Phoenix Playing Style

Rickie is still the coach ... not sure what type of players you have signed...

We approach the next media deal with the key being ratings ... 

There is always talk over here lately about playing style with a feeling [belief by many] that hoofing the ball up the park... and or playing park the bus and hit on the break, does / will not increase the TV ratings... a sorta general call if you want to play a procession / passing game ... holding the ball and playing in tringales it will rate higher than the hoof the ball park the bus style...

Personally I am not convinced it will make the difference some say... however that does not mean that very negative football  will not effect ratings...

Just a question to YF ... what style of play do you see Rickie using this year... i.e. results over everything ... prepared to loose with style ... or whatever... interested in what style you guys see being played next season...

Sorry in advance I am not up to date with your signings and the kinda players they are...

From this very early point in pre-season, im going to take a punt and see the style of play will involve more touches and pace than last season as the front three (brockie, ifill, totori). It will however still involve a sort of Ricki-style physicality

I would say build a platform of 6 at the back with our back 4 and two holders in front of them. Muscat to do most of the crunch work with him and smith covering a lot of ground and having the ability to get the ball and make sure we keep hold of it. The wingbacks will again have liscense to get forward, but not so much as in previous years - due to Lochy slowly fading and inexperienced RB

This leaves a creative 4 of sanchez + ifill + 2 more from totori, brockie + new striker. These four will have much less defensive duties than wingers of seasons past, and i would hope they are given a lot of freedom to move around the pitch.

Smith & Muscat provide a solid link to the forward line without losing anything defensively, and sanchez will have 3 dangerous men in front of him to either thread the ball to, or use as runners to give him more space on the ball and open up room.

This. Hopefully Sanchez to come into his own in his natural position making us less reliant on Ifill to provide moments of class and change games. I think we'll be as difficult to break down as in the past but with more variety, looking to go wide later than in the past and possibly even through the middle! 

Less of pass-it-to-Leo, more constructive in midfield. I hope...

Also on the sidenote of the passing-possession game being more entertaining; took some very casual football supporters to the game against Brisbane and they were not very impressed by the Roars tactics "They're not even doing anything with the ball" ect. Not sure what that says but many average sport watching punters might prefer the brief possibility of something happening when the ball gets hoofed over a monotonous passing game with a few sparkling moments.d

Some of live in hope that the Nix will play a more expansive style....but I don't expect much change. The arguement you get from many Nix supporters is " not everyone can play like the Roar" as if that is the only other option apart from Ricki's way.......but I would be pleased if they played more like CCM.

As has been mentioned Ricki will put out a side that will be first and foremost hard to break down with two screening DM Smith and Muscat. There is more hope of creativity with Muscat in there instead of Brown(retired). Maybe we might see more play centrally with Muscat working with Sanchez(AM).

As for recruiting we have signed Brockie who should provide a bit more youth and pace and a Solomon Islander Totori who should provide lots of pace and directness(depending on how well he adjustes to the A-League). There is talk of another striker being signed but nothing more concrete at this stage.

The side appears to lack aerial ability on attack..i.e no noteable headers of the ball. Usually you would expect this to mean the ball will be kept on the deck.....but I would not count on it as last year we kept pumping longballs up to one of the shortest strikers in the A-League(Greeenacre)

In summary you can expect more of the same from the Nix. Hard to break down with a strong team ethic, hard running and defending, not big on real flair apart from Ifill and perhaps Totori. This formula has got them into the playoffs in the last three years and will most probably do so again next season.

Sorry "midfielder" if this is not going to help your TV ratings but that is how it is. We are aware that the Nix get rated(in OZ) as playing the least attractive football in the A-League but no other team has made the playoffs as regularly as us in recent years.

The good news is there is now a Nix academy with quite a few very promising youngsters coming through. We might just see a couple of them make an impact this season

Thanks Zinidane and others... as I posted I am not convinced that style is the be all and end all when it comes to ratings.. having said that as I also posted very negative play can turn people off...

In Australia the football media these days almost declare war on any coach who constantly plays say a negative style... Perth Glory , the Mariners pre Arnold, MV almost every year, SFC often...when added to the new FFA coaching lience requirements has lead to what is considered better coached and better styles of play... They reinforce their point with last years TV rating up over 42%.

Also the Asian Champions League is affecting what and how many look at playing styles now... a couple of interesting articles on ACL ratings the first from July 2011 the second from June 2012 

2011 link http://www.asiamediajournal.com/pressrelease.php?id=2816

2012 link http://au.sports.yahoo.com/football/champions-league/news/article/-/14062381/audience-viewing-figures-soar-for-afc-champions-league/

TBH I have not found the Nix to be overly negative ... if I had to comment it would be weeMac would struggle to make your starting line up as he does with the AW's meaning their is a prefence for bigger more physical players on the field..

Back to the TV ratings sometime in the next twelve months or so the deals must be done ...  How you rate in NZ especially and in Australia to a lessor extent determines the value you bring to the competition .... I have no doubt you tick all the boxes and have an excellent board behind you and will be successful ... just wondering aloud and thanks for those that have replied where you see the playing style..

I think you will find there is a preference for more skilled players on the field than WeeMac, rather than larger players.  Marco was the smallest player in the league, Sanchez is hardly a giant.  McGlinchey has been pretty average for the AWs and the Olympic squad lately which might drive whether he plays or not.

I think the impact of style of football on the ratings is inconclusive.  Your viewer ratings among the football knowledgable may be impacted (and I have an issue with the perception of how the Phoenix play from some Australian football identities) but if you want ratings success then you have to engage with Johnny sixpack and the general public and you do that by winning, and by scoring goals even if they are the ugliest goals in history.

I know people spout about the Roar style bringng people in but has anyone asked whether those fairweather fans are turning up for stylish football or if they are turning up because the Roar are winning?

If the Phoenix get out of the blocks early this year and lead the league mid-point and give the media postive stories that spread the brand and the awareness and the crowds will swell at the ground and on TV.  It's simple maths.

Winning.

In approximately 82.3% of cases.

Crowd size =∫ (ω, λ, π)

Where

ω = number of winning games in the season to date

λ = Weather on the day

π = the price of food and drink at the stadium

HN is right. I for one would rather win ugly than play teams off the park and lose.

Obviously I would prefer 'Roar' style as well.

Here/s hoping.

You forgot the Smiggle factor!

ω = the number of well endowed Feverettes 

(or C-Diddy's bollocks ! )

Well I think C-Diddy is OK.

Defenders of Ricky always quote these two as the only available options.  Clearly that's a false dichotomy.  Fact is that over time if you play teams off the park week in week out you will get the results.

We don't actually win that much (Ricki's win percentage over his career is below 35% yet we start 50% of our games as decent favourites) and perhaps it is the style that is the problem?  I certainly think our lack of care with the ball is one of our big problems away from home.

Also, when you look at our crowds are they as sensitive to results as we believe?  I don't think that results are all that matters, clearly there are a load of other factors there.  Higher league position hasn't always lead to higher crowds.  

And we've played pretty similar style for 5 years so who actually knows whether the style of play keeps players away?  Although the one year we were a bit more free flowing when we had Felipe in the side we had terrible results but had our best regular season average crowds.  Now there was also the novelty factor but still, I think it raises a few questions right?

Crowd size =∫ (ω, λ, π, )

Where

ω = C-Diddy's bollocks

λ = Weather on the day

π = the price of food and drink at the stadium

 = shiny stuff that all the cool kids have at school

I think there is the core fanbase that will be at games (as long as the weather is not terrible), and then a bunch more people who choose whether or not to go to a game. Last season when Gareth got in the media about wanting bigger crowds, we saw the crowd figure jump to 13k, and we beat Melbourne Heart 3-1 on that day. The next game, the same people all showed up again, and the crowd was 13k again. The difference this time is that we got outplayed by the Roar and lost 2-0. The game after that, a lot of those 50/50 supporters chose not to turn up, and the crowd was only 7.5k. 

I don't think results draw new people to the games, but they do keep people coming back for more.

I think the Phoenix is very good value if you buy a season ticket and very poor value if you buy one off tickets.

We've had huge boosts from one off event items, bring a kid for free, 2 for one etc.  We do not have an immediate bounce in crowd numbers after every win.

That to me says that there are far more factors at play than results in our crowd figures - both low and high.

As to the original question about style of play driving viewing figures isn't it far more about quality rather than style?  The Prem isn't the worlds most technical league but it does have great quality and also great entertainment value.  In the end people need to be entertained and that can occur in many different ways and with many different styles.

I loved Felipe and Daniel in season one - but crowd pull was definitely the novelty factor. No real rhyme or reason to the ups and downs of the crowds - but a winning team is number one IMO

The Roar played most teams off the park last season and lost something like 8 in a row.

Wow, my bollocks AND Smiggle together in the same place!

Last time that happened I nearly got arrested!

Oh, so it was you that pushed Mini Judas over to the dark side then!

I am just going to adress the play style, couldn't care less about t.v viewers and such, what ever, money, blah, blah.

Currently, I am expecting thunderous breaks from the midfield with Brockie, Totori maybeeee Ifill flying up to the oppositions box, then standing around wandering what to do with the ball because the unamed striker has yet to arrive or he's having a cigarette break on the sidelines.

How I love your chain smoking unamed striker.

Sorta says ir all about this side of the ditch ... nothing unique in the article but the bit I copied is what the media keep going on with ...