The Nix Fix: New season, new Wellington Phoenix side, same problems…

New season, new team, renewed expectations but same ol’ problems for Wellington Phoenix. That’s the sentiment running around New Zealand following their A-League round 1 loss to Perth Glory. Our man from across the ditch, Cam Gordon, reviews Phoenix’s day 1 shenanigans…

It’s good to be back in yellow and black!

After what seemed like an eternity the A-League is finally back for what promises to be one of the greatest seasons in the league’s short ten-year history. From a Phoenix perspective, Ernie Merrick has been a busy boy over the off-season and has made a host of signings. In fact some fans have been so impressed with the names on the team sheet that they’ve given the current squad the title of “greatest ever”.

However after this weekends performance against Perth, the current team has a lot of work to do if they are to live up to the title that has been placed upon them. There is no denying that the 2-1 loss is a disappointing start to the 2014/15 season. After a rather successful pre-season and a strong build up to round one, expectations were that the Nix should be far too strong for the Perth lads who had to travel a whopping 5,255 kilometres to get to the game.

But as I sat with around thirty other passionate Phoenix fans at a bar in Christchurch on Sunday evening, it was obvious that this was a different team but still very much the same old Nix. The errors were almost identical to last season and the wasted opportunities in front of goal made for painful watching.

I had forgotten over the course of the long off-season just how frustrating and stressful it can be to watch the Phoenix in action. Don’t get me wrong, I’m Phoenix till I die. However, there’s no arguing they can be a difficult team to watch when they are not playing to their potential.

There are both positives and negatives to take away from the opening round loss and I’ve gone through and picked three from each category to highlight…

Three of the best

The McGlinchey and Burns combo: Although it’s only round one, there was enough interplay between these two new attacking players to suggest that their interplay will lead to goals this season. This was highlighted by the perfect ball that McGlinchey put through to an on-rushing Burns who ended up with a one-on-one chance against the keeper. Unfortunately he didn’t score on this occasion but if they can keep creating chances like that, then there’s no doubt the goals will come.

Albert Riera: I know I’ve said it before but how good was it to see Riera back in the Nix colours and free of injury? He played a very good game in the midfield and worked hard on defence when he needed to.

Glen Moss: Despite conceding two goals, the Phoenix and All Whites number one keeper had a strong start to the season. With Lewis Italiano pushing hard for game time, Moss will need to keep putting in good performances to retain his ranking.

The bad news

The crowd: It’s no secret that we struggle over here to attract large numbers to Phoenix games. This can be attributed to a number of reasons that I won’t go in to here but for our opening round fixture to only get 7,767 is disappointing. It was easily the lowest sized crowd figure across all five round one fixtures. We can’t even blame the notorious Wellington weather as it was almost perfect watching conditions.

Jeremy Brockie: I have been a big fan of Brockie well before he put on a Phoenix kit. When he’s on, he can be a real threat to any team and he’s proven he knows how to score with twenty Phoenix goals to his name. However lately he has been missing up front when needed and when he does get the ball he’s nowhere near the clinical finisher that he once was. It might be time to send him to the bench and give someone like Roy Krishna a chance starting up front.

Defensive errors: Both Perth goals came from Phoenix defensive errors and this is unfortunately a common practice for the Nix. The first goal came about from a failed clearance from new signing Tom Doyle and the second was scored after a poor pass to Ben Sigmund wasn’t controlled and MacLaren was able to take possession and score the match winner. Could it be time for Michael Boxall to get a start in one of the centre back positions at the expense of Sigmund?

Round two sees the Phoenix head across the ditch to the Central Coast for their first away game of the season. The good news is that despite winning their opening match 1-0 against Newcastle in their local derby game, the Mariners didn’t look all that flash. Of course this game headlined by the infamous feud as Michael McGlinchey comes up against his old club after a long and bizarre fight by the Phoenix to secure his name on their roster.

If the Phoenix are to improve their crowd figure from round one when they return home to play Newcastle then they must win this game. History tells us that a when the Phoenix are winning they can attract decent sized crowds to Westpac Stadium. It’s just the winning part that they seem to have a problem with.

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