beat Bertos and Lia for that role. You've got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues.

Well that shouldn't be hard.

seems like the average age of the team might come down a lot this year . What was it last year ? like 32 or something

Better to be young and crap than old and crap at least

!

It does appear he is looking two years down the track with a few of these signings.. 

Lia has definitely not been mentioned by Ernie as part of his big plans. Muscat seems set to start and he has said he will exclusively be looking for another CM.

Stupidly listed as FW on wikipedia. And what idiots add there own names to the Academy side...

my concern with Caira was that after he made the mistake against Miramar he went into his shell - not really wanting the ball or busting a nut to get into positions to get involved.  Up until that point I thought he defended well and moved the ball well.

One thing he's definitely said is that he wants more experience in the middle than the edges so I'd be surprised if he doesn't see Reece/Louis as RL backs come season start... but there's plenty time for that to change I guess (though really, not much - lol).

And it's unlikely Lia is going to be a starting midfielder. Relax, there are still holes to fill and squad holes too

Wait a minute i thought Lia was the designated scapegoat?

from that logic ernie also released carlos.. so maybe we'll be seeing lia more than we expected haha