Sports After Dark

The Wellington Phoenix crashed to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Adelaide United over the weekend, extending their losing streak to four games. The fans continue to rally behind their team, but the cries of “it can only get better” are getting a little tiresome, especially as things continue to get worse for the club.

How can a team with the league’s second best attacking record have picked up just eight points from 10 games? By having the league’s worst defensive record by a long way. The Phoenix have conceded 20 goals in their 10 games, five more than next worst defensive team, the Perth Glory.

Perhaps it is a little harsh to criticise a team in their first season in the A-League, but if a professional football team wants to establish a place in the rugby-mad psyche of New Zealand sports, the team needs to turn around their fortunes, and soon. Nobody expects the Phoenix to win the A-League title in their first season, in fact a mid-table finish would be considered a success, but if fans continue to see schoolboy level mistakes being made by professional defenders, the club will struggle to attract new fans.

The comparisons to the disastrous Kingz/Knights franchise have already been made by some in the media, and while these are a little premature and harsh; the Phoenix can actually score for a start and towards the end even the Knights’ hardcore fans chanted, “What a sh*t team!” But casual fans are already starting to believe the comparison and are wondering if it is just the same team with a different name.

For the last three weekends fans have been treated to the team failing to clear the ball from their own end, giving up possession too easily, and failing to shut down the opposition attacks. It is not the fact that the Phoenix are losing games that has me worried, it is the fact that I have seen the same thing happen for the last three weeks and nothing seems to have changed.

The biggest concern right now is the defence. The team has been built around marquee signings Ross Aloisi and Ahmad Elright, both midfielders, but nowhere in the club is a reliable, steady centre back in the John Terry mould.

Against Adelaide coach Ricki Herbert fielded Steven Old and Steven O’Dor, who are 21 and 20 respectively and have played a combined 26 games in the A-League. What the team needs right now is a rock at the back to build their defence on, but right now there is not one on this team, nor is it likely one will become available during the transfer period.

The other problem appears to be systemic, as Herbert insists on playing a 4-4-2 formation with an attacking focus. Generally there are two attack-minded midfielders and two holding midfielders, however the attacking midfielders are not covering well on defence and the holding midfielders seem to do very little holding, leaving the already brittle defence exposed.

Some are already calling for Herbert’s head, others crying out for new blood on the team but there seems to be a consensus that change is needed. When Queensland faced a similar issue earlier this year they turned to youngsters Robbie Cruse and Michael Zullo who promptly lit up the scoreboard with a flurry of goals.

Bring on a sweeper to play behind the back four, play an extra midfielder in a defensive role, focus on getting men behind the ball and counter-attacking, but do something! Because the formula this season is not working, fans will accept winning ugly or even drawing ugly. But what fans won’t accept is week after week of mediocre performances, and that’s what we are starting to see.

Similar Posts:

• Watch out Hurricanes! Here come the Phoenix.
• Phoenix must improve back four to make playoff charge
• Jets douse Phoenix for comfortable home win
• Late Petrovski winner extinguishes Phoenix hopes
• What has Beckham-mania done for New Zealand football?

The Can we stop pretending all in well for the Phoenix? by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.