Mariners vs Wellington Phoenix (22nd August 2010)

[northernspirit]

missing peices of the puzzle at the moment as i see it...

mongrel in DM (i think matty could provide this), speed and skill up front (we dont really have a solution at present), creativity in AM - hopefully perez to fix this

 

[scottmac]

What we are missing is an out and out striker. The rest we have in spades. Unfortunatley the closet thing we have to an actual out and out striker is one Disco Nik.

I say play him 90 mins every game until he f**king finds form or gets injured. Either or, we're better off.

As much as I love Matty, he will not win us anything. His skills are limited and can not score from distance. He needs to be our super sub even though he does not deserve that. The more we try to play him as a defender at the front the less his skills will develop.

I vote for McBreen & Mrjda upfront with Perez in behind. Could be worth a go.

 

[Muppet]

Not a bad idea with Mrdja and McBreen upfront. One of the things that always frustrates me with Mrdja is that he always seems to get caught in the offside trap. Seems to happen too many times. That and lacking form at present.

 

[cbowden9000]

Not a bad idea with Mrdja and McBreen upfront. One of the things that always frustrates me with Mrdja is that he always seems to get caught in the offside trap. Seems to happen too many times. That and lacking form at present.

And he is the laziest of our 4 strikers

 

[priorpeter]

That and lacking form at present.

At present?
5 years is a somewhat long form slump.

 

[Wombat]

Not sure that our strikers are the problem.

First two games we played Kwassie up front and Simon in midfield and last game we played Simon isolated with no support.

Put a decent side out with Simon and McBreen upfront and the goals and results will come.

This league has improved alot and players like Kwas and Porter are no longer starting 11 quality....no matter how nice they are.

I haven't seen Amini play but by all accounts he is quality and I'm praying Perez is fit for next week.

I'd go with

JVS
Bojic Wilko Dutchy Rose
Wee Mac Hutcho Perez Olly
Simon McBreen

Subs Doig Amini Griffiths Disco

 

[bikinigirl]

A mate who is working in Wellington and went to the game ... sent me an email and said ... your midfield does not move off the ball and puts huge pressure on your backs .... only Oliver was making runs and that Hutch, Porter, & WeeMac did not create space or track back to make an easy pass especially for the back central three in Dutchie, Wiklo & Rostyn...

He said went the outside backs had the ball on the sidelines their was some tracking back... but tho the center of the park there was little to no movement ... meaning passes were being picked off forcing the backs to belt ball up field at times as they had very options...

It got me to thinking of the AU game last week and the trail match against Sydney and he may have a point...

Anyone else see this ...........

. firstly i will admit to not seeing the game against wellington

. but i think this has been a problem for us for quite some time ... it is hard to put my finger on a specific time, but for the sake of the argument lets say it was when jedi left (but i fear he was probably papering over the cracks)

. most of last season we were bemoaning the fact that we had 'no midfield' ... that is, we had an ineffective midfield, they just don't make 'effective' movement off the ball. for example if your teammate is not willing to pass the ball to you when you are 10 metres away with a man at your back ... why would he want to make the pass if you are running towards him (now at 5 metres) with the same player at your back?

. perhaps there is a lack of attacking instinct, perhaps a lack of faith in teammates ... probably just a fear of being caught out of position. an example of this would be a fullback (who apparently is attack-minded)lingering wide but only a couple of metres in front of the centre pairing ... although unmarked and with a tonne of space he decides to wait until the DM plays a ball to him (directly to him, where he is standing) before he moves forward - by the time he casually jogs the ball up the line the opposing defence is set and he no longer has any space

. a problem that i would have thought easily remedied, but apparently a mindset not easily overcome

 

[Jesus]

Gumps and tommy used to give us alot of movement in midfield